I also filed the corners off my MacBook

https://www.brt.fyi/posts/mac-book-filing/

by maxbrt • 8 days ago

315 224 8 days ago

wolvoleo• 8 days ago

Yeah the sharp edges have bothered me since they started with the unibody. Luckily I'm completely off Mac these days. But really the last mac I enjoyed using was my powerbook. It had really nice plastic gaskets for the edges, a keyboard with really good travel and cupped keys, it was wonderful.

I got a plastic MacBook eventually which I filed down too because the edges were really sharp there. And plastic is easy to file. Also replaced the screen with a matte version, on the plastic MacBook that was also easy because the screens were readily available and there was no glass overlay.

Then I had a unibody MBP 15" matte. Less sharp and with off factory matte display. Not great keyboard though.

The current MBP I find abhorrent. Even after they switched from the horrible butterfly mistake the travel is still way too shallow. I just can't work with that anymore. These days I just don't buy laptops anymore. Only desk PCs.

zaptrem• 8 days ago

This is my number one complaint about the M-series MBP line. Especially true of the cutout in the middle that has points so sharp they can cut you if you accidentally scrape it with your hand.

jader201• 7 days ago

Is this unique to the M-series?

My 2015 MBP has this exact same issue.

_nivlac_• 7 days ago

I'm guessing they meant they had more complaints about the non-M models. Though I also misread the way you did too.

gargs• 7 days ago

I actually have suffered from a cut. It's ridiculously sharp.

BenFranklin100• 8 days ago

Get one of these:

https://www.andar.com/products/the-helm?variant=397924980491...

Pricey, but the lip covers the edge. My current one is 4 years old and lasted a couple of generations of Macbooks.

npunt• 8 days ago

The Helm is great. I'm not sure it really solves the wrists problem, at least for me since for how I use it the height of the laptop makes a huge difference in ergonomics. The MacBook Pro is already tall, and the Helm makes it taller, creating pressure on the wrists. Meanwhile I don't have this problem on my carry everywhere MacBook Air since it's so thin.

Neywiny• 8 days ago

Good to see a recognition that power tools are powerful. Too many amateur videos of people experimenting without nearly enough control and messing up projects

JSR_FDED• 8 days ago

Brave to do this on a blue color MacBook - curious how the filed area will look compared to the rest of the body after some time.

maxbrt25• 8 days ago

I'll try to do some updates after a while!

mc3301• 8 days ago

I used a dark blue sharpie to cover up some scratches; works fine and I touch it up every few months.

jimnotgym6• 7 days ago

Curious why it matters how it looks, it is supposed to be a computer, not a fashion accessory

gnabgib• 8 days ago

Related: Filing the corners off my MacBooks (1406 points, 3mos ago, 678 comments) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47724352

IshKebab• 7 days ago

Yeah but this guy did it carefully. That one looks like he took a powerfile to it.

baldeagle• 8 days ago

https://a.co/d/0hXtPRfC

Amazon link to a debuting tool. It uses sharp harder metal to cut off sharp metal edges.

shmeeed3• 7 days ago

I strongly recommend against using a deburring tool on a Macbook. IMO OP has picked their tools with perfect consideration.

These tools are made to remove burrs resulting from machining processes. They are very useful for quick&dirty jobs on bore holes or rough edges where optics don't matter, but they lack the precision for sensitive work.

Anybody who's not very well versed in using a deburring tool is just about guaranteed to produce a terrible result that will only take longer to sand out than approching the task with files and sandpaper from the start.

edot• 6 days ago

Agreed. Deburring tools also frequently “catch” and dig in if you’re not careful. Especially on soft aluminum. Use a file if you’re going to do this.

lrvick2• 8 days ago

Now try modifying the software that Apple sold you with it.

maxbrt25• 8 days ago

Yeah that's been a major headache. I ssh into my server/desktop most of the time anyways, so there is no friction there. Then also I was surprised by how well VMs with OrbStack on Mac run. With yabai and skhd I've gotten it pretty closely to where I previously was with i3.

