Apple's M1 Mac mini can be made portable or smaller with some tinkering

I think the tinkering days are over, as a requirement to use computers… or the non-tinkering market has grown, to make tinkers insignificant.

geekmee said:

I think the tinkering days are over, as a requirement to use computers… or the non-tinkering market has grown, to make tinkers insignificant.

When were tinkerers last significant?  The days when computer companies operated out of garages have been gone for decades.  That doesn't mean it isn't a fun hobby, or entertaining to show what a 3D printer plus a bit of talent and determination can result in.

What are you talking about ?
PC users have been tinkering for decades. With AMD's 4000 and 5000 mobile processors (U series) you can build yourself a small desktop with the right motherboard and case. Later this year AMD will introduce the 6000 mobile processors which will be even more powerful and even more energy efficient then the 5000 series. There are a lot of inexpensive AMD compatible tiny motherboards being introduced. Even HP sells a line of tiny desktop computers. Though these are more expensive than what people can build at home.  

crowley said:

geekmee said:

I think the tinkering days are over, as a requirement to use computers… or the non-tinkering market has grown, to make tinkers insignificant.

When were tinkerers last significant?  The days when computer companies operated out of garages have been gone for decades.  That doesn't mean it isn't a fun hobby, or entertaining to show what a 3D printer plus a bit of talent and determination can result in.

Amazing how time flies. When I got out of college and worked as a post graduate student intern at an Air Force base, I got all the computer grunt jobs because I had an engineering degree and some programming background. We ordered some PCs for the office and they came in… in pieces. You had to install the extra memory chips (individual chips) above the base ram, the hard drive, the drive cables, and the operating system and software. 

We had the option to let the computer division assemble everything but they were backed up for a few months. So, being the low man on the totem pole, it was my job. After a few jobs like that, I became the branch tech guy and because of that, when I got a new permanent job at a company and they decided to add computers and then a network, I ended up being the network administrator and tech guy. I didn’t want to be a network administrator because you see a disproportionate amount of the bad side in people. The visits to porn sites in company time, inappropriate jokes again on company time, using company resources for private gain, being plain stupid and lazy, etc. And that was before the current polarized state of things. I trained a tech savvy secretary to be my replacement and she was happy for the promotion. I went back to engineering and then quit to, of all things, start a shareware company. 

That worked out quite well for about a decade but I could see that changing technology was going to obsolete my programs so I went back to work in my old industry but at a remote office. Networks improved by then and our office network was mostly run my the main office but, you guessed it, because of my background, I was the backup administrator and did some daily tinkering that was best done in person. It wasn’t bad though as by that time most people were more tech savvy. 

I’ve been retired for over eight years now but it sure was an interesting ride. I’m glad to see people still tinkering. I’m glad it is at a higher level than sticking memory chips into a board. 

crowley said:

geekmee said:

I think the tinkering days are over, as a requirement to use computers… or the non-tinkering market has grown, to make tinkers insignificant.

When were tinkerers last significant?  The days when computer companies operated out of garages have been gone for decades.  That doesn't mean it isn't a fun hobby, or entertaining to show what a 3D printer plus a bit of talent and determination can result in.

I'd think one could argue that tinkerers are quite significant, in that they can potentially keep manufacturers a little more honest. It appears this tinkerer has exposed Apple not miniaturizing the Mini at the pace they could)