Sprucing up the T series

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Stunt101 · #1 Post by **Stunt101** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 5:40 pm

Hey guys,

After countless threads on this forum and much deliberation, I finally decided to buy a fully-loaded t42p (15" screen, dvd burner, 1 gig ram, 128 mb graphics, 9 cell battery, etc). However, the one thing I don't like about the computer is that it looks just like every IBM laptop that's been made since dinosaurs walked the earth. Are there any "mods" that can be performed to make it look any better? It's just a shame that Apple has the nicest product designs.

Greg Gebhardt · #2 Post by **Greg Gebhardt** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 5:45 pm

I have heard rumors of cases with different exterior colors but I doubt we will see soon. IBM is a rather conservative company and have been making the "black" ThinkPad for a long time.

It's what is inside that counts.

Stunt101 · #3 Post by **Stunt101** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 5:48 pm

Are there any third party products?

Greg Gebhardt · #4 Post by **Greg Gebhardt** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 5:51 pm

Not that I have seen, but if they are out there, people here will tell you. When you are done, please post an image for us.

Nabeel · #5 Post by **Nabeel** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 8:42 pm

I'm sure you could paint it, they give pretty good guides in taking everything apart, so I'm sur eyou could spraypaint the entire thing.

Leon · #6 Post by **Leon** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 8:51 pm

http://www.polygfx.com/

what does everybody think?

#7 Post by **K. Eng** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 10:55 pm

It is true that IBM has not changed the style of the ThinkPad since it's introduction more than 10 years ago. The ThinkPad has very distinctive, businesslike looks and I don't think a serious company like IBM is likely to change it anytime soon.

I contend however that IBM and Apple actually have similar styling philosophy. Both the ThinkPad and iBook/Powerbook have simple, clean outlines (none of the curvy bulging plastic of Dell, HP/Compaq home stuff, or Alienware and others).

Stunt101 wrote:However, the one thing I don't like about the computer is that it looks just like every IBM laptop that's been made since dinosaurs walked the earth. Are there any "mods" that can be performed to make it look any better? It's just a shame that Apple has the nicest product designs.

edelrc · #8 Post by **edelrc** » Sun Jul 04, 2004 11:36 pm

I read on eWeek or so magazine like that that IBM will come this fall with laptops in colors... because they want to reach the female market as well.
No wonder, that is 50% of the market missing... isn't it?

Good for them, but they should keep the black as their flagship!

esquire · #9 Post by **esquire** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:18 am

live on the edge..... put a sticker on it.

I have an old apple logo (rainbow) on the front cover of mine...people always ask what kind of mac it is.

lilserenity · #10 Post by **lilserenity** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:43 am

'ang on...

(still not quite good enough at 'American' for me trip tomorruh/wenzdee

Women don't buy ThinkPads cos they are black and they look...

*scratches head*

That will be why I have three of them then, won't it, cos like women don't buy ThinkPads cos they are black.

I'm a bit dumbfounded by this really, and I really don't think it is anything to do with the colour. (Besides, is it me, or is just about everything and his dog silver?)

My take on it is thus:

1. I'm not sure how many male geeks (if you excuse my wording, geek in my world does not mean you go around sniggering like Beavis and Butthead, if you do, fair play, I don't for the record

) there are to female geeks, but it wouldn't be a difficult guess to say that there are probably many times as male geeks as there are female geeks.

After all, In all twenty-one years of female life (I am 21 too..

.. hehe), I have yet to truly meet another well, geek girl (You know I dislike the word geek when applied to me, anybody would think I snigger like Beavis and Butthead) erm like me. That meaning, I have met plenty of women who can use your office apps, even Access (blimey, don't rock the boat) in terms of using a pre-made database (ie: not writing their own). But that's as far as it goes from my experience. Sad innit.

Perhaps it's the fact that being a C programmer, PHP programmer, Access database administrator, designer and all the rest of it, running a web server and knowing my byte to a word - and the rest of it - I tend to be an advanced user, thus my demands are higher and my knowledge of the market tends to be much broader too. And with that is actual knowledge of what are good components (not just specs) and what are good manufacturers, having an intimate relationship with the inner sanctum of the computing market - I am able to obtain products that your average Alan Patridge would not be able to get a Currys (that said, he would be after some surround sound speakers for his Alba mini hifi system, not a laptop... Don't worry, I'm not mad

).

