muralog/_input/posts/2020-01-18-portable-computers_screw-solutions.markdown

---
title: "portable computers: screw solutions"
started: 2020-01-17
published: 2020-01-18
---

this is the first time over a month has gone by since submitting
an earlier blog entry. i have written and accumulated several new but very
incomplete posts since the last i submitted. but this all has
nothing to with this mischievously misleadingly titled blog entry i am
writing and you are reading.

## part zero / portable computers

by portable computer i basically am referring to notebook computers,
laptops, netbooks, those kinds of portable computers. not as portable
as other computers like mobile phones, tablets, or the timeless
[tamagotchi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamagotchi "kids' best friend")
of the 1990s, but designed to be used as one would their desktop
computer but on-the-go and without needing to lug around a screen or a
mouse or a keyboard or anything because it's built into the device and
as with a desktop computer, you can plug in external hardware as
needed.

> you could have just said, say, ***laptops*** and there'd have been
> no need to explain anything

shut up, other me. sit in a corner somewhere and drink a beer

> i don't have any beer

so go shopping

> no u

no u

-------

**[omitted]**

-------

sorry about that. the smeghead's an absolute nutter. let's move on.

## part one / parts of speech

### in the beginning～

～i gave this blog entry a title with two main parts. and the second
part of the title was made deliberately ambiguous in a vain attempt to
be intriguing, hopefully make the reader curious. 

> hah. you just admitted you were vain

no i didn't. i said i did something that was vain. these two things
do not equate each other. stop being thick.

> stop being so mean so mean to yourself, dude.
> i have feelings, too, you know

[*sigh*] i know. i'm sorry. forgive me?

> [silence]

\*じ～～～～～～～～～～\*

> ok! fine! you are forgiven just stop staring at me like that. it's
> creeping me out.

-------

a subtitle of "screw solutions" can mean several things, and the word
that changes everything is that first one. setting aside
interpretations that don't fit the context here, whether or not
*screw* is being used as a noun or as a common sfw expletive-alternative. 

i'm talking about the noun. the tool, as in the bolt or the nail
modified with an inclined plane wrapped helically around
aforementioned tool's axis and with groovy heads (that is to say,
there's generally grooves on the head designed to fit a certain type
of screwdriver).

> **OK YOU KNOW WHAT. I'M STEPPING IN.**

wait, what? why? this is *my* blog post.

> no. no; it's really not. it's a horrifying lovecraftian supernatural
> monster that's going to consume the psyches of everyone who reads
> this if i don't stop you soon. so zip. 

------

> this has gone on to far too long. and what have we said? not much of
> anything. here's something: my thinkpad, `pure illusion`, had room
> for another hard drive and so i decided to make use of that. this
> was shortly after it arrived. i didn't need to look at a manual or
> make any online searches for how to do this. i used my best
> judgement for where i thought the space for it would be, unscrewed
> one screw, allowing me to expose a part of inside `pure illusion`,
> gently pushed the drive in nice and snug, and screwed the cover back
> on. the whole process took less time than finding the screwdriver,
> probably.

## here comes the kicker

the hard drive was taken out of an old dell laptop whose life was
already over. i actually removed the hard drive before i got `pure
illusion` because i was going hard drive hunting and i was curious how
hard taking apart and putting back together the necessary parts of the
notebook to get to the drive would be. that process took a very, very long time
in comparison, and i never bothered trying to put any of the pieces
back. i think i ended up just removing whatever i parts i could in the
end that seemed like they might be useful at some point in time. i
don't put a lot of trust in my memory though regarding what happened
when because [**spoiler alert**] the majority of what you remember
probably didn't happen the way you remember it happening. eye-witness
testimony is both the number one most relied on type of evidence that
gets convictions in court, and one of the least reliable type of
evidence that can even count as evidence in court. 

the laptop i dismembered had a ***lot*** of screws i had to remove.
i cannot recall at which point i could remove the hard drive. but
here's a lovely photograph of the pieces. note the plastic baggie. in
it are at least 30 screws i had to unscrew and there's a couple of
pieces with screws attached to them after unscrewing them from when i
was planning on putting it back together still. and i easily may have
lost several screws while in the process.

![](/images/screwyscrews.jpg "sorry i'm not a photographer but this is my penance for being so late getting a post out there")

do you know how many screws it would take to replace `pure illusion`'s keyboard? two.
i've also replaced a key on the keyboard. on most (especially modern)
laptops this is a daunting task, and in most cases not worth the
effort. on `pure illusion` it was nothing short of simple.

# before you go

## here's some anime i recommend

**(chosen pseudo-randomly and in no deliberate order):**

- cowboy bebop (likely will focused on in a later post)
- kono subarashii sekai ni shukufuku wo
- flying witch (likely will focused on in a later post)

ではじゃあまたね～

`stay tasty in 2020 o/`