mats@forbrk.UUCP (Mats Wichmann) (05/06/87)
In article <825@f103a.UUCP> love@f103a.UUCP (Love Feuer) writes: >I'm working with a Facit Twist terminal, that at a first glare may look >like any other terminal on the market. >But you may actually twist the terminal screen and get 72*80 characters ... ... ... > sold by Ericson, that took over the Facit Corp. a few yers ago, and > Ericson is a multinational thing. But I still haven't seen the Twist > terminal in any other country than my own (== Sweden). > Was available from Facit in the U.S. two or more years ago - I have one and it is at the top of the list among my "favorite" terminals. Most everyone I have shown it to hates the keyboard (which I love), because it has less key travel than most available in the US (but I think it is in line with the rather stringent German standards, or so I was told by the Facit salesman). It is my understanding that the terminal was actually designed as a joint effort between Facit and Datamedia, and is (was) available from Datamedia (if they still exist). This is the ONLY terminal (as opposed to bit-mapped display) that I have worked with that can comfortably be used in inverse video, especially with the white phosphor (in other words, black letters on white background). /mats wichmann, Fortune Systems (Berkeley)
sbg@f109a.UUCP (05/11/87)
In article <317@forbrk.UUCP> mats@forbrk.UUCP (Mats Wichmann) writes: >In article <825@f103a.UUCP> love@f103a.UUCP (Love Feuer) writes: >>I'm working with a Facit Twist terminal, that at a first glare may look >>like any other terminal on the market. >... ... ... >> Ericson is a multinational thing. But I still haven't seen the Twist >> terminal in any other country than my own (== Sweden). >> >...This is the ONLY >terminal (as opposed to bit-mapped display) that I have worked with that >can comfortably be used in inverse video, especially with the white >phosphor (in other words, black letters on white background). At the Swedish Defense Computer Central User Support Center (whew! :-), where I for the time being happen to be working, the Facit Twist is the standard terminal we supply with the systems. People usually like the Twist, since it has large and nice letters. But: After a couple of years, the screen fades. It doesn't help opening (gasp!) the terminal and frobnicating the brigthness-knob. I don't know if this is a result of the flouroscent stuff in the ray-tube going stale, or what, but we get a lot of telephone calls from people who wonder why their terminal is so dark. This problem occurs even faster (~1 year) if people use the black-on-white text, and forget to setup the Twist with the screen- saving option. The screen-saver helps a little, but to really save the screen you've got to turn the terminal off completely. BTW, I have noticed that people who use the black-on-white style setup with the Twist usually are nicely tanned in the face. Probably a total coincidence. -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ | UUCP: sbg@f109a.UUCP or | | {seismo,mcvax,cernvax,diku,ircam,prlb2,tut,ukc,unido}!enea!f109a!sbg | | ARPA: D84.S-B-Grinneby%CARMEN.UPPSALA.SE@SEISMO.CSS.GOV | +-------+---------+---------+---------+---------+----------------------------+ | . . . . . . . . . . * Bladesong | | . . . . . . . . . . * Nedre Slottsg. 16:305 | |. . . . . . . . . . * 752 20 UPPSALA | | . . . . . . . . . . * SWEDEN | +--+---------+---------+---------+---------+---------------------------------+
rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (05/11/87)
This is the ONLY terminal (as opposed to bit-mapped display) that I have worked with that can comfortably be used in inverse video, especially with the white phosphor (in other words, black letters on white background). After staring at SUN consoles for awhile, I run all my terminals (vt220, orange; tv950, green; Datamedia 80/1, bluish white) in inverse video. Strangely enuf, regular video looks as horrible to me now as inverse video did long ago. Tastes change I guess. /mats wichmann, Fortune Systems (Berkeley) (Root Boy) Jim "Just Say Yes" Cottrell <rbj@icst-cmr.arpa> It's NO USE.. I've gone to ``CLUB MED''!!
