News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro). Parent comment

Re:One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro) by zdragnar on Friday August 28, 2020 @12:38PM (#24306915)
I actually only notice it about 5% of the time I use it, and it is almost always plugged in at the same outlet, with the same charger (in this case, the two prong adapter). I seem to recall having tested all of the outlets in the house with an outlet tester, but it was two years ago so I'm not 100% sure.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro) by GekkePrutser on Friday August 28, 2020 @02:13PM (#24308186)
Here in Europe the clip on plugs (duckheads) are not grounded. The extension cord you get with the MacBook too, is. So use that.

Not sure about US. But I think it's the same as the duckheads are only 2-prong iirc so they can't possibly be grounded.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro) by rogual on Saturday August 29, 2020 @04:50AM (#24314727)
They don't even include the extension cord anymore.

I don't know why Apple thinks it's okay for my computer to run a current through my body. I would love to know what happened at Apple that caused this situation. It's just patently insane.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro) by GekkePrutser on Saturday August 29, 2020 @09:49AM (#24316077)
Oh I didn't know that, I haven't bought a Mac recently.

It's been like this since the earliest days of the metal PowerBooks. Though the un-grounded duckheads appeared only with the later models (the "hockey puck" power supply always had grounding and in fact always had an extension cord). In my house the living room sockets didn't have grounding (at that time it was only mandatory in "wet areas") so I noticed it even then.

It's mainly an issue because of the metal enclosure. On a plastic one you wouldn't notice. And it's not serious current, it's just some induction of the power transformer on the internal shielding.

But yeah I agree, even the duckheads should have proper grounding! The grounding is done through the ground 'pin' that the duckhead clips on to, so technically it should be able to get a third-party duckhead with all three pins. Though I never looked to see if they were available.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:One Year with ThinkPad and Linux (From MacBook Pro) by kube-system on Friday August 28, 2020 @02:20PM (#24308292)
Yes, it's the same in the US.
[ Parent | on HN ]