24 ms·

Save your eyes, start using f.lux

• moepstar 14y ago
  I've tried to use it for a while, but couldn't get used to it and deactivated it again. It's just been unusual to me that my screen was being tinted/shaded..
  • gallamine 14y ago
    Both my wife and I use it. I don't work with images at all so it works out fine. I now find the slight tint very pleasant.
• tushark 14y ago
  I love f.lux. It does take a bit of getting used to, but if you wait it out, you'll enjoy it. And, the research they've done on light is quite impressive too: http://stereopsis.com/flux/research.html http://stereopsis.com/flux/research.html That being said, this has been around for a while, so I wonder why it's trending now. They haven't put out any recent updates afaik
  • StavrosK 14y ago
    > It does take a bit of getting used to Just install it during the day. You'll be inseparable by the evening.
  • matznerd 14y ago
    I feel like it trends in waves and they do not do any advertising so it's always by word of mouth...
  • freehunter 14y ago
    I just wish it would go based on ambient light if you have a webcam rather than what the sun is doing. Where I work, I'm not always exposed to natural sunlight, and I don't always work during the day going into the night where I'm going to want my screen to adjust to me trying to fall asleep halfway through a second-shift schedule.
    • gwillen 14y ago
      It's hard to measure ambient light correctly for something like this, because in a dark room, most of the ambient light is actually coming from the screen itself.
• Pezmc 14y ago
  I've been using this for a year or so, both on my computer and on my iPad. It really does reduce the stress on your eyes.
• mtgx 14y ago
  It's available for iOS but not for Android? I didn't even know you could do that on iOS.
  • prof_hobart 14y ago
    It's only for jailbroken iOS devices.
  • deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  • matznerd 14y ago
    It's worth jailbreaking for! Www.jailbreakme.com As of now, you can jailbreak iOS 6, but not an iPhone 5
    • nwh 14y ago
      You can jailbreak only a 3GS or iPhone 4. A much better resource is http://jailbrea.kr/ http://jailbrea.kr/.
      • britta 14y ago
        And if you want more details or help, see http://www.jailbreakqa.com/ http://www.jailbreakqa.com/ - it includes a tutorial for jailbreaking iOS 6.0.1 on iPhone 4/3GS and iPod touch 4th gen, which has a tricky bit where you have to use the 6.0 IPSW (firmware file) as part of the process.
  • j_s 14y ago
    There are a few similar apps for Android, you can find most linked from here: Screen Filter https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.haxor https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.haxor I only use that Screen Filter app to shut off the soft-key backlights since last time I tried it all it did was drop a configurably-transparent black over everything on-screen.
• criley 14y ago
  As long as seeing correct color is not important to you. I'm the kind of person who can immediately tell when an LCD is not at native resolution and what temperature the color is set at, so the strong yellow tint of f.lux was unbearable. If your eyes hurt at night, just alter your brightness contrast, or write a script to do that instead of messing with color!
  • afandian 14y ago
    Me too. I am very sensitive to what's going on my screen. Even though it takes hours to transition, you can tell. And I love it. Flux is brilliant. It's also generally easier to wind down your brain toward the end of the day. It's not easy to sleep soon after staring at high temperatures.
  • pja 14y ago
    Messing with the colour is the whole point! It's that blue-white light right in front of your eyes that is cuing your brain into thinking that it's daytime.
  • knightni 14y ago
    Why not mess with colour? I have no need to see the 'correct' colour, if it's less comfortable to me. I actually leave my LCDs at a redder tint most of the time now, as I find it more comfortable. This is particularly useful as most desktop LCDs won't adjust their brightness down far enough for me. Laptops are better, since they actually bother to adjust the power of their backlight.
    • criley 14y ago
      I prefaced my post with "as long as color isn't important to you". Since it clearly isn't to you, there's no reason not to mess with it!
  • Shorel 14y ago
    The whole point of flu.x is to emulate color temperature. If you can have a driver or software that does it at a native level instead of emulation, that would be awesome. However, I don't think monitors have an API or programmable interface for that, therefore we have flu.x.
• zedr 14y ago
  On Linux, you can use Redshift: http://jonls.dk/redshift/ http://jonls.dk/redshift/
  • icebraining 14y ago
    Well, you can use f.lux too. I prefer redshift because of its CLI nature.
