Laptops with Stickers
stickertop.art
stickertop.art
(the joke here is that all of the tech has the wrong logo, ie the javascript sticker has a java logo, the vscode sticker has a vim logo, etc)
The greyification of our lives, the loss of whimsy and kitsch and being too afraid to be a little cringe, I get the sense that a lot of people associate "growing up" as the loss of any and all expression: we wake up in our grey beds in our millennial grey house, drive to work in our grey car to work in our grey cubical, etc, etc. If you want a gauche laptop covered in stickers, do it, embrace the gauche. Everyone sneering at you is more miserable than you.
God, I can't stand living in an artless world.
Jimmy Hendrix, If 6 was 9.
Has another relevant spoken word bit about waving his freak flag :)
A good portion of these stickers are to do with things that are political or quasi political. What tends to happen is that a lot if times people have been burned in someway for supporting an idea or a cause. This is often because people have been fooled by charlatan, or it was later revealed that things were more complicated or different than they were led to believe.
Cringe and why people hate it is best explained by watching the very first episode of the UK office.
Most people want to go to work, turn up and do their time and go home. People that are often top enthusiastic are difficult to deal with day to day. People that adorn their personal possessions with slogans are seen as a warning sign.
In the end, they're like the tattoos that someone else commented on. (I have those as well.) If you appreciate them, great! If you don't like them, that's fine too. Fundamentally, they're not for you.
I don't like many of the ones mentioned on this website but here are some minimalist examples [1] [2] [3] [4] and an exception I do like a bit because of the custom shape [5]. [1] is more like a skin.
[1] https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/20250221_00333...
[2] https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/laptop_cover.j...
[3] https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/IMG_1259.jpg
[4] https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/IMG_5753.JPG
[5] https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/54917193947_1f...
I 'unno, it's fun I guess?
I see a sticker I like somewhere, brain goes 'heh, neat' and so I put it on my laptop with the other stickers. There's not much more to it.
And I feel like this greyification is only true in theory from the perspective of the manufacturers. I still run into plenty of people that are not afraid to decorate their space, laptop, or whatever else.
Greyification actually makes sense precisely because everyone has a different way of expression. That's why canvases are still white; you just have to find a different primer.
Current laptop stickers: current state.
Photo of the previous laptop: reference to previous commit.
There's still a WP51 folder in there somewhere...
You can still "hipster it" and only use actually cool stickers. Community open source projects, hackerspaces, good conferences, EFF and similar organizations, weird funny stuff.
Good:
https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/1762135251053-...
https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/IMG_9222-1.jpe...
"Employee of the month":
https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/IMG_20200717_2...
e.g. One of the biggest people that does Debian content, does a bunch of absolute cringe behaviour associated with them where I almost want to die of second hand embarrassment.
Some notable examples of stuff I've seen in Linux / Tech land the last few months:
- One person was dressed in a furry lizard suit, while compiling gentoo.
- Another person made a song about Debian packages. I thought it was a gag at first.
- Another woman was dressed in a school girl outfit, cat ears and a push up bra (not sure she was Linux stuff, but it was tech).
I am not expecting everyone to be some greybeard in his office but some of it is a bit much and sometimes they have really good info in the video, but the initial impression is so jarring that it will put people off (I had people tell me this).
I actually made my own YouTube channel because I was trying to find decent information to send to someone who was a new Linux user without this BS. I ended up making videos myself detailing how to setup a bunch of stuff up.
Go to your masto instance and navigate to /blocks to see these users. Or on BlueSky, use clearsky.app.
It's possible to find a breadcrumb for what you're "remembering".
The point we're making in this thread is that we aren't seeing the same things you are, and it's highly likely that whatever comments you're thinking about are not representative of the kinds of opinions people in tech hold.
I was trying to find videos palatable to someone that is interested and just wants to run something reliable instead of Windows. I didn't find any.
> The point we're making in this thread is that we aren't seeing the same things you are, and it's highly likely that whatever comments you're thinking about are not representative of the kinds of opinions people in tech hold.
Linux cringe is a thing that been a complaint for a while. That why people do copy-pasta of the GNU\Linux stuff, the "programmer socks" meme, "I run arch BTW" and there is the infamous dropbox post made on here back in 2008.
Most people that don't exist in online world, find all of this very weird and off putting.
This is after you insinuated that I lied less than two comments ago. You put remembering in scare quotes and some other dude told me I was a "clown" because I can't remember username I saw months ago.
So no. I won't be doing that for you or anyone else now.
There is huge amount of cringe and embarrassing behaviour in the Linux community and Tech community in general. It is well known and denying it is utterly disingenuous.
(I agree with your point, tho)
And, to practice what I preach, here's some evidence:
https://soatok.blog/2025/06/12/furries-need-to-learn-that-su...
We're gatekeeping evidence that supports our claims now?
The reason I am complaining about this is I was trying to find some good info to send to a friend.
I ended up making my own no-BS videos to send to my friends instead and putting them up on YouTube.
The reason I am complaining about this is I was trying to find some good info to send to a friend. I ended up making my own videos to send to them as I had 3 or 4 different people asking me to show them how to do things on Debian. So I ended up recording how to do it myself.
I will also complain about it in the manner I wish. Since you have no called me a clown, I will now complain about it more vaguely.
Place of honor goes to a gift from my wife, a black cat staring at you with "Judging you. Quietly." It seems appropriate.
Besides nobody gives a shit about your stupid political opinions or the software stack you use.
Anything right of center and suddenly people start caring very much.
Back in the office days, it was also a way to identify a corporate laptop among a sea of identical models.
Also, like I don't wear branded clothing, I like to cover the device brand.
But sure, tell everyone about your feelings on tattoos and stickers
We sell back our laptop to the company we get them from, they refurb them and give us a nice discount on the new model. Most vinyl stickers leave a mark on MacBooks that can't come off, hurting the resell value a lot. Some have protecting covers on their laptop and the stickers go on that instead.
Doesn't sound like a problem acetone/isoprop can't solve, especially on anodized aluminium.
I'm personally not interested, but I also would never make fun of people expressing themselves.
On the other hand... mandatory fun, mandatory self-expression, any anything that takes something very personal and turns it into official or unofficial company policy makes me sick. I'm glad it's not too common here in Germany.
It's like HR forcing you to listen to punk songs because the company wants to promote a rebellious spirit as long as it's compatible with "disruption". It's also a bit like being asked "why are you so quiet" by someone who said everything worthwhile 5 minutes after getting out of bed but never stopped yapping.
I've been putting stickers on all of my laptops for decades. I get all my laptop stickers from @HackerStick3rs mainly and then cybersec conferences (like DEF CON, BSides, Saintcon, Nolacon) are my other main source of them.
Stickers are kinda like currency at hacker conferences and a great way to meet new people.
Now it seems have come very "corporate cringe", similar to the 16 pieces of flair at Chotchkie's. It also looks a bit childish IMO.
More often or not a lot of the supposed humour is a thin veneer over some sort of political or quasi-political messaging. You can even see in the screenshots that most of it is either political, product placement or their tech stack.
When I see overt political messaging outside of someone that works for a particular organisation or political party, I steer clear.
I've found that most people (doesn't matter what political persuasion) have a very poor understanding of what they are actually supporting if they understand it at all. Often they simply parroting what they've elsewhere.
nice for you that you're able to ignore politics - you should maybe be aware that this is a privilege. lots of people would probably want to ignore politics, but instead they have to fear for their existence, dignity or way of life.
"but not everyone on HN is american", well, other countries also have their fair share of political issues. and if you don't see them as issues, then again, you're just showing your own privilege.
high-wage, male, (often times white) tech-workers wonder why people are upset. "i'm fine, what's the problem?"
I am in my early-40s. I remember when Obama was droning people abroad based on iffy intel. I remember when George Bush/Dick Cheney started a war in Afghanistan and Iraq, which killed possibly millions (I heard all sorts of different numbers).