Even still, I'm looking forward to the day where I can run Asahi on this

lrvick2• 7 days ago

Three employers in a row insisted on handing me a macbook, and three times in a row I ported Gentoo to it out of pure spite and disdain for third parties trying to control the binaries I use to do my job.

At the time they called this crazy and unproductive, but those obsessions with control of my tools built the foundational skillsets that drove my career.

Hammershaft• 7 days ago

If you struggle with Yabai I'll reccomend Aerospace, which I think is more performant & reliable.

bpye• 7 days ago

They don't document the hardware, but it is possible to run unsigned code on the SoC - that's how the Asahi Linux project is able to exist.

bofadeez• 8 days ago

"The moment I am too scared to do something because I might damage the tool, it stops being a tool"

That's just not the definition of the word "tool" at all but okay... whatever

maxbrt25• 8 days ago

Sorry you did not like that part! All I was trying to express was that even though this thing is nice and shiny, it is a tool in the end so if modifying it would make it serve that purpose better, one should not be scared to do so. I wasn't trying to give a definition, but perhaps I should rephrase that. Thanks!

hinata08• 7 days ago

Calling it a tool is fine.

Some people would like to pretend means of production are holy assets you're supposed to value and trade (INVEST!!! making value is for losers and _these_ workers), when it's just a consummable that should serve a purpose right now.

A computer is a tool and customizing the case is not unheard of.

Thank you for desmystifying the Mac. Users know best.

dlcarrier2• 7 days ago

It made sense to me. If you're to scared to use it without limits, then it is not useful for the scope of its intended purpose.

dlcarrier2• 7 days ago

It implies that it stops being a usable tool. It's still the same item, but it isn't able to be used as such.

benj111• 7 days ago

A tool is meant to do something, not look pretty.

If your primary concern is something looking pretty, it is no longer primarily a tool.

Probably loose wording as damage can mean break something or make it look less pretty. I think the intent is clear though.

zecg• 8 days ago

The moment I am too scared to do something because I might damage the tool, it stops being a tool.

What? You can damage even the most robust and simple tool by using it wrongly or inattentively.

maxbrt25• 7 days ago

You are correct, that was phrased badly. I've tried to update it, thanks for the comment.

HugoTea• 7 days ago

I love the animation on the background of your website. And I totally understand what you mean about using a tool, if it's too delicate to do the job, then it's not doing its job. Imagine buying a hammer and trying to keep it clear of scuffs, it's obviously going to impede your work.

BoxOfRain• 7 days ago

Yeah I think the grief OP was getting over that statement in some of the other comments is unwarranted, I understand completely what they mean about tools. You have people who buy expensive guitars and barely play them for fear of scuffing them for example, depriving themselves and the tool of the thing it's actually for. I'll never understand that mentality.

I don't like to be precious about my tools either, scratches and so on are evidence it's being used for what it's made for!

maxbrt25• 7 days ago

Thanks for the encouragement, glad you like the background :-) Yeah I phrased it a bit badly initially. But what I meant was pretty much what you stated!

dangayle• 7 days ago

I bought a 1973 Fender Jazzmaster that was immaculate and should have been my forever guitar. I was so afraid of "ruining the value" that I sold it. I couldn't play it, I was so paranoid. It got into my head. Instead, I ended up buying a '65 AVRI Jazzmaster body and put on an EGC aluminum neck and a Tuffset bridge. The price was about 2/3 of the vintage one, but I have no qualms about playing this one. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

lb1lf3• 7 days ago

...and don't even get me started on people who buy a Rolex Submariner - the quintessential tool watch (and luxury symbol, by all means - but it wasn't always so) and then ask whether they should take any special precautions after accidentally showering with it...

Sigh.

Lio• 7 days ago

Hmm, I sort of get this but I also think people fetish treating tools badly and then complain when they break.