    • ufo 14y ago
      Does anyone else here use f.lux on Linux? I installed the Ubuntu version but not only does the "pause/unpause" option sometimes do nothing at all but other times it simply forgets to change the colors.
      • robotmay 14y ago
        I have it working reliably here (64-bit Ubuntu 12.04), though it is noticeably lacking a lot of the configuration options available in the Windows/OS X versions.
      • SkyMarshal 14y ago
        Tried it 2 or so years ago, had same issues mentioned by others, discovered redshift, been working perfectly since. Maybe flux is good now too, don't know.
      • w1ntermute 14y ago
        I tried f.lux a month or so back on Xubuntu, and it just flat out wouldn't work for me. So I tried redshift, and it worked just fine.
  • rmk2 14y ago
    I came here to post just that. I don't use f.lux because it doesn't ship packages for anything but ubuntu... The beauty of redshift is that you can just stick it in a shell script and start it with every desktop session. I have been using it with the following parameters: redshift -l <my latitude>:<my longitude> -t 6500:5200 -g 0.8 -m vidmode This results in slightly reduced gamma all the time but only a moderate redshift that doesn't offset colours too much. I have it set to autostart and I really don't notice it being there, however I do notice it is missing when switching users or OSes!
• DizzyDoo 14y ago
  I used f.lux for a few months last year, I did not stick with it because: • It overrode the brightness settings on my screen, so it was actually much brighter than I would normally have it. • Whenever I needed to work on anything with colours (most design tasks) I would have to turn it off to get hues correct. The first one may have been sorted out by this point though.
  • ashmud 14y ago
    F.lux is unusable on my work external LCD (junk panel), since I have the brightness/contrast/gamma turned way down in the display driver panel. I don't see any option to tweak this in f.lux unfortunately. I'll have to try it on my home LCDs, though.
• nezumi 14y ago
  I tried it for a long time and just found it distracting. I don't work with images these days but perhaps my background in graphics makes me picky. I'm familiar with some of the research but I'd be interested to know if the approach taken by f.lux actually works - real world light wavelengths and colors faked by mixing red, green and blue are subtly different things.
• anvandare 14y ago
  xbacklight -set 0 && xcalib -invert -alter
• jasonkester 14y ago
  This thing gets a lot of love by a bunch of folks here, so I gave it a good half year of trying. But it's just too annoying. Around 5pm, your display turns pinkish orange and it becomes a lot harder to see anything. Code gets harder to read, colors display wrong, video just fades to black. None of the advertised happiness ensues. The second half-year it remained installed, my only interaction with it was to notice it screw up my display, then right-click the tray icon and disable it. Needless to say, I didn't install it on the new box I bought this year. I don't understand why people like it.
  • bti 14y ago
    Did you play around with the lighting setting? I have it set for halogen and set the transition to slow (1 hour) and I don't even notice it.
  • mipapage 14y ago
    I've only just installed it, and found that I need to disable it if I'm doing any serious work. However if I have some free time at night to go over pinned tabs or read some articles I leave it on and find I do get sleepier much faster, to the detriment of my open-tab count.
    • gurkendoktor 14y ago
      Is serious work == Photoshop or does it bother you when programming too? I only tolerate f.lux when programming, but it happens to be what I do every night :)
      • mipapage 14y ago
        I can program for 30 minutes with it, but I get tired :) so if I am troubleshooting a problem that is going to take a while or a client indicates it is urgent, f.lux goes off.
  • cstejerean 14y ago
    I have my lighting at night set to "fluorescent" and use the slow transition. I don't generally notice it turning on, and I use the "disable for an hour" setting if I'm doing anything where I need more color accuracy.
• TimSchumann 14y ago
  User for 3 Years here. Some Tips for new users to help smooth the transition. -Install during the day. -Use the Slow Transition Method -Don't go all the way down to 3400k for night time if you think it'll bug you. I personally love it.
  • robotmay 14y ago
    The slow transition is the biggest difference I've found when introducing people to it. It's actually pretty hard to notice it taking effect.
• matznerd 14y ago
  F.lux is the reason I jailbroke my iPhone. It really is an awesome program. You can feel your eyes adjust if you disable and re-enable it. It definitely helps on the phone because it is usually the last screen I look at before bed...
  • graeme 14y ago
    Adding flux to my iPhone fixed my insomnia.