If I put a sticker on my laptop, it doesn't stop any of that happening. It doesn't bring back the people that killed in those wars. All it is trying to do is signal to other people that you have the "right opinions". It is a form of slacktivism.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism
> nice for you that you're able to ignore politics - you should maybe be aware that this is a privilege. lots of people would probably want to ignore politics, but instead they have to fear for their existence, dignity or way of life.
I am mature enough to understand that in the vast majority of circumstances I cannot affect in the outcome in any meaningful way.
Whether I ignore politics or not will have no effect on the outcome. I suggest you go back and watch old TV programs and documentaries. People were having the same discussions 20, 30 and some 50 years ago on the exact topics and making the same arguments, often they were word for word the same.
> "but not everyone on HN is american", well, other countries also have their fair share of political issues. and if you don't see them as issues, then again, you're just showing your own ignorance, privilege or both.
I choose to ignore the political issues in my country (the UK) as well. I can't do anything to solve the problems in the country.
It’s laughable that you think nothing has changed in the last 50 years politically. Not so recently they were still putting people to death by the hundreds of thousands in my country and I’m sure as shit not gonna let it happen again, even if it’s a bit cringe for you to witness resistance to facism
It won't be heard anyway. It is a fiction that I as a fucking nobody can affect anything in any meaningful manner. It is a delusion that is sold to people so they believe that they have a voice.
The only thing I might be able to do is stop other people from wasting their time.
> But I guess it’s comfortable enough for you still so there is little reason to get active. Soon it won’t be so comfortable anymore also for you, by then it will be too late to speak up.
What you are doing is essentially a guilt trip. I don't want to spend possibly the rest of my life on a political project.
> It’s laughable that you think nothing has changed in the last 50 years politically.
No it isn't. Go back 40-50 years (1970s) and look at TV, docs, news reports etc. Many of the same issues are being discussed in pretty the same way word for word. I have read stuff about the Roman Empire where it seems people were making political arguments that sounded very similar to what is heard today. The human condition is constant throughout all of recorded history.
> Not so recently they were still putting people to death by the hundreds of thousands in my country and I’m sure as shit not gonna let it happen again, even if it’s a bit cringe for you to witness resistance to facism
I've heard this melodramatic nonsense my entire life. The Nazis and Fascists are gone, the few that remain are completely irrelevant. I was told George Bush was Hitler 2.0 back in the early 2000s. These days people talk about his bad paintings.
Which ironically is the main reason why these things continue to go unchecked.
I have written in the past to MPs (many times). I was either ignored, or I was told I didn't know what I was talking about even though I actually was working in a related area.
If I talk to my friends, they don't care. If I talk to my relatives, they don't care either or understand. If I talk about it on the internet, I am told I am wrong and I should shutup, even when I post direct evidence of something and back it up with references. This hasn't been just one thing either, it been many different things.
So I want you to tell me what am I supposed to do exactly?
Even the most bonkers conspiracy theorists out there manage to find an audience.
No I said they don't listen to what I say or are likely to understand it. I am normally talking about technical things and how it interfaces with law e.g. OSA, encryption, right to repair etc.
Many people in my family are laymen and work manual jobs their only use of technology is Whatsapp, Facebook and Xbox Live. My brother is a welder, my father is a joiner. My best friend loads purfume onto a truck and cannot do basic algebra and skipped school at 14, my other two good friends while more educated are completely non technical. I normally get a link to amazon as a screenshot in whatsapp as they don't know how to copy and past from the address bar.
What usually happens is that I am proven right like about a year or two later and it is never mentioned again because I don't want to berate my family and friends. I've learned over time not to bother discussing these subjects with them because it is a waste of time. One of my friends got quite upset once when I was talking about how bitmap graphics worked.
Thanks though for taking the worst possible interpretation of what I said and not answering my question I asked and doing pretty much what I am complaining about. I really appreciate that :-S.
I want you to answer my original question. If people don't listen to you (MPs, and other people in power) and you can back up what you are saying with good evidence. What are you supposed to do?
Just a pretty one is fine too though. I had a cool one at some point that was the logo of a small local meetup with friendly organisers, and the logo was essentially a drawing of a local landmark. It fit perfectly over the OEM logo. I miss that one.
I wouldn't even put this in the "somewhat amusing" category. This is really in the 16 pieces of allowed flair category as far as I am concerned.
There you are, the perfect quote for you to print out and stick on your laptop!
Turns out you were just waiting for the right one all along. And you thought you just dropped in here to be grumpy. Oh, no, we have stickers here for everyone. =)
I was actually not sure which word to use before: "grumpy" or "complain". I went with the former, because somewhere above, you told somebody off for their innocent little left-pad sticker. This whole thread reads to me like some guy yelling about how lawns used to be greener and had fewer balls on them.
But that's okay, I think you are right, and of course you're allowed to do that. We all have our things that tick us off.
One of mine is, I recently realized, people who casually believe in astrology. You know, they're a libra, they tell me, and of course I would think astrology is stupid because I'm a candelabra with Jupiter ascending or whatever, and these are always sceptical all the time.
I got super annoyed when someone suggested to me that astrological signs were a great topic for small talk. I disagree. Babbling about astrology as if its tenets were true is a symptom of a bigger problem, a growing problem, and I will not take part in it.
> about cringe and slacktivism which is rife in the tech land, which is what laptop stickers are. It is a symptom of a bigger problem.
I understand what you're getting at. I'm not sure I agree fully, I'm more reminded of the stupid fad when I was in high school when all the kids put stickers on their backpacks, often political ones. I also happen to think these laptop stickers are often empty, cheap gestures resulting in ugly laptops.
But in the end, it's just people being people, expressing themselves, some of them trying to have a little fun or meaning or levity in their lives, whether we share it or not.
And if people like you and me show up and do nothing but complain about them, and I tell them they're stupid for thinking they "are" a "libra", and you tell them how their sticker isn't even funny, then at that point, we have not only not accomplished anything (I wouldn't even feel better myself), and it's entirely fitting to call us grumpy.and maybe even make a little fun of us.
A lot of things suck, and I'm sorry these stickers reminded you of some of them. I hope you can find something nicer to think about, and smile. :)
I didn't tell anyone off. I honestly don't see what amusing about it. You stick it on the back of your laptop and do what? I used to forget the stickers were even there when I did it and found it very annoying to peel off later.
> And if people like you and me show up and do nothing but complain about them, and I tell them they're stupid for thinking they "are" a "libra", and you tell them how their sticker isn't even funny, then at that point, we have not only not accomplished anything (I wouldn't even feel better myself), and it's entirely fitting to call us grumpy.and maybe even make a little fun of us.
I've long accepted I am an arsehole. The opinion I originally said was pretty mild and as per usual people made it more of a controversy than it originally was.
Well, glad I also had the local landmark icon on it then, to prove that I'm also a free thinker.
Then again, the laptop after that had an "I work with someone from Tulsa, Oklahoma" sticker, which I suppose I merely stuck on there to get the approval of my former coworker from Tulsa who made that sticker, probably hoping I would get a promotion out of it down the road.
We really are doomed as an industry.
I didn't mean to sound rude to you.
God forbid people have a bit of fun in their lives.
A lot of these laptop stickers are either tech stacks (which are usually a form of advertising for a corporation), quasi-political messaging or outward political messaging.
I've partially explain this in my OP and other replies under this subject, but I and many other see them as a warning sign of things that are much more worrisome. I am naturally suspicious of any "corporate fun stuff" which is what a lot of this has turned into. That was accurately portrayed for what it is in office space with the "16 pieces of flair". Anyone who calls this out as suspicious will have someone like yourself saying "what is the problem? just a sticker".
Ok, so you just want to make this complicated for no reason, gotcha.
If you aren't interested in my (or anyone elses) POV, don't bother asking the question in future.
