Experiences with non-techies

[Glenwing]

All displays output analog.

 

LCDs are digital.

[Sardis]

My sister went from a £150 samsung notebook to a macbook air is amazed by how quickly it turns on and she will never go back to windows because it is so slow. My PC beats her boot up time but shes still not impressed because my phone wont sync all the shit from her iphone to a PC as if by magic.  

 

Man I hate this so much! Has old PC + gets new Mac (sometimes with SSD) = Apple is better.

 

At my church they have a super old laptop that they are using to display the words for the songs and they are always complaining about how slow it is (probably never been reformatted) and how the program always messes up. So here comes Apple-evangelist 20y/o girl that says we should get a $1500 iMac to display words with... If only I could find that old 32GB SSD, I'd reinstall XP on it and they would be so amazed at how fast it is hahaha

[Godlygamer23]

LCDs are digital.

Yes, but the output is analog. Analog uses continuous values. Digital uses discrete values. We see the world in analog because it's a continuous stream of information.

[Glenwing]

Yes, but the output is analog. Analog uses continuous values. Digital uses discrete values. We see the world in analog because it's a continuous stream of information.

 

The output is a strip of LED lights, and I suppose that's analog, as any light bulb is.  That's not the display though.  The array of liquid crystals in front of the light, which reorganizes according to digital electronic signals, is digital.

[Godlygamer23]

The output is a strip of LED lights, and I suppose that's analog, as any light bulb is.  That's not the display though.  The array of liquid crystals in front of the light, which reorganizes according to digital electronic signals, is digital.

There is nothing about LEDs in an LCD display in this image from HowStuffWorks: http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/lcd-screen.gif

[Glenwing]

There is nothing about LEDs in an LCD display in this image from HowStuffWorks: http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/lcd-screen.gif

 

An LCD is a film with an array of liquid crystals, which align differently in reaction to electronic pulses, modifying the way in which light passes through them to shift the color.  They don't output anything.  They are just crystals.  Any output is either a backlight behind them which shines through, usually LED or CCFL, or it simply reflects ambient light in the room with a mirror.  Either way, the display itself just polarizes in reaction to an electronic signal, and then sits there until another signal changes it again.  No output.

[mr moose]

^{All displays output analog.}

 

^{His argument was that a crt display has no resolution barrier, much like and pure analog signal on the other hand an lcd panel is limited to the number of pixels it physically has. But he didn't realise that a crt monitor has a shadow mask that physically limits the maximum resolution.}

 

^{But I see after 15 years I have successfully started the debate over again.}

[Snickerzz]

There is nothing about LEDs in an LCD display in this image from HowStuffWorks: http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/lcd-screen.gif

 

 

An LCD is a film with an array of liquid crystals, which align differently in reaction to electronic pulses, modifying the way in which light passes through them to shift the color.  They don't output anything.  They are just crystals.  Any output is either a backlight behind them which shines through, usually LED or CCFL, or it simply reflects ambient light in the room with a mirror.  Either way, the display itself just polarizes in reaction to an electronic signal, and then sits there until another signal changes it again.  No output.

lets just all agree you two are the monitor geek gods :D

[iAsuno]

a friend asked me how good is a celeron for a laptop. then asked me to confirm that an i7 is better. then i explained it to him. the next day or so. he told me that his friend technician told him that celeron was good. i linked him to th intel page and convinced him. i told him about mg rig and he linked me to workstation i5 laptops or whatever then told me i should've bought those.

another friend of mine that his new apu was faster than i7. he said an i7 for work and not for gaming. all those things he was telling me and he had no idea what specs he had except his apu which he has no idea wgat it exactly is. he didn't even know what a gpu looks like.

[Jaybird]

Why do people even bother building their own computer if you can't follow instructions... 

instructions are for squares

[obsidian1200]

One of my new managers struggles to use Windows 8... not sure if at this point that's expected or not.

 

During orientation for my current job, they were trying to hook up a laptop to a television but couldn't figure out what to do past plugging in the HDMI cable. I'm willing to give them a break on that, though; apparently they were using a directional HDMI cable and had it plugged in wrong.

[MrImnotMLG]

I was in an electronics store one day, I passed by a guy standinglooking at I think a 72" TV from 2-3 feet away. He turns to his 5-year old and says "I'm not getting it, it's too blurry." I had to wait to facepalm so hard.

[Godlygamer23]

An LCD is a film with an array of liquid crystals, which align differently in reaction to electronic pulses, modifying the way in which light passes through them to shift the color.  They don't output anything.  They are just crystals.  Any output is either a backlight behind them which shines through, usually LED or CCFL, or it simply reflects ambient light in the room with a mirror.  Either way, the display itself just polarizes in reaction to an electronic signal, and then sits there until another signal changes it again.  No output.

