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Thinkpad T400 on the International Space Station

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TonyJZX
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Thinkpad T400 on the International Space Station

#1 Post by TonyJZX » Sat Mar 12, 2016 9:03 pm

This cap is from the very recent PBS doco about Scott Kelly.

http://az648995.vo.msecnd.net/devices/2 ... 24x682.jpg

Nice to see that they have upgraded from A31s and whatever.

I guess its a T400, I mean I wouldnt trust a Nvidia powered T61 in space.... I mean I wouldnt trust it down here.

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Re: Thinkpad T400 on the International Space Station

#2 Post by TPFanatic » Sun Mar 13, 2016 12:46 am

The narrow screen bezels and smaller touchpad seem to indicate it's a 15.4" T61.

If it's an intel graphics normal T61 it's easily understandable why it's still alive. Maybe the Nvidia chips perform better in space. Or NASA has a bunch of virgin T61ps waiting to replace the casualties.

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Re: Thinkpad T400 on the International Space Station

#3 Post by bit_twiddler » Sun Mar 13, 2016 2:03 am

posted back in 2014, but probably hasn't changed much:

http://gizmodo.com/how-astronauts-use-l ... 1654962539
Daily Drivers: W520 i7-2760QM | W520 i7-2860QM | T420 FHD IPS i7-2640m | W701
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Re: Thinkpad T400 on the International Space Station

#4 Post by brchan » Sun Mar 13, 2016 8:43 am

That is a 15.4" T61. The 'Thinkpad T-series' palmrest logo gives it away. I think these are the most recent thinkpads on the ISS.
Current Thinkpads: W530 (functional classic keyboard mod), X301, T61, T60, T43, A31p, T23, 600X, 770
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Re: Thinkpad T400 on the International Space Station

#5 Post by Olwe » Fri Apr 08, 2016 11:23 pm

Hey I was just about to post a new thread on this: ISS seems to be solid Thinkpad-land. Anyone know more details? Wikipedia says they're IBM A31 and Lenovo T61p apparently running Linux! (Jaw drops in amazement.) I'm doing a T430, X201, and a few T61 on Ubuntu myself, but to know I'm in such brilliant, high company is amazing!

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Re: Thinkpad T400 on the International Space Station

#6 Post by jaspen-meyer » Sat Apr 09, 2016 3:15 am

T420 i7 3612QM seabios; T420 i7 3630QM; T400 Q9100 seabios; T61 P9600; T60 libreboot; x62; x60s libreboot, led; x24 xiphmont led

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Re: Thinkpad T400 on the International Space Station

#7 Post by rkawakami » Sat Apr 09, 2016 3:17 am

@Olwe: There's several threads here that refer to Thinkpads aboard the International Space Station (ISS). You can find them using the Search tool at the top of the page and specifying at least the term "ISS" (without quotes) in the search box.
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X22 X24 X31 X41 X41T X60 X60s X61 X61s X200 X200s X300 X301 Z60m Z61t Z61p 560 560Z 600 600E 600X T21 T22 T23 T41 T60p T410 T420 T520 W500 W520 R50 A21p A22p A31 A31p
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Re: Thinkpad T400 on the International Space Station

#8 Post by unix_joe » Sat Apr 09, 2016 4:45 pm

As is noted here, the Thinkpads on the ISS are about to be a thing of the past. NASA will be replacing the antiquated T61s with 15" HP Zbooks.

Also saw a post from OMGUbuntu that Ubuntu is the operating system used on the ISS. If you want to have an ISS-inspired workstation these days, get a ZBook and load Ubuntu LTS on it.

So yeah, end of an era and all that.
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Re: Thinkpad T400 on the International Space Station

#9 Post by brchan » Sat Apr 09, 2016 5:11 pm

The ISS switched all their remaining windows machines to linux in the latter half of 2013 for security and reliability over XP. Debian 6 is actually the most commonly run distro, in addition to redhat, scientific, and ubuntu, etc.

