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What's a technology that was cooler in its older iterations? (pawb.social)

submitted 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) by VinesNFluff@pawb.social to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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I don't mean BETTER. That's a different conversation. I mean cooler.

An old CRT display was literally a small scale particle accelerator, firing angry electron beams at light speed towards the viewers, bent by an electromagnet that alternates at an ultra high frequency, stopped by a rounded rectangle of glowing phosphors.

If a CRT goes bad it can actually make people sick.

That's just. Conceptually a lot COOLER than a modern LED panel, which really is just a bajillion very tiny lightbulbs.

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[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 months ago

It's possible to look that up in a document called the Airport Facility Directory (which they now call Chart Supplements apparently) but if you don't speak pilotese you're not going to make heads or tails of it. Here's the line that instructs pilots that there's pilot controlled lighting at the first airport I ever landed at:

Actvt MALSR Rwy 05; REIL Rwy 23; PAPI Rwy 05 and 23; HIRL Rwy 05–23—CTAF

That expands to "Activate Medium Intensity Approach Light System for runway 5, Runway End Identifier Lights for runway 23, Precision Approach Path Indicator for runway 5 and 23, High Intensity Runway Lights on runway 5 and 23 on the Common Traffic Advisory Frequency." It's actually weird to me the PAPI is pilot controlled; usually those are constantly on because they're useful even during the day.

this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024

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