I have a micrometer. It's delicate and lives in a velvet lined case.

I could treat it like a hammer but I know that once the surfaces get damaged it will be less useful.

It's no less of a tool just because you take extra care of it. I don't treat it well because I want to hand it down to my grand kids, I treat it well because it's delicate I want to keep it working.

Likewise, I don't baby my laptop but also don't throw it around, drop it or use it as a step to reach high shelves.

I don't sweat dings but I do use a proper fitted case when I transport it because I don't want them either.

alanwreath• 7 days ago

yes I want a post about that background, its pretty awesome how it gradually and seemingly randomly builds itself.

ferranconde• 7 days ago

At the bottom of the post there's a link to an explainer post about the background: https://brt.fyi/posts/prime-flow-field/

maxbrt25• 3 days ago

Hello, I've written a more detailed post about it https://www.brt.fyi/posts/prime-flow-field/

and also put the code in a public repo for anyone to use https://github.com/brtmax/prime-flow-field

eru2• 7 days ago

See https://www.brt.fyi/posts/prime-flow-field/ about the background.

jiehong• 6 days ago

It’s true in general, but not always.

Some tools do not work if you don’t treat them with utmost care (like an optical system that might need a clean room to work, or that gets damaged by a small bump, or whatever)

jcattle• 6 days ago

I was wondering why I don't get that animation. Turns out I turned on reduced motion in Windows 11, to get snappier UI and they actually set some accessibility tag correctly for the animation!

anthonyko• 7 days ago

another example: https://bsky.app/profile/s.ly/post/3mlo7ajrqdk2o Jesse Vincent used a deburring tool.

shmeeed3• 6 days ago

I gotta admit, that's a good clean job.

carodgers• 7 days ago

I would just like to say that with this page open I have ~15% utilization on my GPU. XD

trvz• 7 days ago

I checked, too, after your comment. It's ~50% on an M2 (with 10 GPU cores) according to iStat Menus.

maxbrt25• 7 days ago

I know I know :D I have not done any optimization yet. Maybe I should also add some toggle to disable it or reduce the number of particles

latable• 7 days ago

I use a low-power sff pc with a i5-9500T for everyday tasks and it uses 50% cpu and 100% gpu ! The background is nice indeed but it makes the website sluggish.

ROllerozxa• 7 days ago

Trying to even open the page in Chrome on my phone freezes the tab with rapid flickering and makes every other tab I switch to or open completely blank until I restart the browser... That effect sure is something.

dmaa4• 7 days ago

Great article and happy to see that I'm not alone. I don't get why on such a well thought-out and built device as this, the corners are so sharp.

From how I use the trackpad, the bottom of my thumb always feels sore-ish after a day's work and it took me a while to trace this to the sharp cornern of my macbook.

jimnotgym6• 7 days ago

I don't get why on such a well thought-out and built device as this, the corners are so sharp.

Because macs have 3 big markets

1) graphic designers/ photo editors

2) web developers

3) people who value looks above other considerations

Number 3 buy more macs, so square corners it is

dmaa4• 7 days ago

I am in neither of these and nor is any of the many people I know with macbooks. I honestly do not understand why any average person would buy anything else than a macbook today.

jorisw• 6 days ago

[citation needed]

maxbrt25• 6 days ago

What frustrates me is that there seems to be no in between with Apple. Some of the components very much do feel like they are designed with function over form in mind. Both software and hardware.

For instance, there was a great article here in the past weeks (can't find it right now sadly) that highlighted how the file name preview works in Finder. It does it in a very intuitive way and without covering any of the other files listed. You wouldn't notice it visually, but it sure is useful. A lot of the hardware also feels really polished as a tool, like the trackpad (although I admit it's probably not as difficult to make this look good).

