Full marks for finding the cause of the problem, but if the door needs to be closed I don't see any kind of solution included in this story. How about some kind of anti-reflective coating for the monitor so you don't get the issue?

> How about some kind of anti-reflective coating for the monitor so you don't get the issue?

How about turning the monitor a bit?

How about painting the door white - or pinning up a sheet of paper?

Anti-reflective coating!

"Techie fixed a ‘brown monitor’ "

"How about painting the door ........."

Does that mean that if they painted the door black that you would continually have to replace the monitor ?

Please ignore the very LOUD Whoooosh noise !!!!!

Black is not a REFLECTIVE Colour !!!

:)

[I also pop balloons at Children's parties .... :) ]

:)

is black a colour at all?

Vantablack. You can buy it. Sever saw it in reality, but they say it is irritating to look at it 'cause even the blackest surface reflect enough to make out structures.

True black is the total absence of colour…

Fire the doctor and hire one that likes brown monitors. Ensure HR puts that as a high priority necessity.

> How about painting the door white

No, black. White reflects more and makes it even harder to see. Though not painting, a dark or black piece of cloth or similar.

This is the usual response ... 'Fix it with no expense spared OR thought applied :) !!!'

1. The monitor has to have the reflective surface because technology of the time produced a highly reflective surface on High-res Displays of this kind.

2. The REAL issue is the positioning of the Screen.

3. The quickest and simplest solution is to change the colour of the door.

4. The simplest way to change the colour of the door would be to use a readily available curtain to hang on the back of the door.

5. The curtain would, by chance, be exactly the same type of curtain used to provide privacy in a hospital space.

6. The somewhat slower/dearer solution (NHS timescales & costs) would be to paint the back of the door a suitable colour.

:)

P.S. Note I did not suggest move the monitor because the monitor is HUGE/HEAVY and it probably was in a set position .... therefore why the replacements had exactly the same issue.

P.P.S. I know these type of monitors well ... I installed 50-60 of them in one day for a GIS System which had the same requirement for Hi-Res & large screen area.

"A very embarrassed doctor disappeared quite quickly"

Sounds like an acceptable solution to me.

He checked in for rehab at Specsavers.

a fix may have been to reduce the ambient light so there would be less reflection from the door.

of course the light from the monitor could be being reflected by the door too, but could be mitigated by positioning oneself & blocking the reflection, but.....

I was somehow thinking some VGA connector wasn't seated properly, or perhaps a faulty cable, and the blue channel going AWOL (I have had that before), but that would probably have been fixed by swapping the monitors, assuming they also swapped or checked the cables at the same time.

I've told this one before on here, but not for a while.

Late one Friday afternoon (isn't it always‽‽) a university professor client rings up - computer is dead, he needs to submit something over the weekend.

I rushed over (10 miles away), walked in, pressed the power button and confirmed that the computer wouldn't turn on. I then turned on the switch on the mains extension lead it was plugged into. Turned the computer on. I hung around long enough for him to confirm that everything was OK (I think it was really just for his blood pressure to come down)

In fairness, he admitted that he should have been able to sort that himself but was flustered. He was even happy to pay the bill (for an hour on-site - our minimum charge for a visit)

Of course, I could never experience this issue personally. At least nobody else saw it, so it didn't happen.

Friday confessions --->

Late one Friday afternoon (isn't it always‽‽)… Well, no, not always. Give it a couple of hours…

Well, his grant was happy to pay the bill, at least...

Been there, done that a couple of times.

I still (almost 30 years now) remember the argument I had with a customer about sending the "Wrong monitor"

I made sure it was the correct size, the large 15" rather than the 14", yes 15" but the cable was wrong.

Was it the right colour? yes blue lead to blue connector (a genius idea I'd happily buy the guy that thought of colour coding the cables a beer)

Is it the right way round? (I've delt with the public before)

Are any of the pins bent? No all the pins are straight

AHA! I've had this before. (for the youngsters here) not all the pins on a VGA cable are required, so some manufacturers leave them out and it makes the monitor cable look different to the socket.

No it's the wrong size.. I've held it next to the socket and it won't fit.

Have you tried it?

No because it won't fit

Repeat

Please try it, it will fit

No it won't fit..

Until tech-response = "Just Bloody try it!"

Wait for long pause

I've been a bit silly haven't I

Customer is always right training kicks in... Yes sir you have

Hang up

> “A very embarrassed doctor disappeared quite quickly,” Neville told On Call.

You mean ran out of the room screening?

A chum of mine (Sysop in a small company,) was stood in his kitchen home one evening when the power went off, plunging him into near darkness. H

A resourceful chap, used to thinking on his feet.

He ruefully confided in me that his first reaction was "oh, simple solution: I'll open the fridge door and use the light in there." Closely followed by "oh, of course......"

Every now and again, I look at the clock and the time is reported as 404.

Every time, my brain goes "Time not found‽ WTF‽ ... Oh."

He ruefully confided in me that his first reaction was "oh, simple solution: I'll open the fridge door and use the light in there." Closely followed by "oh, of course......"

The fridge fairy couldn't find her wand in the dark.

" thinking on his feet " the operative word here is "thinking."

In the BoFH game taking the extra time, to consider the evidence or facts, potential diagnoses before initiating (hopefully) remedial action, removes the requirement of sporting a Stetson.

In this case a few minutes would have allowed his eyes to become dark adapted and able to see quite adequately in most domestic and urban environments.

This is true, years ago I was writing in 6502 machine language, real time stuff for ash and dust control in coal fired power stations (it was 1982) and I dreamt in hex.

A friend took me to a McDonald’s possibly the first time I had been in one and the till said OFF in a red LCD display.

Minutes later I still couldn’t work the significance of what 255 meant.

When I supplied CRTs I would always tilt the screen down slightly due to reflections.

Odd the weird stuff you remember but can't remember what I had for tea two days ago

Is this what we usually calls brownware?

Reference to brownware in this vintage BOFH : https://bofh.bjash.com/newbofh/bofh21feb.html

Pilots call it "code brown", and hope to land before it gets real. Some funny videos around how fast pilots can run in some situations...

So nobody noticed when they sat between the monitor and the door it changed colour or did everyone in the department wear clothes the same colour as the door?