[KLUG Hardware] Toshiba 1135-S155 Was "HP ze4220"

[Andrew Thompson]

On Wed, 2003-04-23 at 07:44, Adam Williams wrote:
> > My 2nd complaint is the screen.  It's 15.3", supported nVidia chipset,
> > and very sharp and clear.  So, what's the problem?  It's a "WXGA"
> > display.  I had no idea what that meant when I ordered it.  Well, it
> > turns out the "W" means wide, as in wide-aspect.  It's the shape of a
> > HDTV screen.  Vertically it's shorter than a normal 14" laptop display,
> > and VERY wide.  The resolution it runs is 1280x800.  (requires a special
> > modeline in XF86Config - which took me a half day to figure out)
> > It's probably great for watching DVD's, but I'm not sure I like the
> > shape for normal computing . . .
> 
> Web sites, etc... all assume a vertical aspect so it seems like it would
> be a bit irritating.

Which, considering the orientation of the typical monitor, doesn't seem
to make a whole lot of sense. Scott McCloud had a word or two on that
subject for the online comic artists...

> > I'll probably bring it tonight if anyone is interested in seeing the
> > next generation of laptop displays.
> 
> Hmmm, not certain I like the direction.  I'd prefer a "page view" screen 
> that is quite a bit taller than it is wide.

Actually, it occurred to me a few months back that it would be just the
thing for a lightweight laptop or micro-laptop if it could shift the
display ninety degrees and be held/used like a book. Of course, there's
the challenge of using the keyboard in the configuration, but that's
another issue. Anyway, I just learned of an extension to X11 that would
provide dynamic resize and rotate capabilities as well as detecting and
supporting hardware acceleration features. Not sure if it really fits
into this discussion, but it seemed close enough to warrant this
posting. There's a website on it at
http://keithp.com/~keithp/talks/randr/randr/
-- 
Andrew Thompson <tempes@ameritech.net>
The Imagerie