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They’re all actually aluminum, anodized to the color you choose. The silver one is the only one not anodized.

Filing off the anodized layer is indeed bound to look awful.


Not to well actually your well actually but they’re all anodized to prevent corrosion and scratches (the oxide layer is harder than the underlying aluminum) - the silver one is just undyed.

And in the pictures you can see a clear color difference between the anodized silver body and the exposed aluminum. It's subtle from a distance, but if you zoom in a bit its pretty obvious

That difference will fade with time.

The pictures were taken months later, so some fading already happened

Well actually, your not well actually to the well actually was actually a well actually of the well actually. Just sayin’.

What tools are needed to redo the anodized color? Is it doable at home?

You have to grind off the existing Al2O3 protective layer using sandpapers/sandblasters and/or power tools, then ultrasound + acetone wash the parts, then dump it into an acid bath while running electrical current through the pieces. Special dyes can be added for color. Then the pieces are boiled in regular water to further improve durability. The combination of the acid and electricity then boiling cause Al to form beehive shaped surface micropores, and dyes - actually inorganic, so pigments - gets electrically jammed into the pores. The whole outer surface become thick insulating layer of highly chemically resistant and mechanically rigid white/transparent Al2O3 once the process is complete. Voltage, current, waveform, temperature, solution acidity, etc etc affect colors and oxide thickness and shapes and sizes therefore aesthetics as well as durability. "Anodization" refers to this process of electro-acidic-heat formation of the oxide layer, not the coloring. The coloring powder is an extra.

Technically it can be done in a garage, but spot and/or intact application might be difficult. Strict color matching against Apple made things would be impossible.


To echo the sibling comment: approximately not, it's a strong acid bath which precludes operating electronics in it, and it's electrochemistry.

People do home anodizing all the time, but colored home anodizing on electronics is very rare.

The way to do it would be wrapping it in, say, a wet paper towel with your strong acid solution (but not sulfuric, because that would turn the paper into pure carbon foam) and running outside current from the laptop through the paper to a cathode, or vice versa.


Wouldn't you want to completely disassemble the laptop first anyway, at which point the electronics would be disconnected from the metal parts anyway?

You really can't fully disassemble current macbooks and put them back together without major tooling - the chassis is not just a wrapper, it's structural to the way they're interconnected, lots of glue and things like that.

Sounds almost like a turtle's exoskeleton

How comfortable are you working with chromic acid and boric-sulfuric acid in your home?

As long as it's not hydrofluoric acid...

I bought a light HF acid (rust remover) so I can properly clean titanium parts before anodizing. Worked like a charm...

just don't let any of it get on your skin. only takes a splash to land you in intensive care.

Yes it’s doable at home, even with fairly primitive tools. You need several chemicals and (if you wish) colored dye.

Anodizing works as follows:

1. Take the MacBook apart

2. Clean it

3. Chemical bath to remove old anodized layer

4. Clean it again

5. Chemical bath with power supply attached. applied voltage+current and duration will determine hardness and thickness of the anodized layer.

6. Clean it

7. Dye it.

8. Seal the dye in a hot water bath.

It’s fairly straight forward to do.


This made me smile because in my book this is at every effect impossible, especially if the goal is getting a functioning laptop at the end of the process. To be clear, it's impossible for me because I lack the knowledge, expertise and tooling to even think about doing it.

Nonsense, it just makes it more effort for you - nothing is impossible.

Also, the way you acquire the knowledge, expertise and tooling is by screwing around with stuff where you have no idea what you’re doing.


Well, it's impossible to me given my natural born level of habilites with this kind of work, and the time I would need to invest to learn how to do it properly. Because it's not just a matter of buying some device and do it, you need to learn by trial and error, add more and more physical tools to your toolbox, have the dedicated space where to store and try all of it safely etc etc

Depending on the field you want to gain knowledge it can mean: “famous last words” or “missing body parts”. Nothing against the spirit of learning and challenge one’s skills. But especially people on YouTube show of quite dangerous things and sell them as everybody can do it. My list here: Metal / Wood work on a lathe with off center or unbalanced pieces in a 3 jaw chuck.

Playing around with lithium batteries to build bigger battery packs (DYI Perks did this and even though he mentions the dangers of doing that (fire or electric shock) it’s still inspires people to do the same in their living rooms.

Then is playing with chemicals.

Again I’m not saying don’t do it. But one should ease into things not just grab a random set of chemicals and disassemble a laptop and hook up a power supply etc by just following a list from the internet.


13 year old me who anodised remote control car chassis completely agrees the process is quite simple.

In the context of a MacBook, it’s not. Removing just the aluminium components and leaving everything that doesn’t like baths undamaged is practically impossible for amateurs. I’m not sure it’s something many professionals would take on.


I think it could be possible for the bottom half. The lid would be way, way trickier (unless you have one with a broken screen already and know how to put the new one together).

I’m wondering what custom colours you could do with that process btw!


Practically anything! Vibrant colours work best, and there are techniques to do transitions, fades, and masking to get multiple colours, though I’ve never done those myself.

Not strictly DIY because a professional anodizing workshop did the actual anodizing, but cool results nevertheless:

https://lowendmac.com/2024/ryan-andersons-colorized-anodized...


> 1. Take the MacBook apart

Otherwise known as "remove everything from the chassis, leaving only the chassis."

But do so in a way that lets you fully re-assemble it later on, after you've finished the re-anodising.

> 7. Dye it.

Why the dye? I thought anodising's colour comes only from the voltage used, with no dye needed.

ie you can pick the colour you want, but you need to get the voltage correct for that colour


> Why the dye? I thought anodising's colour comes only from the voltage used, with no dye needed.