• cuu508 14y ago
  I've got irregular sleep patterns and this didn't help so I didn't bother setting it up again on next OS reinstall. I work from home, so can get away with working "whenever". For a while I've basically given up trying to "fix" my sleep cycle. I'm awake until I pass out and I wake up when I'm rested. This is of course suboptimal for workouts--you need to rest properly after workout to get max benefit from it. But lying in the bed and trying to get asleep is such a bother. If I'm not sleepy I'd get up and be active until I get sleepy.
  • kybernetyk 14y ago
    Yeah, I have a similar "problem": I'm 'rotating' my sleep cycle. I constantly stay up longer and longer so in a few months I'm awake at night and sleeping in the day - and a few months from that I'm awake in the day and sleep at night. But to be honest that really doesn't bother me that much. It only get's weird when I have to set a wake up alarm to do grocery shopping before the stores close ;)
    • psionski 14y ago
      This sounds fun :)
• splicer 14y ago
  > Or wake up ready to write down the Next Great Idea, and get blinded by your computer screen? This happens to me all the time on my MacBook Air. The problem is that Mac OS X wakes up at the previous backlight level, which is often way too bright for a pitch black environment.
• sergiotapia 14y ago
  I love f.lux and can't recommend it enough for software developers who work with code. If you're a designer then you probably can't use this. Desginers need colors to display properly. Set the transition to slow and you won't get blindsided by the temp change when it's dusk; use your machine for an hour or two and by 22:00 turn off f.lux and see how bright your monitor is. It's the sun! That's why I love f.lux.
• rlpb 14y ago
  The last time I checked, this wasn't open source. I don't like running foreign binaries on my system. This doesn't rule it out completely for me, but puts me off enough that I haven't tried it.
  • longwave 14y ago
    Redshift is an open source equivalent for Linux and Windows: http://jonls.dk/redshift/ http://jonls.dk/redshift/
    • sturmeh 14y ago
      Doesn't work on my Windows. :( >Display device does not support gamma ramps. >Failed to start adjustment method wingdi. >Trying next method... >No more methods to try.
  • gurkendoktor 14y ago
    This also means that you cannot fix any of the things that annoy you. I would love to enter custom times or fix transition bugs. :( At least it works with multiple displays now (on OS X).
• kybernetyk 14y ago
  I tried it and the only effect is that I get sleepy/tired when it gets darker. I seem to need my harsh cold 6300K in the night ;)
  • reportingsjr 14y ago
    Isn't that completely the point of f.lux??
    • kybernetyk 14y ago
      Oh, I thought it should just reduce eye strain. But if it's all about making people sleepy then they've written a damn good piece of software :)
• readme 14y ago
  For Linux users, redshift has better multi-monitor support.
  • dschep 14y ago
    Thats what I read elsewere, but it didn't work for me either. Running fglrx.
    • readme 14y ago
      :(
    • deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
• conradfr 14y ago
  I like on my desktop but on my laptop it seems to conflict with some Asus energy management program.
• boothead 14y ago
  I used it. Didn't really notice much difference for a few days and then saw that it was maxing out one of my cores to I got rid of it. Might try redshift at some point, but I guess I can probably do without as I mostly code 9-5.
• edu 14y ago
  I've been using for a couple of years and it's great :)
• draggnar 14y ago
  I also use Nocturne for mac (http://www.blacktree.com http://www.blacktree.com) at night when I am reading something in bed. It turns the screen basically red and black, and is useless for anything besides text. Watching videos is impossible, so I just finish what I'm reading.
  • knowaveragejoe 14y ago
    As far as I can tell all this does is enable High Contrast mode.
• thalecress 14y ago
  Has anyone done a rigorous experiment, even on just themselves, with f.lux or redshift? Sleep-monitoring wristband data + "did I see a screen, a red-shifted screen, or no screen" would be really interesting to me.
• magoon 14y ago
  Haters gonna hate, I guess? Mine is set to 4500K nighttime and I hardly notice it changing 4-5pm when the sun goes down. If I'm working on something that requires color accuracy, I use "disable for an hour" or I quit it. So: When it (rarely) gets in the way, it's easy to swat away
• guard-of-terra 14y ago
  I've installed the ubuntu version into my kubuntu. After launching it does nothing. Which isn't strange because the /usr/bin/xflux is a 32-bit binary and the package didn't request the required libraries. I have to consider it doesn't support 64-bit linux. Come on. Linux is not Windows. Everybody and their dog already run 64-bit version. It makes no sense not to. All the software is built for 64-bit too. It's just a fact of life. Nobody uses 32-bit anymore except for netbooks and like.
