Screen saver with LCD monitor still useful?????
I wonder if a screen saver with a LCD monitor still useful is. With CRT monitors the screen saver helped not to burn in a picture, but that reason is not anymore with LCD. A screen saver is fine, if somebody enters your office and so not "destructed" from your current work on the screen. However, a hot key to blank out the screen or start a screen saver would (in my opinion) be better, than a permanent process, taking cpu cycles and memory away from your current work! bye Ronald Wiplinger
On Tuesday 31 October 2006 14:48, Ronald Wiplinger wrote:
I wonder if a screen saver with a LCD monitor still useful is.
With CRT monitors the screen saver helped not to burn in a picture, but that reason is not anymore with LCD.
A screen saver is fine, if somebody enters your office and so not "destructed" from your current work on the screen. However, a hot key to blank out the screen or start a screen saver would (in my opinion) be better, than a permanent process, taking cpu cycles and memory away from your current work!
Lucky for you Linux has what you want. Many Linux screen savers support hot-spots (usually upper corners), where you can move the mouse to trigger some event like start the screen saver, lock the screen, etc. Check it out. -- _____________________________________ John Andersen
Hi, On Tuesday 31 October 2006 20:57, John Andersen wrote:
On Tuesday 31 October 2006 14:48, Ronald Wiplinger wrote:
I wonder if a screen saver with a LCD monitor still useful is.
With CRT monitors the screen saver helped not to burn in a picture, but that reason is not anymore with LCD.
That's not strictly true. Some LCD screens also exhibit burn-in effects.
A screen saver is fine, if somebody enters your office and so not "destructed" from your current work on the screen. However, a hot key to blank out the screen or start a screen saver would (in my opinion) be better, than a permanent process, taking cpu cycles and memory away from your current work!
Nothing is "taken away." At least nothing measurable.
Lucky for you Linux has what you want. Many Linux screen savers support hot-spots (usually upper corners), where you can move the mouse to trigger some event like start the screen saver, lock the screen, etc. Check it out.
Yes, but it requires some patience. On this machine, there's about a 12-second delay between putting the cursor in the hot-point and the screen saver activating.
John Andersen
Randall Schulz
On Tuesday 31 October 2006 17:48, Ronald Wiplinger wrote:
I wonder if a screen saver with a LCD monitor still useful is. I'll bite...
Wonder about your screen saver for an LCD monitor do you? Wonder no longer! The way you "save" an LCD (TFT) monitor is by blanking it--- that is, by blanking the back light--- by turning off the Cold Cathode Flourescent Lamp. Screen savers are interesting (esp on Linux) and they're pretty. But they don't save anything when running a monitor with a CCFL. The best way to save the life of your LCD (TFT CCFL) is to blank it out when not in use. This saves (extends) the life of the CCFL primarily, and it cuts operating costs by allowing the cpu to run cooler, and by allowing the CCFL inverter to run cooler. Typical life expectancy for a standard CCFL tube is about four years... and lots of them are going out much faster than the average. Why? Because folks run screen savers instead of blanking the tube. I blank the tube on my R30 ThinkPad... and the tube lasted a little over 5.5 years. I replaced the tube myself for $9.00, but it was a pain in the neck (the LCD monitor in a laptop is typically not designed for easy maintenance). Let's say you're the manager of a telephone support center and you have 500 CPUs running screen savers during idle times (like maybe over-night) sucking up cpu cycles (generating extra heat). By blanking the CCFL tubes (no screen no screen saver) the CCFL (and inverter) is not converting electrical energy into heat, and the extra cpu cycles are not converting electrical energy into heat---- times 500. (The electric bill will be a little lower... not a lot, but a little.) Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) needed a screen saver to keep the electron raster from burning the phosphor coating on the face of the display tube. LCDs (TFTs with CCFL backlight) do not require the save "fix". Just turn the backlight off. -- Kind regards, M Harris <><
M Harris wrote:
Cathode Ray Tubes (CRTs) needed a screen saver to keep the electron raster from burning the phosphor coating on the face of the display tube.
That was before DPMS. It is also better for a CRT monitor to go into powersave mode, blanking the screen, powering to a minimal power use, keeping the filament heated for quick startup times, etc. IMO, screensavers are a big (but pretty) waste of resources. -- Joe Morris Registered Linux user 231871
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 The Wednesday 2006-11-01 at 17:39 +0800, Joe Morris (NTM) wrote:
That was before DPMS. It is also better for a CRT monitor to go into powersave mode, blanking the screen, powering to a minimal power use, keeping the filament heated for quick startup times, etc. IMO, screensavers are a big (but pretty) waste of resources.
An intermediate way is to allow the screen server to run for a little time, then blank the screen using dpms. - -- Cheers, Carlos E. R. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.2 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Made with pgp4pine 1.76 iD8DBQFFSj7QtTMYHG2NR9URAiKLAKCLpeDxdQ0MlqlQgHWIHsmimyZS2QCgmHi6 3UGRfjTjbmpBLFjQ4hVrMyI= =XF7+ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
participants (6)
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Carlos E. R. -
Joe Morris (NTM) -
John Andersen -
M Harris -
Randall R Schulz -
Ronald Wiplinger