Output(computers): The current, voltage, power, or signal produced by an electrical or electronic circuit or device. Also: Information in a form suitable for transmission from internal to external units of a computer, or to an outside medium. - Dictionary.com.

[Beskamir]

instructions are for squares

I glance through the instructions since more often then not there is something that I didn't know or I could just watch a youtube video on the topic...

[JokersProdigy]

My family had a laptop for several years so when I built my desktop my sister thought that if you just turned on the monitor than it would turn on the computer too. I never told her that you had to push the button on the "big box thing" to actually turn it on. It was a foolproof way of keeping her off of it. She believes that the monitor is the computer and that the rest is just a storage device.

[DudeWazap]

instructions are for squares

I never read the instructions just look at the picture if I have too. :)

[Shrubpig]

instructions are for squares

[Glenwing]

Output(computers): The current, voltage, power, or signal produced by an electrical or electronic circuit or device. Also: Information in a form suitable for transmission from internal to external units of a computer, or to an outside medium. - Dictionary.com.

 

Exactly :) LCD panels do not output any electrical signals or transmissions.  The crystals that make them up just change shape in response to input.  Basically.

[Sardis]

 

 

Not too mention when in Harvey norman the tech (guru) was trying to tell me his super expensive "monster" cables were far superior than standard cables by comparing MC component video cables to bog stock s-video cable. He couldn't even understand that it was a completely different video processing standard let alone cable configuration. :rolleyes:

 

 

If he was trying to sell you Monster cables by giving you that demonstration then that's pretty much false advertising! Also on the topic of Harvey Norman (also other stores with TVs) it amazes me the amount of time that they don't have Full HD content playing on the sets! How is anyone meant to compare them? Horrible quality TV channels split a million times over component  :wacko:

[mr moose]

If he was trying to sell you Monster cables by giving you that demonstration then that's pretty much false advertising! Also on the topic of Harvey Norman (also other stores with TVs) it amazes me the amount of time that they don't have Full HD content playing on the sets! How is anyone meant to compare them? Horrible quality TV channels split a million times over component  :wacko:

I think he honestly believed it, they just parrot what the sales rep tells them.  He got rather annoyed with me when I told him the cables weren't worth the cardboard the price was written on. But you are right, it is false advertising and very dishonest. Why I try not to shop there and warn everyone about their dodgy sales tactics.

 

I nearly got kicked out once when I argued with them that the $359 monster power board with surge protection wouldn't save a fart from static.  Having done several courses in electrical and electronic engineering I think I know a little bit about the topic. :rolleyes:

[rashdanml]

I nearly got kicked out once when I argued with them that the $359 monster power board with surge protection wouldn't save a fart from static.  Having done several courses in electrical and electronic engineering I think I know a little bit about the topic. :rolleyes:

True, but IIRC, the difference between a cheap and expensive cable isn't performance, it's reliability/longevity. It's obviously not worth the price for average use, but it is worth the price for a significantly longer-term investment.

[mr moose]

True, but IIRC, the difference between a cheap and expensive cable isn't performance, it's reliability/longevity. It's obviously not worth the price for average use, but it is worth the price for a significantly longer-term investment.

 

I don't really see that as an issue, I have been dragging around my generic RCA cables for the last 20 years. The only one that failed was the one I left hanging out the car door for a 150K road trip.   :(  outside of that I have yet to be shown any evidence that boutique cables are even worth considering.

[YellowDragon]

I don't really see that as an issue, I have been dragging around my generic RCA cables for the last 20 years. The only one that failed was the one I left hanging out the car door for a 150K road trip.   :(  outside of that I have yet to be shown any evidence that boutique cables are even worth considering.

Boutique cables really are not worth it when it comes to digital signals, for analog signals yes the quality of the cable can come into play. But these "so called" fancy HDMI cables are really just rip offs, a 1 and 0 digitally is still a 1 and 0, if there is a problem with the cable it flat out does not work, but a $3 HDMI provides the same picture as a $400 HDMI. If the cheap cable fails, then I could get 132 cables for the price that i would pay for just 1, chances are one of them has got to work *rolls eyes*.

[EChondo]

True, but IIRC, the difference between a cheap and expensive cable isn't performance, it's reliability/longevity. It's obviously not worth the price for average use, but it is worth the price for a significantly longer-term investment.

There's a difference between paying for quality, and paying for a brand.

[Jaybird]

this blows my entire way of life out of the water