4 ms·

This seems very sketchy. Give us your laptop and we promise we won't keep it... > © 2024 CoLaptop. All rights reserved. Website copyright is out of date by tw

by corvad 6mo ago

This seems very sketchy. Give us your laptop and we promise we won't keep it... > © 2024 CoLaptop. All rights reserved. Website copyright is out of date by two years... And the website has been online since then. https://crt.sh/?q=colaptop.pages.dev https://crt.sh/?q=colaptop.pages.dev > Thank you for your interest. Please submit the form below and we'll get back to you within 2 working days. > - Team @ CoLaptop.com Also colaptop.com is not even registered anymore. If I had to guess the pages.dev site stayed up but the domain and email are nowhere.

JVIDEL 6mo ago
The premise was kinda dumb, wouldn't be surprised if its just a scam.
- tosti 6mo ago
  More likely a prank.
  - type0 6mo ago
    I would like to put my Raspberry Pi Pico in colocation, would it work?
    - QuantumNomad_ 6mo ago
      There are a number of places that colocate normal Raspberry Pi. https://lowendbox.com/blog/little-machines-in-big-datacenters-where-to-host-your-raspberry-pi/ https://lowendbox.com/blog/little-machines-in-big-datacenter... I am sure that some of them either already colocate Pico ones too, or are willing to do so if asked.
      - gzread 6mo ago
        The Pi Pico doesn't have networking capabilities, so that would be silly. You're probably thinking of the Pi Zero.
        kube-system 6mo ago
        There is a Pico W
  - kube-system 6mo ago
    I think it's most likely testing the waters for a real offering. It's not that weird. Many colo data centers already have policies about hosting laptops because it's already something that happens. It just isn't common and usually isn't for hosting servers.
    - dylan604 6mo ago
      If the battery in the laptop is still good, it comes with it's own UPS. My MBPs haven't had an ethernet port in a minute, so do you have to supply your own adapters as well??? You could fit ~15 MBPs on their edge in 9RUs. That'd be an interesting looking rack. Not quite a blade chassis. It'd be rather boring looking as there's no blinky-blinkies
      - oceanplexian 6mo ago
        Putting a UPS in a rack is a prosumer/corporate IT thing, it’s not done in real datacenters. They typically have their own UPS in another room and multiple power lanes. And it’s going to be much more reliable than a laptop battery.
        dylan604 6mo ago
        I didn't really think that any of what I wrote would be taken seriously to the point of needing a retort. I mentioned blade servers and knew rack unit measurements which as context clues would have suggested I was familiar with actual data center equipment.
        icepush 6mo ago
        I read the reply to your comment not as much as an answer to your statement but a general warning to anyone who might be reading.
        gosub100 6mo ago
        A laptop battery would be a huge liability if it caught fire.
- kube-system 6mo ago
  The title says PoC, so I presume it's a PoC.
- PaulHoule 6mo ago
  So many people want to believe in this sort of thing for various reasons that I get fatigued at the very thought of trying to explain to people who believe in it earnestly that it is not a good idea. (e.g. commercial hosting services are really competitive; for a long time the cost of computing has been going down over time though I don't know if that is reversing because we've hit the end of the real Moore's law [1] or if it is a temporary blip) [1] the motor behind it is cost reduction, once that stops it stops because we can't afford it anymore!
  - oceanplexian 6mo ago
    Well, it exists, but it exists if you’re willing to buy server hardware on eBay, hustle to get old parts working together, negotiate a good deal on a cabinet, get space from ARIN and announce it and so on. There are probably 10-50x cost efficiencies vs. renting 5 year old CPU families on AWS at huge markup. A laptop isn’t the way to do that though. And your typical VC-fueled startup isn’t going to know how to do it either. It takes a very narrow slice of competence to be able to do that correctly.
    - jeron 6mo ago
      the one guy I know who has worked with colo at scale (unfortunately in the crypto space) is now an EM at Goog
Waterluvian 6mo ago
What if it’s a compute Ponzi scheme?
0xbadcafebee 6mo ago
1) You don't have to keep copyrights up to date (and in fact you don't have to put them at all), 2) Every single startup i've seen on HN is sketchy af. Racking laptops in a cage at a Hetzner DC is probably the least sketchy product i've seen here. And honestly, not a terrible idea, I have old laptops that would work as a VPS. $7/month for somebody to host a public server for me, and not on my crappy residential isp? All I have to lose is an old laptop I haven't touched in 5 years? Sign me up (they do need a real domain before i'll give them money tho, lol)
- nrdvana 6mo ago
  Yeah but for $6/mo you can get a tiny linode or digital ocean droplet, and not worry about hardware failing. It's true that a laptop probably has more resources than the smallest VMs, but no remote management interface and can't scale if you suddenly had a surge of traffic.
