r/mildlyinfuriating • u/notworkingghost • 8h ago

Ruined by Technology When we’re not looking, Alexa displays the wrong time. I finally caught her on video.

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u/clearhit 7h ago

Wait that's why they are called screen savers

...I always just thought it was for aesthetics

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u/No-Mouse 6h ago

Aesthetics are still part of it, because otherwise they could just as well display random noise. No need for anything fancy.

The reason we have screen savers at all is to prevent burn-in. The reason we have so many cool ones is aesthetics (and, probably, bored programmers).

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u/branks4nothing 4h ago

society peaked with flying toasters and it's been downhill ever since

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u/ashgs872tbhjs 3h ago

I believe you mean the pipes on Windows XP

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u/CaptainTurdfinger 2h ago

I'm more of a psychedelic maze man myself.

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u/Nikkishaaa 2h ago

I fucking LOVED that game. Simpler times

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u/antonimbus 3h ago

Well, this is the comment that makes me feel old for today. Thanks for that.

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u/combover78 5h ago

CRTs can suffer a thing called "burn in" where if a static image is left for a long period it can permanently burn that image onto the screen. Screen savers were devised so that there is always a moving image being drawn to the display to circumvent the possibility of burn in. Modern displays aren't susceptible to burn in so screen savers have mostly fallen out of use. Plus energy saving considerations just put everything to sleep on fairly short intervals.

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u/CaptainTurdfinger 2h ago

Some cell phones, tablets, and monitors still suffer from burn in

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u/PixelatedGiant 2h ago

I have a friend who does not like when his phone screen goes to sleep during a call. He probably turned sleep off because every single phone he has ever owned has had the call screen burned in.

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u/NoveltyPr0nAccount 5h ago

Not trying to get personal but are you comfortable saying how old you are and if you think your level of knowledge amongst your peers is typical?

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u/StephenFish 5h ago

Just take a look at any old arcade game with a CRT when it's powered off. You can still see the title screen burned in. I worked in an arcade for a few years repairing and setting up game cabinets. Our workshop where we kept spare parts had some leftover CRTs from decommissioned cabinets and I always knew what game they came from.