And then you have these edges again and it feels like it was done by a completely different design team without any communication to the rest.

carlosjobim• 6 days ago

Those prejudices are I think 20 or at least 15 years obsolete. All kinds of people use Macs today.

wodenokoto• 7 days ago

Maybe I drank the cool-aid, but I like the corners on my Mac, and it took a lot of empathy from me to accept “the other” authors filing job, but this looks beautiful.

Thanks to both authors for sharing the work!

vortegne• 7 days ago

looks great! not shade to the other guy, but your job is so much nicer looking

maxbrt25• 6 days ago

Thank you!

akhil08agrawal• 7 days ago

Never knew that there are more people like me who get irked at such things. But yeah, I do not have the heart to do this to my laptop, so I end up using my laptop on a solid surface xD

kqr• 7 days ago

On a similar note, people are way too precious about their dead-tree books. Feel free to chuck them in bags, make notes in the margins, fold pages, underline, and strike through text in them. It's yours. Make it yours! Your scribblings don't detract from what's in there – they elevate it to something unique.

(This is particularly true if it's a book that's still in print, or was in large enough print runs it's easy to buy another second-hand copy when the one you have falls apart. It's still somewhat true even when that's not the case.)

ta8903• 7 days ago

I was riding my motorcycle in heavy rains and had a book in my work bag which, as I later found out, doesn't resist water at all, and the book got soaked. Half the pages puffed up, and I hated myself for it at first, but after a while I realized I like it even better since it feels like the book has been through something with me and I will always remember that incident whenever I think about the book.

Though admittedly, caring about this is even more vapid than caring about my books being pristine.

maxbrt25• 6 days ago

Thanks for sharing that story! That is a nice way to think about it.

jimnotgym6• 7 days ago

There is only one way to damage a book, and that is to not read it

ozyschmozy• 7 days ago

I'm like this for everything _except_ paper books. I grew up sharing books a lot, books I finished would go to younger kids in my extended family or my mom's students, and I got a bunch of books like that as well. So we took a lot of care keeping books in good condition. I don't buy many paper books anymore, and ones I do buy tend to be new and stay with me, but folding pages or breaking the spines still feels wrong to me

4ggr0• 6 days ago

i'm someone who takes a lot of care about their books, i especially don't like when the back is wrinkly/broken on paperbacks because of opening them all the way. after all that makes them break down faster in general, over time. and it looks worse in a shelf.

anyways, everyone handles their items differently, which is fine - a friend once borrowed a book from me which was in pristine condition after multiple years of me owning and reading it. when he returned it, the back was completely wrinkled, pages had dog-ears, he had bent the cover all the way around to be able to hold it better etc.

that kind of made me sad because it felt like something i took a lot of care to keep it in good condition was "destroyed" in a matter of weeks. of course i wasn't mad towards my friend because i realized that people handle books differently.

that being said. if someone borrows you something, try to keep it in more or less the same state as when it was given to you. accidents happen, of course. i on the other hand have learned to either not borrow books i care about, or make a point about me taking care of them when reading.

sometimes it's also not as easy as "just buy another copy". some books i care about because i bought them on a vacation, or someone gifted them to me. so the exact item has a sentimental value an additional copy will not be able to replicate. but again, i just learned to create two categories of books in my mind, those i borrow, and those i don't.

after all it's 2026, just download an eBook from Anna's Archive (if they borrow the physical copy from me there's no monetary transaction towards the author as well, so i really don't feel bad about it in these specific situations).

GuB-423• 6 days ago

My parents (both teachers) always told me to respect books, and it means keeping them in good shape, among other things. It is almost a religious idea: books represent knowledge, something that is important and must be preserved.

To be honest, it is not like we were maniacs about that, books are meant to be read, and accidents happen, but damaging a book if you could avoid it just felt wrong.

And I am also thinking about libraries that have books that are hundreds of years old or more. The reason we still have them is that people cared.

It is not entirely rational, but it is one of these things, like playing with food, a moral consideration more than a practical one.

rob743• 7 days ago

Nitpick: those are (sharp) edges, not corners. Maybe the next generation of MacBooks will also actually have exactly 90° non-rounded corners? I guess that's the next logical step...

