Perspectives, Then vs. Now

[Tripredacus]

Where were 30 inch monitors 15 years ago?

Gateway had tried to sell a PC with a 50" monitor. I recall seeing it on demo at a computer show (where did those go?) with a BSOD on it. The entire product line, the Gateway Destination, came with various sized monitors, 27", 36" etc. They didn't take off because they were substantially more expensive than the typical desktop PC of the time. It was marketed as a home theater solution!

http://news.cnet.com/Gateway-debuts-1,999-PC-TV/2100-1001_3-214896.html

I can't find any information on the 50" model I saw at that show. They may have never gone to market with it. I'm also not certain if it was a CRT or a RPTV. I don't think it was a flat panel.

Here are some other mentions of large-size displays from 1999:

http://www.eschoolnews.com/1999/10/01/projectors-presentation-equipment/

So they were definately around, but you probably weren't wanting to spend thousands of dollars on them!

[dencorso]

Such monitors were usually sold with Silicon Graphics and Sun workstations, although I'm not sure either ever offered a 50'' one.

[NoelC]

That's my point - everyone liked (likes) big screens, and every geek thinks more pixels would be better, but the technology WAS out of reach of the masses.  I was wishing for a 24" 1920 x 1200 LCD PC monitor back then.  Good luck even trying to justify such a thing even in a professional environment.  Pointy Haired Bosses would claim "if we get you that expensive thing, we'll have to buy one for all the software people."

 

Now 30" with 2560 x 1600 is old news and 32" 4K monitors are even becoming affordable.  Right when our eyes are going bad. 

 

-Noel

[NoelC]

LED Lighting

 

 

Then:  10 Lumens

 

 

 

Now:  1000 Lumens

 

 

 

Stagnation in the last 10 years, LOL. 

 

-Noel

[Tripredacus]

LEDs taking over for regular bulbs is a great thing coming, but it doesn't replace all of them. For example, some pinball games do not look good with LEDs and the old style bulbs are getting (from what I heard) harder to get.

[jaclaz]

LEDs taking over for regular bulbs is a great thing coming, but it doesn't replace all of them. For example, some pinball games do not look good with LEDs and the old style bulbs are getting (from what I heard) harder to get.

Well, in EU traditional lighting bulbs are actually "illegal" since 2012:

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/lumen/editorial/index_en.htm

 

Detailed document:

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/lumen/doc/full_faq-en.pdf

 

All you can actually find on the market are now C-class, B-class (rare), fluorescent lamps and LED's:

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/lumen/overview/avariedchoice/index_en.htm

 

From a practical standpoint (set aside the political and pseudo-ecological) reasons, there are still IMHO a large number of issues with both fluorescent lamps and halogens, I might have been "unlucky" : but in several years of using them fluorescent lamps or the halogen replacements for incandescence lamps (C-Class in the above docs) I never had a lamp life going even near what was declared, they all (all makes, all types) wear out or however fail to light on much faster then what advertised/stated,and they have an impact as electronic waste that has been clearly underestimated.

 

It is a bit earlier to say something about led's, but at least the early models/makes weren't that much good.

I had a led strip for a sign changed (thank goodness I bought a "primary" brand and had them under warranty, but of course payed a stiff price for them) two times within six months, seemingly because of a "wrong" batch (twice) with a resin - or whatever - affected by UV's.

 

I have recently set up a number of GE led lamps, as an experiment, will see how they will behave, if they will actually perform anything like they are "labeled" (25,000 hours/25,000 switches), notwithstanding the very high price per unit, the might represent a valid solution.

 

I believe that starting 2014 the same will happen in the US :

http://www.alternet.org/environment/truth-about-light-bulb-ban-and-lighting-alternatives

 

jaclaz

Edited June 30, 2014 by jaclaz

[JorgeA]

I was an enthusiast of "save energy / save the planet" alternatives to incandescent bulbs -- until I started actually using these alternatives.

 

We installed CFLs in my wife's office. A few days later, she told me to get rid of them, as they were giving her headaches.

 

Separately from that, I installed CFL floodlights in my office. They burned out just as quickly as regular incandescents, and in addition took several minutes to reach full brightness whereas regular bulbs get up to speed immediately.

 

A few weeks ago, I started installing halogen bulbs in the lamp over the kitchen table. With our usage pattern, regular bulbs typically last 3-4 months there. The halogen bulbs (from GE, not some off-brand) burned out within two weeks. No wonder they were on sale.

 

LEDs are a possibility -- I'm currently trying out a couple of them in my office -- but they are still way more expensive than incandescent bulbs. Remains to be seen whether they last the 23 years the package indicated.

 

As far as I'm concerned, the incandescent light-bulb phaseout is a legalized consumer ripoff. Environmentalists get to lord it over us ignorant peasants, while bulb makers enjoy a bump in income from getting the cheap-as-dirt incandescents taken off the market. Call it the green-industrial complex.

 

 

All hope is not lost for U.S. fans of real light bulbs, even if the law doesn't get repealed. There is a loophole for "rough service" bulbs of all wattages; these are ostensibly intended for use in factories and the like, but if you look for them you can find some. They, too, are more expensive than regular incandescent bulbs, but at least they don't have the health and esthetic drawbacks of the new types of bulbs.