With the current state Thinkpads, I don't blame the ISS for switching over to HP. They were probably also turned off by the nvidia gpu defect that likely affected their T61p models. However, I am not sure what modifications or special testing laptops go through when they will be in space.
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Re: Thinkpad T400 on the International Space Station

#10 Post by micrex22 » Mon Apr 11, 2016 8:22 am

brchan wrote:The ISS switched all their remaining windows machines to linux in the latter half of 2013 for security and reliability over XP. Debian 6 is actually the most commonly run distro, in addition to redhat, scientific, and ubuntu, etc.

With the current state Thinkpads, I don't blame the ISS for switching over to HP. They were probably also turned off by the nvidia gpu defect that likely affected their T61p models. However, I am not sure what modifications or special testing laptops go through when they will be in space.
If an nVidia bugged T61 can pass, I'm sure there are not many restrictions. :lol:

A lot of businesses are switching to HP, even within our own client base that traditionally bought ThinkPads: so it's not surprising the ISS is as well (although their primary motive may be to use 'American' OEMs, which is moot since they all come from the same factory in foxconn and use the same ICs). Maybe LENOVO will wake up some day, but the damage is largely done.

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Re: Thinkpad T400 on the International Space Station

#11 Post by rambo47 » Tue May 03, 2016 9:52 am

When ThinkPads were made by IBM, there was a NASA/IBM "US-made" connection. Once a Chinese company bought the ThinkPad division from Big Blue the only way they would keep their role as primary supplier of pc's was to destroy the competition in both quality and price. That didn't happen. And Lenovo's faux pas with the Superfish malware may have been the final nail in their coffin. Even if Superfish was only loaded on a limited number of units, their reputation took a big hit. Folks seriously questioned Lenovo's judgement and ethics.

There are some good laptops out there made by other companies, but I don't know if we'll ever again see anything like the heyday of the IBM ThinkPad. Hey - if we're all so addicted they must have some something right!
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Re: Thinkpad T400 on the International Space Station

#12 Post by micrex22 » Tue May 03, 2016 1:30 pm

rambo47 wrote:When ThinkPads were made by IBM, there was a NASA/IBM "US-made" connection. Once a Chinese company bought the ThinkPad division from Big Blue the only way they would keep their role as primary supplier of pc's was to destroy the competition in both quality and price. That didn't happen. And Lenovo's faux pas with the Superfish malware may have been the final nail in their coffin. Even if Superfish was only loaded on a limited number of units, their reputation took a big hit. Folks seriously questioned Lenovo's judgement and ethics.

There are some good laptops out there made by other companies, but I don't know if we'll ever again see anything like the heyday of the IBM ThinkPad. Hey - if we're all so addicted they must have some something right!
If a ThinkPad doesn't say 'IBM' on it, it lacks the corporate culture that fostered the principles that made it what it was. There's no way LENOVO is going to adopt IBM's mentality so even with a "retro" ThinkPad it's going to be a disaster. The fact that LENOVO is arrogant enough to call the T4x/T6x features 'retro' is proof enough. What's retro is their "new" primitive 6-row keyboard that early ThinkPads sported, NOT the advanced T4x/T6x 7 row keyboard!

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Re: Thinkpad T400 on the International Space Station

#13 Post by Norway Pad » Fri May 20, 2016 2:36 pm

rambo47 wrote:When ThinkPads were made by IBM, there was a NASA/IBM "US-made" connection...
I also suspect that the US-made connection in the IBM days, made the IBM Thinkpad the only logical choice. IBM was such an integral part of US business back in the glory days, that it wasn't just some pc-manufacturer. It was an institution, a supplier of complete systems. I don't know, but you would suspect that IBM mainframes and specialized equipment from IBM also powered NASA's ground infrastructure. Even if the older Thinkpad units probably also had their flaws, it was probably accepted and a part of the game.
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Re: Thinkpad T400 on the International Space Station

#14 Post by FryPpy » Sat Apr 01, 2017 8:01 am

May be OT but....
Have seen SciFi movie Life and the ISS in the near future... ISS becomes bigger. More bigger screens and computers embedded in hull panels... and only one notebook. I think it is Thinkpad but with 6 row keyboard and strange ultranav. I think it is one from 430 or 530 series.

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