I used to work in a computer lab, open plan, where we all had CRTs. I sat across from the main DB admin, who had TWO monitors for all the work he was doing (wild stuff to have dual CRTs back in those days.) Due to the layout, my monitor sat in-between his, facing the opposite way of course. I loved degaussing my monitor because:
- It would degauss both of his and
- The EM fields were so strong between them that my monitor’s image would flip entirely upside down before snapping back into frame while making just the craziest electronic noises, colors dancing all over the screen. Gorgeous stuff! I wonder if anyone has tried to recreate a degaussing effect using shaders to simulate the process?
PhobosAnomaly@feddit.uk 3 weeks ago
In the late 90s, there were some monitors in our library that had some serious grounding problems. You could literally touch the screen with one finger, touch your victim with the other hand, and have your pal repeatedly turn the monitor off and on rapidly at the physical spring-loaded switch - and at some point, they’d get an uncomfortable-but-not-painful shock.
Highly entertaining, guaranteed a bollocking, and after that it was back to the degaussing CHUNNNNNNNGUNGUNGUNG sound. Satisfying as fuck.
clonedhuman@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Shit, I remember degaussing monitors. I also remember picking up a power supply I was working on before lunch, not remembering that I had powered it on earlier to test it, and the shock throwing me against the wall.
Ah, the good old days.
HornedMeatBeast@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Back when we used to head over to someone’s house for a LAN, there was one guy that had a massive CRT monitor and if he degaussed while our monitors were close to his they’d all degauss.
None of ours were able to trigger other monitors, only his.
dual_sport_dork@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
We had to constantly remind people not to leave their disks on top of the monitors in those days, because on some models the degaussing pulse was enough to erase a floppy disk.
I was also proud of my ownership of a large speaker magnet which had a highly directional magnetic field, and could cause tube monitors and TV’s go all paisley from about 20 feet away. I kept it stuck to the back of my steel garage door when not in use to keep it well away from all monitors, disks, and tapes.
SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world 3 weeks ago
Your class was a lot smarter than mine.
Mine weaponized the track balls from mice. Ever been pelted with one? Not fun.
Good way to train fine motor skills though because we had to learn how to use the mouse without the track balls. Had to move the two little wheeled sensors inside yourself. Bet most of our class still knows more keyboard shortcuts than normal to this day.