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Xfce bug: “default desktop screen causes damage to monitor”

bugzilla.xfce.org

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Re: Xfce bug: “default desktop screen causes damage to monitor”

#51

Post by woliveirajr »

Breakthrough wrote: post #37
Kristine1975 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>when there was an intense debate on whether a software could cause damage to some hardware. A more recent debate (TL;DR: yes, software can cause damage to hardware): https://superuser.com/questions/313850/

As the person who wrote the accepted answer to that question, I'm flattered to see it linked here. (I'm also a bit embarrassed at reading some of my older rambling-style writing, but nothing beats experience :) While my forray into malicious floppy disks didn't end with physical damage, I did manage to make one similar to DBAN. If you booted the computer with the floppy inserted, all drives would be formatted instant…

Mine answer is there too but with much less points, the kill FDD thing :)

Re: Xfce bug: “default desktop screen causes damage to monitor”

#52

Post by woliveirajr »

OJFord wrote: post #38
woliveirajr wrote: post #32

I remember my early days of computers (not as old as some folks here, I know) when there was an intense debate on whether a software could cause damage to some hardware. I remember programing a small .asm that would move the head of a floppy to a farther point and it stoped working. Probably not all models would fail, but one particular brand did. Then a intense debate followed that I was wrong. Never talked about it…

> "software doesn't damage hardware" [not parent's claim] Isn't this trivially false? Of course we can design hardware (+ firmware) that allows software to damage or irrevocably destroy it. So even if we're not willing to accept that alone, it surely follows that some hardware (+ firmware) will (accidentally) be physically vulnerable to malicious software?

I think so. The point was that you couldn't make a hardware go beyond its limits (video cards, monitors, HDD, keyboards, CD-ROMs)... then I lost my patience and stopped arguing. Funny that at those times, "hardware guide" books were a thing, and one of my opponents was one big writer in my country. Never heard of him anymore, by the way.

Re: Xfce bug: “default desktop screen causes damage to monitor”

#53

Post by theandrewbailey »

mathw wrote: post #33

Very strange. Neither of my cats have ever paid the slightest bit of attention to the contents of any screen on any device I own. Yet I know people whose cats like to watch television, so there's some thing going on where some cats see screen images as significant and others don't. I should go looking for info on that! In any case, I don't see how this is XFCE's problem. Just change the wallpaper.

Back in the day, if my cat was near my monitor (rare), I would move the mouse cursor around in front of him. He would see it, and maybe gently paw it, and move on within 20 seconds.

Re: Xfce bug: “default desktop screen causes damage to monitor”

#54

Post by lomnakkus »

sillysaurus3 wrote: post #50
mathw wrote: post #33

Very strange. Neither of my cats have ever paid the slightest bit of attention to the contents of any screen on any device I own. Yet I know people whose cats like to watch television, so there's some thing going on where some cats see screen images as significant and others don't. I should go looking for info on that! In any case, I don't see how this is XFCE's problem. Just change the wallpaper.

Cat eyes have a different refresh rate than human eyes. Some cats can see monitors just clearly enough to make out what's on the screen. Others see flicker. The color gamut is different too.

I can see this being a thing with CRTs (which basically 'flicker' constantly), but LCDs?

Re: Xfce bug: “default desktop screen causes damage to monitor”

#56

Post by inlineint »

lomnakkus wrote: post #54
sillysaurus3 wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cat eyes have a different refresh rate than human eyes. Some cats can see monitors just clearly enough to make out what's on the screen. Others see flicker. The color gamut is different too.

I can see this being a thing with CRTs (which basically 'flicker' constantly), but LCDs?

Some LCD displays use flicker to set backlight LED brightness.

Re: Xfce bug: “default desktop screen causes damage to monitor”

#57

Post by xrisk »

speps wrote: post #40
Kristine1975 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>when there was an intense debate on whether a software could cause damage to some hardware. A more recent debate (TL;DR: yes, software can cause damage to hardware): https://superuser.com/questions/313850/

Previous related discussion (about the new MacBooks having their speakers blown out when running Bootcamp) : https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13063325

This actually happened to me, but I was on i3 and using pactl to set audio volume. I'd given my laptop to someone and they increased the volume to 300% or so and my right speaker blew.

Re: Xfce bug: “default desktop screen causes damage to monitor”

#58

Post by lomnakkus »

inlineint wrote: post #56
lomnakkus wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can see this being a thing with CRTs (which basically 'flicker' constantly), but LCDs?

Some LCD displays use flicker to set backlight LED brightness.

Dang, TIL, I guess... but I don't see how that relates to the OPs hypothetis about cat vision. A phrase I never thought I'd be uttering here, or... anywhere, really.
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