Also, TIL that Bosch also makes files. I was under the impression that they only made powertools (or electronic measuring devices, or other things with a battery or power cord).

Cthulhu_• 7 days ago

Their main bread and butter is components for cars and ebikes, their (power) tools / DIY stuff is like 22% of their business. Or so I learned just now.

dijit• 7 days ago

as an aside, I have a shimano e-bike and a bosch one, and the bosch one is leagues superior.

Which feels weird when you consider the pedigree of shimano, but it makes sense when you think what kind of internals an ebike motor would need.. I guess.

mlrtime2• 7 days ago

Bosch also makes the appliances that a lot of people know that aren't branded Bosch.

eru2• 7 days ago

Oh, Bosch makes all kinds of things.

Bosch's logo is something like a sparkplug (the thing used in internal combustion engines). To this day, the 'mobility' division is the biggest one. See https://www.bosch.com/stories/creation-of-the-bosch-logo/

Decades ago I actually had an offer to work for them as a research student working on optimising internal combustion engines.

ce4• 7 days ago

It resembles part of an electric motor, namely the windings (double t armature)

MezzoDelCammin• 7 days ago

not a spark plug. They call it "armature in a circle", but that's somewhat generic.

Bosch used to do the first magnetos / dynamos in the early 1900s motorbikes / cars. The principle is similar to this day - one rotating magnetic field within one static. You can do all kinds of shenanigans and combinations of permanent magnets / coils where it's either the electric current generating a magnetic field or the magnetic field generating an electric current. Depending whether You want the movement to generate electricity or the electricity to generate movement.

In the first magnetos (the thing that uses the engine rotation in order to generate a current that then makes a spark in the spark plug) they used permanently magnetized exterior plating and a rotating winding. That's sort of what You see in the logo - two coil windings rotating in their housing.

szszrk• 7 days ago

I find below article to be a cool explanation of that device, while actually showing shape Bosch uses in that logo.

https://www.da7c.co.uk/technical_torque_articles/magneto_ign...

But yeah, it's magneto ignition device, pre-sparkplug.

boredpudding• 7 days ago

Bosch is one of those companies that makes a lot of different things. I own powertools, kitchen appliances and car parts from them.

B1FF_PSUVM• 7 days ago

And car engine control software.

Bosch developed the "experimental" ECU software that VW used in the Dieselgate vehicles.

alper• 7 days ago

A classic German example of a zaibatsu.

luipugs• 7 days ago

My very first mobile was a Bosch. I had no idea they even made phones. I wanted a Nokia though, but I was able to get that later.

maxbrt25• 7 days ago

Ah right, thanks for the hint. I try to be more precise in more wording, but English isn't my first language so comments like these are really useful.

avadodin• 7 days ago

I assumed it was a reference to early Apple user interfaces.

I believe their corners are already/still rounded, though.

If we have to be precise, however, perhaps blades would be a more appropriate term to refer to their products' edges.

ctippett• 7 days ago

You mentioned Bosch and I can't think of anywhere or anyone else who'd be interested in this little bit of trivia, so a random comment on a thread about filing the edges off a laptop seems like a fitting place to share it.

Bosch dates their appliances using a thing called the Fertigungsdatum Number. The first two digits represent the year of manufacture, the second two are for the month. Except the year doesn't align with the actual year, you first have to add 20. Why 20? Well, Bosch first started using their internal dating system back in 1920 and appliances from that year started with the code "00". I had an oven that had a date of "7808", which means it was manufactured in August 1998 (it lasted almost 30 years before we finally had to replace it last month).

In 2020 the system wound back around and started with "00" again.

fransje26• 7 days ago

And the majority owner of Bosch is the Robert Bosch Stiftung (Robert Bosch foundation), which uses its dividends to fund projects in social sciences, public health and education.

Trollmann• 6 days ago

So essentially the epoch system we see in use for timestamps as well, including overflow behavior edge case.

