Cathode Ray Tubes

I sat in front of a computer monitor for two hours as part of my appointment. It took me a moment to multiply the monitor in front of my by the total number in the hospital and figure out how wasteful cathode ray tubes (CRTs) really are.

Why are CRTs still being used? I mean, isn’t this 60-year-old technology? LCDs blow them away in almost every respect and we’re still using these huge, heavy boxes for displays.

When I was at my trade show last week, I stared into the beautiful image from a leased HP flat-screen LCD. I stopped for a moment to marvel at the crispness of the image: it was so clear it was amazing. No CRT can compare.

CRTs are big, heavy, hot, prone to failure, suck up outrageous amounts of electricity, and once they’re spent, they drip toxic materials into landfills for decades.

When a CRT is finished, you can’t pay someone to take it from you. The state surplus office is a good example of this. On any given day, you can find bins full of monitors for sale at $5 apiece. No one touches them. Piled on the pavement outside is a pile of 30 old CRTs, relics which are only fit to be buried in a landfill, where they’ll slowly leak their mercury and lead into the groundwater.

At one point, the argument was that LCDs were too expensive, but the gap between the two has lessened significantly. The extra you might pay for an LCD over a CRT could quickly be made up in electricity and cooling costs. Not to mention having a much longer lifetime than a CRT.

The FCC’s decision to make the nation’s older televisions obsolete will have disastrous effects on our groundwater. We need to make sure there are appropriate measures in place so that these dangerous materials are handled properly.

I’m happy to see the CRT go the way of the dinosaur, but only so far: they should be extinct but not buried.

Daytime TV is for Losers

On to the blogging:

Daytime TV was on the waiting room’s tube, and it was driving me nuts. I wanted to click it off, but doing so would’ve killed what little entertainment the other patients had.

And what kind of advertisers want to target couch potatoes with no jobs? From the looks of it, more than a few scummy, predatory lenders. Ol’ Toyota of Durham was also there and fit right in.
Continue reading

Hurry Up And Wait

I spent some time at UNC Hospitals today for some GI appointments I’d scheduled. Most of the time was spent waiting. I had hours today to do some thinking and/or blogging, so that’s what I did.

I watched a spontaneous conversation occur between an elderly gentleman in a wheelchair and a young woman sitting next to him. She knew all about the cast he was wearing, because she had had one just like it. They seemed to have little else in common: different races, different ages, different genders. But after five minutes, they could’ve been best of friends.

It was a highlight to see that in a hospital, what I usually consider to be a dreary setting.

in Uncategorized | 118 Words | Comment

Irish Reunion

My parents, aunts and uncles, and grandmother, hopped a plane this morning on their way to Ireland. My 93-years-young paternal grandmother Ann (nee Smith) wanted to see her father’s ancestral home. So the family made a trip of it.

We didn’t go because of lack of finances, which is unfortunate. But I did get the chance to turn my father into a leprechaun before he left. I’m hoping for some of the Luck of the Irish will keep the upcoming Photoshop Wars on the friendly side.

I hope everyone has a great time in the Old Country.

in Uncategorized | 97 Words | Comment

Doc Gets It

I posted how I read Doc because he and I have the same interests. Well, that’s wrong. I read Doc because he’s smart as hell.

Three years ago, he got a hunch about where the PVR is going. And I know how to get it there.

in Uncategorized | 46 Words | Comment

Talking Heads – Once In A Lifetime

And you may find yourself living in a shotgun shack
And you may find yourself in another part of the world
And you may find yourself behind the wheel of a large automobile
And you may find yourself in a beautiful house, with a beautiful wife
And you may ask yourself-Well…How did I get here?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
How do I work this?
And you may ask yourself
Where is that large automobile?
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful house!
And you may tell yourself
This is not my beautiful wife!
Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…

Water dissolving…and water removing
There is water at the bottom of the ocean
Carry the water at the bottom of the ocean
Remove the water at the bottom of the ocean!

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

And you may ask yourself
What is that beautiful house?
And you may ask yourself
Where does that highway go?
And you may ask yourself
Am I right?…Am I wrong?
And you may tell yourself
MY GOD!…WHAT HAVE I DONE?

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/in the silent water
Under the rocks and stones/there is water underground.

Letting the days go by/let the water hold me down
Letting the days go by/water flowing underground
Into the blue again/after the money’s gone
Once in a lifetime/water flowing underground.

Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…
Same as it ever was…Same as it ever was…

in Uncategorized | 460 Words | Comment

Cheap Thoughts: Life By The Rear View Mirror

A commuter was tailgating me on my way to work this morning. Got me thinking.
How many people live their life based on what they see in the rear-view mirror? How many people are in a rush to nowhere simply because of the herd mentality pushing them there?

How many people ever look around in traffic and wonder how they got there?

in Uncategorized | 62 Words | Comment