And with all of that being said, this hn article has me ruminating on what people are declaring with these things, and my takeaway is that it is a form of tribal expression. Whether it is a "I work with tech stacks" or media entertainment they prefer on their own time, it is a way to find like-minded people and share perhaps some whimsy or at the very least make their laptop distinguishable from the other thousand plus in their organization. Much like how all crossovers are nearly identical in a parking lot, so too are the numerous HP/Macs/what-have-you sitting on everyone's desk. Much like changing the wallpaper away from a corporate logo, if allowed, you're making that piece of equipment more "yours". Much like ricing your terminal.
If the company culture allows this and you see senior staff doing it, in a way it is in your favor to follow the trend - just to say, I see what's going on and I will join in to show my affiliation with this company's culture. It also gives you a chance to say "this is my tribe" and influence people, one way or another. And face it, a blank laptop lid is also a form of expression, whether you intend for it to be or not. So embrace it if allowed, rebel if it isn't allowed and see who follows suit or complains, or don't embrace it. It's a choice you make even if you do not play along.
And to be frank, in our current climate, politics is very important. One side uses their freedom of speech to suppress others and has more branding on their vehicles and toolboxes than a Lisa Frank notebook binder from the 80s. This as a form of intimidation, as well as expression. I think there should be more political stickers. For every "Don't Tread On Me" there should be a counter "We Will Tread Where There Is Inequality".
I know the argument, "there is no need for politics in the workplace", but companies are more political than any individual, as they contribute campaign fiances to both parties, thanks to Citizens United. If they don't want politics at work, they should take their work out of politics.
Edited to Add: Sticker Bombing has strong Punk roots. And few things are more punk than putting politics where corporations may not like it; directly in their face. Now, whether or not sticking bombing your laptop lid is still punk is debatable, but you cannot deny its roots.
I also get people want to personalise stuff. I drive an old 4x4 and modded it (nothing too crazy), and I am planning on getting an Armstrong MT-350 if I can find one. Each one will require me actually doing work on the vehicles.
> And to be frank, in our current climate, politics is very important.
I heard that 20 years ago when I was in my early 20s. Everyone claims it is of the upmost importance at <current time>. Even if it was, putting a sticker on a laptop isn't going to change it.
That doesn't mean they are (or were) wrong.
I'll submit mine later today to this comment, I'm a poser lol eg. I don't daily drive Rust but I like the crab and the Gopher
Kinkpad lol that's good
Losing developer productivity for a few days because a new laptop has to be provisioned, shipped and set up is also not cheap, so I feel there is some value to your employer in you making it slightly less likely for your laptop to be stolen at a conference or coffee shop.
"You might want to give that a wipe."
Finally figured hey, I might have this laptop more than a single upgrade cycle... it's worth burning a weird sticker or two.
I still try and buck the trend a little--instead of advertising technologies or something, my general goal is that, at first glance, nobody would question anything or think it looks unlike any other developer laptop, but that anyone paying attention will instead be met with a fractal of confusion. E.g., one on there is a "STOP, DROP, AND ROLL" fire safety sticker. In Quebecois French. From a small town volunteer fire department.
I consider it sort of a personal art project and have fun trying to collect up the most "wait, what?" stickers I can.
These days I also flatbed-scan any rare stickers before using them, to slake that FOMO “what if something better comes along and I regret using it now?” feeling.
https://dev.to/graystevens/preserving-laptop-stickers-on-mac...
I've got the FW16 and have been very happy with it, but the portability isn't great given the size. No regrets given it was and always will spend 90% of its time on a desk.
I've been considering the FW12 as something more like a souped up tablet I could toss around the house, do some quick sketching on, etc.
I started writing up a longer-form review and hope to publish it in, idk, maybe a few months? Need to do some blog software resuscitation work.
There's genuine interest (well, at least until they hear about the price) and I guess people intuitively understand that laptops don't really have to be replaced every now and then, it's just that mainstream offerings are built this way.
The other day I wrote a lengthy essay about all the pros and cons of the device from my perspective for one 18yo son of a friend, who insisted this would be his college laptop, because he's seen some YouTuber present it. I think he's decided already, so I focused on managing expectations.
One currently sits on my Framework over the Framework logo. The edge of the Framework gear sticks out in the bite in the apple and the sticker is thin enough the black framework logo shows clearly through the white of the apple.
On first glance, it looks like "trying to make a cheap laptop look expensive". On second it's looks like doing a really bad job of it. Anyone who actually knows the brand at all or asked about it will know the truth... it's making an expensive laptop look like a different expensive laptop.
So I guess it's not just the absurdity of the sticker, but how you use 'em.
I've typically put dbrand skins on my laptops just to protect them from scuffs, I hand my work ones back with the skin on and no one has ever cared, or perhaps even noticed; I choose subtle ones like the hex or Carbon patterns that look like they could just be the actual lid from the manufacturer.
I don't sticker up my laptops (as much as I've always wanted to), but if it was done on top of one of these vinyl skins, it should be relatively easy to remove (never tried).
And seeing just /how/ many laptops are that way it made me feel a lot less weird about putting stickers on "my" work laptop.
A way to keep the memories of that the stickers represent.
But my stickers were always small, and usually lonely. A purple Emacs logo, a red Debian twirl, an orange lambda, stuff like that. Still was often enough to strike a conversation.
Bonus points for integrating an outward-facing webcam dedicated to a continous background facial recognition daemon to change the stickers on the fly depending upon who is approaching while the laptop is running.
I remember this one with the Intel SSD sticker:
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/intel-320-ssd-300-gb/imag...
https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/IMG_6571.JPEG
"The Intel SSD 320 is the much anticipated follow-up to the Intel X25-M, easily the most popular consumer SSD to date."
https://www.storagereview.com/review/intel-ssd-320-review-30...
Time flies, such a nice upgrade back in the day; now we take these things for granted.
[EDIT]
I just saw the fon.com sticker too… nostalgia hits hard.
I used that on a vacation in Madrid back when Starbucks was filled with people on their laptops, mostly white MacBooks.
Startup culture?
The nastiest/dirtiest laptops I saw were always sticker less.
Unfortunately a lot of them are AI generated, which is weird given we have a number of designers in the teams too.
I always had a sticker on my laptop - everybody had the same laptop (or maybe one of two models.) It was a reliable way to quickly identify mine in a big group at a meeting or conference.
ssh stickr.shopBut of course we should also link there from the homepage! Thanks for the hint!
i must say that the shopping experience on stickr.shop is way better than Ali, haha.
But on the one hand we don't want to handle credit card information _at all_. And then, stripe does not let you give them credit card data directly – at least in the default workflow.
(And we can offer alternative payment methods offered by stripe (e.g. Apple Pay, SEPA direct debit, …) much more naturally than what would be possible in the terminal.)
If I'm going to put a sticker on something it's going to read like a diff, what sets me apart from the mainstream culture, not all the different ways I conform to it.
Interesting. I’m happy with a fun niche, myself.
(But generally happier without stickers on expensive things.)
Tattoos, though—hard to imagine being THAT confident in anything ever.
Later tattoos are essentially private works of art, put together collaboratively with an artist. These are for ME, and no one at work will ever see any of them (or any of my other tattoos).
Each tattoo has some significance for me, but I won't judge others who just like a thing and get a thing. Tattoos are as varied as the reasons people have for getting them. Mine aren't edgy, but they also aren't visible to strangers.
Even someone who get a very trendy tattoo should keep it: "look how I used to follow every trend and how I evolved because I would never do something like that now".
Biologically and philosophically, tattoos are scars.
Interesting. Why?
Isn't it a common and longstanding cultural practice, even among indigenous peoples? Intuitively, I'd say body modification is based on the desire to shape one's own body, something we usually embrace in fitness culture and medicine, for example.
I don't have any tattoos or scars, but I can't think of anything that would make them questionable.
