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From: fangchin@leland.Stanford.EDU (Chin Fang)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware,comp.sys.amiga.hardware
Subject: Re: TURN COMPUTER OFF OR LEAVE ON?
Message-ID: <1991Jun7.221116.2440@leland.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 7 Jun 91 22:11:16 GMT
References: <1991May24.033650.15836@cbnewsc.att.com> <rfgh47.@rpi.edu>  <20114@rsiatl.Dixie.Com> <1991May25.151636.679@monu0.cc.monas  <1991Jun4.210249.1190@newserve.cc.binghamton.edu> <91156.110456GUTEST8@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be> <1991Jun6.003043.28563@gucis.sct.gu.edu.a
Sender: news@leland.Stanford.EDU (Mr News)
Organization: AIR, Stanford University, CA 94305 USA
Lines: 47

In article <1991Jun7.163234.3445@val.com>, ben@val.com (Ben Thornton) writes:
|> anthony@gucis.sct.gu.edu.au (Anthony Thyssen) writes:
|> 
|> >GUTEST8@cc1.kuleuven.ac.be (Ives Aerts) writes:
|> >>On the point of screen blankers. We have here a little network
|> >>of ps2/s running aix (ibm's version of unix) and they too have
|> >>a screen blanker installed under x-windows. But.... the screen
|> >>'blanker' displays a WHITE screen with a moving black X on it |||
|> >>What's the point ? Burning in the screen as hard as you can
|> >>while the user isn't there ????? Someone who can explain this ?
|> >>------------------------------------------------------------------------
|> >Only static (unchanging) displays burn in  the screen as the same pixels
|> >would always be on. A moving display uses different pixels and only a small
|> >number normally, thus the image is not `burned' into the screen. 
|> 
|> No, the 'burn' is cause by bombardment of phosphors by electrons.  This is
|> what makes them illuminate, but it is also what causes them to burn.
|> Over time, any crt's phosphors will burn in this fashion, unless the
|> filament (yes, it's a fire bottle) dies first.
|> 
|> Although motion in the video reduces the average number of electrons that
|> strike any given phosphor point, it is the absolute number of bombardments
|> that matter.  Motion of the picture content, therefore, does not prevent
|> phosphor burns, it merely postpones it.
|> 
|> 
For people using X windows on their Intel 386 based machines (MCA, ISA, EISA)
there is no reason why you have to suffer the white background.  Just put in
xsetroot -solid {NavyBlue, DarkGreen, Black ...... } in your .xsession or .xinitrc
files you should be fine.  There are other ways too as there are so many ways to
customize the appearance of X windows.  Try it.  If it fails, it's IBM's fault and
then it's time to man -k - :-(.

BTW, at large multiple platform site like us, (Academic Information Resources)
we always leave our workstations, with their expansive  SONY Trinitron (R) 
monitors ON 365 days a years.  No off.  (You need to replace them every few years
anyway, like four or so.  Therefore leaving it on or off, burn in or not, does
not really matter that much I guess.  We do try to make screen blank when it's 
not used however, and we have screen blanckers for our SUN SPARCs, IBM RISC 6000s
and DEC 3100s.)

Regards,

Chin Fang
AIR,
Stanford University
fangchin@lelend.stanford.edu