According to Reddit user knobcrik:

[I]n 2005 I was working for a "telemarketing" firm somewhere on the east coast. morale was so bad at the company, management went to great lengths to keep people that actually worked hard. one of the ways they did this was a short lived but highly entertaining award for "Employee of the Month". Said employee was treated to answering calls from a "special" desk with a 42" monitor.

What a nice treat, he must've thought. I needed to stop looking at porn during work hours anyway. Then the reality set in:

[He was] the first and last employee of the month winner. The next months winner could not go more than two days with the XL monitor stating his "retinas were getting burned out by the heat from the screen".

Somewhere, deep in an office complex in Scottsdale, a blind man is weeping. Touch-dialing potential customers from a seemingly endless braille book, his only comfort is to run his fingertips across his Employee of the Month plaque. It is starting to rust. [Reddit]

UPDATE: From reader Deacon Cupcakes, proof that the EXXXTREME SCREEN phenomenon is alive and well:

We can now announce that the first units are going into specialized tablet devices with multi-touch. Increasingly these screens will be super-slim, but some customers prefer the standard thickness.

Pixel Qi will be at CES in Las Vegas in early January supporting our customers. We can't yet announce with whom we will be showing but hope to shortly.

Oh noes. Your client will be at CES? And they may not be interested in super-slim screens? Then that's not you-know-who, the company whose obsession with thinness is inversely proportional to their interest in CES. Too bad, but I still have hope. [Pixel Qi via Netbook News via Slashgear]

In layman's terms, the innovation arrives thanks to a liquid semiconducting layer that potentially bends and flexes more reliably than the "vacuum thermal evaporation" technique employed by Samsung.

In the researchers' case, the liquid, officially known as ethylhexyl carbazole (EHCz), will constantly deliver a fresh supply of semiconductors to the emitting layer. To you and me that means better, more flexible screens that might not degrade as quickly as once thought, if and when they arrive in the (near?) future. Just don't try and drink one. [PhysOrg via OLED Info - Thanks, Ron]

But aside from this wonderful picture, there's also a huge sample of plain wonderful imagery from around Norway in this collection, which ranges from the early morning hours all the way to evening. There's even an image of our new friend Stoltenberg lounging in what appears to be a Norwegian Obi-wan Kenobi hut:

The rest is really quite awesome: Cute baby shots, to emergency rescue crews in action, to wildlife, to landscape panoramas of the countryside.

Be wary though—since many of the shots are also of healthcare situations, there are a few from the morgue showing a doctor delicately preparing a deceased elderly person for Valhalla. And yes, was just being cheeky there, as I realize that's citing Norse mythology, and implies the person died in combat—life is tough!

Nevertheless, an interesting photo set if ever there was one. Thanks for sharing, Sverre. [24 Hours In Norway]

As you can see in the video, it's all controllable in real-time. I'm not sure what they've got running this setup and these screens, but it's certainly powerful. And yeah, all the flight visualizations are awesome, I'd really love to get a game of Call of Duty rocking on this setup. [Fubiz via NotCot]

Granted, this is partially my fault—I didn't keep it in the ugly cover that comes with the Kindle, just like I don't lock my iPhone or any other gadget in disfiguring covers, since I'm all about naked gadgets (almost entirely for aesthetic reasons), and I thought my bag's padded sleeve provided sufficient protection. Apparently it does not when you have a heavy DSLR on the other side of the stuffing and some guy slams into your bag.

A book made out of dead trees would've buckled and creased and returned to its original shape. So would a reader with a flexible display like Plastic Logic's, which at one point was said to withstand getting smacked by a shoe. Which actually takes it one step closer to emulating books than the more fragile Kindle or any other E-Ink powered reader—too bad Plastic Logic's reader is about a year away. (Though it says something about the Kindle that I'd sort of taken to treating it almost like a real book, and that this is the first time I'd actually materially felt the gap between it and paper.)

The story for other kinds of flexible displays, like bendy OLED, is actually even more depressing, since "progress" at this point means they're now 5 years away. Given how easy it is break screens, and how much we depend on them now—witness the slow recession buttons, though I'm sure they'll experience a retro counter-touch resurgence—rugged displays that we can treat like organic materials instead of delicate magic under the constant threat of destruction by mere everyday living might be more revolutionary than expected.

