Tips on NOT GOING BLIND

[$t3v0]

Hi,

I finally landed myself a solid position as a web developer back in June and ever since then I've been tackling away at some hardcore code. For those of you that know how much coding a sequel database can piss you off it's one of those things that if you make a mistake it can be a fucking bitch to discover whereabouts that mistakes was made.

Now ...

After staring at the screen for 7 hours a day I think it's starting to take it's toll on my eyesight in general. I have dizzy spells and it then leads to my usual panic attacks because I think there's something wrong with me. I realise that frequent breaks are necessary when working with computers, but what other solutions are there? When I'm on site in a client office I don't like to keep leaving every 30 minutes as it looks unprofessional and I don't seem at all dedicated.

I'm going for an eye exam tomorrow and I'm sure he'll give me some advice there. I'm just curious to know what the members of the forum do that work with computers heavily day in, day out.

 

[sixtyandaquarter]

I tend to use a slight hue.
I find sharp contrasts like black on white, or white on black give me head aches at any length of time.  So when I can I'll try to set a color, like a light blue or even a gray.  The brightness won't irritate me, but my eyes won't try so hard to make things out.

If you can, also splash some color around.  Even temporary.  I write in a program called Jarte, and what I'll do since it's defaultly a small window sized program, I'll open up a picture in a background window or just change my desktop background to something else eye catching - incidentally I often switch to a background of the rmxp game Ethereal Dreams because it's got nice blue tones to it.  Smaller windows help because your not looking at such a large piece, as well.

These are mostly tricks on the eye, but you'd be surprised how often they help.  Particularly if your vision isn't being strained, it's just acting like it is.

 

[Venetia]

yeah i do these things too. also at my work my monitors' contrast and brightness are turned down nearly to their lowest settings, because staring at bright lights in a dark room literally can blind you after a long while.

 

[Sic Semper Tyranosaurus]

What this thread needs is an instrucational video on how to care for your eyes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_83MEuLoz9Y

 

[Brewmeister]

Bright blue, & pure white are rough on the eye-testicles. Softer pastel colors will increase your eye-durance.
Breaks are good too. And having at lease some ambient light in the room, as opposed to darkness. That way
your eyes are not dilating drastically when you look away from the screen.
Drink water. I keep a 64oz. Super Hyper Mega Gulp full of ice water on my desk at all times. Dehydration =
dry eyes -> that nasty sand feeling after a long day.

Fleshtones are very easy on the eyes. I suggest surfing some porn for at least 5 minutes every hour!
Of course, keep your hands on the keyboard. Diddling yourself causes blindness too.  :scruff:

In extreme cases, stare at a picture of Venny. (she's a 'site for sore eyes')  :wink:

Be Well

 

[Venetia]

=o

:blush:

 

[Mascarpone]

Not masturbating helps.

 

[skirtboy]

Changing the background colour to anything but white will greatly reduce eyestrain. If you use software like OpenOffice taht allows you to fully customise colour, set the backgroud color to a medium gray. You'll still be able to tell the effect of text colour, but you'll reduce the amount of light your monitor puts out by a huge amount.