In a lighter vein...
Does anyone know anything about LCD displays? I use a notebook, as most of you know, and my understanding is that if you don't allow the display to sleep during periods of inactivity, you can shorten the life of the display. If I turn the screen down instead of letting it sleep, will I extend the life of the display that way, or does it need to sleep completely to get the life-extending effect?
Posted by Zathras at February 27, 2004 10:20 PMIf you shake it, sh-sh-sh-shake it like a Polaroid it'll develop faster!
Posted by: Shaw at February 27, 2004 10:35 PMHmm... Where did you learn that about LCDs; how long are they supposed to last? I've never heard of that method of life extension. The closest I could come from Googling info on LCDs was a warning to *not* leave them on, as that can cause burn-in on many models. I've also had two notebooks hang around for several years without much in the way of screen degredation (well, until I killed the older one by dumping a drink into it) -- so considering you usually sell your systems within a couple of years, is it really that much of a concern...?
Posted by: Moggy at February 27, 2004 11:04 PMI know about burn-in on LCDs -- I had that effect on my first notebook (I found out the hard way, unfortunately). On the up side, the "burn in" did fade eventually, after I started using a screen saver.
The only thing I've ever read about this was that, in the OS X System Preferences, it simply warns that "not letting your display sleep may shorten its life". Of course, "shorten its life" could mean a lot of different things (burn in, losing brightness, what?)
You're probably right that it's not something for me to be concerned about, since I don't keep computers for a super long time, but you know how I am about keeping my computers as perfect as I possibly can. *chuckle*
Posted by: Zathras at February 27, 2004 11:08 PM"Preferences, it simply warns that "not letting your display sleep may shorten its life"."
Interesting -- I interpret that as meaning "not turning your display off" instead, and the life-shortening being things like burn-in that come from leaving it on. I can't think of what else might go wrong with one that isn't just user damage.
Posted by: Moggy at February 28, 2004 01:41 AMRight... well, "sleep", obviously, just means the computer shutting off the display instead of you doing it yourself... and of course, there's no on/off switch for the display on a notebook in any event.
In addition to burn-in, LCD screens will eventually lose their brightness as they age (just as CRTs do). I just don't know whether those effects of aging are slowed down by dimming your screen. Might Google it sometime, but it's not a high priority.
Posted by: Zathras at February 28, 2004 10:11 AM