When I’m not busy writing how-to articles, I work for a large chain of retail stores that recently replaced its DOS-based cash register system. The new registers have LCD touch-screens, and every time I start a shift at the register, I have to fight my gag reflex, which gets all excited by the greasy fingerprints (and fingersmears and fingersmudges and sometimes fingerchunks) the last person left all over the screen that I’m expected to touch. Our managers have instructed us to clean the screens with window cleaner and paper towels, so I do (I didn’t pay for the registers, after all), but deep down in my heart I know it’s wrong. LCD screens are not glass, and they require different cleaning methods than glass. Fortunately, except for the need to perform a tiny bit of simple chemistry, cleaning an LCD monitor is just as easy as cleaning a glass-screened CRT monitor. My latest article goes over all the steps. Maybe someday, if I’m feeling charitable toward the Man, I’ll forward the link to my employer so they’ll know how to clean an LCD monitor without gradually destroying it.
Archive for the 'electronics' Category
Eric and I recently splurged on a brand new 32-inch LCD TV after a year of making do with a twenty-year-old hand-me-down 13-inch set with fake wood paneling on the sides. We were, as you can probably imagine, excited. So we got it home, carefully attached it to the stand, transferred it to the top of a bookcase, stood back, and saw…fingerprints. A week later, it was coated with a fine layer of dust and cat hair. It was, without a doubt, time for me to learn how to clean an LCD TV. Safely, you know, so as not to ruin this thing we spent several hundred dollars on. Turns out, cleaning an LCD TV is not as difficult or expensive as you might expect. All the details are in my new article.
