Monitors

A couple of weeks ago my monitor on my home computer died. Not wanting to be cut of from the world I went to the store to get a monitor so that I would not have to wait for shipping. I ended up going to several stores. What I found was nothing but annoying. I found all sorts of wide screen format monitors. At first I thought well but then I looked closer. All of these were great if I wanted to watch a movie, but if I wanted to do work I might as well be using a blackberry or looking at the screen on my laptop (without the docking station). All of the monitors had a 16:9 aspect ratio.

16:9 Aspect ratio is an interesting. Wide screen is immersion providing background to action. I is ideal for movies and video games in that it provides the background world that activities are taking place in. And of course the video gaming is why these monitors sell.

Reading and writing is a focused effort, which is why paper is long and narrow. Word processors still format to papers that are 8 1/2 by 11 or 8 1/2 by 14 for legal pads. But at monitor with1600 pixels wide there is not quite 800 pixels tall. So MS windows resolution choices reverts using a word processor on one of these monitors to using an old line editor. Might as well be using a teletype machine.

Now Apple sells monitors that have page formatted. And there are still 4:3 monitors out there that can be ordered on line. But I ended up going to store to store and couldn't find one, and called up all sorts of nearby stores. Finally I found a store that sold used computer equipment and bought one there.

This is an interesting lesson in technology forecasting and in marketing. There is a technology need that the manufactures are making, but not selling because it can't be found in the market place. Hmm....