That's true for anodization processes for some other metals like titanium and stainless steel, but aluminum is dyed. Also the process is material specific. Anodization for Al is only possible because Al does that unique self organizing micropore thing.


Yep, you're right. I was thinking of titanium. :)

If anyone's interested in details of Aluminium anodising, this seems like a decently thorough introduction: https://nzic.org.nz/unsecure_files/book/8E.pdf


No, that's steel, and not with voltage, but with temperature: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_coloring_of_metals. For aluminium, you add dye to third bath.

Reversing step 1 will be the real tricky part.

Just get some clear nailpolish and apply it with the included brush. Not as good but dead easy.

“Should” meaning “I believe it currently does expire after a short time”?

Or “should” meaning “Apple should change this to expire after a short time”?


It doesn’t expire, you can even move the file and you can update the bookmark to follow the move.

There are legitimate reasons to give an app persistent access to a file or directory. Maybe you want it to write to a particular directory in your iCloud storage or whatever so it syncs without having to select the directory every time. A note taking app for example.


What does this have with the use of AI? You can use the services of data centers thousands of miles away.

That's why we ship our "recycling" to the third world. Enjoy the upsides while exporting the downsides to someone else.

My comment is a statement on hypocrisy, and how if people had to bear the full cost of their decisions, they would decide differently.

Maine is codifying this hypocrisy for shallow minded political points.


There were people who bet against… if there’s no one on the other side to take the opposite bet, you don’t have a bet. And you won’t get a payout.

I think the question was: Who gets the payout? The bet is: There will be a ceasefire. There was a ceasefire, but it was allegedly broken almost immediately after. So does that count as ceasefire or not? There are arguments for both sides, so you could also say it's a tie and neither party gets the cut and the bets will be refunded.

You can just read the rules for that particular prediction on Polymarket yourself. In this case according to the rules it just comes down to whether or not there is an official ceasefire by a particular time. It does not say anything about what happens if the ceasefire is broken after that time so in that case it doesn't actually matter that it was broken.

Usually the market have rules that define the bet more concretely than just "there will be a ceasefire", and resolutions can be disputed where they will be arbitrated by the market operator. For this particular market you can see that here (https://polymarket.com/event/us-x-iran-ceasefire-by), but I'll paste the current text too:

    This market will resolve to “Yes” if there is an official ceasefire agreement, defined as a publicly announced and mutually agreed halt in direct military engagement, between the United States and Iran by the listed date, 11:59 PM ET.

    For the purposes of this market, an “official ceasefire agreement” requires clear public confirmation from both the United States government and the government of Iran that they have agreed to halt military hostilities against one another, or for an official ceasefire agreement to be otherwise confirmed to have been reached by an overwhelming consensus of media reporting.

    If the agreement is officially reached before the resolution date, this market will resolve to “Yes,” regardless of whether the ceasefire officially takes effect after the resolution date.

    Any form of informal understanding, backchannel communication, de-escalation without an announced agreement, or unilateral pause in hostilities will not be considered an official ceasefire. Humanitarian pauses, limited operational pauses, or temporary tactical stand-downs will not count toward the resolution of this market.

    A broader peace deal, normalization agreement, or political framework will qualify only if it includes a publicly announced and mutually agreed halt in military engagement between the United States and Iran, effective on a specified date, or otherwise confirmed by an overwhelming consensus of credible reporting. Agreements that outline future negotiations or de-escalation measures without an explicit, dated commitment to stop fighting will not qualify.

    This market’s resolution will be based on official statements from the United States government and the government of Iran. However, an overwhelming consensus of credible media reporting confirming that an official ceasefire agreement has been reached will suffice.
So the real answer is, "whoever the market operator chooses".

This seems to involve there being an agreement in place, but not necessarily in effect or even followed, so the possibility of it having already been violated seems to be irrelevant

They put a lot more thought into the terms than the Trump administration did, that's for sure.

Still: does the combination of a deranged Truth Social posting, an obviously-pasted tweet from the Pakistani government, and a 10-point list of debatable provenance count as "clear public confirmation?"

I guess so, sort of, maybe? Fortunately I don't have a 7-figure wager at stake.


and there are always fool in market.

In most failure cases, it becomes a glider. I think if it was gonna fall apart around the pilot, it would be obvious long before they got it in the air.

Not to mention, in the event of required increase in personnel, why "pay to entice" when you can "legally compel" without needing to pay more to the plebs?

legally compel for medical positions is a highly dicey effort.

a doctor or nurse who doesn't want to be there will half ass it and people will die.

if you want a functional, quality organization that could expand you pay for decent talent now, knowing that it may get watered down later


I'd imagine there would be different morale implications between these two situations

What about a reflex camera with a CCD? It’s mechanical in that it moves the mirror out of the way to expose the digital censor. I’d call that a digital camera because the output is digital.

ETA: AAMOF, we called them Digital Cameras when they first arrived.


The sensor is not mechanical. That's why it is digital

What’s at the focal point? Film? Analog camera. CCD? Digital camera.

My understanding is that this is making a trade off of using more space to get shorter access times. Do I have that right?

OT: Tail Slayer. Not Tails Layer. My brain took longer to parse that than I’d have wanted.


Yeah, it improves mean (but not median) access time by using more memory.

Did they actually show the tools used to remove bubbles?

That got cropped out of all photos in the interest of taste and decency.

A pic of a post-apocalyptic cement vibrator (perhaps not the dildo kind) would definitely have fit the aesthetic

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