Happy Plus Clock

[Mac128]

Haven't really seen this before. Did a Forum search and didn't see it posted before so thought I'd share. Nifty little update over Steve Capp's Dali Clock for making those old compacts useful timepieces.

http://www.vitaphone.net/hpc/

 

[MacMan]

That is the product of AHall's project from the 2007 RetroChallenge. Great little app, I have it on my Plus and Classic!

 

[Scott Baret]

I actually would advise running against this on a Plus. Use your SE or Classic, they won't overheat if you have them on for extended periods of time.

 

[JDW]

"Screen burn-in" anyone?

There are ways to keep classic Macs cool enough to run 24/7, but you have to consider what leaving it on does to the poor CRT!

 

[Mike Richardson]

"Screen burn-in" anyone?
There are ways to keep classic Macs cool enough to run 24/7, but you have to consider what leaving it on does to the poor CRT!

Maybe the program should change from black to white every hour or something. That would prevent any burn-in. White text on black for odd hours, Black text on white for even hours.

 

[ahall]

Forgive me for posting four months after the fact (my apologies if this is frowned upon). I've browsed 68KMLA off and on for a long time, but obviously I didn't see this back in January!

HappyPlusClock inverts the display at 0600 and 1800 every day. These times were chosen so that the display will burn evenly; if the machine is left alone, each pixel should be light and dark for an equal amount of time from midnight to midnight. (Since I get off work at 6pm, the inversion is also a good signal that it's time to go home, but that's neither here nor there. :b&w: )

FWIW, I've run my Plus (F7469U9M0001A) near-continuously (in an air-conditioned environment) for more than six months without any obvious ill effects. I concede y'all are more expert than me -- I'm pretty much just a software dude. Is this going to cause a problem?

- Aaron, author of HappyPlusClock

 

[JDW]

Forgive me for posting four months after the fact (my apologies if this is frowned upon).

Well, we do expect detailed replies within 48 hours, but for software authors, we make an exception!

Seriously though, we welcome your posts here!

Now you mention the the screen is inverted every 6 hours. I think you are doing this based on the position of the sun (light versus dark) rather than a step toward preventing screen burn in. And while a change every 12 hours is certainly better than nothing at all, screen burn in will be noticeable after about a year of leaving the Mac switching on 24/7 this way. But for some people, CRT burn in may not matter, especially because many old Pluses already have a fair amount of burn in. But if there could be a feature added to allow more rapid screen inversion, then it would be a step toward protecting the CRT a bit better. Even so, thank you for the work on this great classic Mac app!

 

[ahall]

Now you mention the the screen is inverted every 6 hours. I think you are doing this based on the position of the sun (light versus dark) rather than a step toward preventing screen burn in. And while a change every 12 hours is certainly better than nothing at all, screen burn in will be noticeable after about a year of leaving the Mac switching on 24/7 this way.

I guess I'm confused on the nature of burn-in, then. I thought that the problem was caused by pixels on the screen being illuminated unevenly for extended periods of time, not by the length of time that a pixel is kept on. The 12-hour inversion is intended to account for that. (And yeah, it makes for a cool day/night indicator, but 0600 and 1800 were picked for a reason.)

If I understand you correctly, you're saying that it's not a relative effect -- that if you left the whole screen blank white for an extended period you'd be causing damage, even if you didn't notice it relative to the other pixels? In that case, you're shortening the life of the monitor by using the system at all, aren't you?

But if there could be a feature added to allow more rapid screen inversion, then it would be a step toward protecting the CRT a bit better. Even so, thank you for the work on this great classic Mac app!

I have no objection to that. I was hoping to avoid a prefs dialog, though, but it may be about time. [] ]'>

Thanks for the kind words.

- Aaron

 

[bigD]

If I understand you correctly, you're saying that it's not a relative effect -- that if you left the whole screen blank white for an extended period you'd be causing damage, even if you didn't notice it relative to the other pixels? In that case, you're shortening the life of the monitor by using the system at all, aren't you?

This is exactly right. You wouldn't notice the burn as much because you're in effect burning the entire screen at the same rate.

Phosphor has an overall life limit that will eventually be reached by all CRT displays, but by displaying one image for extended periods of time, you're essentially 'wearing out' that one area faster than all the others.

 

[joewhk]

How about preference for full-screen mode on Macs with larger screen, saying, a PowerBook 100 and Color Classic? That would be lovely

 

[ahall]

How about preference for full-screen mode on Macs with larger screen, saying, a PowerBook 100 and Color Classic? That would be lovely

Actually 0.86 (the version on the website) already does that, if you hold down the option key as it starts. That's not good interface, granted. The forthcoming version 1.0 will go full-screen by default.

I'm having a little trouble with my development box (a platinum G3 desktop), but when I get that worked out I'll be fairly close to the 1.0 release.

Thanks for the note!

- Aaron