[CLUE-Tech] Hardware question: monitor

[Jed S. Baer]

On 13 Aug 2002 15:06:32 -0600
Jeremiah Stanley <lists at miah.org> wrote:

> If anybody else has read 'Cryptonomicon' by Neal Stephenson you'll
> recall a part of the book where they describe a character who's vision
> was terrible and he would switch resolutions on his monitor multiple
> times per day. One day, it just exploded in his face. This isn't meant
> to scare you, but can a vacuum tube really do that?

Well, given that it's a vacuum, air pressure would tend, initially, to
suck the fragments inwards (implosion). However, the rebounds might not be
something I'd want my head in the way of. The rapid and sudden air
movement probably causes unpredictable currents, carrying shards, and bits
of phosphor, in various directions.

I can't imagine switching between supported resolutions (i.e. refresh
rates, actually) could cause any physical damage. Whether "overclocking"
your monitor could actually cause the tube to fracture, I don't know. I
wouldn't guess for such a spectacular failure mode.

Oh, BTW, my Sony monitor makes audible "mode shift" noises too.

jed

-- 
We're frogs who are getting boiled in a pot full of single-character
morphemes, and we don't notice. - Larry Wall; Perl6, Apocalypse 5