Louis Rossmann, the guy who repairs Apple hardware, is under attack | Hacker News Reader

Louis Rossmann, the guy who repairs Apple hardware, is under attack

mackungfu.org

30 pointsdragonbonheur17 comments

Cache for those who don't want to disable their ad blocker: https://archive.is/KtPyk

To me "unobtrusive" means no tracking. I'm just going to skip this article and remove mackungfu.org from my internet.

I just used Brave, which ignores all of that and makes the website think its ads are being displayed. It's a clunky browser but it's getting better.

Another way - I disabled that site's Javascript privileges on my computer using the "Quick Javascript Switcher" extension for Chrome.

The embedded youtube video didn't work. I think this is it:

https://youtu.be/F7N254MTA4Q

One of the not-so-well-kept secrets is that you can find schematics and sometimes even the board layouts for almost any laptop, and even some smartphones (including iPhones). You just have to look in the right places and not be afraid. ;-)

I'd guess a lot of them are leaks from Chinese OEMs, and we have their insecurity to thank for it. The whole third-party repair industry is basically built on this fact. Due to its unofficial nature and somewhat uncertain legal status, usually only sites in the far East will host this material. This is the part of the Internet the companies don't want to exist or you to know about, but it's there (and sadly, shrinking, so archive what you have and may come across in the future) if you look hard enough.

Here's a good intro to the culture that enables this:

https://www.bunniestudios.com/blog/?page_id=3107

As someone who has studied a lot of these schematics (including the one for my laptop), it is interesting how similar a lot of them are, and I'd bet it's given me far more knowledge about how modern laptops work than any course or other method of formal learning. Of course, for repair they are invaluable.

Relatedly, if you search Google for "X laptop schematic", it now fills the search results with user manuals and other completely useless and irrelevant content. You have to specifically quote the word "schematic" to get what you want. Once you start seeing "results removed due to DMCA" you're getting close.

A few years ago a similar thing happened, although not with Apple:

http://www.wired.com/2012/11/cease-and-desist-manuals-planne...

If I remember correctly, in that case Streisand Effect happened and you can still find those manuals online.

It's interesting to see how the main philosophy behind Apple products is to prevent this kind of tinkering and that they are also used by a lot of hackers (tinkerers).

I know the answer is "they just work" but it somewhat troubles me. I'm also a pragmatic but then I think about cases like the Bitkeeper debacle and Linus Torvalds vs Richard Stallman positions then. And who was right in the end and how this concluded with the birth of Git.

Ok, it's exactly not the same scenario (HW vs a SW product) but maybe someday we will see a similar conclusion...

This site requires disabling ad blockers before showing content. It's not worth the risk to me, personally.

Isn't there a big button to just show the article? There was for me but I opted in to ads and it's just a tiny banner ad at the top. I figure if it is a smaller site and they ask to opt-in for ads, they are going to be good citizens with their ads. Actually, I went back and there are more ads than I noticed initially so it is a bit over the top compared to the actual amount of content.

Summary: Youtuber who does surface-mount component repair of Apple laptops on video demonstrating that Apple's repair stance is silly (ie 15-30 minutes to fix an issue instead of just swapping out the logic board) is threatened by unknown party over (unofficial) schematics used. Schematics likely unofficial from Chinese sources. Youtuber doesn't name who is threatening them but assumed to be schematics source or Apple.

It'll also show the content if you turn off JS completely, which IMHO will reduce your risk even more...

Here's a case were the schematics were declared non-copyrightable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behringer#Legal_cases

His site also seems to have download links for Adobe Photoshop, which I'm guessing are malware links

edit: maybe not, can't really tell with the adblock nonsense

Not malware at all, it are links to the Adobe support pages:

https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/kb/uptodate.html?sdid=XT3P...

I hope that every pro-Apple techie is happy with the monster that they've helped to create by enthusiastically jumping into the Apple ecosystem over the past 10 to 15 years.

If you're starting to see the light - please consider using my own personal tactics for never giving Apple any money, but still being able to use Apple products:

- Only buy used or unofficially-refurbished Apple equipment.

- Don't use any of their services unless they're free.

- Don't buy any apps, only use the free ones or pay for them through non-Apple channels.

- If you end up giving money to Apple in any way, try to make them lose it somewhere else down the road (i.e. by heavily using their free support services, talking people out of using their products, etc.).

I was just at his shop a few days ago and his guy there said they couldn't fix a loose RAM chip so now I'm out $700 for a logic board, contrary to the article's acclaim:

>Using a microscope connected to a camera, Louis walks the viewer through the entire procedure, which involves tracking down the problem via common sense and diagnostic tools, and then replacing the faulty components. This is the kind of “surface mount” repair Apple considers impossible – much to Louis’ frequent amusement.

However I'm on his side here. Apple's approach is quite troublesome: soldering everything so it's impossible to upgrade, creating iPhone screws that if put back in the wrong place short the phone, etc. I know catering to the non-technical, to the point of being anti-technical, has been a hallmark of Apple's (Jobs') philosophy since the beginning but I don't have to like it.

It is basic job security. If people were able to easily repair their older devices, fewer would buy the new ones. Or pay big dollars for new replacements for damaged ones.

I agree, this reminds me of the iPhone replacement program they have going on. It's a incentive subscription model to update your phone model each year.

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