Perhaps some of the objection arises from a confusion between body modification and self-harm?
This is true, although it is a good start, right? If a cultural practice has survived for many generations, this alone already indicates that the practice might be compatible with human society, morals, sustainability, etc.
> We also shouldn't confuse self-mutilation with healthy activities like exercising simply because both "shape one's own body".
True! We should indeed not confuse self-mutilation with healthy activities just because they share some similarities.
But would you classify scars or tattoos motivated by aesthetics as self-mutilation? What about piercings, such as holes for earrings or laser hair removal?
I believe that is an interesting and unusual position. Do you have an argument in favor of your (so far implicit) take?
Does it? This sounds like a disingenuous take that doesn't even pretend to bother with reality.
> But would you classify scars or tattoos motivated by aesthetics as self-mutilation?
Disingenuous question - the person you're replying to called you out for very obvious collating of body mutilation and fitness/medicine.
Are you an AI btw?
-[1] https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/yCWPkLi8wJvewPbEp/the-noncen...
A journal can be lost and/or destroyed quite easily.
Whereas you skin is always there. And if it's not, then you have much bigger scars.
Where do you see that on this photo?
The white label with the "Haltungsform" is a standard label used in the German meat industry, showing under what conditions animal was kept before being slaughtered. 1 is the worst, and 5 is the best: https://haltungsform.de/en/
In this one, it says "Käfighaltung" under 2. Which means "caged keeping". So I assumed it's a kinky reference to a chastity cage. Maybe too much of a jump I know but I'm not a native German speaker and all the times I heard about a cage in German, it was in a kinky context.
Now that you asked and I looked at the source, apparently it's part of a working environment themed sticker set: https://www.threads.com/@unterwegselektrisch/post/DD34uR6uJG...
It's embarrassingly wrong but very funny too :)
As a result, I am that guy that tells people a few rules about tattoos:
1. Don't get a tattoo of a band. They will eventually fall out of favor or do something stupid.
2. Don't get a tattoo of any person unless they've been dead for a long, long time. Like a band, a person will also eventually fall out of favor or do something stupid. Even after they're dead, it may still be uncovered that they did something stupid in secret.
3. Don't make your self-expression about other people. Rules 1 and 2 should have already put you on this path.
4. Consider time. So you like cars, especially the 1987 Pontiac Firebird you had in high school. Have you always liked cars? Will you always like cars? Have you and will you always like that car? If there is doubt, rule it out.
5. Are you drunk or high? Best sleep on it.
6. Can you be honest with yourself? This is the Catch 22 question, but an important one. We tend to have a few versions of ourselves to contend with; the one we want to be, the one others perceive us as, and the one we need to be. Sometimes they align, sometimes they don't, but self-expression hinges on understanding the difference and allowing that we might be deceiving ourselves about who we really are, sometimes.
Getting a tattoo is a remarkably difficult and personal thing that I see a lot of people not take seriously enough, then live to regret it, myself included. The artist who has now done all my visible work is an absolute master at getting people to slow down and think about what they want, which was a terrific boon in my life, because he probably did more for me as a person than my therapist did. His clients are life-long, one even having traveled from another country to get more work done by him. That's to say nothing of his absolutely radical art and style that always produces something unique and fit for the person to make part of their lives.
It's something I often think about when I look down at my arms, see those old game homages and realize, regardless of what else has happened in my life or whoever I thought I was at the time, they have been with me since the beginning and are still here, helping me through it.
I wonder what makes me so different:
If I carefully had a favorite thing of mine selected, and I woke up tomorrow with the tiniest tattoo of it, I would be so upset. I’d be bothered every time I saw it on my body, knowing it wouldn't rub off.
I bet your tattoo artist could help me learn something about myself there :)
7. It's also okay to not have or want any tattoos
Self-expression can take many forms :)
I still do, but I used to, too.
Saying they don't age well is pretty generalizing, given the variety of ways one can express themselves with stickers that aren't necessarily topical or political.
Oddly, the only stickers I have on my computers are the Intel ones that come ready applied. Younger me would have gone in for stickers but younger me had pen and paper with no laptop. That said, back then it was school bags that got decorated, albeit with fabric patches and badges rather than stickers. Here was how you showed allegiance to music bands and football teams. I didn't do that though since I was not one of the cool kids.
One sticker set I would like consists of morally dubious companies such as defence corporations and failed companies from things such as crypto, mixed up with USAID psyops such as 'Free Tibet'. However I can't be bothered to put in the work. That is why stickers that are ready made succeed, it is minimal effort.
Younger me was surprised at how much stickers cost. When I was working in a bicycle shop we had Oakley sunglasses for sale, and the product was cool. In period people would buy Oakley stickers from us to put them in the back of their car. I expected these to be freebie promotional items but no, they cost a fortune and could not be just given away.
https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/20250221_00333...
I love the sticker bomb aesthetic on the others, but there needs to be more like this. Anyone got any other examples?
An etching would be seriously cool but I'd be super worried about breaking something
Choose taste, choose the original!
The focus was intentional when I created the project, otherwise there would have been just too much material for me to sift thru. I mainly used Twitter back then, and I wanted to "curate" it all myself.
What I really love about the Stickertop-Page is the self-upload-feature, which I never had the time/motivation to do. And it being open to all stickered machines, not only tech-based.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1drVhn0hLiI&t=40s
What I think would be ideal with current tech is non-backlit e-ink color. Maybe displaying a static image that usually doesn't change while at a location.
You could use e-ink display changes when switching between modes, for example:
* corporate in-office staid, or internal team flair;
* trade conference switch to promoting company brands, rather than internal flairs;
* corporate in-office using it to indicate when you're in focus mode or on a call and less interruptible (actually, you could maybe use the LEDs for on-call mode, a rare instance when you might want the more attention than e-ink);
* traveling with work laptop, but at a cafe or lounge, and want to signal social sensibilities for meeting people personally.
E-ink is getting affordable. A 7.5" display for stickers would probably add under $100 to the price of a laptop.[1] Not many colors, but supposedly good saturation.
Which meant scrubbing it (there's no reason I'll let whoever receives it to scrub it for me)
Which was an absolute pain.
I don't put stickers on my laptops anymore.
Some cyber companies explicitly prohibit stickers on company laptops.
How?
Doesn't help as well that arguably the kind of stickers a laptop displays tends to hint at who's a sysadmin or not, etc.
Say you're red teaming, and you are on-site looking to gain access to the server closet of a business. Some initial setup about you being there comes into play, but once there, it's up to you to look like you belong there, when some unwitting person with access to the server closet will lead you to it, then leave you to do your thing on the pleasant notion that you'll have the "problem" fixed by the end of the day. This is an ultra-simple scenario used as an example, but looking the part sometimes means having some stickers on your laptop that tell people you're really into a specific language or tool chain, or that you've been in the SOC trenches long enough to know what a lot of those inside jokes mean. Details often sell the lie.
Beyond that, you could _maybe_ use it to identify a person's interests for social engineering purposes, but that feels a lot more tenuous.
The kind of lack to integrate to a team having your pride flags, literal death threats to perceived enemies, furries, loli anime, etc on a thing you intend to bring to the workplace to do all your work on isn't good for your career and sure as hell won't not be noticed by people whose responsibility is to judge risk and liabilities for example.
Tech stacks, not party flags.
Anyway it's unclear which of these are brought into offices.
Also, why do you assume these aren't people's personal computers? Many people surely own computers personally, and of course people can express themselves on personal property.
I see others have asked the same question, but you don’t seem to have the courage to respond.
What’s divisive about a pride flag?
Y'know, I'm pretty much fine with upsetting bigots. I'd assume that people inclined to be upset by a scary pride flag are also upset by my _existence_, so, y'know, I don't see a strong reason to moderate my stickers to protect the delicate feelings of idiots. If they're a homophobe they'll have a problem with me _anyway_.
