mclii

Yesterday afternoon started a nasty, nasty headache. In the past couple of months, if I'd chart out headaches that I had, I'd probably start to notice a pattern, just like I do all the time. I think I'd notice that I go stretches of about a month that I wouldn't have a headache at all, then, another month, I'd have a major headache at least once a week. I almost always notice that it's when I'm busy that I get these types of headaches. Since my job revolves around a computer, it's probably no stroke of strangeness that I'm starting to get a psychological notion that CRT monitors are bad, and are a contributing factor to these headaches. I haven't had any other type of monitor to compare to, but I'm sure if I had access to a different type, I'd jump at it quickly. CRT monitors have what's called a refresh rate; this refresh rate is in all CRT monitors. Essentially, a scan line gets drawn horizontally on your monitor, and the scan lines get drawn from top to bottom (usually). You may ask, how would that work? Wouldn't you notice the gaps as each line is drawn, and another one not being drawn, making it flicker? Nope, you don't because your eyes are not fast enough to notice.

However, I'm starting to think that just because my brain isn't quick enough to interpret the signals coming from my eyes, it doesn't mean that my eyes aren't noticing the refresh rates, and getting socked with them. My eyes get tired, I start to see different spots of color in continuous colors (like grey), and then I start to get a headache that goes down to my sinuses. I'm almost positive that if I could use an LCD monitor for any length of time, I'd notice these types of headaches going way down. An LCD monitor doesn't refresh, as all the pixels are "on," and don't change until told to do so. So it's a constant signal, until the color changes. CRTs are constantly drawing the screen, over and over again. I have to believe that staring at something like this for 8 hours a day (and more) would start to grate on your senses.

The only problem with LCDs, is that some of them aren't very good, even though they are all made in the same area (I've heard most LCD screens come from 3 different manufacturing plants, and there's no differences in the screens). The ones that are good (Apple, Philips, Sony) are all really expensive. Right now, I have my CRT monitor set at 75 Hz, and I never want to go lower than that.

I wonder if CRT tubes bug anyone else? I know they bug me, and they bug my Dad... I wonder if it's genetic?