• merc@sh.itjust.works
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    3 days ago

    Just in case anybody is stupid enough to believe this, there was nothing radioactive in old CRT-based TVs. And they sometimes had black cases but weren’t a “black box”.

    They worked by bending a beam of electrons that hit phosphors in the screen, which is cool enough that saying stupid BS about “radioactive” is unnecessary.

    • leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      3 days ago

      beam of electrons

      Let’s say it cooler: they were particle accelerators you pointed at your face.

      Also, massive glass vacuum bottles that could implode if mishandled.

      And with massive capacitors that could electrocute you if mishandled.

      And heavy enough to seriously crush your foot (and possibly implode and electrocute you) if mishandled.

      And the static electricity felt really neat on the back of your hand if you put it close to the screen.

      They were so fucking cool, and we took them for granted, and now they’re gone, and life is significantly less cool without them.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        But by fuck was their capacity to put out a clear image mid. But their screen size on the other hand …extremely limited

        • leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 days ago

          TVs, maybe¹. CRT monitors, though? They were great. And mostly didn’t care about what resolution you threw at them.

          1. It’s a big maybe, though. Live TV? Sure, but that was more on the extremely low resolution signal than on the screen (HDTV would’ve looked great on a CRT). But games? They were fantastic for games, though. Artists designed their images with CRT’s natural blur on mind, and now we need complex filters and at least a 4K monitor to replicate the original look.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
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        2 days ago

        And heavy enough to seriously crush your foot (and possibly implode and electrocute you) if mishandled.

        Sometimes. Other times they were little portable things.

          • merc@sh.itjust.works
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            2 days ago

            1.2 kg isn’t very much, especially for a dense piece of electronics.

            If you look at the history of iMac computers, when they went from CRTs to flat screens they only dropped 6 kg from 15.7 kg to 9.6 kg. Since then they’ve focused on making them lighter and lighter, but it’s not like the CRT was the majority of the weight.

        • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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          2 days ago

          It’s the equivalent of knowing the difference between “poisonous” and “venomous”

          For the vast majority of people it doesn’t matter. Maybe they learned in 8th grade, but they forgot, because it never came back up.

          • merc@sh.itjust.works
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            23 hours ago

            Not really. Radiation is something you encounter every day. Radioactivity is something you probably never encounter. Most people except Australians rarely encounter poisonous and venomous animals.