The current day form of the lgbt(...) movement has done more damage to their representation than the natural, mostly not strong but dismissive opinions of the common folk could ever have. The screaming intentional ignorance of criticism of its increasingly radical extensions and effects sometimes makes me think we're not just living in the world of Idiocracy, but in the version of the world that comes after it ...
In the end, people that tend to say things like "kill/punch/etc [group]" just because of their own inhumanity and need to say such things because they feel some groups are "fine as targets", while trying at their best to put said labels on anyone they disagree with (with almost no one actually truly belonging under those labels!), tend to be the same crowd that go in the direction of the less extreme political signaling. This is why the common solution of just banning stickers altogether is the norm when a solution is put in place. Sadly legit relevant signaling like showing one's knowledge of specific technologies with stickers suffers as collateral damage, but is not comparable to the damage of losing team spirit in a team that could otherwise pool their resources and knowledge on a task they CAN work together with.
And I say this as someone who has been in a leadership position in teams where I knew there was a lot of potential for such things to ruin everything. If I didn't witness things being kept professional in said teams, especially in one of them, I wouldn't have believed it could ever even have worked as well as it did, and it did so well. Better than other parts of the company even, given there was genuine effort put in to stay kosher and people ended up being more mindful of each other.
>but you don’t seem to have the courage to respond.
What? I wrote my comment literally yesterday lol. Now looking at the replies, most of them either don't seem to have much sincerity to them or have little chance of furthering anyone's understanding if engaged. I've learnt that it's better to minimize time wasted on trolls when there's little benefit to arguing with them even for the public representation when I can instead use my time working on my projects.
That said, I'm not _that_ worried about people noticing that the scary gay has a rainbow sticker on his laptop. If someone at work has an issue with me being gay, well, they'll probably have that issue with me regardless of what is on my laptop, and that is very much their problem. You can't spend your whole life pandering to bigots.
It's a reasonable assumption and surely true for a lot of cases, the stickers have a history of signaling tech stacks and other actually professional things and people are more attached to these customized devices which strengthens my that point. Don't be arrogant.
>You can't spend your whole life pandering
Don't be arrogant again. Obviously with that kind of language you have more chance of being the source of problems than solutions.
>issue with me being gay
Don't try to slide. Supporting extremely politicized movements is not in any way comparable to just _being_ oneself. The kind of language "if you don't support my extreme signaling you're against me and human rights and and and ..." is truly a scourge against intellectual society today.
I mean, you’re the one getting pissy over laptop stickers.
Fundamentally, life is too short to worry about bigots being offended by rainbow stickers.
https://media.ccc.de/v/camp2023-57194-from_c3stoc_with_love_...
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_Power%3F_No_Thanks
P.S. There's a nice recent video to have a glimpse into nuclear power plant safety in action: https://youtu.be/v0afQ6w3Bjw
Many of my favorite stickers come from here: https://github.com/mkrl/misbrands (and some of it's forks).
Vim/Vscode still gets the best reactions.
Stickers get handed around like business cards so the stickers on your laptop/fridge are almost like a record of the people you met.
just search for like "hacker stickers" or "cybersecurity stickers" or whatever you are looking for
If you keep your eye out for stickers, you'll start to notice them at many types of smaller establishments like cafes, book stores, boutiques, breweries, music venues, galleries, etc... they're often by the register, and sometimes free!
As a long time sticker collector, I love how the stickers found at random places have some memories attached to them. Finding them, especially when traveling, sometimes feels like finding treasure!
Only one simple non-computer related sticker to: - hide the logo of the laptop company - recognize my work laptop at airports security checks
Simply because i do not what to exchange my work laptop, with another traveler by mistake.
(I'm not talking about ordering a batch of your own design here to share it with friends and at events)
“Hi I’m Kimberly, can I tell you about my startup” lands way worse than “Hi I’m Kimberly, would you like a dinosaur sticker for your coffee / MacBook?” Sometimes they even stick around for the pitch, but it’s nice to be able to instantly make someone smile in three-second interactions
It's a great way to filter for the fun and curious people.
My wife, however, loves to customize her stuff.
Fast-forward a few years of that and her laptop breaks down. We drop it off at a local repair place, only to have the business itself fold up with everyone's gear inside it. Former staff then went to great lengths to find customers and return equipment. We were able to recover the machine from a box of co-mingled broken laptops, mostly because it was visually customized. Not everyone else was so lucky.
Point being: the experience was just like having unique looking luggage, and just as useful and important to do. You don't know when you'll need this, but when you do, you'll be thankful.
I have a Framework now and haven't adding anything to it (because it's easier to clean), but maybe I'm missing out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CDC-Logo.svg
(Now I want one.)
I once had a loaner thinkpad for two days whilst my MacBook was bricked by Jamf - best believe they got that thing back covered.
His face when I handed it back to him, priceless.
Side note: What is that massive yellow CYBER sticker that seems to be on 80% of them? Feel like I’ve missed some kind of political movement.
I'm a little bit unsure about the origins of the sticker. But in the european hacker community the "CYBER" sticker is used for a bunch of things. Package tape, stickers and security lines.
There is one webshop selling them: https://cyber.equipment/
I just have to believe that you know better than I do what was appropriate at your workplace.
Have a look at this cybervideo for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WY6KkRsS26M
I was at SIGGRAPH many years ago in a line behind some artists. They were talking about how all the engineers dressed the same. This is true. But was also true was that you easily tell the artists as well, they all dressed carefully and differently, within the bounds of their style and were just as easily distinguished.
There's a laptop with multiple Amazon stickers, a laptop with Google Cloud stickers, and another laptop with a "There is no cloud, only other people's computers" sticker, and various self-hosters. There are people with local stickers from many different countries. There are people who care about repairability, people who care about reproducibility, people who have nostalgia for specific technologies, people who would love less of specific technologies, Windows fans, Apple fans, Linux fans, Intel fans, IPv6 fans, heavy metal fans, Pokemon fans, Simpsons fans, television fans, Vim users, tabletop gamers, cycling fans, shoe fans, coffee fans, tea fans, anti-AI people, pro-AI people, anti-blockchain people, pro-blockchain people, people who like to layer stickers, people who like to carefully arrange stickers.
Among the politics alone, there are many many opinions expressed, and I'd bet the owners of those laptops could have vigorous political arguments about the right way to do things.
It is positively ridiculous to ridicule a group of people for being "samey" while also lamenting that they do not support policies which historically aim to keep things the same and assimilate/homogenize those who do not fit into perceived societal norms.
If one of the laptops had a libertarian flag added, suddenly it would become "creative"? All these photos⁰¹²³⁴ are aesthetically distinct. Sure, you can see trends in the website but that's always a thing, specially considering nobody there is designing stickers.
I also find it curious that you conflate social signaling with lack of (true) creativity. If all you ate was bacon, would you sneer at the foodies for making homemade pesto and not unleashing their free will by adding strawberry jam to it?
[0] https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/image-5.jpg
[1] https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/cyberpunkd-chr...
[2] https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/IMG_4174.jpg
[3] https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/PXL_20251111_2...
[4] https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/IMG_4148-1.jpe...
That's the wildcard card option, you never know what you'll get.
But surely the bar to being creative is higher than putting stickers on your laptop. No doubt many of the people here are creative and code creatively, write creatively, draw creatively or make music.
If you said to someone who is a comedian or a writer that you were 'creative too' because of your laptop stickers. Well. C'mon.
The politics shown is interestingly similar. No doubt many and probably most lean left. But not all. I've been worked with many people who code and a significant number are conservative. But I've never seen anyone with a right leaning laptop sticker. Tattoos you see exhibit more variety than these laptop stickers.
I should have added that I have stickers on my laptop. But that is orthogonal to whether I'm creative or not.
