Re: Switching on the "monitor stand"
"That takes me back around four decades, to Apple ][s with crappy monitors which got very static and gave me a facial rash"
I was working in a place that had IBM Displaywriters, and one of the secretaries complained that hers gave her a rash on her arms. Whether it was the static itself, or the dust that it collected, or psychosomatic, adding a filter over the CRT made of conductive glass that was grounded stopped the complaints.
Re the showers of sparks, I never did see that, though occasionally a monitor died with a faint burning smell. But I wasn't present the day that the cat who slept on top of my 21" monitor got attacked by another cat and lost control of her bladder. Diagnosis on that one was by smell, too.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
