Re: TARBALLS DUE: GNOME 2.3.1 Development Desktop Release

[Bill Haneman <bill haneman sun com>]

On Thu, 2003-05-01 at 07:03, Jeff Waugh wrote:
...
>   drwright - Enforces keyboard/computer breaks to avoid RSI/radiation
>     sickness.

"radiation sickness" ???

Sorry, can't let that one pass ;-)

drwright could not possibly protect anyone against any form or radiation
sickness... fortunately "radiation sickness" is caused by excess
exposure to gamma radiation, which is (again fortunately) not emitted by
modern CRT or LCD monitors[1][2].

[1] I was once peripherally involved in an actual study measuring the
gamma emissions from CRTs.  Even for high-voltage CRTs we found only
trace emissions, which turned out to be coming from the glass, and were
the same whether the monitor was off or on.  Ordinary (glass) eyeglasses
are also radioactive to the same extent, due to traces of radioactive
potassium-14 in almost all glass; Corning came up with special
"low-radioactivity glass" in about 1961 for use in laboratory
applications where the radioactivity would interfere with measurements.

[2] Some old monitors used "rare earth" compounds in their color
phosphors, which could contain trace quantities of other radioactive
contaminants; this was way before most of this list was born ;-)

[3] Perhaps drwright needs a disclaimer saying that it's not intended
for use in the core of nuclear reactors or in heavy fallout zones ;-)

- Bill (formerly a software developer in Medical Physics)