Subject: Re: APM and laptops
To: None <tls@rek.tjls.com>
From: Steven M. Bellovin <smb@research.att.com>
List: port-i386
Date: 10/08/2003 11:00:26
In message <20031008140711.GA21299@rek.tjls.com>, Thor Lancelot Simon writes:
>On Wed, Oct 08, 2003 at 05:00:35PM +0300, Jukka Marin wrote:
>> On Wed, Oct 08, 2003 at 09:45:29AM -0400, Thor Lancelot Simon wrote:
>> > This is often a very bad idea -- many laptops have exhaust blower fans,
>> > and exhaust vents, on the sides, but draw _fresh_ air for cooling through
>> > the keyboard (or the reverse).  If you leave them running with the lid
>> > shut, well, the potential consequences are obvious...
>> 
>> Can you name such a laptop?  Sounds like a bad design idea to me - keyboard
>> is where all dirt falls and you're saying these machines _suck_ the dirt
>> inside them?  Yikes :)  Blowing hot air to user's fingers doesn't sound too
>> good, either..  My laptops do not breathe through the keyboard, at least.. :
>)
>
>The modern Powerbooks all do.  I'm pretty sure some IBM laptops do, as
>well.
>
>There are quite a few bends in the keyboard assembly to serve as baffles; I
>would think they serve to trap dirt pretty well.
>
That sounds really strange, especially since (at least on the T21 and I 
think on the 600 series) there's a BIOS option to run that way.

		--Steve Bellovin, http://www.research.att.com/~smb