For years… centuries… who knows how long… people have been social and followed trends. Sometimes that has led to an expansion of good ideas. Sometimes people get stuck doing things that don’t have particularly good outcomes, just because it is a trend or style. The thing is, being a person with disabilities, sometimes it is very clear to me that I need to do what I need to do, in ways that work for me. I don’t have the time, energy, or physical ability to try and do things the way every one else does.
Also, there is actual merit in admitting one’s limitations or faults.
Maybe that came a bit hard for me, because there was a decade or so where my limitations weren’t visible to others, and I tried to maintain a facade of normality. I disdained using an electric cart for shopping in big stores… up until the day I couldn’t make it back to the front of the store on my own. It was pretty humiliating having to wait until someone came by, ask them to get a store employee, wait for a store employee, and ask the store employee to get me a cart, wait for the cart, and be escorted to the front, just to make sure I would be okay. Humility may be a virtue, but being humiliated because I was too proud to use something that would help me is not.
You would think that a business or industry would not have the same personal ego investment that I had, and embrace change, admit flaws and minimize their effects, and go with what works. I’ve been severely disappointed with Microsoft… but they are part of an industry that not only copies and builds on the successes of others, but which actively pursues fads that are not productive… and some of those fads are interfering with something that I think I need to be able to buy… repair-ability and thermal throttling.
I love to do photo editing, computer scrap-booking, videos… and how long it takes Gimp to render the changes I’ve made in various layers is important to me. I want my computer to be a little faster than I can think, so it waits on me, not me waiting on it. More processor speed and cores is better… sort of… maybe?
Every so often I let myself dream. @Peacelady recently got herself a MacOS… what would it be like to have a new computer… what kind would I get?… what would I want on it?… what would I need?
So I went window shopping… which today means, I checked out all those good things available on the internet. I didn’t limit myself to what I could afford, because right now, I can’t afford much. But… if I had the money, what computer would do what I need to do?
First decision point is that I need a laptop. I have to elevate my legs above my heart much of the time, so it would make a desktop very hard to set up in a useful way. I have to put pillows under my arms for support, or my tremor gets too bad for using a keyboard (and touch is useless for me… and I disable a touch pad unless I like watching the cursor jump around wildly). I suppose that I could get a wireless keyboard and a screen mounted so I could swing it out in front of me, but it isn’t as practical. With my laptop I can position myself so my body is in alignment, and comfortably use the keyboard and see the screen, with ease.
There are a lot of really pretty laptops, boasting great processor speed, and wonderful screens…
Now, I window shop with the aim that if I save, or come into a windfall, I could actually purchase something to replace my current aged laptop… so as well as dreaming, and letting the ads seduce me, I did some practical checks as well.
Something important to me is repair-ability. I drop and break everything (tremor… sigh) and I don’t want to have to replace it each time. Then I was faced with a comment like:
“The majority of people don’t need to upgrade or repair their own laptops…” (Wirecutter)
What? Who made that decision?
What’s worse, going through TechRadar, PCMag, Digital Trends, and the other sites that had reviews of the best 2018 laptops that showed up on my Startpage search first page (which uses Google results)… they didn’t even include a dismissive statement about the ability to upgrade or repair… nothing…
As a trend, not paying attention attention to upgrades and repair-ability is despicable. Dell gets the highest marks for repair-ability, taking it into consideration in how its products are designed, and also by providing detailed repair manuals, and even parts. But I didn’t find that out by reading any reviews. Who writes these reviews, anyways? How much are they depending upon the advertising glitz of companies that don’t provide the ability to repair because its in their financial interest to provide disposable, frequently replaced devices?
I started searching for data on repair-ability. Unfortunately, Consumer Reports, which collects data from actual users, is behind a paywall. I subscribed for years, but being on disability translates into being broke… Then I came across this article from Motherboard:
They started with the premise that:
“The pursuit of thinner, lighter laptops, a trend driven by Apple, means we have screwed ourselves out of performance.”
Wait… performance is important to me… And suddenly I found out about thermal throttling, where even if you’ve bought the latest and greatest and fastest processor, your device will throttle it in an attempt to keep the heat down… and as laptops have followed the fashion of skinnier and lighter, they are less able to dissipate heat (by design). So, even if they are equipped with one of the latest processors, they aren’t able to perform to the potential. And Apple’s new MacBook Pro, which can be had with the optional top-end i9 processor has its performance throttled severely, so severely that you aren’t getting anywhere near the performance that you thought you were paying for. There is a very practical reason to design a device to throttle itself, or even to trigger an automatic shutdown… because the heat can damage it. Additionally, I have a personal need for a cool laptop, since it, by necessity, sits on my lap… and although I can and do use a lap desk with a built in fan, the heat isn’t good for me, either.
Amazingly, although there were reviews that extolled the virtues of the newest, fastest processors, not one mentioned thermal throttling and how it could affect the performance of a particular model. I would expect that knowledgeable reviewers would look for things that might negatively impact performance, and review how various models cope with or prevent such problems… but nary a word about it was to be found. I had to know about the problem, and then search for it, before the extent of it became clear.
Gamers, because of their competitive need for high speed, are aware of the adverse effects of thermal throttling… because they freak out when their machines slow down! Forums are full of how to deal with throttling… and one reason gaming laptops are big and bulky, is that they are designed to get rid of heat… does that mean my dream machine will be one designed for gaming?
It turns out that Intel says “Keeping temperature below the maximum helps optimize operation and long-term reliability.” and you can burrow down to the specific information you need for a specific processor on their site… but TCC Activation Temperature (which determines when throttling, or even automated shutdown occurs) varies… and there is no easy way to compare them, that I found… and since how the manufacturer designs their fans and heat sinks to work with them will vary, too… well, there just isn’t a lot of information out there for a consumer like me.
I’m a bit discouraged. I wish manufacturers and reviewers would include very important data about things like this… and it is way more important than how thin or light a particular laptop is. And it takes time and research to find what I really need and want, and extra time to set up what I need for accessibility… I don’t want to have to replace it after a few years, even if I could afford to, so expected lifespan and repair-ability are essential factors. When I go back and look at the pretty pictures, and glowing descriptions, they just aren’t as enticing any more…
I’m adding how fast a laptop heats up, and how quickly thermal throttling kicks in as something to look for in my dream machine… it is a matter of actually being able to use the darn thing the way I want to, when I finally get my hands on it. And that is what Accessibility is about!
Non-techy Win 10 Pro and Linux Mint experimenter