  • guard-of-terra 14y ago
    I've also installed redshift and redshift-gtk as suggested and they both crash on start. Altough redshift doesn't if supplied with all the required parameters outright.
    • longwave 14y ago
      Create a config file in ~/.config/redshift.conf with the manual parameters you use, and redshift-gtk should work. Sample config is at http://jonls.dk/2010/10/redshift-1-6-released/ http://jonls.dk/2010/10/redshift-1-6-released/ - I only need to set lat and lon to get it to run, though I also have temp-night set for my personal preference.
      • guard-of-terra 14y ago
        Thanks, it works that way. Still I have to ask: are they crazy to make their program crash silently when no config is present?
        • longwave 14y ago
          I seem to remember it looks for gnome-clock to discover your location, and gives up if that's not found, although the GTK version does unhelpfully just exit without a message. It can't work without knowing your latitude and longitude to work out sunset/sunrise times.
• guangnan 14y ago
  I used to wear yellow glasses for the same purpose. How silly is that. =) Flux helps a lot but the display side still sucks. I have to adjust the the brightness few times per day. Apple display have a nice brightness control but it's a mirror.
  • progrock 14y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5042010 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5042010
• worldsayshi 14y ago
  Since brightness control has never worked on my installation I expect f.lux to have problems. Or does it not rely on this?
• fixed_input 14y ago
  I just recently started using flux ~2 weeks ago and I've finally gotten used to the "temperature" change. First couple times it happened I was kinda thrown off, but I find it does actually help lessen strain on my eyes (since I sit in front of a computer screen all day)
• SeanDav 14y ago
  I tried this a while ago, but just found the colours weird and distracting, probably because I don't really have a problem with the normal colours/intensity at any time, but more a gamma issue. I was hoping more for a decent gamma adjustment tool as there don't appear to be any decent free ones out there.
• MattBearman 14y ago
  I happened to start using f.lux on my macbook 3 days ago, and I'm loving it. Where I am (south west England) sunset is around 4pm, and I usually work until 5 or 6pm. Having a much warmer screen tone as the sky gets darker really feels nicer on my eyes. I think you really have to use the slow transition (1 hour) mode, 20 seconds is quite jarring. I program in Aptana with coloured text on back background, and I don't find it any harder to read in night mode. Overall, I can't recommend f.lux enough. On a related note I've just started using http://www.protectyourvision.org http://www.protectyourvision.org to remind me to get up and move around every 20 minutes, also a highly recommended tool.
• mxfh 14y ago
  I miss a Berlin toggle, there is no sun for two thirds of the year.
• brador 14y ago
  What's the business model on this? Are they selling data on users? Is there a premium version?
  • herf 14y ago
    We are not selling data, and we won't. There may be a premium version in the future. Some exciting improvements coming, but you don't have to worry about privacy or spam.
    • professorplumb 14y ago
      Is there a way to sign up to be notified when a new version is available?
• tmcw 14y ago
  Surprised nobody brings up the line in the footer, which seems pretty important: > F.lux is patent pending. So they're applying for software patents on this so-far-free piece of software that has an open-source linux equivalent?
  • jmilloy 14y ago
    Why not?
    • tmcw 14y ago
      Not sure if that's sarcastic or trolling or not. In the event that it's earnest, software patents are relatively frowned upon by most non-corporate entities: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patent_debate http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_patent_debate
      • shardling 14y ago
        Using patents is frowned on. Given the existing system, it's silly not to participate. It's not a case where a boycott would help, and by holding the patent you ensure that no one else uses it against you.
        • _seininn 14y ago
          > and by holding the patent you ensure that no one else uses it against you. A - Wouldn't they be protected due to f.lux being prior art? B - Would a competitor be able to get a patent on this in the first case? (due to A)
          • shardling 14y ago
            We all know that prior art can be missed when issuing a patent -- I'd assume having it already in the patent system makes that less likely to happen, and easier to deal with when it does happen.
      • 14y ago
• knowaveragejoe 14y ago
  F.lux is a godsend when reading black-on-white web pages(so the majority of pages out there) late at night.
• capex 14y ago
  I love flux, except that it messes up the mouse movement speed on Mountain Lion.
