| Friday, November 22, 2002 |
22:54 - Today's Hottest Laptops
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/28245.html
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Boy, The Reg is on quite a tear lately.
And now for proof that some laptops run hotter than a badger. A 50-year old scientist, previously healthy, burned his penis after placing his laptop on his, err lap, for an hour. Oh, he was fully dressed in trousers and underpants, according to this letter printed in the Lancet, the UK's best-known medical journal. (reg req'd, free.)
The following is not for the squeamish:
... which you can go and read if you so choose.
Apparently, in the Windows world, it's common practice for laptops ('scuse me, portable computers) to carry warning labels like the following:
Do not allow your portable computer to operate with the base resting directly on exposed skin. With extended operation, heat can potentially build up in the base. Allowing sustained contact with the skin could cause discomfort or, eventually, a burn.
Which, as the article notes, occurs even through pants and underwear. Charming.
The laptop in question? Why, according to Google and an astute reader of the article, that would be a Dell Latitude of some description.
This mystifies me. Here in my benighted world of iBooks and PowerBook G4s, I'm used to sitting here on the couch downstairs, watching Star Trek, blogging with my computer sitting quite comfortably on my lap. It's pleasingly warm, but under no stretch would I consider it "too hot". The possibility of being burned doesn't enter the equation.
...But the Latitude's processor is faster. That trumps all other benefits, including the ability to refer to these things (without risking legal action) as "laptops".
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