Tag Archives: hardware

The History of ThinkPad: From IBM’s Bento Box to Lenovo’s Portable Workstations

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A hand reaching across the keyboard of a ThinkPad X220, with the index finger near the T and 5 keys and the red TrackPoint pointing-stick nub visible just below between the G, H, and B keys. Lenovo logo on the left of the palm rest, ThinkPad logo on the right, X220 model name on the bezel.

Note: this post is published but still in progress. Spot something missing or amiss? Comment at the end 👍. This is a long article. If you just want three paragraphs, this is it: Few laptop families display their lineage as visibly as the ThinkPad. Since IBM introduced the ThinkPad notebook lineup in 1992, the brand has survived more than three decades, a change of corporate ownership, and repeated shifts in what a portable computer is expected to do. Put a

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Best Laptop for Claude Code

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Claude 3D Printed Logo on MacBook Air M5

Originally drafted April 28, 2026. Still have to add photos. Feel free to comment (at the bottom) if you have any questions! Summary:: If you came here looking for the best laptop value for Claude Code in 2026, you can’t beat the MacBook Air M5 when it’s ~$949 at Amazon for the 16GB / 512GB model, $150 below MSRP with an extremely fast CPU. Jump to: Editor’s Choice | What Claude Code Needs| Mac Picks | Windows + Linux Picks

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Best Computer for ChatGPT in 2026

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Published April 25, 2026. Updated May 8, 2026. Summary: don’t overspend, if you are an intermediate to lightly advanced CODEX/ChatGPT user I would start with the MacBook Air M5 for CODEX and ChatGPT, especially at ~$949 on sale See current price. It is silent, the 18-hour battery is real-world good, and Atlas, voice mode, and the desktop app all feel native on it. The $599 Neo surprised me most as an ultra budget option 🙂 If you want the fast

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Best Computer for Claude Code in 2026

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Updated May 11th, 2026. Originally published February 6, 2026. TL;DR: If you are looking for the best computer for Claude Code in 2026, my short answer is the MacBook Air M5 (currently $150 off on Amazon). Most people do not need a monster workstation. The AI heavy lifting runs in the cloud. Your machine handles file I/O, builds, test suites, and your dev environment. Cheapest Mac that works: the $599 MacBook Neo. Windows: a ThinkPad with 32GB of RAM. Desktop

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RTX 5080 vs. RTX 3090: Is It Time to Upgrade in 2026?

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Is the Upgrade Actually Worth It? The internet loves a clean upgrade narrative: Old card bad, new card good, spend money. But the reality of the NVIDIA RTX 5080 era is messier and more interesting. If you are currently rocking an RTX 3090, you’re still packing serious heat. That card remains a 24GB monster. The big question: Is the 5080 a meaningful leap forward, or just high-end hardware FOMO? Let’s break down the data. Raw Gaming Performance: Faster, but is

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Intel Core i7 8550U vs the AMD Ryzen 7 5800U

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Recently I was comparing my trusting Samsung Note 9 laptop to a new inexpensive mini PC (Ace Magician Dual LAN Mini Desktop PC). Surprisingly, the Intel Core i7 8550U in the Note 9 actually held up pretty well vs the the newer AMD Ryzen 7 5800U: Based on these differences, the AMD Ryzen 7 5800U seems to be a superior CPU in terms of performance, efficiency and features, while the Intel Core i7 8550U may have some advantages in terms

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Hardware toolkit for reparing laptops, phones, computers

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If you work on computers a lot then you know how important it can be to have the right tool for the job. 🙂 Thankfully, most computer upgrade tasks are handled with fairly common tools, but if you happen to have a particularly difficult upgrade/repair task ahead of you it might be worth checking out a comprehensive toolkit such as this one: I have the utmost respect for iFixit as they do a phenomenal job of teardowns and takeaparts. However,

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Learning about Bitcoin mining

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You’ve probably read some sensational news stories about Bitcoin mining, I know I have . 🙂 However, I had lunch with a buddy last month in Tulsa and it really altered my view on Bitcoin mining. I already had an abstract idea about random people out there using CPU/GPU computing power to generate blocks to continue the growth of Bitcoins, what I didn’t realize was that my buddy knew a guy that was sinking big bucks into a personal Bitcoin

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