Or maybe I'll just have to learn to be more careful. [Giz's Kindle Review]

First off, it depends on which Enterprise you're talking about. The original Enterprise of the '60s, which I've been watching Season 1 of on Blu-ray (quite a good restoration, btw), had what seemed like a tiny ass screen when compared to the IMAX-like experience of the new movie Enterprise. But it's not actually that small.

Using the combined knowledge of the Star Fleet Technical Manual and some screenshots of the episodes, I was able to determine that the screen is a 136-inch display with a 1.73:1 aspect ratio. That's actually smaller than the retina-searing 150-inch Panasonic plasma that we played with before. Yes, Adam Frucci and various captains of industry that have way too much money have viewed things in their own home on a larger display than a captain of a STARSHIP.

But Picard isn't going to be showed up by 21st century technology. His glorious Enterprise D has a 212-inch screen with a 1.92:1 aspect ratio, which is big enough for Riker to jam chairs through while Picard's off in a fantasy land with Whoopi Goldberg. Nice job, Riker.

Not only is this screen gigantic, it supposedly displays stuff in three-dimensions, shifting views or something so Jean-Luc can put a face to Troi's feelings of "he's hiding something". The Star Trek Wiki explains thusly:

While it is a subtle effect, the viewscreen seen throughout Star Trek: The Next Generation clearly displayed 3-D images. This effect was created in some scenes by providing multiple angles on the viewer, with the image on screen displayed at a corresponding angle, rather than a flat, single angle shot.

But what about the newest technology? What have we learned from years of actual consumer electronics development that the tech-consultants on the movie set could incorporate into the latest iteration of the Enterprise? "Bigger is better."

The display on new-Kirk's ship looks massive, but only because it's so wide. If you're measuring the screen diagonally in display-talk, it's around 326-inches, which is larger in absolute terms than even Picard's screen. It also has a 3.25:1 display ratio, making it wider than most film ratios. But if you're talking pure width, it measures about 26 feet across. Quite impressive.

If they ever do remake TNG, I suspect that the viewscreen will wrap entirely around the side of the bridge all the way to the back where neo-Worf and neo-Geordi will be able to see what's going on behind the Enterprise. It's easier to turn your head to see a display than to tell someone to press a button to change the view.

So yes, this is our dream for when we go into space. Not only will we be able to be in space, we'll have really, really big screens to watch stuff on.

Based on the images, we can see character customization as well as open-world neighborhood and potential inter-Sim interaction. What we're not seeing is the spiffy stuff mentioned at Apple's 3.0 Update event—namely that The Sims 3 for iPhone will let you play music from your own library and has in-app commerce features, letting you purchase game items from the iTunes App Store while playing.

Additional features in The Sims 3 iPhone listed in a press release sent to TouchArcade also say the 10-hour game will feature four mini games – cooking, fishing, gardening and house repairing.

Official word says you can also make your Sim fall in love, but it's not clear if Whoo-Hooing will be part of the touch control experience.

The CinemaView is the first (third party) monitor to support Apple's mini DisplayPort standard, which means that unibody MacBook users won't need to mess with adapters to plug in. Plus, they look super Appley.

Coming in sizes up to 24-inches and resolutions up to 1920 x 1080 (slightly lower than Apple's 1920 x 1200), these aluminum and glass displays each feature 1000:1 contrast, 350 cd/m2 brightness, 5ms response and a 3-port USB hub.

But the most attractive feature is definitely the price, with the displays promised to cost somewhere between $300 and $500 when they're released sometime before September 1. [CinemaView via Macworld]

Samsung had a good thing going, but then they blew it by sticking the following slogan on the placard beside it: "meaningful innovation, wow experience."

Seriously? Sounds like a move by the same committee who commissioned this beautiful AMOLED screen to begin with, then saddled it Symbian, instead of Android, or even WinMo 6.5.

