BYTE.com > Chaos Manor > 2004
Getting an Eyeful
By Jerry Pournelle
September 27, 2004
(Getting an Eyeful
: Page 1 of 1 )
Column 290 (Continued from the Previous Week)
Flattening Out
I have used 21-inch monitors for a long time; indeed I have used the same monitors. My wife has a Nokia that I've had since Dvorak and I went north of the Arctic Circle for the announcement of the new Nokia monitor line (which they subsequently sold to ViewSonic). I'm writing this using an NEC "MultiSync XP21" and that very word "MultiSync" indicates that this is a pretty old system; I believe I have had it for nearly ten years, and it still works as well as ever.
Actually, NEC still uses the term "MultiSync" for some of their products, but I am sure they have forgotten the origin of the term: way back when, PC systems could do color in CGA and EGA, and switching between them was a pain; NEC MultiSync monitors did it automatically. Eventually both were replaced by VGA and we all felt relieved.
We also have other ViewSonic monitors, an Hitachi 21-inch I have had literally since the earthquake destroyed its predecessor, and an Eizo Flexscan that has a sticker proclaiming that "Eizo is Nanao's new brand name"; I believe they changed that name about ten years ago. And finally, the monitor on the workstand where we bring up new systems has been an Intergraph for longer than I can remember. Every one of those monitors has endured rough treatment, power failures, being plugged into strange systems, and being moved around from place to place.
In other words, monitors last a long time, which is why you may as well get a good one to begin with, since the cost per year is going to be pretty low. Nowadays it's pretty hard to spend much money on a glass bottle monitor anyway, and since it will last forever don't even consider el cheapo monitors. Get the best.
The problem is that 21-inch glass bottle monitors are big. They are heavy, and most are deep. Some modern monitors are shorter, which means steeper angles for the guns and expensive electronics to correct convergence, but even those are fairly deep.
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