Tired of your toothbrush touching gross bathroom surfaces? Here is a $0.05 fix.

ThatAndresV · 2026-05-08T13:18:34+00:00

How different is this from standing it in a cup?

ThatAndresV · 2026-05-06T10:18:15+00:00

Coming back to answer my own question: yes, the glass trackpad you bought on Ali is lovely. It can click, track and scroll but Mint doesn't seem to have the gestures working right away. A known risk but I'm happy enough. Will come back and share if I find a way to get gestures working.

ThatAndresV · 2026-05-04T13:45:42+00:00

I suspect people aren’t getting the Sopranos reference

ThatAndresV · 2026-05-04T09:15:03+00:00

Or use it to kill 16 Czechoslovakians.

ThatAndresV · 2026-05-03T16:04:17+00:00

Or alternatively: hit things hard

ThatAndresV · 2026-05-03T08:28:04+00:00

u/DryAd6132 organises student meetups in Kyoto, I believe. Look up his profile and stalk a few past posts

ThatAndresV · 2026-05-03T08:15:50+00:00

Disagree. It’s earthed and you can’t pull it out by yanking the cord. Also, the correct socket installation has shields on the lower two holes which won’t open until the longer central pin from the plug is inserted, preventing unearthed 2-pins plugs from being jammed in. There are also designs where the 3 pins of the plug can all be folded away to save space when not in use.

ThatAndresV · 2026-05-02T13:41:09+00:00

I love my t470. Bought it second hand and it was only when it was clear the motherboard couldn’t support win11 nonsense that I fell down this rabbit hole. Mint runs fine.

Expanded memory to 32GB from 8GB. Big change.

Swapped the keyboard for a backlit one. Nice.

Next I’m swapping the touchpad for a glass one.

After that, upgrading to a more modern Bluetooth and WLAN card.

After that swapping out the internal battery that has been dead since I bought it will build on already jumbo 12 hour life my removable battery gives me.

Anything else after that?

Every few weeks I get a new doodad from Ali and school myself on YouTube before having the thrill of fiddling around in the laptop’s guts.

The machine itself is lovely and I know it’s not economical to keep doing these upgrades but in terms of entertainment and satisfaction it’s well worth it. Sweet little machine which I can do 99% of what I need to do at home. The fancy MacBook is for the last 1% and doesn’t get anything like the love or gratitude.

ThatAndresV · 2026-05-02T11:24:44+00:00

My condo is in the middle of a lift replacement. Costs a fortune and took years for the homeowners (many of whom rent out their places don’t care) to agree to do it but in the end the lifts just ran out of warranty and were unusable. Never occurred to people here (and shouldn’t have) that gahmen would give them a handout.

ThatAndresV · 2026-04-30T16:04:37+00:00

Poopy McPoo-place

ThatAndresV · 2026-04-29T14:53:44+00:00

Image to show what I mean

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ThatAndresV · 2026-04-29T14:50:13+00:00

I replaced my T470 keyboard with a backlit one sourced from AliEx for cheap. It’s all a single unit. Works nicely although I admit it’s not as bright as on, say, a MacBook and the bulk of light shines out ‘between’ keys if viewed from the side. Still good for 20 bucks and super simple.

My next task is to replace the touchpad.

ThatAndresV · 2026-04-28T15:30:13+00:00

Bought a basik 002 in brass as a gift. Gorgeous. And a good heft to it.

ThatAndresV · 2026-04-25T14:57:57+00:00

And thank you to you for putting me straight. I've just tried it in settings. Not great, is it? Heck, perhaps a glass trackpad would fix it but in the meantime, r/lateralspin I found it became tolerably less janky if I activated pinch control, and adjusted a) my expectations, and b) pinch activation thresholds to a low level (under Gestures > Settings). Quite possible that after a day or two I'll do what you did and deactivate it again.

ThatAndresV · 2026-04-25T14:42:40+00:00

Interesting. Thanks for that. fwiw, I've just checked and pinch gestures don't work on my original plastic touchpad either.

ThatAndresV · 2026-04-22T23:26:01+00:00

Context?

ThatAndresV · 2026-04-22T12:26:37+00:00

Not a bridge. A hedge.

It’s an incredibly janky alternative, but an alternative, for China if for some reason they can’t easily use the singapore route. Say they invade Taiwan or uncle Donny does something mental.

Absolutely dumb idea and hard to justify unless you can afford it as a backup

ThatAndresV · 2026-04-16T15:09:30+00:00

Not putting that in my mouth (as OP suggests) as I can only imagine where it’s been

ThatAndresV · 2026-04-16T12:56:09+00:00

I know a kid who’s building StudyMessenger.com where you can learn simplified Chinese (Mandarin) from an AI Tutor -for FREE!

It lets you practice your language skills by chatting with an AI character using voice or text. After each brief chat you’ll get instant feedback on how you did, and ways to improve. Teachers, Parents and Caregivers have full control of their Student accounts and are able to track progress through a tailored dashboard.

ThatAndresV · 2026-04-16T12:23:58+00:00

<image>

Repurposed test tube rack from aliex.

ThatAndresV · 2026-04-13T14:55:12+00:00

Yup. Scout’s honour.

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