OoooooooO• 6 days ago

"Fertigungsdatum Number" is just the german word for "production date Number".

RealityVoid• 6 days ago

They make many many many more things than just powertools. They have ebike motors, home appliances, industrial machinery, chips (they have a very good division for MEMS as far as I can tell, they make high quality IMU's, they are super popular for airbag usage), protocols (the CAN bus is BOSCH IP and you pay 1 cent royalty I think for each MCU's with CAN on them), automotive components.

ct0• 6 days ago

I'm waiting for a Bosch dishwasher to be delivered today. Supposedly it's one of the best.

ssl-34• 6 days ago

With something like 400,000 employees and 400 locations, Bosch has fingers in all kinds of markets.

They invented the O2 sensor that lead to electronic fuel injected engines being awesome, and they still produce huge numbers of OE automotive engine management systems.

They've got their self-branded tools, but when you buy a Dremel widget or a Diablo saw blade, you're also buying Bosch.

I used to get home aquarium equipment that was made by Bosch. I've owned a (rather high-end, for the time) aftermarket car stereo that was a product of Bosch. The Bosch dishwasher I had was a skookum choocher despite being relatively inexpensive and near the bottom of their line.

They make industrial automation hardware and sell plant engineering services. They build and run factories that manufacture semiconductors.

I'm only scratching the surface here.

Chances are excellent that you've got stuff related to Bosch all around you, wherever you go.

sgirard• 6 days ago

I am not familiar with "skookum choocher". Is that a technical term? Based on the context it must be a good thing.

pseudohadamard3• 6 days ago

Diablo are Bosch? I thought Diablo was Freud.

(Googles)

Well who knew? Bosch own Freud. Does that mean Bosch saw blades are also Diablo/Freud, just in Bosch blue? There's so many different variants, and they change over time, that a straight D vs. B visual comparison isn't really possible.

tamimio• 6 days ago

It’s not nitpicking, I kept looking at the corners trying to see what was changed, back and forth for few seconds before I realized it was the edges!

tomkarho• 5 days ago

Maybe the next generation of MacBooks will also actually have exactly 90° non-rounded corners?

Depends who owns the patent for that.

timvdalen• 7 days ago

That looks so much better than that other post!

noufalibrahim4• 7 days ago

I did this with my first (and only Macbook) in 2014. Did it with a pocket file.

I never thought about blogging about it though. Perhaps something to consider.

asimovDev• 7 days ago

I hate the vents on my work macbook, when I rest it on my lap, the edges dig into my thighs and leave imprints. One time after getting in the flow, I didn't notice how it was cutting into my flesh and ended up with a bruise

Xenoamorphous• 7 days ago

I’ve literally calluses on my wrists from those edges.

amelius2• 7 days ago

I'm sure Apple would prevent users from doing this if they could.

Next version: edge sharpness detectors. Or body resistance measurements.

user_7832• 7 days ago

Intrusion detection already exists on many, laptops!

amelius2• 7 days ago

Yeah, they could probably run a very thin transformer wire along the edges.

musha68k• 7 days ago

I've been using Macs for decades and never had these issues personally. It seems like some people do literally rest their hands / arms on desk / notebook body while typing.

The "sharp edge syndrome" here to me seems to be a good thing then as it acts as a reminder for proper ergonomics / posture.

First Google AI search result on the topic:

"Never rest your wrists on your MacBook while typing. Instead, let your palms rest gently on the laptop body only when you pause. Hover your hands as you type. This prevents you from bending your wrists and protects the nerves in your carpal tunnel."

