A 20-inch display with a resolution of 1680×1050 has 1,764,000 pixels. You would think one pixel wouldn’t be able to stand out among 1.7 million pixels. And yet if that one pixel happens to be a stuck pixel on my spanking new display, it does stick out.

The offending pixel happens to be red which is perhaps entirely appropriate because I think of it as a red zit on the face of my display. I didn’t even notice it in the first few hours of using the display but now my eyes cannot help but be drawn to that pixel. I’ll be typing something or reading something and my eyes will go seeking for that dastardly tiny red speck of their own accord. Where is it? Where, where? Aah, there it is. This is usually followed by some cussing.

Remember that irrational, fussy part of me I mentioned earlier? It may be a little part of me but damn, it can be loud.

This is completely stupid, of course. I cannot even figure out why I obsess over something as tiny as this.

At one point, I thought there were two stuck pixels on my monitor and had begun gnashing my teeth and spewing expletives before I realised the other stuck pixel was actually a speck of dust which was easily wiped off.

So, yeah, it’s definitely stupid.

It’s one stuck pixel.

Among 1.7 million pixels.

I could raise such a fuss over this that Dell would have to send a replacement just to shut me up. But there’s no guarantee the replacement unit would be free of flaws. The replacement might have problems with colour banding, severe backlight bleeding, excessive flickering or dead pixels. I could end up trying replacement after replacement without satisfying my high standards.

Another option is try the various folk remedies that reputedly fix stuck pixels.

But I think it’s better to let go.

Embrace the flaw.

Be one with nature.

Om-m-m-m …

Where is it? Where, where?

Ah, there it is.

Son of a …

I mentioned earlier my problems with my CRT display. It may not have been clear to you what the big deal was so here’s an example of how it affected me.

This was a photo that looked perfectly all right on my CRT before calibration:

The differences before and after calibration can be just as jarring when it comes to other PC applications. Web sites look different to me since I now see colours and gradients where I previously saw only murky darkness. It’s also now clear to me my problems with Guild Wars had nothing to do with extreme goth sensibilities on the part of ArenaNet’s artists.

There are various ways of calibrating your monitor. Professional graphics artists or photographers will probably be best served by high-end solutions costing a few hundred dollars but the hoi polloi can make do with various free solutions available on the net. I would strongly recommend looking at image–based calibration at the very least since it would give you an indication of whether adjustments are necessary.