Well, the subtitle is "a unique collection of laptops adorned with creative stickers from around the world". Meaning that the sticker themselves are creative, not necessarily the collage, which it also can be art by itself (I wouldn't say it fits here)
>But surely the bar to being creative is higher than putting stickers on your laptop. No doubt many of the people here are creative and code creatively, write creatively, draw creatively or make music.
I think a certain selection and positioning can be creative.
>If you said to someone who is a comedian or a writer that you were 'creative too' because of your laptop stickers. Well. C'mon.
Depends, is the comedian Jerry Seinfeld?
I'm kidding (kinda). I personally understand creativity as something very much lower stakes, but that might be my ESL showing.
I was hoping, though not expecting, to spot it in here.
I sold the same amount at a lower price, but then I was looking at one payout minimum ($25) a year.
The platform I use uses Printful for stickers. They seem to be big enough that they just print it in the facility closest to the customer.
By the time I bought that particular laptop and put that sticker on it, (about 3 years ago now, I guess) Kevin had long since been out of jail, had gone legal and was running his own security consulting company. I put one of those one mostly out of nostalgia and as a conversation starter. Perhaps surprisingly, I've had a modest number of people approach me when I was out in public and ask "Who's Kevin?" or say "Kevin Mitnick, right? Yeah, I remember that guy... I was at DEFCON this one year and ... <conversation ensues>".
I kinda getting back to the place now where I want to revisit The Organization of Behavior. That's the seminal work by Hebb that introduced Hebbian Learning and I'm on this big quest now to revisit a lot of old school approaches to learning & neural networks (in something at least approximating chronological order, although I won't be super strict about it) and code up implementations of each. So basically, some sort of Hebbian Learning system, a "McCulloch & Pitts Neuron", a Perceptron with the Perceptron Convergence Algorithm, Selfridge's Pandemonium Architecture, and so on, gradually working my way up to the current SOTA.
I'm about to finish up the Minsky & Papert Perceptrons book, and once I finish that I will probably read Volume 2 of the Parallel Distributed Processing series, then go back to Hebb.
FWIW, that Memory book was pretty fascinating. The general subject of human memory is, both simply taken for its own sake, and taken as inspiration for approaches to AI. I'm slightly more interested in AI than human memory qua human memory, but in either case it's fascinating material.
https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/IMG_4148-1.jpe...
As corporate principles in general go, they were decent, but frequently they were used to excuse poor behavior, so... Yeah.
Personally I don't find it hard to put stickers on things because I am worried about being silly, but I find defacing an otherwise clean object difficult. Like getting a brand new car or phone and trying very hard not to get a scratch. Once the first scratch is there you stop worrying about it.
Once you put down the first sticker I imagine that worry goes away. I think getting a tattoo is still an insurmountable problem for me personally, but I get it.
Seriously. When I saw this initially posted I was like "Huh, this is cool. I bet HN will share some really neat ones, too!" and then we got... this. People more worried about the type of stickers and whether it's wholly unprofessional to dare to put a harmless sticker on a professional work device than anything else.
It's tiring, sometimes, how ready to be angry about something people seem to be.
Most people don't care.
https://i.ibb.co/TDmXWBpc/Whats-App-Image-2025-11-12-at-11-3...
I was too thorough with the isopropyl alcohol.
I found this site a few days ago and uploaded my laptop, which just so happens to be a ThinkPad X270.
Mine: https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/1000008753-1.j...
I had to get the screen replaced, and no matter how hard I pleaded, Apple refused to give me the old screen back to hang on my nerd wall.
I remain convinced that some Apple tech has a collection of these screens, somewhere, on their own nerd wall.
Grrr...
(Based on what I remember from a books called Tamed by Alice Roberts)
I like to look at stuff personalized like that, but I would never settle on any design for longer, so I don't do it myself.
That would actually be kind of cool, I always end up not being able to make up my mind about what would be worthy.
I've seen a few movies where apple laptops are show with a clear apple logi...
But I've also seen movies where the logos are removed or altered. It would be interesting to see images like that.
Everything else in my life? Covered in them. But my laptops are always pristine. This has always made me faintly sad.
It brings back good memories. It was really a cool idea.
Just be aware of that :)
Self expression is fine, I personally want the most boring looking computer possible
One day the company was giving employees some swag, little retractable lanyard-things, branded with the company name and logo, for each of our anonymous white RFID keycards.
I, uh, escalated my concerns that this meant anyone who stole/found a keycard would also know where they could go use it. For whatever reason, that particular swag stopped being available.
I do sticker the everloving snot out of my (removable) laptop cover with memes vaguely opposing or otherwise orthogonal to the local culture. No references to my job or place of work. Any interactions have generally been amusing to all parties involved.
My work laptop has a hard-to-damage sticker on the bottom with inventory control information. Company name, serial number, hostname suffix, etc
I like them. The ones on my machine are mostly from small, local businesses I enjoy.
At some point, people saw the cool-looking stickered-up laptops and thought they would also look cool and put fun stickers on their laptops to show that they also can google things. This diluted the original social signal value until it was completely ubiquitous, kind of like if everyone started putting whatever patches appeal to them on whatever jacket they wear without any thought to the idea of their origin. By that time, the original sticker-signalers had all moved on to other signals.
Mostly zero stickers, here and there you find some progamming language ones, a tux here and there, kali, anonymous masks, "my other computer is your computer" etc. on security events, i've even seen a phpBB one this year on a relatively new computer, but no trump, lgbt flags and anything anti/nazi related.
That's what I said: events (especially hacking camps) that are not purely tech-focused. We're just going to different kinds of events :)
It results in a bulgier laptop, but still, clever!
I am a bit curious about the amount of politically progressive stickers however. Like, is sticker-ing your laptop just more of a 'progressive' thing to do? Do political conservatives not sticker their laptops in the same way that they generally do with their bumper stickers?
The most common sticker we've got is the infamous "F--- Trudeau" sticker. And I'm even seeing fewer of those these days since he's no longer PM.
"I’ve had a long-standing love of stickers on laptops. I know a lot of you do too! So I built a site to highlight them. At Hope next week I’ll take as many pics (with permission) of the best stickered laptops I can find and post them.
It’s always sad when a laptop gets upgraded, the old one tossed, and that sticker canvas is lost. I’m trying to preserve it.
Please submit pics of your laptops so I can “seed the tip jar,” as it were."
I'm sure there's people out there with laptops blaring their right-wing opinions but I doubt many of them were at a hacker con like HOPE.
If that's conservative ideology, then I guess it is fair to say such ideology might not be appropriate for a workplace. In reality, he just said stupid stuff to be provocative, and tried to post-hoc justify it as vilifying conservatives instead.
In America today, liberals feel very comfortable speaking about their views in public. Conservatives don't.
For laptops at work, everyone has the same IT issued laptop. You go to anything where there's more than one of you, go for a coffee break that runs long, the class does a standing exercise, whatever, the point is the laptops get mixed up. Now there are 29 indistinguishably the same laptop, and one with a sticker on it.
Guess who's getting their laptop back first?
Several years ago, it was new laptop day at the startup I worked for. We didn't have an office as much as a coworking space. When people went to lunch, they just left their new MBAs on this big communal table. Some shut the lid, some didn't even lock the screen but those would've been taken care of in ~5min.
Anyway, I may or may not have switched some laptops around but the point is someone definitely did. Half an hour later people returned. Some of them were instantly confused. Some of them entered a wrong password a couple of times. Some of them were greeted by an unfamiliar Google Chrome window.
I may or may not have wasted a collective forty or so man-minutes in the span of five but I definitely enjoyed watching the confusion unfold.
Decorating things makes them look pretty and covers up the corporate free advertising. It's not any more complicated than that.
The hate on political stickers I get though.
Yeah sure, your laptop is "killing fascists", by you seething on Mastodon or blue sky and writing corporate SaaS slopware.
