this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2025
1145 points (98.4% liked)
People Twitter
5612 readers
1553 users here now
People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.
RULES:
- Mark NSFW content.
- No doxxing people.
- Must be a pic of the tweet or similar. No direct links to the tweet.
- No bullying or international politcs
- Be excellent to each other.
- Provide an archived link to the tweet (or similar) being shown if it's a major figure or a politician.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Had to look it up, the version with a handle killed me
It's actually pretty useful when you have to move around with it in your workplace. Tbh, I am so used to the handle that I'd miss it if my next computer didn't have it.
Unironically love that. There's a CD drive but what is that next to it? Is it a Zip drive?
The SSD slot. You can easily swap the ssd without having to open the computer. It takes a couple of minutes.
Oh, that's actually kind of cool. Is that for the primary drive or for swapping additional ones in and out?
For the primary. It is really useful when your ssd dies (happens more often than you'd think) and you need to keep working because you are operating in a situation where you can't afford to lose the time that would be required to swap disks opening the laptop. We have at least one spare ssd in my office always ready to be swapped in case of emergency.
There are also a lot of cool features on them:
They come with 4 usb ports, 2 ethernet ports + wifi, 1 dvi port, 1 dp, 1 serial port, 1 mpi/profibus port, pcie expansion, dvd unit and bluetooth (which is a given). They also, as per manufacturer warranty, can stand a fall from 1-1.5m without suffering damage.
If it’s the primary, do you keep those drives with OS pre-installed on them, or is there like… some sort of bios-like built in to hold the ummm… OS image..? And what about the programs and files and stuff? All vpn/network accessed?
Hopefully you can sort out what that is asking.. I know just enough about computers to fix Linux problems.. if other people have posted about them… usually… with significant effort.
In our case, we keep them with preinstalled OS (and all the apps we need running) so we can swap and go in a moment.
I had an old cf-27 toughbook with a handle. Handles on laptops are wicked handy!
It has an RS232 port, that's hilarious.
I use that port more than my usb ports at work, no kidding. You don't know how many things still use that port to communicate even today.
Oh, I'm aware, I work on fire alarm systems.
There was a point where I really wanted a decent laptop with one to run STAR C3. Never bought the laptop nor the kit but never knew if I'll need it again. I don't own a Benz anymore but it could literally change on a whim because I do still love them lol
You can get USB to RS232 cables for very little, so any laptop should work.
And how cool would you look carrying your laptop like an attache case, with dongles and wires hanging off it? No thank you. If I need to interface with cold war era serial hardware, this is the way I'm going to do it.
You do realise there is equipment being manufactured today that uses RS232?
Yes. Cold war era tech being manufactured today. You do realize there are plows being manufactured today that are intended to be drawn by oxen?
It was a tongue in cheek comment and you've already displayed elsewhere in the thread how much you know about RS232 but you couldn't let it slide.
We have brand new machines that use RS232 and RS485. We just did some configurating on one of them last week.
So do some fire panels, come to think of it. They use RS232 for programming, and either RS232 or RS485 for communication between modules.
Yep. Coincidentally, part of that job involved a fire panel.
It falls under the KISS principal - and if it ain't broke, why fix it?
Oh, definitely. There's a lot of products in the fire industry that haven't fundamentally changed since the 80s or 90s, maybe a few tweaks.
People have reported those not working very well with STAR / DAS I believe. You can usually buy the kit with a laptop included, I just figured I'd wanna try if it runs on something made less than 23 years ago.
Now i wanna make this my daily driver
In case you need to play spider solitaire in the middle of a hurricane, or knock the head off a T-800.