That also pretty much exactly mirrors the way we learned typing / posture at school in Austria.

alexdbird• 6 days ago

I've always wondered if this was the secret motivation behind it. I hated this bit of design when I switched from a smooth edged Thinkpad ~15 years ago. But I changed my typing posture for the better and it became a non-issue.

gib444• 6 days ago

Agreed. The sharp edges are like a Victorian teacher whipping you for slouching

They could have put sensors on the body and made it alert you in MacOS, but you know, it is what it is

maxbrt25• 6 days ago

I get the point there and it does make sense, however I think there are certain limits to where it applies. I use it on the go a lot, crammed in small seats in the train for example. In those cases, it's just not always possible to have proper ergonomics and IMO this should be kept in mind when designing a laptop.

Sohcahtoa824• 6 days ago

Hover your hands as you type.

I've been using computer keyboards for 30 years and have never done that.

Still no wrist problems.

I don't typically type on laptop keyboards though, and I use a very firm wrist pad, and sit at a height that makes my wrists nearly perfectly straight.

njsubedi• 7 days ago

Used just 3 things - 1 debur tool, a 600 grit sandpaper & another 2000 grit sandpaper while still reading this thread. Totally worth it, and instant improvement in my quality of life. And it took me less than 5 minutes. Thank you!

maxbrt25• 6 days ago

I think I'd also go with the debur tool next time, glad it worked well for you!

ZephyrCannon• 7 days ago

I couldn't do this. I know some like to customize their tools, but I like my stuff vanilla.

giamma2• 7 days ago

It's always entertaining for me to realize that there are people who find very annoying things that I don't even notice.

rasz• 6 days ago

Like that dead pixel on your screen, or video tearing when you scroll, or game running at 20 fps

giamma2• 6 days ago

Kind of, for example I play games with motion blur activated, but my son switches it off.

Sohcahtoa824• 6 days ago

School teachers leaving the pointer in the middle of the video.

FredrikSE• 7 days ago

I didn't have the heart to make something like this on my M2 Air so I did a new edge to 3D-print and attach to the edge. Works really well and have lasted more than 3 years to this date. https://makerworld.com/models/1356464

challenger-derp• 6 days ago

That's kinda clever, and possibly something to consider for users who prefer an alternative to filing.

maxbrt25• 6 days ago

That's a very creative approach. How does it attach?

kristianp• 6 days ago

It says double-sided tape.

hoppp• 7 days ago

You should never use a mac on your lap if you are male because you can burn your balls. You can end up shooting blanks, these laptops can do heat castraton.

tiborsaas3• 7 days ago

It can also make you waste a lot of time and not do anything productive with your day which is worse than shooting blanks.

ButlerianJihad• 7 days ago

Long ago in retirement, my father adopted the habit of sitting in his easy chair, with a view of the television set, with his laptop in his lap, clicking away at the Internet and whatever he did there. Sometimes the cat would stroll across his keyboard.

But he ran into a real problem: his computer began locking up. No warning, no prior glitches, just a hard lockup, and only a power-cycle could get it going again.

And I took one look at his setup and I said, "Dad, you need to ventilate that thing at the bottom. I bet your CPU is suffering an overheat condition."

And so Dad went out and he purchased a little laptop stand for the laptop, that contained fans in the base, and he set the laptop stand across his lap and put the laptop on the laptop stand. And he didn't even need to actively run the fans, but just the extra height and bottom ventilation did the trick, and his laptop never locked-up again, and he was overjoyed, along with the cat, and Mom as well. And they lived happily ever after.

maxbrt25• 6 days ago

That reminds me, I should have mentioned an even more backwards design which is that of the vent placement on my older Thinkpad X1. It has the air intake vents on the bottom, they relied on the little rubber feets to lift it up for correct airflow. I pretty much could not use it on my lap because of that, it got too hot even during smaller tasks. But to be fair, I've noticed similar placement on several HP/Dell laptops (or notebooks?) that I had at work too.

dmaa4• 7 days ago

Does anybody have experience with filing just the 'trackpad corners' on a dark-colored macbook?

tiborsaas3• 7 days ago

I like pushing my fingers at those sharp edges and then feel the short lasting indent with my other finger. We are not the same :)

maxbrt25• 6 days ago

I've read online that some people use the corners near the indent for opening the lid for "pain stimming", so you are definitely not alone with that :D

tiborsaas3• 6 days ago

Ah, that's a good spot.

gocolin• 7 days ago

Oh my, I finally found out why I can only last 3 seconds..

tosh• 6 days ago

I know, not the main purpose of it but what's the reduced weight in grams?

maxbrt25• 6 days ago

So I've weighed it with my cheap kitchen scale, that says it weighs 1222g now. Sadly I did not weigh it before. I did look online and saw 1240g for the same model/specs.

