Friday, April 06, 2007

LCDs @work

At work I have two 24in LCDs for my linux workstation and one 20in for my notebook. Recently, I'v seen some new hires getting 30in LCDs (those at resolution 2560x1600, requiring dual-DVI interface). I'm sure I can get one of those too if I make a request. I'd think we're likely the first company to move towards 30in LCD as standard equipment for all engineers. (I'm sure some graphics-rendinerg places full of power mac pro's got these a year ago though.) .
This is in comparison to most valley companies still stuck with 17-20in LCDs.

This is actually a major reason that I don't have any faith in Hongkong's software industry (aka IT). I heard many HK IT companies are still stuck with 15in-17in LCDs. The managers (and bosses) there won't approve a 20in LCD (probably just HK$3K these days?), for emplyees earning HK$20-30K/month. (It will pay for itself in 10 months, only if that 20in LCD improves productivty by 1%.) These managers just don't care about the 'productivity' of the employees. Or they might think that employees just have constant productity regardless of any external factors, and the only measure they care is the number of hours in office?

At one point, I even considered interviewing for a pretty big and well-known IT place in HK (where I have some friends), try to get an offer (probably not too hard), and then tell them people who've worked at a good company in US won't join them, just because of their ridiculously primitive office computers. The screen size of LCDs matters a lot to me personally. I don't think I'd join any company that force me to use sub-20in LCDs, ever. Just like I won't consider any pure-windows company, as well.

PS. Engineers are considerd 'first-class citizen' at my company. For example, only engineers can request those 30in LCDs. Non-engineers like sales, HR, and marketing have to live with smaller LCDs.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

developers do need a large screen. I have a 19'' in my home, costs 20xx HKD in last summer. And now, a lot of 22'' (24'' maybe? i am not sure) cost less than $3000 (including some good brands, like philips and samsung). But, the problem is that my office still provides only a 1024x768 15'' LCD, it is just a stupid policy. Eventualy, I asked the system admin to take my desktop computer away, I use my 13'' macbook instead (it is 1280*800).

Arael said...

yah, I heard this is pretty common in HK, but it also happens in US.
I have a friend who actually bought a larger LCD by herself and brought that back to office.
Not many people would do this though, because it'd be quite awkward. It'd only work when you have a good boss and friendly coworkers.

At least the macbook is provided by the company? Not that many places will let you use a macbook, instead of something running windows.

Anonymous said...

my IT colleagues do have large LCD, at least 27", but they said its too bright and makes their eyes uncomfortable