  - simoncion 6mo ago
    > ...no remote management interface... I bet colos will plug a KVM into your hardware and give you remote access to that KVM. I also bet rachelbythebay has at least one article that talks about the topic. > ...can't scale if you suddenly had a surge of traffic. 1) If your public server serves entirely or nearly-entirely static data, you're going to saturate your network before you saturate the CPU resources on that laptop. 2) Even if it isn't, computers are way faster than folks give them credit for when you're not weighing them down with Kubernetes and/or running swarms of VMs. [0] 3) <https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/hotos15/hotos15-paper-mcsherry.pdf https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/hotos15/hotos...> (2015) [0] These are useful tools. But if you're going to be tossing a laptop in a colo (or buying a "tiny linode or [DO] droplet"), YAGNI.
    - bigiain 6mo ago
      >> ...no remote management interface... > I bet colos will plug a KVM into your hardware and give you remote access to that KVM. From the https://www.colaptop.com https://www.colaptop.com landing page: "Free KVM-over-IP access to your laptop - just like having it right next to you."
whilenot-dev 6mo ago
> Website copyright is out of date by two years... Can you explain how a copyright can be "out of date by two years"? I always thought the copyright notice should reflect the year of creation, and that it's actually bad (from a legal POV) to always show the current year through scripting.
- timc3 6mo ago
  You are correct. (Had it verified years ago in Europe and the US).
- ethanc8 6mo ago
  The problem is that the website says they are still working out the logistics details. If the company has been around for 2 years they should have figured that out and updated the page by now.
kube-system 6mo ago
> > © 2024 CoLaptop. All rights reserved. > Website copyright is out of date by two years... And the website has been online since then. https://crt.sh/?q=colaptop.pages.dev https://crt.sh/?q=colaptop.pages.dev That's exactly what it should be then. A copyright notice lists the year of publication. Not the current year. > A proper copyright notice consists of three elements: a © symbol, the year of publication, and the copyright owner’s name. https://copyrightalliance.org/faqs/what-is-copyright-notice/ https://copyrightalliance.org/faqs/what-is-copyright-notice/
- gzread 6mo ago
  Yep. If you write ``` © <?=$currentYear?> Your Name ``` As many sites do, it may actually invalidate your copyright. You have to put all of the years when you made copyrightable edits to the page. A range like 2010-2025 is only allowed if every single year in that range is included.
  - StableAlkyne 6mo ago
    This sounds like pseudolegal folklore (in the US at least). Do you have any actual examples where this affected a case? In the US, you get copyright on your work automatically, with or without a label. The only thing a label does in the US is defend against "innocent infringement" defenses. But even that defense doesn't absolve the other party from liability; you just can't recover as much. There is no reason you can't have `(C) 200X-$currentYear Acme Inc` or whatever.
    - me-vs-cat 6mo ago
      You're right that the notice is effectively useless for such web pages. And if it doesn't matter, then why bother to put anything?
      - StableAlkyne 6mo ago
        Most people do so because everyone else does; it looks off if you don't see a copyright at the bottom of an otherwise professional site.
justsomehnguy 6mo ago
> Website copyright is out of date by two years It's fixed now. And someone bought the .com domain: https://crt.sh/?id=25447880244 https://crt.sh/?id=25447880244
VTimofeenko 6mo ago
> Give us your laptop There's no way to read this without hearing Scottish accent. It's like a sleeper agent activation phrase. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKfAjlW6E30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKfAjlW6E30
j45 6mo ago
It could be a pre-sales site to estimate demand. Colocating itself, though isn't new at all. Lots of different ways to host, including servers, mac minis, laptops are conceivable too because they share the same kinds of parts that mac minis might have.
deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]
yonatan8070 6mo ago
It looks like since you posted your comment, the pages.dev link redirects to colaptop.com, and the copyright notice has been updated to 2026.
InsideOutSanta 6mo ago
Also, isn't this just a huge fire hazard of they actually do what they claim? Or will they remove the batteries from these old, continually plugged in, poorly cooled laptops?
- SadTrombone 6mo ago
  This is addressed on their site. > We might modify your laptop to remove or power down the battery, wireless radios, etc. to ensure it can be used safely in the data center.
deleted 6mo ago
[deleted]
torginus 6mo ago
I mean the idea has merit in of itself, but I think this should be more of an on-prem thing, just repurposing old laptops junked by IT as servers.
exiguus 6mo ago
In 2026 it should be: Give us your smartphone and we promise ...