• brucardoso2 14y ago
  I used it for 1 year straight on my pc... It bothered me much more than anything.
• j_s 14y ago
  I setup f.lux on all my machines to always use the darkest settings. Might as well spare my eyes the effort of absorbing any light that they don't have to! In a similar vein, one someday project is to setup a vector-based (HUD-style) display using a laser projector (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005D6D6DY/?tag=hn2013-20 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005D6D6DY/?tag=hn2013-20 [affil]) and its SDK (http://www.picop.org/distros http://www.picop.org/distros discovered http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4827130 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4827130). Always looking for ideas on reducing eye strain -- looking forward to my Oculus Rift! http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1523379957/oculus-rift-step-into-the-game http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1523379957/oculus-rift-s...
• chinmoy 14y ago
  I love f.lux. I've been using them for the last 2 years on all my devices.
• peapicker 14y ago
  Not too useful for me... I've invested the time / money to properly color profile my monitor with an X-Rite device so the times I end up creating graphics assets / working with photos, they will look correct. Although I may play with it ... I spend a lot more time coding.
  • jmilloy 14y ago
    So not useful for you, except for most of the time? If you need to see something in true colors, just turn it off for a second. Also, how do you play with it? You just use it at night and then your eyes feel better.
• jbrooksuk 14y ago
  I'm sure this makes front news of HN every few weeks or so?
• progrock 14y ago
  I quite liked the way my old powerbook would change it's brightness depending on ambient lighting.
• calinet6 14y ago
  Does anyone else notice the slight display lag that f.lux exhibits? On my mac it's just the slightest bit annoying, and I had to get rid of it. Otherwise I'd love to use it. Maybe I'll try redshift.
  • jcoby 14y ago
    f.lux caused my mouse to randomly jump on OS X. It didn't seem to matter how fast I'd move it, every 10s or so it would jump 1" in the direction I was moving. Really, really annoying.
    • calinet6 14y ago
      Yep, that's what I saw as well. I attributed it to display lag or something. It was unacceptable and I had to remove it.
• nanook 14y ago
  Took me a few days to get used to the color but now I really like it. Sometimes I'd stare at the screen so much that I'd have watery eyes by the end of the day.. doesn't happen so much anymore. (I'm hoping this is not just a placebo) Another app that's helped with eye-strain is TimeOut (http://www.dejal.com/timeout/ http://www.dejal.com/timeout/). It helps to take a regular break from the screen every few minutes.
• teeray 14y ago
  I've been using this for about a year and a half now... Protip: the fast transition speed is a little jarring, I found. If you really want to "set it and forget it"... set the transition speed to slow and you won't even notice that it's changing over time. Also, make sure that the color temperature it goes down to is correct. Otherwise you will have a noticeable color cast at night. I have mine set for fluorescent lighting since that's what's around my desk. The goal here is to essentially forget that flux is running yet reap all of the benefits of it.
• zacharystern 14y ago
  Is this not a repost?
• enraged_camel 14y ago
  Why use f.lux when you can just pop a metatonin pill thirty minutes before sleep? I've been doing that and I sleep like a baby every night regardless of how long I stare at my bright monitor beforehand.
  • znowi 14y ago
    How does staring at a bright screen affect sleep? If anything, it makes me tired and I fall asleep even faster.
    • enraged_camel 14y ago
      Like any other bright light source (such as the Sun), the light coming from the monitor breaks down some of the melatonin that your body naturally produces. You may still become tired when using a computer and subsequently fall asleep, but the quality of that sleep will be adversely affected unless you account for reduced melatonin levels somehow (either via a program like f.lux, or with supplemental pills).
      • DanBC 14y ago
        Melatonin is prescription only in the UK. So, go careful if you're travelling from US to UK with off the shelf sleep meds. I read some article that investigated melatonin supplements in the US. It said that because supplements aren't as heavily regulated you couldn't be certain which pills had melatonin or how much.
        • enraged_camel 14y ago
          Actually, most brands will list the amount in milligrams on the bottle itself.
  • scaphandre 14y ago
    I'm glad that works for you. I imagine melatonin works better with minimal exposure to blue light after taking it. This might be good for those who have it harder time with sleep schedules than you do.
• herf 14y ago
  Summary of feature requests so far: - default to a slower transition - support dimming too - Add an API - Sunset is fine, except in the winter Most of these are on our list but it is all good feedback!