So where is all this going? Well basically when your average tom dick and harriet walks into the store, what do they see, HP/Compaq, Acer, Toshiba, Fujitsu and all the rest of it, bar IBM - pretty much. And who generally shops at Currys or Comet (maybe Dixons, yes I have absoluetely no idea what you have in the USA, except erm, err, umm, Burgers.), thats right, people without a sodding clue, people who read a review in a magazine that said "it will do for what the average user does" and people who do have a bit of a clue, but the dimmer switch is still not really turned right up to full brightness. out they trundle with their Dell Intrepidon BurnYerNutserTron-800. That is of course if you are male. The women might walk out with the Dell Infamoustron BikiniLineSmolderer-600. They'rehappy, they got a good deal from the spotty oik down at Currys, who knows about comission, the brand and the colour of the laptop, and that you absolutely need their extended 10 year warranty, a printer, a scanner, an upgrade to 2gb ram because word needs it.., and a pack of 500 pieces of premium quality paper. Right. Not forgetting a printer cable at £15.95...

You get the point, the average user does not know that perhaps the Dell whatever it is has a liking for burning bodily parts, or that the Toshiba el-Cheapo model CD-ROM drive tray is actually the diving board for the 2004 Olympics (might as well be on some models, booooy-yoing). They do not know that perhaps IBM even makes a laptop cos they have never even seen one in the shops.

Therefore with a greater amount of less adept female users (women shouldn't use computers, it will damage their fertility and make their babies deranged, well that's what they said about us working in the 1920-30s- ps: for the record, I'm not a raving feminist, I'm just a blonde trapped in a blondeish girl's head... no hang on..) when it comes to your Peeks and Pokes, and your stdio.h files; it doesn't take much to realise just why their aren't as many females who own ThinkPads - because many a geek knows that IBM makes a very solid laptop and it will take a pounding, it won't self destruct if you make an illegal memory access, it won't burn your genitals if you place it on your lap for an hour or so. Therefore being less women geeks around, less women know about this IBUM Thunkpid or whatever it was that computer geek said behind the counter, and thus, hey presto - more women miss out on the ThinkPad.

Black indeed.

Second reason.

(haha not done yet). The biggest share of ThinkPad users are in business', company laptops and the rest of it, this is where IBM makes its money on the whole. Big corporations (the whores

and the rest of it, give out these ThinkPads like they are a little gift "here's your company toy on behalf of the company director Mr. Big Fat Al". And without trying to stir up a hive of bees in a honey pot with a hedge strimmer here, less women work in these places overall. (After all working in skyscrapers will make your periods more painful and make your children delinquent - ok so they didn't say that, but I am being painfully sarcastic). Thus with less women in these places, less women know about the ThinkPad, and again, our esteemed hairy legged friends (unless you like waxing your legs fellas) are in closer touch with the ThinkPad and its possible virtues, and therefore might be encouraged to purchase such a ThinkPad because "the one I have for work is superb".

And this is probably why IBM misses out on many women in their race for customers, and why women, are more likely to be seen with a Dell in A&E after a painful accident down below when word processing, than they are like me throwing my ThinkPad out the window in a fit of rage. Which is, in fact, not likely, at all.

I suppose you could say "things aren't as Black and white as you may think..."

Ok now I do deserve a slap for that, that was awful. Basically if IBM want to increase their amount of ThinkPad users with a strong contingent being women, increase the availability in the shops (and not the G-string series, might as well sell a boulder with IBM painted on it, with a G string on...), two - it has to become OK for a girl to be very good with computers and I mean totally batter most geeks, but IBM can't really do that. Failing this, I suggest they offer a male-to-female sex-change programme for large corporations to increase their level of female ThinkPad users...

Blimey, I fogot my meds this weekend :p

Vicky
So who's this Partridge chap...

lilserenity · #11 Post by **lilserenity** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:53 am

Oh and if you do spray paint it, it does work well, i suggest some clear laquer spray to make it nice and hard so it doesn't flake off. It does work well though as my 560X Solid State is now metalic green instead of black.

However I would be somewhat scared to go and do this straight on a T42, brand new. I'd say if you are dead sure about this, get an old, even broken ThinkPad, take it apart (completely) as per it's HMM and see how you get on spraying that one.

If you make a dog's dinner of it - leave the T42 alone and get a sticker or something. Or perhaps you could pop it in the washing machine with some Dylon in the colour of your choice... hmmm

Vicky

texref · #12 Post by **texref** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 9:10 am

lilserenity wrote: That will be why I have three of them then, won't it, cos like women don't buy ThinkPads cos they are black.

My take on it is thus:

OMG that was hilarious.

