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How to Convert a Digital Watch to a Negative Display

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Re: How to Convert a Digital Watch to a Negative Display

#41

Post by bodhi »

dfc wrote: post #39

It is funny and strangely comforting that despite such a wide variety of topics, forum culture is still the same. There is always a large segment of the forum population that derive some level of pride in listing their collection of X in their signature. Here we see posters list their "casios in rotation," on the spyderco it is lists of knives and ubuntu forums it is "rig specs" and version names. The puzzling thing…

This is can actually be quite useful on "help me!"-style forums, like car forums. People often forget to give enough info about eg. their car year model, for others to help specifically. But if this info is in your sig, it's hard to forget (but also you forget to update it when it changes)

> The puzzling thing

I'd guess that this is because forums have forum-specific profiles, whereas mailing list are replied to from the one inbox.

Also, people can probably manage to find the signature section of a forum profile, but not their (web)mail client!

Re: How to Convert a Digital Watch to a Negative Display

#42

Post by rtpg »

jsingleton wrote: post #19

Nice. I remember doing this to my scientific calculator at school. Modern colour LCDs are still polarised, so I can only view my phone and tablet in one orientation when wearing my polarised sunglasses. On the plus side, they make for an excellent real life ad-block to those annoying video billboards (which are just portrait LCD TVs). I wonder how practical it would be to make a private display by removing the polari…

>I wonder how practical it would be to make a private display by removing the polarising film from it and then viewing with polarised glasses.

In Japan a lot of people have "privacy" screen protectors on their cells that basically make the viewing angle very small. I always assumed it was through some form of polarization though now I'm not sure.

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/mobile-privacy-screens-kee...

Re: How to Convert a Digital Watch to a Negative Display

#43

Post by aaronz8 »

Wow! I remember doing this to my and my friends' 4-function calculators in 5th grade! This was actually how I learned how LCDs worked.

You can also remove the reflective sticker on the back of the black and white LCD, to make it transparent where it was previously reflective. That's how I made my calculator work with our classroom's overhead projector. (and some really interesting pranks)

Re: How to Convert a Digital Watch to a Negative Display

#45

Post by dscpls »

msandford wrote: post #35
robryk wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have two perpendicular polarizers, no light will pass through both. But, if you insert a polarizer at a 45 degree angle to both of them inbetween, some light will pass through. Am I wrong?

You are exactly right.

This is why I trawl the comment section.

Re: How to Convert a Digital Watch to a Negative Display

#46

Post by Cthulhu_ »

rtpg wrote: post #42
jsingleton wrote: post #19

Nice. I remember doing this to my scientific calculator at school. Modern colour LCDs are still polarised, so I can only view my phone and tablet in one orientation when wearing my polarised sunglasses. On the plus side, they make for an excellent real life ad-block to those annoying video billboards (which are just portrait LCD TVs). I wonder how practical it would be to make a private display by removing the polari…

>I wonder how practical it would be to make a private display by removing the polarising film from it and then viewing with polarised glasses. In Japan a lot of people have "privacy" screen protectors on their cells that basically make the viewing angle very small. I always assumed it was through some form of polarization though now I'm not sure. http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/mobile-privacy-screens-kee...

They probably have the same effect as an LCD with a very narrow viewing angle. Modern displays have a pretty high viewing angle; older ones start to change color and become illegible when viewed at an angle. I've seen the same thing on ATMs and the like.

Re: How to Convert a Digital Watch to a Negative Display

#47

Post by Cthulhu_ »

aaronz8 wrote: post #43

Wow! I remember doing this to my and my friends' 4-function calculators in 5th grade! This was actually how I learned how LCDs worked. You can also remove the reflective sticker on the back of the black and white LCD, to make it transparent where it was previously reflective. That's how I made my calculator work with our classroom's overhead projector. (and some really interesting pranks)

That's a pretty neat hack. Reminds me of a DIY projector where an LCD screen was stripped down and placed on top of an overhead sheet projector.

Re: How to Convert a Digital Watch to a Negative Display

#48

Post by MatthewWilkes »

jsingleton wrote: post #19

Nice. I remember doing this to my scientific calculator at school. Modern colour LCDs are still polarised, so I can only view my phone and tablet in one orientation when wearing my polarised sunglasses. On the plus side, they make for an excellent real life ad-block to those annoying video billboards (which are just portrait LCD TVs). I wonder how practical it would be to make a private display by removing the polari…

Anyone wishing to try this should use proper polarised glasses, though, rather than repurposing filters. They're not protective from UV, you see.

Re: How to Convert a Digital Watch to a Negative Display

#49

Post by rainedin »

jsingleton wrote: post #19

Nice. I remember doing this to my scientific calculator at school. Modern colour LCDs are still polarised, so I can only view my phone and tablet in one orientation when wearing my polarised sunglasses. On the plus side, they make for an excellent real life ad-block to those annoying video billboards (which are just portrait LCD TVs). I wonder how practical it would be to make a private display by removing the polari…

I was really excited to read the idea about advert blocking, but when I donned my glasses, this is what I saw:

http://blog.ctnews.com/meyers/files/2010/11/lethem2.jpg

;)

Re: How to Convert a Digital Watch to a Negative Display

#50

Post by lkd »

dfc wrote: post #39

It is funny and strangely comforting that despite such a wide variety of topics, forum culture is still the same. There is always a large segment of the forum population that derive some level of pride in listing their collection of X in their signature. Here we see posters list their "casios in rotation," on the spyderco it is lists of knives and ubuntu forums it is "rig specs" and version names. The puzzling thing…

It serves a technical purpose just as much as their ego. It makes it possible to search for someone with a specific make and/or model of product in order to ask for help or recommendations, or gauge someone's expertise/seniority/subfocus within the forum's focus during a discussion.
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