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While this article presents it in a humorous way, some air traffic control systems actually do use a diagonally rotated screen, with that "long line" being line

While this article presents it in a humorous way, some air traffic control systems actually do use a diagonally rotated screen, with that "long line" being lined up with the primary approach to the airport. The setup I got to observe involved large displays that worked with stylus input. These weren't ultra-widescreen displays; they were relatively standard aspect-ratio displays, rotated at an angle.

bobowzki 3y ago
I would love to see a photo of this setup.
- greggsy 3y ago
  I just scrolled through half a dozen ATC tower tour videos on YouTube and didn't see any skewed displays, but it's possible that they 1) they tidied it up for the tour, or 2) they just didn't apply this approach in those particular sites. I'm still very interested to see this novel application.
  - mike256 3y ago
    I think most replaced them with ultra wide screens
  - marcosdumay 3y ago
    I've been in a few airport towers in Brazil, and never seen a diagonal screen. It may be a regional thing, or a small clique. Or it may be best for some software that is long gone.
    - bobowzki 3y ago
      Really, I would be pretty interested to hear your story. I've been a lot to Brazil.
      - marcosdumay 3y ago
        It's not that interesting, I used to work inspecting airport fire-fighters. That required talking to the people on the tower.
  - JoshTriplett 3y ago
    This was more than a decade ago, and they may have moved to a different approach since then. At the time of the tour I took, ultra-widescreen monitors didn't exist. IIRC it was a large Wacom or similar display.
Cthulhu_ 3y ago
I tried to google as well (like another commenter), I did find a lot of 1:1 ratio screens though; I wouldn't mind that I think.
- bboygravity 3y ago
  I use a phone with a 1:1 screen. Unihertz Titan in case you're curious.
  - walteweiss 3y ago
    Tell us more! Why is so, is it useful?
    - ponector 3y ago
      The second question is about keyboard. Is it useful?
  - meowface 3y ago
    This is not a complaint about the phone but, God, visiting that website is a nightmare. Immediately hit with a sudden sound notification, a chat widget, a popup, and random decorations scattered all over the screen. https://i.imgur.com/CgOMjio.png https://i.imgur.com/CgOMjio.png
    - pwg 3y ago
      UblockOrigin - set to default block all javascript on the website, and one gets no "sudden sound notification", no "chat widget", no "popup" and no "random decorations".
  - somat 3y ago
    The blackberry passport had a square screen as well, I thought it was pretty great.
- intrasight 3y ago
  I was involved in the US air traffic control system upgrade in the early 90s as a software subcontractor. They were using Sony 2k square CRT monitors. If I recall correctly, they cost about $20k each - in 1990 dollars - partially due to the hardware subsystem for antialiasing. Googling, I see that this is the replacement monitor: https://www.aydindisplays.com/2k-x-2k-air-traffic-control-display https://www.aydindisplays.com/2k-x-2k-air-traffic-control-di...
michaelcampbell 3y ago
Interesting. This is why I don't understand why people either choose to, or have set for them, GPS/mapping apps and run them on a device in landscape mode, IF you have the setting that "up" is the direction you are heading as opposed to "North" Me, I want to maximize what is "ahead", not off to the sides where I'm not driving.
- syndicatedjelly 3y ago
  I learned to navigate primarily using cardinal directions, before handheld GPS was common. When I walk around a new city, I find it easier to look at google maps to figure out the cardinal direction I need to travel, as opposed to remembering a series of turns that are relative to each other. That’s assuming the sun is out or a compass is available
  - michaelcampbell 3y ago
    Sure, I do too, but that's more a lay of the land thing for me. When I'm going to a specific place and I don't really care much about what's between me and it, I'll go "relative directions". I know ahead of time the ~direction I'm going, and the GPS is to tell me what's coming up, so I want it "ahead". I guess the apps could be tweaked to do both; show cardinal direction, but put "here" near the edge of the screen that maximizes the distance forward. I suspect it's not because "here" is always on the same spot on your screen the way it is, which is a UX consideration as well.

bobowzki 3y ago

I would love to see a photo of this setup.

greggsy 3y ago
I just scrolled through half a dozen ATC tower tour videos on YouTube and didn't see any skewed displays, but it's possible that they 1) they tidied it up for the tour, or 2) they just didn't apply this approach in those particular sites. I'm still very interested to see this novel application.
- mike256 3y ago
  I think most replaced them with ultra wide screens
- marcosdumay 3y ago
  I've been in a few airport towers in Brazil, and never seen a diagonal screen. It may be a regional thing, or a small clique. Or it may be best for some software that is long gone.
  - bobowzki 3y ago
    Really, I would be pretty interested to hear your story. I've been a lot to Brazil.
    - marcosdumay 3y ago
      It's not that interesting, I used to work inspecting airport fire-fighters. That required talking to the people on the tower.
- JoshTriplett 3y ago
  This was more than a decade ago, and they may have moved to a different approach since then. At the time of the tour I took, ultra-widescreen monitors didn't exist. IIRC it was a large Wacom or similar display.

Cthulhu_ 3y ago

I tried to google as well (like another commenter), I did find a lot of 1:1 ratio screens though; I wouldn't mind that I think.

bboygravity 3y ago
I use a phone with a 1:1 screen. Unihertz Titan in case you're curious.
- walteweiss 3y ago
  Tell us more! Why is so, is it useful?
  - ponector 3y ago
    The second question is about keyboard. Is it useful?
- meowface 3y ago
  This is not a complaint about the phone but, God, visiting that website is a nightmare. Immediately hit with a sudden sound notification, a chat widget, a popup, and random decorations scattered all over the screen. https://i.imgur.com/CgOMjio.png https://i.imgur.com/CgOMjio.png
  - pwg 3y ago
    UblockOrigin - set to default block all javascript on the website, and one gets no "sudden sound notification", no "chat widget", no "popup" and no "random decorations".
- somat 3y ago
  The blackberry passport had a square screen as well, I thought it was pretty great.
intrasight 3y ago
I was involved in the US air traffic control system upgrade in the early 90s as a software subcontractor. They were using Sony 2k square CRT monitors. If I recall correctly, they cost about $20k each - in 1990 dollars - partially due to the hardware subsystem for antialiasing. Googling, I see that this is the replacement monitor: https://www.aydindisplays.com/2k-x-2k-air-traffic-control-display https://www.aydindisplays.com/2k-x-2k-air-traffic-control-di...

michaelcampbell 3y ago

Interesting. This is why I don't understand why people either choose to, or have set for them, GPS/mapping apps and run them on a device in landscape mode, IF you have the setting that "up" is the direction you are heading as opposed to "North" Me, I want to maximize what is "ahead", not off to the sides where I'm not driving.

syndicatedjelly 3y ago
I learned to navigate primarily using cardinal directions, before handheld GPS was common. When I walk around a new city, I find it easier to look at google maps to figure out the cardinal direction I need to travel, as opposed to remembering a series of turns that are relative to each other. That’s assuming the sun is out or a compass is available
- michaelcampbell 3y ago
  Sure, I do too, but that's more a lay of the land thing for me. When I'm going to a specific place and I don't really care much about what's between me and it, I'll go "relative directions". I know ahead of time the ~direction I'm going, and the GPS is to tell me what's coming up, so I want it "ahead". I guess the apps could be tweaked to do both; show cardinal direction, but put "here" near the edge of the screen that maximizes the distance forward. I suspect it's not because "here" is always on the same spot on your screen the way it is, which is a UX consideration as well.