What pisses you off?

[Tannin]

A new screen will set you back maybe $150 - $250 depending on how fancy you want. A decent electronic soldering iron costs around $80. (You might get away with half that at a pinch, but for electronic work you want something decent.) They you need a few components .... you are better off buying a screen.

[Morrigu]

[Wokko]

[HAL]

You got that right.

[Tannin]

IPS or TN-film?

[Tannin]

You'll pay about $170 for a TN film model, around $100 extra for IPS.

[Wokko]

Aspect Ratio 16:9
Resolution (max.) 1920x1080
Pixel Pitch (mm) 0.248
Brightness ( typ.) 300 cd/㎡
Contrast ( typ. ) 1000:1
DCR (Dynamic Contrast Ratio) (typ.) 50000:1
Panel Type TN
Viewing Angle (L/R;U/D) (CR>=10) 170/160
Response Time(Tr+Tf) typ. 5ms
Display Colors 16.7million
Color Gamut 72%

No idea what half that shit means, but that's the specs. Had a really good look and can't see how to open it up. Why don't things just have screws anymore?

[Tannin]

[Wokko]

Thanks for that. I'm techie enough to build my own computer, but monitors have always just been something I've bought and skimped on. A little knowledge may be a dangerous thing but in this case it should be helpful.

Actually considering a 32" True HD TV instead of a monitor, I've read some positive things. Otherwise I'll go for a 27" monitor and use the info you've given as a guide.

[Tannin]

Excellent! Pleased to be of help. I've been playing with computers since 1979 and worked in the computer industry since .. er .. about '88 or 89. As a photographer, I'm more than usually fussy about colour, so you can take some of my remarks above with a grain of salt if you don't do colour-critical work. I think the last of the really bad colour-cliping TN film screens have disappeared off the market now, so it's less of a worry than it used to be. In any case, I doubt anyone would make a 27 incher in too shoddy a manner.

The LCD panel itself is of course the most important bit by far. Let your eye guide you. The quality of the casing may or may not matter to you depending on how you use it. If it sits in one position all the time, it matters little. Set once and forget. If you like to tilt, twist, or rotate it, then it matters a lot more and you'll get what you pay for. You can make your own judgment on that question.

My main screen at home is a superb old 4:3 unit - you can't buy them anymore, not for any money - and for serious photographic work it still easily outperforms anything much else you can buy today. (For photography, the very shallow modern screens are a hopeless - the moment you look at something in portrait framing, you are wasting two-thirds of the screen and getting a tiny picture.) I frequently tilt it or swivel it as I work. I regard it as the second-most important item of photographic equipment I own, after my big birding lens.

My second screen is a much cheaper newish TN film thing, which pretty much always stays in the same place, so the fact that it's got a crappy, hard-to-adjust tilt and no swivel at all doesn't matter. I wouldn't ever edit a picture on it, but it's fine for text or watching a movie on.

[think positive]

[David]

The website of The Guardian. Crashes on my iPhone roughly every second time I try to load it. What ever happened to their old minimalist design (still in use on the UK site), and what exactly is so crucially important about all this fancy coding that it needed to be added?

[Tannin]

It's a shocker, isn't it?

It's actually even worse on a real computer than it apparently is on a phone - they have a massive problem with fonts, quite often unreadable, and it's so Javascript-riddled that opening a few tabs (as you do on real computers but don't do on phones) brings the system to its knees.

[watt price tully]

3 nights ago I'm driving home. Got off work on time. 10 pm. Thinking how great this is. Driving along Kings way then onto Queens Road. Wanting to tun right near the Junction Oval. Long line of stationiary traffic. Never mind, got off on time which for me is considered early, had been doing good time. Waiting in line with the rest of the right turn traffic. Then all of a sudden "boom, crash opera".

A distracted young driver in the family New Sports Range Rover slams into a small old Japanese car driven by an elderly Greek couple that rear ends into me.

Get out cursing & cussing. Check the oldies, call 000 for police & ambulance while checking out the young fella, who was apologetic. Took photo's of the cars. Of course he didn't have his license on him.

Police & Ambulance arrive quickly, Old couple getting checked out,. Young fella is gunna get booked for a few things including "reckless driving". No issue about liability & he is insured or his mum is.

I've been working with the Police 2 days a week since November last year. Almost all of them tell me that "Asians" are the worst drivers. I say drive down Ripponlea or Elsternwick & sone of the elderly Jewish drivers ain't none too good either (trying to diffuse / laugh off of stereotypes etc)

I'm driving my late father in laws car. Cost $1500 to get to roadworthy a few years ago. Since then put in a sony bluetooth CD player. In the last few weeks I have bought brand new 16 R Pirelli tyres & got a new inner ceiling lining put in from the motor trimmers as the old one was peeling off. Dual fuel car. 510,000 km's & drives beautifully. Everything works well.

His insurance assessor rings today: it will cost more to replace than current value. Offering me $5,000.

I'm f'ckn angry as. Not bad value for the car, not great but I was counting on another couple years & more out of that car. The injustice. & this will mean nothing for the rich f*ck. He had to be on his mobile. Looks like one car. FFS.

Lives in Brighton, drives his mothers New Sports Range Rover, his Mandarin is better than his English - damn it, in my anger I want to blame his f*cking ethnicity. Nah that won't do - but the conspicuous consumption mixed with sheer bad f*cking driving makes it tempting.

He was distracted & I hope the cops take him to town.

Yes it could have been worse but I suspect the elderly Greek couple's car is also rooted & I suspect the old man won't be driving in a hurry. Their seats had rocked forward & back.

GRrrrrrrrrrrrr

Lucky it wasn't David who caused the 3 car pile up (assuming he still doesn't have car insurance yet)

This is the second car I've had where I've been rear ended by f*ckwits who can't drive. The other car was a gift from a friend whose parents had died, was in beautiful nick for an older Mitsubishi magna that had done very few kilometres & was serviced & garaged regularly.

I was stopped, turning right & a woman driver thought it was a responsible thing to attend to her kid & his ice cream, bent around & look at her son rather than concentrate on the road. Boom crash opera. The assessor then apologised saying how good that car was. I gave the payout to my friend.

Now back to the bicycle - something I've been slack in for the last 8 months to so.

We still have our 2009 Ford G6.

(Edited for spelling)

[David]