On 02-Jul-06 Wayne Stallwood wrote:
Great health tip there Ted,
But due to the current climate I am on light refreshing beers (currently a bottle of Corona) and I think in terms of DVT resistance these are actually slightly more effective.
Probably! Both caggeine and alcohol are of course diuretic, but from experience I think alcohol may be the more effective in the long term.
Actually one serious health tip.
I was suffering quite badly with tired eyes and headaches and I put this down to too many late nights working in a room with poor lighting and dark walls.
I think the brightness of the screen (which is set quite bright) with the darkness of the rest of the room was causing some form of eyestrain.
I took inspiration from the Philips Ambilight TV sets and fitted 4 high intensity white LED's to the back of my screen (pointing at the wall surface behind) these produce a light halo around the border of the screen which as well as looking quite natty seems to have reduced the effects of eyestrain I was getting.
That's interesting! In my case, with the ceiling light (which is a "spot" bulb giving rather white light) on above my head, and having a matt white background behind the monitor (TFT), I don't particularly get the problem.
But I also have a small bright spotlight lamp for special illumination of my deskspace if I want to see something really sharply; and its bulb sits just outside my right visual field at about 2 o'clock, and in a plane about halfway from eye to screeen (i.e. it shines down roughly where my hands are). If, after use, I leave this on and return to working on the computer, then I get really unpleasant eye discomfort (especially on the right side).
I'm sure that correct illumination is vital to prevent eyestrain, and your tip is interesting!
One thing which occurs to me is that the extra diffuse light around the screen, while not distracting, will cause the pupils to contract and therefore sharpen the focus of the eye without imposing strain on the eye muscles to accommodate the lens, so you're getting sharper vision without the effort and hence without the strain.
This suggests that you may have a bit of an acuity problem anyway; but also it's my impression that the screen (especially TFT) is not a particularly "definite" target for the eye to focus on anyway. If you test it, you'll probably find that the plastic surround, or the trademark thereon, or if you have one the power LED on the plastic, are easier to get a sharp focus on than what's on the screen itself!
Hmmm. Ted.
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