[comp.sys.mac] Do screen-savers do anything useful

gillies@m.cs.uiuc.edu (10/11/89)

Old-style VDT's show burn-in very easily.  This is because the
phosphor between lines is seldom lit (except by the descenders in "g",
"j", "p", "q", and "y").  Thus, an old-style VDT has a 24*80 little
tiny boxes, where the characters are written, and a light-colored grid
between the lines and characters.

A Macintosh, with its white-on-black desktop, probably burns in more
evenly (and more quickly).  If you entire Mac burns in evenly, it
would be hard to perceive.  To perceive burn-in, erase the entire
screen.  I bet your menu bar is already burned it, but you can't tell
(except during boot time, when that region is erased).

The net effect is that the screen will become progressively dimmer in
certain places, as time goes on.