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Once when doing tech support at a local hospital, one of the nurses called us stating that she had "some sort of weather report" up in a window on screen, but s
by once_inc 3y ago
Once when doing tech support at a local hospital, one of the nurses called us stating that she had "some sort of weather report" up in a window on screen, but she couldn't click it away because the most would go under the screen. Obviously piquing my interest, I told her not to touch the computer until I arrived.
Since the hospital was quite big, it took me about 10 minutes to reach her workstation, where she exclaimed that "the window closed on its own a minute ago. I swear it was on there for half an hour".
That, coupled with the layout of the desk, the description of the window led me to a hypothesis. I pressed the button on the monitor (which she had unknowingly pressed with the corner of her keyboard) which called up the system menu of the display. It showed 100% sun (brightness). The mouse would go under it.
Then, I hiked back another 10 minutes to await the next phone call.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- c22 3y agoI had to do a tech support call once where 'the screen keeps glitching out I think I have a virus' (The Net was still in theaters). I showed up, removed the boombox with two large speakers from on top of the CRT and like magic the problem was solved!
- nyanpasu64 3y agoI have the misfortune of my rescued VGA CRT displaying incorrect colors in the corners, unless I either leave magnets on the screen, or flip the magnets while degaussing and remove them before using the display.
- tomcam 3y agoWell now I need to know what you can use a VGA for these days
- arcanemachiner 3y ago640x480, but that's not important right now.
- gtk40 3y agoWorks great in old conference rooms... I have a USB-C VGA adapter in my bag still.
- selcuka 3y agoMAME cabinet.
- NavinF 3y agoA VGA CRT? Free flyback transformer
- tomcam 3y agoTethered balsa wood levitation FTW
- nyanpasu64 3y agoCRT gaming is fun, both for older console and PC gaming, and even modern games to a degree. The colors are richer than cheap LCDs, the scanlines and/or smoothing act as a beauty filter over visuals, and the strobed image produces unmatched motion clarity (outside of modern gaming monitors with backlight/OLED strobing modes) though it can get uncomfortable for 60fps games (or god forbid 50fps PAL). I've written about it at my blog, at https://nyanpasu64.gitlab.io/blog/crt-appearance-tv-monitor/ https://nyanpasu64.gitlab.io/blog/crt-appearance-tv-monitor/.
- tomcam 3y agoEven though I am very happy with soulless digital LCD displays, you make some compelling points. That was a fascinating blog entry.
- fencepost 3y agoFor the larger ones, heating a room.
- mulmen 3y agoI also did tech support in a hospital. I'm not sure IT is a value add in that environment, at least not as much as IT thinks it is. Nurses are busy doing things like saving lives and caring for people experiencing the worst day of their life. On top of that nurses have to deal with poorly implemented and maintained workstations. Then when they ask for help the very people who created the problem in the first place come and belittle them. I'm not accusing you of anything. Just noting my own perception that IT people tend to be very smug and see the world from an IT-centric perspective. Nurses aren't dumb and they certainly aren't lazy. They just have better things to do with their time than deal with inconsequential IT issues. As I recall everything in the hospital that was actually critical to providing care had some specialist that maintained the system. The computer running the MRI machine wasn't bound to Active Directory and might not even be on the network. Issues with it were routed to GE, not the guy that fixes printers.
- tiffanyg 3y agoHa - I know where you're coming from, but, like every opinionated SOB on this site, can't help but throw in my own opinion*: 1) The parent comment seems completely neutral and non-judgmental. Seems quite just "I had this experience", essentially a set of facts (compared to frequent enough comments that possibly really ought to generate a response / "note of approbation"). 2) Stereotypes are the epitome of judgmental thinking, language, attitudes, etc. That may sound judgmental itself, and I apologize for that - that's due, in part, to connotation "issues" with words we use (although, I can't, obviously, claim that even removing those removes all of that issue - I am literally labeling and characterizing strictly in denotation). To be fair, people, in general, can be very smug. In my experience, there has been an "enrichment" of that in "IT", but, for example, try talking to some of the especially high-ranking surgeons, say ... or, certain professors. In particular, I've personally come across a somewhat bimodal distribution, I think. Some people who reach "very high levels of expertise" are very humble ("right-sized" - not subservient or etc.) and super nice (surprisingly willing to help and talk to even "the layman" / "novice"). Then, there are the outright "arrogant bastards". So, to add some kind of summation - calling out "IT people" specifically, and especially the parent comment ... well, what's the point? Again - not meant to be rhetorical or aggressive ... but, I think many would agree that people in general should cut that $h1t out. This opinion brought to you by my "Big Giant Head... remember, when you're thinking of giant heads, think [my] Big Giant Head..."** * Which, we all know is likely to be comparable to ... something else everyone's got. Though, I'm telling myself, of course, that I've got something useful to say. "Caveat lector". :) ** With apologies to the writers and other people involved in making "3rd Rock from the Sun"
- nuancebydefault 3y agoNice story! Sounds like the more advanced version of the "my 4x-labeled cupholder is broken" story of the nineties. In fact the nurse gave a quite accurate description of events i might add.