  • arohner 14y ago
    I'd also request testing on multi-monitor setups. When plugging my MBP into an external display, sometimes flux transitions to the external monitor, sometimes it doesn't.
    • mheiler 14y ago
      I have a color profiled MBP and also see unreliable transitions now and again. Opening System Preferences > Displays > Color and flipping two profiles back and forth fixes it.
  • hollerith 14y ago
    First, thanks for creating f.lux. A feature request: some way for me to get rid of the f.lux menu-bar icon without quitting f.lux. (I am willing to switch to an app or a preference pane to interact with f.lux.)
  • eapen 14y ago
    Yeah, if i can adjust it so it gets dark by 10pm rather than sunset, that would be pretty awesome.
    • sturmeh 14y ago
      Just adjust your location so that you are 4 time-zones behind.
  • sturmeh 14y ago
    F.lux doesn't seem to support my multi-monitor configuration. I have three monitors, one at the bottom and two above it side by side (top ones are primarily used) and F.lux only works on the main monitor. :(
• oogali 14y ago
  In my opinion, it really depends on the brightness of your monitor(s). My iMac screen is rated at 350 nits, a.k.a. super-bright, so when Flux kicks in, I don't mind it if I'm working on that screen. On the other hand, my 2nd monitor is an el-cheapo Samsung I bought before I cared what "nits" meant, and is rated at 250 nits -- a significant difference. My typical workspace at night is, left screen (iMac) holds the browser where I view changes, and the right screen (Samsung) has my code editor. So when f.lux kicks in... my options are one of two things: - disable it - buy a new monitor Guess which one I go for?
  • moeffju 14y ago
    So are you enjoying your new monitor? (Have you tried calibrating both screens? flux should not affect brightness/gamma differently.)
• nerdfiles 14y ago
  This severely affects the emotionality of information I receive. The aesthetics of one's environment, I believe, is significant to how information will be processed. At first I noticed headaches after reading, using f.lux, but soon after I realized that the sensation was a placebo. What I believe was going on is that my brain was adjusting to the emotional information packed into the content I was reading; a more significant emotional bond was being established between myself and "mere content" not dissimilar to spending too much time with a friend at the café. Over time, your endurance for it increases, and reading becomes more of an emotional activity, unwittingly.
• DustinCalim 14y ago
  I've tried f.lux and while it's great for ios devices(if jailbroken), the colors seem to come out weird in most situations. What I use now is a Chrome extension called "Hacker Vision" and I highly recommend it to anyone reading this. It flips the colors of websites so you get a white text on a dark background. It's really great in a dark room or sitting next to someone at night AND I can turn my MacBook Air's backlight down to 2 and read everything clearly; that resulted in an extra 30-40minutes of battery life! Here's the link: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-vision/fommidcneendjonelhhhkmoekeicedej https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-vision/fomm...
• VMG 14y ago
  Is there any evidence that color temperature negatively affects the eyes? BTW I just scale down the contrast and brightness of my screen
• nixarn 14y ago
  I love it, it has absolutely changed how well I sleep. Twice it's happened that I've had trouble sleeping, then noticing that I had turned off f.lux becausse I had been gaming earlier in the evening (gaming with f.lux is not a good idea).
• j45 14y ago
  I have been using flux for years and I definitely notice a difference late at night and early in the morning. Also, though, I have higher astigmatism and a high prescription and it might be why my eyes feel tired and notice a difference. Either way this software is not a hallucination and makes a difference for me.
• teedubya 14y ago
  I love f.lux. It helps save my eyes. It's a savior, indeed.
• tptacek 14y ago
  Two (related) things about f.lux from my experience: 1. With only one exception I can think of, every instance of insomnia I've had in the last several years I can trace to not having f.lux enabled for some reason. 2. The reason that happens is that I often won't notice if f.lux dies for some reason, because I am so thoroughly used to it now. I was having real sleep trouble several years ago, and f.lux is part of a battery of things I did (along with cutting caffeine completely after 12:00PM every day, getting some aerobic exercise, not coding after ~9:00PM, and taking over getting the kids out the door in the morning to force myself to get up) which more or less eliminated those problems.
  • graeme 14y ago
    For anyone who have tried F.lux, has insomnia, and HASN'T gotten this effect: install it on your phone too. I had onset insomnia: took me about an hour to fall asleep each night. I jailbroke my iPhone just to install f.lux. Now I don't have onset insomnia.
