• leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    16 hours 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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      15 hours 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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        11 hours 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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      12 hours 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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          22 minutes 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.