by corvad 6mo ago

JVIDEL 6mo ago

The premise was kinda dumb, wouldn't be surprised if its just a scam.

tosti 6mo ago
More likely a prank.
- type0 6mo ago
  I would like to put my Raspberry Pi Pico in colocation, would it work?
  - QuantumNomad_ 6mo ago
    There are a number of places that colocate normal Raspberry Pi. https://lowendbox.com/blog/little-machines-in-big-datacenters-where-to-host-your-raspberry-pi/ https://lowendbox.com/blog/little-machines-in-big-datacenter... I am sure that some of them either already colocate Pico ones too, or are willing to do so if asked.
    - gzread 6mo ago
      The Pi Pico doesn't have networking capabilities, so that would be silly. You're probably thinking of the Pi Zero.
      - kube-system 6mo ago
        There is a Pico W
- kube-system 6mo ago
  I think it's most likely testing the waters for a real offering. It's not that weird. Many colo data centers already have policies about hosting laptops because it's already something that happens. It just isn't common and usually isn't for hosting servers.
  - dylan604 6mo ago
    If the battery in the laptop is still good, it comes with it's own UPS. My MBPs haven't had an ethernet port in a minute, so do you have to supply your own adapters as well??? You could fit ~15 MBPs on their edge in 9RUs. That'd be an interesting looking rack. Not quite a blade chassis. It'd be rather boring looking as there's no blinky-blinkies
    - oceanplexian 6mo ago
      Putting a UPS in a rack is a prosumer/corporate IT thing, it’s not done in real datacenters. They typically have their own UPS in another room and multiple power lanes. And it’s going to be much more reliable than a laptop battery.
      - dylan604 6mo ago
        I didn't really think that any of what I wrote would be taken seriously to the point of needing a retort. I mentioned blade servers and knew rack unit measurements which as context clues would have suggested I was familiar with actual data center equipment.
        icepush 6mo ago
        I read the reply to your comment not as much as an answer to your statement but a general warning to anyone who might be reading.
      - gosub100 6mo ago
        A laptop battery would be a huge liability if it caught fire.
kube-system 6mo ago
The title says PoC, so I presume it's a PoC.
PaulHoule 6mo ago
So many people want to believe in this sort of thing for various reasons that I get fatigued at the very thought of trying to explain to people who believe in it earnestly that it is not a good idea. (e.g. commercial hosting services are really competitive; for a long time the cost of computing has been going down over time though I don't know if that is reversing because we've hit the end of the real Moore's law [1] or if it is a temporary blip) [1] the motor behind it is cost reduction, once that stops it stops because we can't afford it anymore!
- oceanplexian 6mo ago
  Well, it exists, but it exists if you’re willing to buy server hardware on eBay, hustle to get old parts working together, negotiate a good deal on a cabinet, get space from ARIN and announce it and so on. There are probably 10-50x cost efficiencies vs. renting 5 year old CPU families on AWS at huge markup. A laptop isn’t the way to do that though. And your typical VC-fueled startup isn’t going to know how to do it either. It takes a very narrow slice of competence to be able to do that correctly.
  - jeron 6mo ago
    the one guy I know who has worked with colo at scale (unfortunately in the crypto space) is now an EM at Goog

Waterluvian 6mo ago

What if it’s a compute Ponzi scheme?

0xbadcafebee 6mo ago

1) You don't have to keep copyrights up to date (and in fact you don't have to put them at all), 2) Every single startup i've seen on HN is sketchy af. Racking laptops in a cage at a Hetzner DC is probably the least sketchy product i've seen here. And honestly, not a terrible idea, I have old laptops that would work as a VPS. $7/month for somebody to host a public server for me, and not on my crappy residential isp? All I have to lose is an old laptop I haven't touched in 5 years? Sign me up (they do need a real domain before i'll give them money tho, lol)

