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Computer: Display: Accessory
TFT Monitor Shroud Thing   (+2, -3)  [vote for, against]
Make a TFT monitor look and feel just like your old CRT one

I have just got a nice new TFT monitor and now there is too much desk space and it doesn't feel as heavy , can't sit a brew on top and the display is too sharp. Enter the Monitor Shroud Thing. It is a cover for the TFT screen that has a moulded shape that resembles a CRT monitor yoke housing at the back, has a compartment for a couple of housebricks for ballast and a sheet of plastic on the front to make the display blurry. It even has a bezel to reduce the viewable image. Instantly I am back in my comfort zone!
-- Captain_Ignorant, Dec 17 2004

Computer in a typewriter http://www.mini-itx...projects/underwood/
also see "Wraith SE/30", from the right hand sidebar [tiromancer, Dec 17 2004]

you could make it look like a fish tank. for your bones.
-- neilp, Dec 17 2004


No, he deserves a bun. This is great.

Just imagine, a whole line of products designed to help people adapt to scary new technologies. My mother, may she forever live with my brother and his wife, would be comfortable with a keyboard that looked and felt like a typewriter.

Getting the display to look like paper would be a challenge, but the sound effect of keys hitting the paper could be done in surround sound.

Betting this is already on the 'bakery, someplace. [Searches....] Yup, already here.
-- normzone, Dec 17 2004


What reasons are there for getting a TFT monitor other than a sharper image, less clutter and it being lighter and therefore easier to move?
-- Detly, Dec 17 2004


Lower power consumption, and for some people CRTs trigger migranes. Though the flourescent backlights in LCDs can be just as bad.

One thing I like about CRTs though, I keep my hat on top of one. That way, it's already nice and warm when I put it on, like it's fresh out of the dryer.
-- tiromancer, Dec 17 2004


//you could make it look like a fish tank. for your bones.// HAHAH! That was so funny I boned this idea, too! Actually I boned the idea because I think it isn't a good idea. But that was still funny.
-- contracts, Dec 17 2004


Damn! Forgot the heater. I used to warm brie and camembert on top of the monitor as it isn't soft enough when it comes out of the fridge and nobody had any patience to let them get to room temperature.
-- Captain_Ignorant, Dec 17 2004


I wouldn't [mfd] this idea; I'm not quite sure of its practical merits as written, but there might be some benefits to having a more-or-less monitor-sized enclosure for an LCD. For example, you could use the enclosure for storage space, perhaps even including a little peltier-element cooler. Having a soda/beer fridge "inside" one's monitor could be pretty neat.
-- supercat, Dec 17 2004


This would be a terrible thing to actually DO, but is it really such a bad idea?

Also, as far as why you'd get an LCD, there's some fuss about them being "non emissive," which I think appeals to people who wear magnetic bracelets, and failed basic physics.

On a (slightly) more practical note, they are not, or at least are less, affected by EMI. No degaussing, and you can work around an MRI. Some people also like to keep their unshielded speakers on their desk.
-- tiromancer, Dec 17 2004


This is going out on a limb, but what about a shroud where you can replace the flourescent backlight with LEDs, or an incandescent? You'd have to dissasemble the LCD case, but this would provide an option for a small segment of the population which currently has precious few.
-- tiromancer, Dec 17 2004


Bugger! Forgot the xray machine. How am I going to cook my head with this flat monitor without that?
-- Captain_Ignorant, Dec 17 2004


Actually, an incandescent would give you a wider range of brightness adjustment, and avoid the problems of running a super high voltage AC power supply. Really, flourescents are such the worng way to do things. Fish to whoever came up with that. Terrible.

[Captain_Ignorant], how about a sock drying rack? Also, you'll be wanting something to produce the "click, buzzzzzz" noises when you power it on.
-- tiromancer, Dec 17 2004


I like the clanking sound of the windings moving on the yoke.

The HT attracts dust and so I need a 20kV supply as a dust catcher in my shroud...
-- Captain_Ignorant, Dec 17 2004


Nobody sees the benefits of having a beer fridge in the monitor?
-- supercat, Dec 17 2004


Beer good...
-- Captain_Ignorant, Dec 17 2004


//Nobody sees the benefits of having a beer fridge in the monitor?// It would reduce the electricity needed by the heater, now a heat pump. The "spare" electricity can then be beamed back to the manufacturer to help offset the enormous cost of the subsidies necessary to sell this at the price of an ordinary CRT. Members of the associated secret society have keys to access the hidden fridge compartments to keep their beer cool.
-- caspian, Dec 17 2004


//Nobody sees the benefits of having a beer fridge in the monitor?// Good idea, but the weather's too cold at the moment for me to properly appreciate it. I think I'd prefer a microwave oven. Of course, with a large enough monitor you could have both.
-- caspian, Dec 17 2004


/Also, as far as why you'd get an LCD, there's some fuss about them being "non emissive," which I think appeals to people who wear magnetic bracelets, and failed basic physics.//

In a lab I recently worked in, which was largely dedicated to gamma spectroscopy, our division head managed to get all the CRT monitors replaced by nice flat screens on the basis that the emissions from the CRT monitors were interfering with the detectors.

It's easy to keep a straight face when you're filling out a purchase order form. Your tax dollars at work.
-- Detly, Dec 17 2004


Well, there was no real basis for this. To start with, there were a few inches of lead between the monitors and the detectors. On a list of noise sources, the monitors would have been right at the bottom.
-- Detly, Dec 17 2004


//Nobody sees the benefits of having a beer fridge in the monitor?//

It would save me a trip to the kitchen when formatting time came around. On the other hand, will it hold enough beer to be worthwhile?
-- tiromancer, Dec 17 2004


How about a microwave oven compartment for warming beer? Microwaving stuff is cool! I microwaved a colleague's pen the other day... Messy.
-- Captain_Ignorant, Dec 18 2004



random, halfbakery