Crazy that this is one of the first things that came to my mind
I'm fine with self-expression (like with tattoos, which can be super interesting and creative) but am broadly against people shoving their likes/dislikes on everyone's face. I don't have any laptop stickers or bumper stickers and don't wear branded clothing.
Would fit well here judging from some of the sentiments expressed.
The vast majority of people with stickerbombed laptops are either extremists (either side, equally bad in my view), or wanna be techies who are rarely competent.
"Data In the Streets"
"Riker In the Sheets"
lol.
Maybe I am just boring, lol. I did use an original copy of the PGP source code book as a monitor stand though!
My thoughts exactly. It feels very much like they're roleplaying as an ordinary person's idea of a "hacker".
They even showed us this cheesy video showing.
1. A woman chatting up a developer based on their stickers on the laptop they saw earlier. 2. Someone targeting the laptop for theft because of the stickers.
People still do it, but I've only seen it on the junior people trying to express who they are.
Why is it important? A lot of projects took a stance on Russia-Ukraine [1], GitHub blocked the entirety of Iran [2] and I don't doubt that codebases now take a stance on Gaza-Israel.
The top-middle says "NAZI HACKERS FUCK OFF" [3]. They likely mean a new definition of "Nazi", and that could include you. Why point out this sticker particularly? Because it is directly aggressive towards a hacker they perceive to hold that label, and that they have labelled that group with one of the worst possible labels. By doing so, they can justify pretty much any level of aggression through the use of dehumanisation (ironically, a method employed by the Nazis).
The Python Software Foundation refused $1.5mn in funding [5] because they could not agree to be non-political. They would not agree to act without favour. Maybe today this doesn't concern you, but look more closely at the stickers of the people that have infiltrated these institutions. Do you think that you will indefinitely remain on the "good side"?
The Linux Kernel's previous Code of Conflict [6] was quite a rational approach, it was a market place of ideas (contributions) where they did battle. There was no barrier to entry and everybody would be critiqued equally, in the single objective of creating the best possible kernel. Diff this with the current Code of Conduct [7] where there is a barrier to entry, and the focus is on the feelings of the people and not on the quality of the kernel.
We should keep politics out of code entirely, and the quality of the code should speak for itself.
[1] https://github.com/petrussola/help-ukraine-open-source
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/git/comments/ci6ydi/github_banned_a...
[3] https://stickertop.art/content/images/2025/11/IMG_4529-2.jpe...
[5] https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/software/python-reject...
[6] https://lwn.net/Articles/635999/
[7] https://www.kernel.org/doc/html/latest/process/code-of-condu...
It's a bit of a statement for what you're trying to communicate with that lid - professional experience, political statements, personal "this is neat"...
And part of this is a for me the lid of the laptop is something that I'd need to be able to be comfortable with displaying in front of a CxO without worry about if they may be offended or not (though perl might be offensive to some).
Now I'm tempted to make a set of: Perl, COBOL, Java Beans, Java EE, ActiveX, Silverlight, VB.Net, ActiveDirectory, Kerberos, ...
You absolute monster. I'd managed to forget that that had existed.
So far no one has ever been offended by this though. HN is far more sensitive than the average CTO.
That can be a healthy attitude outside of work. People love personality.
But at work, that's not a healthy attitude. You're there to work together, not to be uncompromising in expressing yourself. Your stickers are probably fine, but I can also imagine plenty of musical artists that would certainly be offensive (and rightly so) to some people, whether for their lyrics or for their criminal behavior -- and then the attitude of "that's more your problem than mine" is not gonna fly.
My work quality tanked shortly after because, a) I have ADHD so I was putting 200% into my job to tread water, b) the rampant misogyny and transphobia within the workplace was just suffocating, and c) I dared to use the anonymous reporting system to report people for being shitheads, and I stupidly admitted that to HR. I am 70% sure it was the last point there that got me fired lmao
This kind of shit is why I am no longer aiming to work in tech.
Same. If my stickers serve as a self-filter away from companies I'd rather not work at, or people I'd rather not work with, then that's a positive thing for me.
If someone's offended by, for example, a rainbow sticker on my laptop, well I'd rather not work with them, or for that company. I'll look elsewhere.
I have seen things that came across as misogynistic or very sexually suggestive, however, and the employee had to be asked to remove them.
There are plenty of cases where the problem really is with the employee and the sticker, not the people taking offense.
Just tell those people you're a big fan of Noah and the Old Testament. Then ask them about why they are wearing a cotton blend shirt.
My only point is that the "if someone is offended, that's their problem" attitude is not so black and white. People often use it to justify being an a**hole too. Obviously, gay or trans stickers are not in the category of offensive things. There are things that are appropriate to express, and things that are not. So yeah, sometimes you need to compromise on your self-expression at work because not all of it is appropriate for everyone, you know?
It's at least plausible to taxonomize them under either politics or sexuality. Either of which larger categories some might consider categorically offensive or inappropriate.
Yes, I'm also saying that "vote for $PARTY" (categorically; regardless of which party) and anime catgirls are both potentially offensive or inappropriate. Depending on how much of a stick-in-the-mud people in your local environs are.
Well there was that corporate-approved "bring your whole self to work" thing in recent years.
For my personal shared culture, that is the sort of thing that can be exposed (or hidden) on a case by case basis. My choice of t-shirt where I can button up or down depending on the context says a lot more about me than the lid of my laptop. Granted, it' one message at a time - but there are things that I've had on t-shirts that I made sure to button up before going into the office and seeing the boss (old school, and I still have it - those were durable shirts - https://www.flickr.com/photos/strihs/8536766235/ ). On the other hand, I wouldn't put https://www.spreadshirt.com/shop/design/let+me+work+on+your+... on my laptop no matter how much I agree with it.
I would be amendable to putting a square of #22b7f2 on my laptop, and that opens up an entire discussion if recognized (I'm not quite ambitious or passionate enough to color the entire laptop that color).
In another comment I linked https://imgur.com/a/jWhyBmI as my laptop lid.
My at home and around town laptop can be my canvas.
Even crossing company culture borders could be problematic if one is a consultant or sales engineer or professional services... This is one of those "in the wrong environment, something could scupper a deal - and you don't want that to be pinned on you."
In today's timeline, you'd need to be concerned about what some random TSA agent felt about your stickers and if that might get you pulled aside for additional screening.
I'm not saying either one of them were the deepest of thinkers when choosing the garments for the day, but TSA also isn't employing the deepest of thinkers either, so why poke the hornets' nest
I've heard of similar things before, and had the sense that this was less screeners being dumb and more legislators not fuzz-testing their work.
As someone based outside of the US, I rarely see people with stickers on their laptop. The very vast majority of cars also do not have bumper stickers here (and those that do might have one at most).
We do have a lot of stickers on cars too but it's more common to see them on windows of the car not the car body, and I think in general they're socially quite different to what you'd see in America. More like brand stickers and hobby stuff, or jokes, not so much politics or religion.
I see them at technical conferences in many different parts of the world, with people from many different parts of the world. It's not a US thing.
And many of the sticker pictures on this site appear to be from European countries, including at least Finland and Germany.
The first soft-politico stickers I saw all over cons in the 90s/00s were their 'FUCK MICROSOFT' and 'FUCK GATES' stickers that exploded after the MS/Linux/SCO conflicts.
Before the MS debacles (was there a before?) it was mostly FREE KEVIN everywhere.
..which for reasons lead to 'this machine hacks oligarchies', and 'piss: it's whats for dinner' stickers shown in the link.
Speaking on that : Woodie Guthrie was better at marketing slogans than himself -- kind of interesting to consider how many more people are familiar with the 'This machine...' than his music.
When I was going to these things I tended to avoid 'extreme' ones -- I was often job hunting and didn't need to project an image that may hinder that effort.
Now, my work laptop looks clearly distinct, not just from my own personal laptop, but also from all the identical laptops other people at work bring to meeting rooms.
