alt.hn

7/14/2026 at 7:25:41 PM

I also filed the corners off my MacBook

 https://www.brt.fyi/posts/mac-book-filing/

by maxbrt

7/15/2026 at 11:59:15 AM

I love the animation on the background of your website. And I totally understand what you mean about using a tool, if it's too delicate to do the job, then it's not doing its job. Imagine buying a hammer and trying to keep it clear of scuffs, it's obviously going to impede your work.

by HugoTea

7/15/2026 at 1:43:30 PM

Yeah I think the grief OP was getting over that statement in some of the other comments is unwarranted, I understand completely what they mean about tools. You have people who buy expensive guitars and barely play them for fear of scuffing them for example, depriving themselves and the tool of the thing it's actually for. I'll never understand that mentality.

I don't like to be precious about my tools either, scratches and so on are evidence it's being used for what it's made for!

by BoxOfRain

7/15/2026 at 2:53:20 PM

Thanks for the encouragement, glad you like the background :-) Yeah I phrased it a bit badly initially. But what I meant was pretty much what you stated!

by maxbrt

7/14/2026 at 10:55:14 PM

This is my number one complaint about the M-series MBP line. Especially true of the cutout in the middle that has points so sharp they can cut you if you accidentally scrape it with your hand.

by zaptrem

7/14/2026 at 10:51:40 PM

Yeah the sharp edges have bothered me since they started with the unibody. Luckily I'm completely off Mac these days. But really the last mac I enjoyed using was my powerbook. It had really nice plastic gaskets for the edges, a keyboard with really good travel and cupped keys, it was wonderful.

I got a plastic MacBook eventually which I filed down too because the edges were really sharp there. And plastic is easy to file. Also replaced the screen with a matte version, on the plastic MacBook that was also easy because the screens were readily available and there was no glass overlay.

Then I had a unibody MBP 15" matte. Less sharp and with off factory matte display. Not great keyboard though.

The current MBP I find abhorrent. Even after they switched from the horrible butterfly mistake the travel is still way too shallow. I just can't work with that anymore. These days I just don't buy laptops anymore. Only desk PCs.

by wolvoleo

7/15/2026 at 1:50:57 AM

Good to see a recognition that power tools are powerful. Too many amateur videos of people experimenting without nearly enough control and messing up projects

by Neywiny

7/15/2026 at 2:10:36 AM

Brave to do this on a blue color MacBook - curious how the filed area will look compared to the rest of the body after some time.

by JSR_FDED

7/15/2026 at 8:24:21 AM

I used a dark blue sharpie to cover up some scratches; works fine and I touch it up every few months.

by mc3301

7/15/2026 at 5:10:39 AM

I'll try to do some updates after a while!

by maxbrt

7/15/2026 at 4:20:43 AM

https://a.co/d/0hXtPRfC

Amazon link to a debuting tool. It uses sharp harder metal to cut off sharp metal edges.

by baldeagle

7/15/2026 at 8:44:16 AM

> The moment I am too scared to do something because I might damage the tool, it stops being a tool.

What? You can damage even the most robust and simple tool by using it wrongly or inattentively.

by zecg

7/15/2026 at 11:51:17 AM

You are correct, that was phrased badly. I've tried to update it, thanks for the comment.

by maxbrt

7/14/2026 at 11:29:31 PM

Get one of these:

https://www.andar.com/products/the-helm?variant=397924980491...

Pricey, but the lip covers the edge. My current one is 4 years old and lasted a couple of generations of Macbooks.

by BenFranklin100

7/15/2026 at 12:14:39 AM

The Helm is great. I'm not sure it really solves the wrists problem, at least for me since for how I use it the height of the laptop makes a huge difference in ergonomics. The MacBook Pro is already tall, and the Helm makes it taller, creating pressure on the wrists. Meanwhile I don't have this problem on my carry everywhere MacBook Air since it's so thin.

by npunt

7/15/2026 at 6:53:49 AM

Now try modifying the software that Apple sold you with it.

by lrvick

7/15/2026 at 7:12:18 AM

Yeah that's been a major headache. I ssh into my server/desktop most of the time anyways, so there is no friction there. Then also I was surprised by how well VMs with OrbStack on Mac run. With yabai and skhd I've gotten it pretty closely to where I previously was with i3.

Even still, I'm looking forward to the day where I can run Asahi on this

by maxbrt

7/15/2026 at 5:11:41 PM

Three employers in a row insisted on handing me a macbook, and three times in a row I ported Gentoo to it out of pure spite and disdain for third parties trying to control the binaries I use to do my job.

At the time they called this crazy and unproductive, but those obsessions with control of my tools built the foundational skillsets that drove my career.

by lrvick

7/15/2026 at 8:07:16 AM

"The moment I am too scared to do something because I might damage the tool, it stops being a tool"

That's just not the definition of the word "tool" at all but okay... whatever

by bofadeez

7/15/2026 at 8:32:05 AM

Sorry you did not like that part! All I was trying to express was that even though this thing is nice and shiny, it is a tool in the end so if modifying it would make it serve that purpose better, one should not be scared to do so. I wasn't trying to give a definition, but perhaps I should rephrase that. Thanks!

by maxbrt

7/15/2026 at 11:54:07 AM

Calling it a tool is fine.

Some people would like to pretend means of production are holy assets you're supposed to value and trade (INVEST!!! making value is for losers and _these_ workers), when it's just a consummable that should serve a purpose right now.

A computer is a tool and customizing the case is not unheard of.

Thank you for desmystifying the Mac. Users know best.

by hinata08