#13 Post by **JaneL** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 9:20 am

>After all, In all twenty-one years of female life (I am 21 too.. :D.. hehe), I have yet to truly meet another well, geek girl (You know I dislike the word geek when applied to me, anybody would think I snigger like Beavis and Butthead) erm like me. That meaning, I have met plenty of women who can use your office apps, even Access (blimey, don't rock the boat) in terms of using a pre-made database (ie: not writing their own). But that's as far as it goes from my experience. Sad innit.
>

You have a very limited experience.

Leon · #14 Post by **Leon** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 10:15 am

the company I posted above, http://www.polygfx.com/ claims the stickers are "removable.. anyone know?

Stunt101 · #15 Post by **Stunt101** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 10:53 am

K. Eng wrote:
I contend however that IBM and Apple actually have similar styling philosophy. Both the ThinkPad and iBook/Powerbook have simple, clean outlines.

[/quote]

I was referring to the overall aesthetic appeal of the laptops. The T42 is, well, a black brick. The powerbook, on the other hand, is made of attractive metal, and the light up keyboard and apple on the back is nice enough that 50 cent would proclaim "p.i.m.p!". I know the attractiveness of a case is a silly argument for purchasing an inferior computer (so I stuck with the t42), but I'm merely stating that if product design at IBM is so adroit that they made the x40 at 2.7 lbs, they should be able to whip out some professional AND attractive laptops. I contend that apple does both wonderfully, while IBM only does professional and Alienware only embodies the attractive aspect.

cheers,

zach

edelrc · #16 Post by **edelrc** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 11:18 am

While PowerBooks are, by far, the original and best of the trend, I don't like their design at all. In fact, all notebook manufactures had imitated so bad and so much the Mac's trend that now we have a market of supersized pieces of chunk on silver and flashy colors notebooks.

But IBM has messed up too. The A30s first loosed the sleek of the A20s, and A30s’ replacementz\s (G and R) just finished tearing down the whole IBM workhorse product line.
Now the Ts and X are the only ThinkPads that still keeps what we all here wanted from an IBM notebook. Lets hope they don’t mess around these too.

lilserenity · #17 Post by **lilserenity** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 1:25 pm

nonny wrote:>After all, In all twenty-one years of female life (I am 21 too.. .. hehe), I have yet to truly meet another well, geek girl (You know I dislike the word geek when applied to me, anybody would think I snigger like Beavis and Butthead) erm like me. That meaning, I have met plenty of women who can use your office apps, even Access (blimey, don't rock the boat) in terms of using a pre-made database (ie: not writing their own). But that's as far as it goes from my experience. Sad innit.
>

You have a very limited experience.

Indeed, and no one leaves the world with a complete experience of life, we don't even leave with a tiny piece of experience, but with enough that has got us through our lives.

There are for sure many many women in the industry way up their with the very best, and sure the balance may well be changing - but with every establishment, company etc. I have done work for - the majority of technical support (i.e.: the ones with computer knowledge considered somewhat high specialised and in depth) were mostly men. I#m not saying there is anything wrong in this, I'm just saying from this experience there are less women 'geeks' then their are male 'geeks'. However I am sure this will change as time goes on.

That and I get fedup for not being taken seriously when I walk into any computer shop for example, or the scepticism that quite possibly I know what I'm on about when addressing such salespeople or indeed various departments in business' that I have worked with on various projects.

Just as well I'm not headed for a job in the IT industry then. It helps up my income a little, but I have to admit, I work better with people than I do with a computer.

Vicky

WilsonF · #18 Post by **WilsonF** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 1:45 pm

In April, I saw a page from the IBM Japan web site showing thinkpads in colors in addition to black.

I saved the page as a PDF (I don't read Japanese). It was created in 1999!

I don't have a convenient place to post this 384KB file, but if anyone wants a copy, post here and I'll email it.

edelrc · #19 Post by **edelrc** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 2:40 pm

Probably those japanese color ones were just a prototype or with a limited launch. If they are from 1999, I am sure the ones they try to launch on fall/winter will be quite different.
However, please, send the pdf file to me to edelrc @ yahoo com, as a marketing guy will live to study those!

#20 Post by **K. Eng** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 2:52 pm

:cough:

Alienware attractive? Alienware looks like a toy, and those alien logos look silly. I really dislike Alienware. It's overpriced and tacky looking.

Alienware only embodies the attractive aspect.

lilserenity · #21 Post by **lilserenity** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 2:52 pm

Could you send me a copy to the email address in the signature below?