nrdvana 6mo ago
Yeah but for $6/mo you can get a tiny linode or digital ocean droplet, and not worry about hardware failing. It's true that a laptop probably has more resources than the smallest VMs, but no remote management interface and can't scale if you suddenly had a surge of traffic.
- simoncion 6mo ago
  > ...no remote management interface... I bet colos will plug a KVM into your hardware and give you remote access to that KVM. I also bet rachelbythebay has at least one article that talks about the topic. > ...can't scale if you suddenly had a surge of traffic. 1) If your public server serves entirely or nearly-entirely static data, you're going to saturate your network before you saturate the CPU resources on that laptop. 2) Even if it isn't, computers are way faster than folks give them credit for when you're not weighing them down with Kubernetes and/or running swarms of VMs. [0] 3) <https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/hotos15/hotos15-paper-mcsherry.pdf https://www.usenix.org/system/files/conference/hotos15/hotos...> (2015) [0] These are useful tools. But if you're going to be tossing a laptop in a colo (or buying a "tiny linode or [DO] droplet"), YAGNI.
  - bigiain 6mo ago
    >> ...no remote management interface... > I bet colos will plug a KVM into your hardware and give you remote access to that KVM. From the https://www.colaptop.com https://www.colaptop.com landing page: "Free KVM-over-IP access to your laptop - just like having it right next to you."

whilenot-dev 6mo ago

> Website copyright is out of date by two years... Can you explain how a copyright can be "out of date by two years"? I always thought the copyright notice should reflect the year of creation, and that it's actually bad (from a legal POV) to always show the current year through scripting.

timc3 6mo ago
You are correct. (Had it verified years ago in Europe and the US).
ethanc8 6mo ago
The problem is that the website says they are still working out the logistics details. If the company has been around for 2 years they should have figured that out and updated the page by now.

kube-system 6mo ago

> > © 2024 CoLaptop. All rights reserved. > Website copyright is out of date by two years... And the website has been online since then. https://crt.sh/?q=colaptop.pages.dev https://crt.sh/?q=colaptop.pages.dev That's exactly what it should be then. A copyright notice lists the year of publication. Not the current year. > A proper copyright notice consists of three elements: a © symbol, the year of publication, and the copyright owner’s name. https://copyrightalliance.org/faqs/what-is-copyright-notice/ https://copyrightalliance.org/faqs/what-is-copyright-notice/

gzread 6mo ago
Yep. If you write ``` © <?=$currentYear?> Your Name ``` As many sites do, it may actually invalidate your copyright. You have to put all of the years when you made copyrightable edits to the page. A range like 2010-2025 is only allowed if every single year in that range is included.
- StableAlkyne 6mo ago
  This sounds like pseudolegal folklore (in the US at least). Do you have any actual examples where this affected a case? In the US, you get copyright on your work automatically, with or without a label. The only thing a label does in the US is defend against "innocent infringement" defenses. But even that defense doesn't absolve the other party from liability; you just can't recover as much. There is no reason you can't have `(C) 200X-$currentYear Acme Inc` or whatever.
  - me-vs-cat 6mo ago
    You're right that the notice is effectively useless for such web pages. And if it doesn't matter, then why bother to put anything?
    - StableAlkyne 6mo ago
      Most people do so because everyone else does; it looks off if you don't see a copyright at the bottom of an otherwise professional site.

justsomehnguy 6mo ago

> Website copyright is out of date by two years It's fixed now. And someone bought the .com domain: https://crt.sh/?id=25447880244 https://crt.sh/?id=25447880244

VTimofeenko 6mo ago

> Give us your laptop There's no way to read this without hearing Scottish accent. It's like a sleeper agent activation phrase. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKfAjlW6E30 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKfAjlW6E30

j45 6mo ago

It could be a pre-sales site to estimate demand. Colocating itself, though isn't new at all. Lots of different ways to host, including servers, mac minis, laptops are conceivable too because they share the same kinds of parts that mac minis might have.

deleted 6mo ago

[deleted]

yonatan8070 6mo ago

It looks like since you posted your comment, the pages.dev link redirects to colaptop.com, and the copyright notice has been updated to 2026.

InsideOutSanta 6mo ago

Also, isn't this just a huge fire hazard of they actually do what they claim? Or will they remove the batteries from these old, continually plugged in, poorly cooled laptops?

SadTrombone 6mo ago
This is addressed on their site. > We might modify your laptop to remove or power down the battery, wireless radios, etc. to ensure it can be used safely in the data center.

deleted 6mo ago

[deleted]

torginus 6mo ago

I mean the idea has merit in of itself, but I think this should be more of an on-prem thing, just repurposing old laptops junked by IT as servers.

exiguus 6mo ago

In 2026 it should be: Give us your smartphone and we promise ...