mats@forbrk.UUCP (Mats Wichmann) (05/14/87)
In article <7325@brl-adm.ARPA> rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim) writes: > > This is the ONLY > terminal (as opposed to bit-mapped display) that I have worked with that > can comfortably be used in inverse video, especially with the white > phosphor (in other words, black letters on white background). > >After staring at SUN consoles for awhile, I run all my terminals (vt220, >orange; tv950, green; Datamedia 80/1, bluish white) in inverse video. >Strangely enuf, regular video looks as horrible to me now as inverse >video did long ago. Tastes change I guess. > After getting used to the Facit, I went back and started using all my other terminals in inverse. I do this with each new type of terminal; after a relatively short time, I give up on each. The almost-subliminal wiggle/flicker just drives me nuts. If you ever want to see this clearly, darken the room a bit and sit somewhere away from the terminal doing something else. Out of the corner of your eye, you will (probably) see this flicker on the screen. Anyway, the point was that the Facit, because of its' higher refresh rate, seems not to suffer this problem, and thus is the only terminal comfortable for me in inverse video. /Mats
l-aron@obelix.liu.se (Lars Aronsson) (05/16/87)
Followup-To: Smail: Rydsvagen 256 A:10, S-582 48 Linkoping, Sweden Hello, Mats! Time to start comp.swedish.people ? Mats Wichmann writes (mats@forbrk.UUCP - <320@forbrk.UUCP>): > >After getting used to the Facit, I went back and started using all my >other terminals in inverse. I do this with each new type of terminal; >after a relatively short time, I give up on each. The almost-subliminal >wiggle/flicker just drives me nuts. If you ever want to see this >clearly, darken the room a bit and sit somewhere away from the >terminal doing something else. Out of the corner of your eye, you >will (probably) see this flicker on the screen. Anyway, the point >was that the Facit, because of its' higher refresh rate, seems not >to suffer this problem, and thus is the only terminal comfortable >for me in inverse video. I'm writing this on a FACIT 4431, a traditional CRT terminal, running at 60 Hz (screens per second). Some people prefer to use it in inversed (black on light green) mode, but I just can't stand the flicker. The FACIT Twist discussed here runs at 65 Hz. I think that is kind of a limit. I've only heard of one "faster" CRT terminal, and that is the Finnish NOKIA, which runs at 71 Hz. I've got no figures on things like SUN or Xerox workstations. Too bad, many terminals still run at 50 Hz, which is the mains power frequency in Sweden and many other European countries. Summary: Above 60..65 Hz -- Black on white is the natural thing. Below 60..65 Hz -- The less (flickering) light, the better.
ksand@mapper.UUCP (Kent Sandvik) (05/16/87)
In article <320@forbrk.UUCP> mats@forbrk.UUCP (Mats Wichmann) writes: >In article <7325@brl-adm.ARPA> rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim) writes: After a time of heavy usage of this terminal I got a very bad acne - for the first time since long time ago. I think this event also corresponds to the informal rumours that "users of the Twist terminal have always a sun tan in their faces" due to the rather big radiation rate from the screen. Sometimes high refresh rates aren't so good... :-( Kent Sandvik -- ADDRESS: Vallgatan 7, 171 91 Solna Sweden | This is entirely written in PHONE: (46) 8 - 55 16 39 job, - 733 32 35 home | cosmic pseudo C++ ARPA: enea!mapper!ksand@seismo.arpa | TODAY: Make love - not flames UUCP: ksand@mapper.UUCP | DISCLAIMER: See above
robert@pvab.UUCP (05/20/87)
In article <1066@obelix.liu.se>, l-aron@obelix.liu.se (Lars Aronsson) writes: > The FACIT Twist discussed here runs at 65 Hz. > I think that is kind of a limit. I've only heard of one "faster" > CRT terminal, and that is the Finnish NOKIA, which runs at 71 Hz. > I've got no figures on things like SUN or Xerox workstations. I've recently tried the new Visual 600, which has a refresh rate of 70 Hz. It's vt220 and Tektronix 4010/4014 compatible and has a *very* crisp and easy to read display. Even the 60x132 mode is easy to read at a little distance. I recommend it. The Nokia's screen is also very stable, but I just can't stand the "plastic" feeling of the white phospor.
love@f103a.UUCP (love) (05/22/87)
. . >After a time of heavy usage of this terminal I got a very bad acne - >for the first time since long time ago. I think this event also corresponds >to the informal rumours that "users of the Twist terminal have always >a sun tan in their faces" due to the rather big radiation rate from the >screen. . Does anyone out there have the actual radiation values for the Twist? I heard somewhere that someone did some tests on the terminal. Since I'm working with this beast often, I'm getting a bit worried when I see things like above. If anyone has some info about the radiation from the Twist screen, please send them to the net with some reference values, for example the levels for the standard DEC VT100 terminal. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ #### ! In real life : Love Feuer ######## F|rsvarets ! In unreal life : enea!f103a!love #### #### Rationaliserings ! Phone: : +46 8 21 62 78 ### Institut. !---------------------------------------- ########## ### ! ########## ### !Disclaimer: ### The Swedish ! The opinions expressed herein are not ### #### ### Institute of ! necessarily those of my employer, ### ### ### Defence Organization ! probably not those of my computer, ### ## ### and Management. ! and maybe not even those of myown. ### ## ### ! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------