Thanks

V x

#22 Post by **JaneL** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 4:43 pm

There are for sure many many women in the industry way up their with the very best, and sure the balance may well be changing - but with every establishment, company etc. I have done work for - the majority of technical support (i.e.: the ones with computer knowledge considered somewhat high specialised and in depth) were mostly men. I#m not saying there is anything wrong in this, I'm just saying from this experience there are less women 'geeks' then their are male 'geeks'. However I am sure this will change as time goes on.
>

I've worked in IT in the US for over 30 years. When I started, I was the only woman in a group of eight new employees. Over the years, the balance has shifted around me, and I see as many women as men that I would consider technically proficient. Note that I'm not talking about end users who may have a modicum of technical know-how; I'm talking about the people who write, maintain and support the applications and systems that run the Fortune 500 companies in the US.

Perhaps things are different in the UK, or perhaps, as I said earlier, your experience is very limited.

dcdomain · #23 Post by **dcdomain** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 5:09 pm

Reminds me of Henry Ford and the Model T. You can paint it any color as long as its black. Anyway, there are reports out as many have already pointed out, that the fall line will be available in various colors. Now if they could only release a wide screen notebook for us graphics types.

#24 Post by **JaneL** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 5:49 pm

>Anyway, there are reports out as many have already pointed out, that the fall line will be available in various colors.
>

Iwas told flatly that that was just a rumor and that there was no truth to it, however it wouldn't be the first time the internet had better info than IBM's sales force.

lilserenity · #25 Post by **lilserenity** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 6:51 pm

Hiya,

nonny wrote: I'm talking about the people who write, maintain and support the applications and systems that run the Fortune 500 companies in the US.

I'm lucky if my clients have a spare Fortune Cookie to pass on to me.. Anyway I hope that wasn't a pop at my slightly less well known clients enlisting me, not much point being catty over things, after all this is no argument, just a discussion.

nonny wrote: Perhaps things are different in the UK, or perhaps, as I said earlier, your experience is very limited.

I'm sure my experience is very limited - but you know what you say, we all start on the bottom rung of the ladder and we can only but strive to better ourselves and get further up the ladder, and with that comes experience. I have had to start somewher, just like everybody.

I just find it hard to buy the idea that the reason many women are turned away by the ThinkPad is because it's black (and therefore looks business alike). That seems a bit silly.

But then I am not part of the clan that sees the computer/laptop as a fashion accessory or household appliance.

Vicky

#26 Post by **JaneL** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:22 pm

>I just find it hard to buy the idea that the reason many women are turned away by the ThinkPad is because it's black (and therefore looks business alike). That seems a bit silly.
>

Well, that's something we can agree on. Whoever came up with the thought that women don't like black doesn't understand the concept of the little black dress that can go anywhere.

edelrc · #27 Post by **edelrc** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:38 pm

I was trying to identify the magazine (I read like 6-7 business/computer magazines per week) where I read about the colors but could no find it.
However, I did find corroboration on the web:
http://www.theregister.com/2004/04/20/i ... thinkpads/
http://www.digitimes.com/NewsShow/Artic ... =A7&seq=47

#28 Post by **JaneL** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 7:44 pm

Oh, yes, there are rumors all over the place about different colors coming out. I was just repeating what IBM told me. I wouldn't be surprised if the sales force was wrong about it not happening, but I would also be surprised if IBM went in that direction for their corporate sales since those sales are only concerned about price, support and functionality. It almost makes you wonder if they're going to try their hand in the consumer market again and that's where the rumor is coming from.

edelrc · #29 Post by **edelrc** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 8:12 pm

Digitimes I don't know much about, but the magazines I read I don't think they pull articles from rumours.
Also, The Register, it is a well know source for IT news (sort of a European CNET)
Then, think that the vast majoryty of sales and support agents are from contractor companies. I know that well because I was once one of them!

Oh, here is what WilsonF was talking about those colour thinkpads in Japan:
http://sitemaker.umich.edu/edelrc/files/46l3721.pdf
Thanks, Wilson!!

Guest · #30 Post by **Guest** » Mon Jul 05, 2004 11:18 pm

nonny wrote:Oh, yes, there are rumors all over the place about different colors coming out. I was just repeating what IBM told me. I wouldn't be surprised if the sales force was wrong about it not happening, but I would also be surprised if IBM went in that direction for their corporate sales since those sales are only concerned about price, support and functionality. It almost makes you wonder if they're going to try their hand in the consumer market again and that's where the rumor is coming from.

No idea really but I saw one commercial for the Thinkpad and here there are two others out. Not used to seeing commercials for IBM in my 18 years of living. Maybe they are trying to get in the consumer market a little?? As everyone says.. just my two cents

Sprucing up the T series

Sprucing up the T series

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Sorry for being long, but I tried to make it humorous...

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Thinkpad That Aren't Black

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