8.07.2007

One thing that's really changed for the better over the years.

The 19" ViewSonic on my main desktop crapped out last year and, being lazy, rather than go out and buy a new monitor, I just pirated the 17" Mitsubishi from my backup machine. After getting used to the 19-incher, going back to a 17" monitor was like staring into a postage stamp.

This makes the whiff of nostalgia from playing Master of Orion II on my Mac Performa 636CD even stronger; I remember when the Apple MultiScan 14" display was, if not high-end, at least an average monitor. Now it makes the 17" Mitsubishi look like a drive-in theater screen by comparison. And were all monitors so curved back then? This thing's like looking at a fisheye lens. I'm spoiled by flat screens. Oddly the effect is nowhere near as bad on older all-in-one Macs; you expect to be staring at a bitty screen with those, and the effect is kind of twee.

1 comment:

Don M said...

My employer, "Large Multinational Corporation" fly me from Palmdale CA to El Segundo CA (near LAX) once or twice a week. When I get to the El Segundo site, i have to use a laptop. On good days, I don't need to go to El Segundo, so have a 19 inch monitor at my usual desk, and a 15 inch at home.

Add to that I have trifocal lenses, and my eyes get tired, so need more magnification as I move through my day. I shift through the lenses trying to find the combination that works for me this hour. That means I have 9 alternative ways of viewing a screen, and 2 ways of looking at dead tree text. After a few hours at work my neck is sore from imitating the little dog in the back shelf of a Buick, with his head going up and down, up and down...