Bah!

For years, I have had problems with LCD projectors and my notebook. My notebook’s native resolution is 1400×1050 (like many high-end notebooks manufactured after 2002), and putting it into a non-native resolution upsets the notebook’s belief in good and evil. Changing my resolution to 1024×768 simply doesnt work – the projector just won’t accept the image.

This has often resulted in my having to switch to 640×480 mode just to get a full screen image out. The most recent incident was at the CXOtoday event in Mumbai and Delhi, where the projectors just refused to play ball.

The issue is always that there is too little time to do any R & D at the venue, so one adapts, instead of fixing things. I know that it is just a question of frequencies, but, well, there is no time.

It’s gotten so bad that I was considering buying a lower-end notebook that can only do 1024×768!

Now you may say “yeah, that’s because Linux doesn’t work”, but note that this problem persisted even when I booted into Windows. Exchanging notes with Kishore Bhargava showed that he had similar problems, with a similar notebook (for some reason, the two of us always end up buying the same/similar notebook, mobile phone, notebook bag, etc., even when we don’t meet for ages).

So I decided I am going to do something about it, by spending some money hiring a projector and doing some R & D at home over the long weekend.

And guess what? Projector after projector delivered to me worked out of the box at any resolution! I am unable to hire a projector that fails like the projectors that I used even last week! It’s like all vendors have suddenly decided to buy better projectors!

So here I am, looking at a 8 foot image of my screen, with nothing to do.

And want to bet that the next time I give a talk somewhere, the projector will bomb out on me again, refusing to work with my notebook?

This is ridiculous!