 

--JorgeA

 

 

EDIT: clarification

Edited June 30, 2014 by JorgeA

[JorgeA]

 

I believe that starting 2014 the same will happen in the US :

http://www.alternet.org/environment/truth-about-light-bulb-ban-and-lighting-alternatives

 

The phaseout started in January 2012 with 100-watt bulbs, then it applied to 75-watters in January 2013. As of this past January, 60-watt bulbs are out, too. Stores can sell what they have in stock, but no new ones may be made (subject to the "rough service bulb" exception I described in the previous post).

 

--JorgeA

[NoelC]

In my home and office I have been replacing incandescents with CREE 5000K bulbs and I've found that I feel more fresh and alert than with incandescent bulbs.  I've not tolerated fluorescents for a long time.  I often work just by the light coming in the windows, and these 5000K bulbs match the color of the light coming in from outside.  I think that's a factor in how it feels to live in that light.

 

And no, jaclaz, you're not alone - CFL fluorescents often fail in MUCH less than the advertised time.  And badly!  When the electronics burn they let out all kinds of toxic crap!  Paraphrasing Professor Malcom:  "CFLs are the worst idea in the long, sad history of bad ideas".  Worse even than resurrecting a T-Rex and turning her loose.

 

So far I haven't had one LED lamp fail in service, and all my LED flashlights still work.

 

There is no question that LED lighting (based on high powered blue emitters) is a real and recent fundamental tech breakthrough.

 

-Noel

[jaclaz]

@JorgeA

Yep, the same happened in EU, but they started in 2009 and *everything* was phased out in 2012.

Here already more than one and a half years since the complete "ban" and obviously any stock has been sold out (or whatever is left is still sold in in the underground market by pushers ).

 

@NoelC

Good, another thing on which we agree on.

 

jaclaz

[Tripredacus]

I've heard that CFLs have had greater lifespan if left on 24/7 and that their "early failure" is due to turning them on and off. I heard about it on the radio, and I haven't researched it myself. I can say that the one I have installed in my back hallway has been on 24/7 (barring power outages) for the past 5 years or so. But the other ones that are in the switchable lamps have been replaced more than once during that time.

[dencorso]

Yes. And now, with the latest MSVS, one produces huge programs to do things VC6 did in 1 KiB or less. So what?

[jaclaz]

I've heard that CFLs have had greater lifespan if left on 24/7 and that their "early failure" is due to turning them on and off. I heard about it on the radio, and I haven't researched it myself. I can say that the one I have installed in my back hallway has been on 24/7 (barring power outages) for the past 5 years or so. But the other ones that are in the switchable lamps have been replaced more than once during that time.

 

A "good" lamp (both CFL and LED) *should* have on it's packaging two important info's:

1. expected duration (number of hours expected when continuously on before failure)

2. expected number of lighting switches (number of time it can be switched on before failure)

There are "particular" CFL's with a high number of rated switches.

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/lumen/overview/howtochoose/packaging/packaging_en.htm

Point is that these data, at least for CFL's I used till now are very optimistic and are not even go near the much more frequent than expected failures (either number of switches or lifetime^[1])

 

The new GE Led lamps I just installed are, as said, rated for 25,000 hours and 25,000 switches.

Averaging the usual 3 hours/day and 3 switches/day, i.e. 1,000 hours and 1,000 switches yearly cycle, they should last 25 years.

 

"Common" CFL's, rated for 6,000/6,000 or 10,000/10,000 i.e. theoretically lasting between 6 and 10 years, should last less "in real life", along results of studies such as:

https://www.aceee.org/files/proceedings/2008/data/papers/2_111.pdf

which concluded that these are influenced not only by the number of switches, but also by the average time the lamp was on before being switched off, i.e. shorter average on periods correspond to shorter lamp life, and they come to an estimate of a reduction of expected life:

The “middle” (C1,E) value for EULs varies between 3.9 years for lamps rated at 6,000 hours to 7.8 years for lamps rated at 12,000 hours.

 

that can be grossly approximated by the equation 1 year=1,500 hours.

 

The lowest specs CFL's around (the 6,000 hours type) should thus last on average 4 years.

 

In practice it is rare that a common CFL lamp on average lasts more than one year.

 

jaclaz

^[1] Yes, I am the kind of guy that does have a luxmeter and that believes that when a lamp takes more than 60 seconds to get to "full light" and it's "full light" is around 50% or less then what it provided when new it is to be replaced. (please consider how these decadence in lighting capabilities is a sign of progress, before a lamp was either on or off (binary), CFL's are anything between bright and very dim over the course of their life).

[NoelC]

From the "operation was a success but the paitent died" department...

 

How is a "projected lifespan based on never being switched off and on" in any way supportive of a policy of reducing energy use and environmental impact?  I mean, no one ever turns their lights on and off, do they???  

 

Perhaps the governments enacting the laws knew that better solid-state lighting was doable if only the industry could be given a big incentive to develop it.

 

-Noel

[NoelC]

Yes. And now, with the latest MSVS, one produces huge programs to do things VC6 did in 1 KiB or less. So what?

 

With VC6, did you use SSE instructions and do __vectorcall functions to pass 128 bit values by register?  Do multiple floating point math operations simultaneously?

 

I rather like being able to take advantage of new technology.

__forceinline __m128 __vectorcall PreMultiplyAlpha(__m128 Pixel){	__m128 Alpha = _mm_shuffle_ps(Pixel, Pixel, _MM_SHUFFLE(3, 3, 3, 3));	__m128 ReturnPixel = _mm_mul_ps(Pixel, Alpha);	ReturnPixel.m128_f32[ALPHA] = 1.0f;		return(ReturnPixel);}

-Noel

Edited July 1, 2014 by NoelC