Oh hey! I used to have a Latitude E6430! I’ve seen my college buddy’s E6420 and they’re not too far apart (we’d get these upcycled laptops when we’re lucky from a local e-waste company).

I can vouch for their ruggedness. Definitely not on par with Thinkpads, but they’re pretty up there.

I didn’t get the chance to upgrade much aside from the RAM and SSD, handed it down to a friend in need while upgrading my arsenal to Thinkpads.

One thing that bothered me is how heavy it is for a 14 inch laptop; that bezel is humongous. Also, it stings then I touch the palmrest wrong while charging.

It does shows signs of aging, but not as bad as the other laptops of the same era.

I haven’t heard of the T480 display problem until now, but then again, I’ve never had it myself.

Yup, WDR4300 on OpenWRT is the way to go.

Had that running on my main router until a newer one came along. Now it’s still going strong, but as a wifi repeater.

The newer ones are actually less well-built.

I have a T14 Gen 3 from work to confirm with. It’s definitely not bad, but not as rugged.

Meanwhile, for personal use, I got a X230, and a W530, and they are much more solid. A lot of people said that T480 is the “last great Thinkpad”, but I don’t have one so I cannot confirm this.

Careful now, they are too old to be secure. I’d switch to TL-WDR4300.

Hell yeah!

Don’t go in there, man.

Just like what our founding fathers had envisioned.

Galium Nitride. It makes high current DC stuff more efficient (i.e. generates less heat) and requires less circuitry (i.e. smaller devices).

I appreciate that you’re really thorough, both with that explaination as well as the implementation in the first place.

I guess I’ve never give it much thought. I mean, I’m familiar with electricity, but I’m paying dirt cheap for it.

One more question: How do you do your lighting? Most light fixtures I know are using e27 bulbs, which are AC powered. I know the LED panels requires driver circuits between them and the main, theoretically they probably could live off your DC straight-up, but they’re generally a pain to work with.

Should be okay, that USB-PD would detect the correct voltage and current.

I’m curious as to what exactly you do with it as an off-grid person, and what you mean by DC-to-DC converter.

I think the real game changer here is the USB-PD. I now only bring a single charger for both my laptop and my phone. Also, a lot of different laptops now charge with USB-C, getting rid of the need of different plugs.

Props to the Thinkpad USB-C retrofit hack. Granted they only work with 65w, but it is still great! My Anker Nano GaN charger is only a little bit larger than an ice cube, definitely smaller than most traditional USB charger, yet it packs 65w.

Fuck, man, that is some depressing backstory.

Pretty much all Linkin Park songs.

Listened to it since elementary.

Around high school, I figured the lyrics were kinda dark.

Then the vocalist hung himself.

No, it’s a song about a nice guy not getting his crush.

Damn, I’d definitely use that wallpaper!

How old were you back then?

I thought they meant time traveler

How about if we take the legs, then burn the rest to ashes so it would reemerge.