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- Path: sparky!uunet!munnari.oz.au!uniwa!john
- From: john@gu.uwa.edu.au (John West)
- Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers
- Subject: Re: Superstitions: power cycling, screen savers, surge suppressors
- Date: 23 Nov 1992 03:15:21 GMT
- Organization: The University of Western Australia
- Lines: 33
- Message-ID: <1epic9INNki1@uniwa.uwa.edu.au>
- References: <By3EGq.Ko6@world.std.com>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: mackerel.gu.uwa.edu.au
-
- dpbsmith@world.std.com (Daniel P. B. Smith) writes:
-
- >Screen-savers. A very clever way of providing a market for display hacks.
- >And a very useful justification for people who just enjoy having neat
- >stuff on their screen. No doubt screen-savers actually ARE needed on some
- >CRT's, particular the older point-plotting and stroke-tracing models in
- >which all of the beam current was going into a tiny area. But what about
- >stock CRT's in normal use on PC's and Macintoshes? If they're really
- >NECESSARY why aren't they designed into the hardware? I've seen a classic
- >(1984, monochrome) Mac that was essentially left on 24 hours a day for years,
- >and the menu bar had darkened just a bit -- but it didn't matter when the
- >menu bar was being DISPLAYED in normal use.
-
- They are essential. We've got a monitor (monochrome) that was used for a
- couple of years as the display on our BBS box. You can still see the 'I'm
- waiting for a connection' screen.
- Perhaps someone should mention the Atari games that went into colour cycling
- mode if left alone too long.
-
- >Surge suppressors. Again, I have to wonder why the manufacturers don't
- >design them in; it should be the responsibility of the computer's own
- >power supply to handle this. And why should a PC need a surge suppressor,
- >but not a CD player, a VCR, a video game machine, etc. all of which contain
- >similar electronics?
-
- Because when a CD player gets hit, it goes 'BLUUURRP', and stops playing. You
- then press the 'Play' button again. When your computer gets hit, you lose your
- data/program/whatever it is that you don't want to lose. They don't design them
- in because they are too expensive, and most people don't need them.
-
- John West
- --
- For the humour impaired: Insert a :-) after every third word
-