Considering that background, expect them to look more like a random Berlin lightpost than a conversation piece.
"Back in my day, laptops were about TECHNOLOGY! Where's the conservative stickers!?" Ok, put some "conservative stickers" on your laptop and submit a pic to the site-- no one's stopping you.
I was born in early 90s; all laptops in my memory have weird, silly stickers on them.
... and a duality within the present forms of society in which either expression is interesting enough or leads up to a significant event such that we will remember it in the future. No time has been one-sided as in the way you put it.
Sure, not everyone thought Naziism was good, because you can’t find any political philosophy in human history that everyone has the same opinion about. But it was still seen as a model by millions of people outside Germany until Germany started obviously losing the war.
Those people were wrong.
This isn't some kind of "oh morality is relative and somethings are cultural", it's just objectively wrong, regardless of who or how many people claim to like it.
In your individual opinion. In mine, too, and hopefully everyone else’s here. But the OP was clearly talking about what views are presented as “morally right” by normative social forces, and those clearly differ across time and place, often as political power waxes and wanes.
And even now we see that the normalization of naziism is apparently impossible - I was incredibly cynical about the American right wing happily embracing naziism, but I guess I was partially wrong: there's a schism this week over popular American right wing media figures platforming the nazi Nick Fuentes.
Before modernity, extraordinary violence and propaganda were, well, ordinary. Hitler just made that work on industrial scale, but the underlying moral ideas weren't anything new. During antiquity, people didn't mind slaughtering entire cities. Even more modern history is full shit like that, look up Mongol invasions.
BTW don't you think that it's a little awkward that in modern times "pirates", which were people that'd literally kill seamen for profit, are considered a fun Halloween theme for children? I can imagine that in 500 years Nazi costumes will be similarly normalized.
This is why posting about how “Nazism is objectively immoral, m’kay?" misses the point and can be counterproductive. The whole reason that fascism is a continual spectre is that, it turns out, by appealing to people’s base instincts and cracking heads, a malevolent political form can completely sidestep morality and institute the society it wants to see.
Or were you drawing an equivalence between the two?
It’s interesting the top comment is a self expression against people’s self expression against the self expression of the stickers.
Everything here seems to boil down to self expression. Even the flags and downvotes of the content at the bottom is a form of self expression.
This comment is my self expression about all the inception of self expression.
And now my brain hurts.
BTW I've been following LK for quite a while now and hope to use it sometime in the future. My regular DM is committed to a different platform, but I have a story that might turn into a campaign and I'd sub to LK to run it. Keep up the great work!
I tend to just scroll on if I don't like something, rather than commenting about it. But I would be lying if I said I've never done it. It's a very human thing, on a forum like this that invites open discussion about things it is fine, and pretty obviously if the pictures have a bunch of political messages on them you would not be flabbergasted to see a some political comments. Maybe the comments are cringy, silly, wrong, not aligned with your beliefs, or unnecessary, but seeing hostility in disagreement or dislike is a pretty bad place to be.
I'm not sure why you interpreted my comment in the way that you did.
That's not self-expression. That's being an asshole.
People self-expressing dislike for some content under a link on public forum that explicitly invites comment is not hostility. Making comments and disagreement about politics is not hostility (particularly in response to political content being posted). It just isn't.
If you posted up a page of pictures of "Lifted trucks of West Virginia adorned with creative bumper stickers" here you would get a lot of negative opinions and politcial commentary. That also would not be "weird hostility", it would be completely obvious and understandable preferences and opinions ranging from people who don't like the trucks or covering them with stickers, to those who feel strongly about politics.
Again, you're allowed to discuss things and disagree with them. People aren't assholes or hostile for doing it. Learn to live and let live, no need to try to guilt people about it.
It's not a "scenario" - it's a comparison, an example. It's no different to this forum - people choose to come here. Someone chose to share TFA. People chose to enter these comments and shit on people's design choices and take weird stands about political balance.
> If you posted up a page of pictures of "Lifted trucks of West Virginia adorned with creative bumper stickers" here you would get a lot of negative opinions and politcial commentary. That also would not be "weird hostility", it would be completely obvious and understandable preferences and opinions ranging from people who don't like the trucks or covering them with stickers, to those who feel strongly about politics.
Sure, these are obviously the same...
> Again, you're allowed to discuss things and disagree with them. People aren't assholes or hostile for doing it. Learn to live and let live, no need to try to guilt people about it.
Those people could "learn to live and let live" with regards to people harmlessly putting stickers on their laptops.
Semantics. You invented a scenario and you attempted to make some point that presumably you were unable to make with the situation at hand.
> It's no different to this forum - people choose to come here. Someone chose to share TFA. People chose to enter these comments and shit on people's design choices and take weird stands about political balance.
I think it is different. If it were not different you would not have been compelled to think of it.
> Sure, these are obviously the same...
Now you don't like "comparisons"? It's more similar than your one.
> Those people could "learn to live and let live" with regards to people harmlessly putting stickers on their laptops.
Expressing a dislike for something is not incompatible with live and let live. It is participating in a conversation. It's not hostile, it doesn't need to be guilted or suppressed or name-called.
Not actually responding to the essence of the comparison.
> Now you don't like "comparisons"?
Just bad-faith comparisons that equate "Just Be Yourself" stickers with "I hate fags" stickers
> Expressing a dislike for something is not incompatible with live and let live. It is participating in a conversation. It's not hostile, it doesn't need to be guilted or suppressed or name-called.
Again, if you consider a group of people sharing their art between each other and having a conversation about it, and someone comes in and is like "This art is stupid." that is hostile. That is exactly what is happening here.
The comparison was a bad-faith strawman that did not reflect the conversation here. In that situation a person might be an asshole, possibly even hostile. That does not automatically make these commenters hostile assholes, that's just the height of intellectual laziness.
> Just bad-faith comparisons that equate "Just Be Yourself" stickers with "I hate fags" stickers
No I didn't make that comparison, and you're a nasty and intellectually dishonest person for trying to say I did.
> Again, if you consider a group of people sharing their art between each other and having a conversation about it, and someone comes in and is like "This art is stupid." that is hostile. That is exactly what is happening here.
No that's not hostile. Somebody submitted this content inviting the HN community to comment on it and oh my god not everybody loves it. Some even hate it and are blunt about it. That's not weird hostility, it's people self-expressing their dislike of things in not always polite terms. Like some of these laptop stickers are doing.
I didn't see any Java or COBOL or even .NET stickers, but there was at least a fairly clean one with a Sun sticker. And some Debian stickers, but those were a bit more cluttered. And maybe even that one with the cat around the Apple logo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought-terminating_clich%C3%A...
In any case, the point is moot, now. I switched to using a desktop, in my last upgrade since retiring.
Covers are a possibility, but Apple always used to make minor changes to the laptop layout, so you could seldom reuse a cover.
Hmm... Does the current crop of Apple laptops have a glowing Apple logo? ... and is there a HAL sticker that has a red lens in the middle that would glow red if I put it over the Apple logo?
Hard to believe that was ever the case!
Iconic photo from 2007: https://macdailynews.com/2007/10/02/lecture_hall_photo_shows...
On the PowerBook G3 and prior, the logo was facing toward you when you're looking at your own computer closed on the desk. Once you open it, it was upside down for anyone else looking at you.
(Some of the stickers are kind of cool, but I just can’t understand the logic behind thinking your MacBook #12,372 with a Python sticker on the back is worth flaunting online)
Sometimes it’s fun to just enjoy something, and to share that you enjoyed it. These pictures aren’t here to impress anyone, they’re here because each one is a record of someone who had a bit of fun decorating their laptop, and an invitation to share in the fun. It doesn’t have to be more complicated than that.
Also, I’m under no illusion that my comments are anything but digital detritus, but at least comments here have the potential to be valuable (to me), I’m not sure about laptop stickers.