The Athena Sofa is one-part luxury sofa that you will likely stain, one-part PC. We weren't able to find any specs from the designers at Artanova, but we're guessing that those integrated screens that fit so snugly into the armrests feature touch sensitivity.

Why do we assume that? Well, it makes sense from a design point of view, considering the lack of input devices. And also, if we're paying over $15,000 for a couch with a couple of monitors and a PC inside—which we are in this theoretical world where we have the $15,000 to buy an Athena—we really really want touchscreens. [Artanova via Bornrich]

His reference monitor is a Eizo ColorEdge CE240W and he throws a Lenovo ThinkPad T60 into the mix for good measure, since its in-plane switching LCD panel produces good color reproduction and even screen brightness.

That Lenovo's ThinkPad W700—which is geared toward pro photographers and has a built-in Pantone calibrator—tops the list for color accuracy and "could just about replace a desktop display" for pro work is probably not so shocking. What is crazy, however, is that the Dell Inspiron Mini 9—a $300 netbook—has display with better "overall hue accuracy" than the $1999 MacBook Pro, which is "one or two steps below a good desktop display." BTW, Rob loves the Mini 9 so much he calls it "a workflow-altering experience."

His full assessment of every display is definitely worth reading, even if you're not a photographer. [Rob Galbraith, Image: Rob Galbraith]

How? It's all about the screen. Just just like she reinvented the LCD screen for the XO, making the project possible both costwise and practically (with the flip of a switch, the color LCD can switch to one that's monochrome and highly reflective, making it easy to use outside and even more energy efficient) she's trying to do it again with Pixel Qi's latest. Their incredible efficiency is what will allow the laptops to possibly run for 20-40 hours.

Obviously, she wouldn't spell out in detail what's so magical about their screens yet. In an email to PC World, Jepsen simply says that:

"At Pixel Qi, we have a new series of inventions that go well beyond the OLPC screen that we are developing right now... We can enable an increase of 5-10X battery life between charges compared with a standard notebook. This means that rather than needing to recharge your batteries every few hours, you could run 20-40 hours of use on a one charge."

However they work, we'll be eager to check 'em out when they debut sometime in the second half of next year. [PC World via Engadget]

He says he's importing the UM-710 and the UM-730, which apart from being rotatable, has touchscreen capabilities, webcam, microphone, and a built-in speaker.

Specifications
Display Size: 7"
Display Resolution: 800 x 480
Brightness: 350cd/m2
Contrast Ratio: 400:1
UM-710 Connections: USB 2.0
UM-730 Connections: USB 2.0, Audio In, Audio Out
UM-710 Functions: Monitor, Pivots
UM-730 Functions: Monitor, Pivots, Touchscreen, Webcam, Microphone, Speaker
Dimensions: 195 x 97.5 (UM-730: 197 x 97.5)

Apparently, the manufacturer told him that they are working on Mac OS X drivers now. The UM-710 is now available for pre-order for $130, while you can get the UM-730 for $170. [The Gadgeteers]

The problem is two-fold.

1. Pixels are arranged horizontally
2. Blue pixels are much darker on the 3000

Given these findings, the problem appears to be 100% hardware-based. So now the question is, how is it possible that Sony didn't see this problem coming? Literally? [Logic Sunrise via Maxconsole]

Samsung couldn't accomplish this with a normal glass substrate for obvious reasons, so they pioneered a new "sputtering" technique to coat the panel with a flexible membrane. Here's how it goes: a block of the coating material is blasted with an ion gun, causing it to eject bits of itself into an thermodynamically unbalanced cloud of atoms, which then cling to and form a film on anything else in the vacuum chamber — namely, this floppety panel.

This looks like it is just a one-off, unpriced expo unit, but at least we know it's possible. This tech come interesting close in capability to Samsung's other recently demonstrated ultra-thin color display, so we might have the beginning of an confusing display tech overlap. Cool, Samsung. Please sort that out, and wake me up when my shirt is a TV. [TechOn via OLED Display]

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AUO will also release a superthin, 1.9" TFT display that is .63 mm thick, while the 8" multi-touch TFT panels that veer away from the trend of multi-touch glass panels. Can you say handheld tablet UMPCs? [InfoSyncWorld]