Xref: utzoo sci.physics:5992 comp.terminals:1098
Path: utzoo!yunexus!geac!sean
From: sean@geac.UUCP (Sean Phelan)
Newsgroups: sci.physics,comp.terminals
Subject: terminals in southern hemisphere
Message-ID: <6569@geac.UUCP>
Date: 14 Feb 89 17:14:25 GMT
Article-I.D.: geac.6569
References: <1274@sri-arpa.ARPA>
Reply-To: sean@geac.UUCP (Sean Phelan)
Organization: Geac Computers, Markham, Ontario Canada
Lines: 31

I've just received a message from a colleague in Australia.  The local
representative of Wyse Technology, whose terminals we are starting to 
use all over the world, is saying that the terminals have to be aligned
differently in the Southern hemisphere, because the magnetic flux of the 
Earth goes the opposite way.

Now, this sounds to me like complete b*llsh*t, perhaps the kind of story
a salesman uses to get a local order.  When I try dividing the Earth's
magnetic flux into it's x,y,z vector components and look at how they
affect a terminal, I conclude that a North facing terminal in the Northern
hemisphere is going to be affect in EXACTLY the same way as a South facing
terminal in the Southern hemisphere.

However, I might have overlooked something.  So my questions to the Net are :

Does a terminal experience any effects from the Earth's magnetic field, and
if so do these effect differ between the Northern and Southern hemispheres ? 

Thanks,

Sean

PS - if, as I very strongly suspect, the Wyse salesman is just trying it on,
     I would NOT suggest that anybody call their Wyse rep. complaining that
     they have received a Southern hemisphere terminal at a Northern
     hemisphere site.  To do so would be very irresponsible indeed.
     I advise against it.
-- 
Sean Phelan 		Geac Computer Corporation, Markham, Ontario
sean@geac
{uunet!mnetor,yunexus,unicus,utgpu}!geac!sean