Take of that what you will, but I can't imagine that I filed off that much. I'm assuming my kitchen scale is just not well calibrated

rbanffy• 6 days ago

One thing I'd love to see is a polished MacBook. I'll probably have to buy a dead one for experimentation.

deadbabe2• 6 days ago

Anywhere you could take this to have it professionally done? I like the idea but would never do it myself.

maxbrt25• 6 days ago

Can't name any concrete place but maybe try a local Hackerspace? They often help with that for free and you can give a donation

deadbabe2• 6 days ago

I would rather pay money.

lokimedes• 6 days ago

The meeting between my magnetic Apple Watch strap and the edge of the MacBook did the same for me, involuntarily. Apparently the magnets in these straps are quite abrasive.

kdavis• 6 days ago

Trephination! :-)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trepanning

citrus1330• 6 days ago

Wow never realized people cared about this. I think it looks better with sharp edges and haven't had any problems with ergonomics.

spoctrial2• 6 days ago

There's a spelling mistake in the first paragraph. The expression is "lo and behold", and not "low and behold". Lo is an old English interjection for expressing surprise.

tokarev• 6 days ago

Amusingly, I've come to appreciate grammar and spelling mistakes in blog posts, as they hint the text wasn't written with AI

spoctrial2• 6 days ago

Yeah, next generation of SOTA models will probably come with a misspelling mode, marketed as "inspired by artisanal human misspellings".

maxbrt25• 6 days ago

Oh interesting, thanks!

plorg• 6 days ago

Also somewhere they used "along" where it should be "a long". Always nice to see that a person wrote it.

alexious-sh• 6 days ago

It hurts even looking on it through the monitor.

t1234s• 6 days ago

Sharp edges/corners are an interesting design choice for a product in which you interact with your bare skin.

Google Pixel 7/8 have sharp edges on their camera bump on the back.

proee• 6 days ago

The first gen unibody macbooks had seriously sharp edges, enough to grate a block of parmesan cheese. I suspect Sir Johny Ive is behind this madness. The latest apple watch ultras also seem quiet aggressive, so much so that I am having to sport the lame looking normal apple watch.

unsupp0rted• 6 days ago

In 2019 I put my MacBook Pro in my bag and sliced my fingers open on the edging around the exhaust

bmitc• 6 days ago

I've never understood why Apple had and leaves these things in their computers.

asdff• 6 days ago

This has to be a "you are holding it wrong" situation. I use my macbook on the desk, on my lap, on my chest laying on my back, and have never once gotten to thinking parts of it should be filed down.

necovek2• 6 days ago

People are different: my hands are big and on my preferred laptop sizes (13-14"), laptop edges cut into my palms when my fingers are on the home row. Others' anatomy might be different in other ways.

Perhaps you could claim I should be using larger laptops ad part of the "holding it wrong"), but then my preferred Thinkpad X1 Carbons do not cause the same issue for me.

(Nor the screen reflections, or mushy keyboards of my work Macs)

lofaszvanitt• 6 days ago

For godsakes. Buy a 3000-6000 grit sandpaper, put it on an orbital sander and touch it on the edges delicately. Check, redo until edges are ok. Problem solved.

maxbrt25• 2 days ago

For anyone interested in the background, I've written a detailed post about it as well as provided the code:

https://www.brt.fyi/posts/prime-flow-field/

I also filed the corners off my MacBook

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