  • msrpotus 14y ago
    Is there any science on this? I've had a similar experience but have no idea if it's just a placebo effect.
    • tptacek 14y ago
      http://stereopsis.com/flux/research.html http://stereopsis.com/flux/research.html If I wasn't clear: I can trace insomnia to f.lux being disabled; I'm not aware of it at the time, but then the next day or so I'm like, "oh, yeah, f.lux was off, shit." It's not like 11:30PM rolls around and I realize f.lux is off and suddenly I can't sleep.
    • pja 14y ago
      Yes: Short version is that you have light receptors in your eyes that you're not consciously aware of that are sensitive to blue light in the 460-480nm range & have a direct effect on sleep patterns. Exposing yourself to blue light at night time will delay the onset of sleep. See the f.lux webpages for some references.
• bennesvig 14y ago
  Every time I find my eyes hurting while looking at a computer, I realize Flux hasn't been running.
• hoag 14y ago
  Love it. Couldn't live without it now that I'm used to it. Wish iOS allowed direct control of screen settings also.
• jeremyarussell 14y ago
  I've been rather content just turning my brightness down when I turn my lights off. That said I keep my room flooded with light so as to not strain my eyes trying to look at a screen or read in the dark. I kind of want to give this a shot though as my eyes are very sensitive to light and changes in light levels.
• milhouse31 14y ago
  For all my fellow f.lux windows fan, I created a little app (in Delphi) : Reflux. You can download it here (There is also another package with source) https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=CD51CF0B626581E!134&authkey=!AN-BuQXlbgpR3Qc https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=CD51CF0B626581E!134&#3... Basically, you can configure it to kill f.lux (and thus get your precious color back) when certain applications are executed. When all the "killer" applications are closed, f.lux is restarted automatically. It's barebone (there is no GUI) and I tried to keep it light (CPU & memory wise) Reflux quick readme : - It's windows only - If you want reflux to start on windows startup you have to do it yourself. (I personally added an entry in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run) - I recommend putting the exe and the ini in the same directory than flux.exe (on my computer C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Local\Apps\F.lux - In the ini (open it with notepad), you can add a list of "f.lux killer" in the KILLERPROCESSES part. ie: KILLERPROCESSES=mpc-hc64.exe;photoshop.exe;vlc.exe - There are 2 other options. - If you didn't put reflux.exe in the same directory than flux.exe you can add a FLUXPATH entry. ie: FLUXPATH=c:\flux\flux.exe - The process (by default) is executed every 2500ms. If you find it too slow or too quick you can add a CHECKINTERVAL entry. ie : CHECKINTERVAL=5000 Hope you guys enjoy it
  • znowi 14y ago
    Nice to know someone is still using Delphi :) I had a lot of fun with it as a kid.
• alinspired 14y ago
  didn't like flux, instead arranged small 15watt lamp to read kindle/book in my bed but leave the light levels in the bedroom low. this was before kindle paperlight :)
• sbornia 14y ago
  Some macbooks have a light sensor, It would be great if this app used that. Sometimes you are at a dark room, even if it is daytime...
• irinai13 14y ago
  Love Flux. I've used it for months now and it's super helpful.
• shellehs 14y ago
  great idea ! though my iPhone is higher than OS 5, so I don't have any idea about how to install it to my iPhone, but I think , maybe if Apple sensed this, would the integrate this into iOS as new feature? just call it the Platform's feature
• jongraehl 14y ago
  "save your eyes" - huh? (I've used the program and like it).
• eschulte 14y ago
  If you happen to have a /sys/class/backlight/acpi-video0/brightness file on your system (e.g., linux laptop). Here's a light weight and easy to customize option. First make this file writable. chmod o+w /sys/class/backlight/acpi-video0/brightness Then add something like the following to your crontab. I'm constantly doing this manually, and never thought to crontab it until this article. 0 17 * * * echo 14 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness 0 18 * * * echo 13 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness 0 19 * * * echo 12 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness 0 20 * * * echo 11 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness 0 21 * * * echo 10 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness 0 22 * * * echo 9 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness 0 23 * * * echo 8 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness 0 00 * * * echo 7 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness 0 05 * * * echo 12 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness 0 06 * * * echo 13 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness 0 07 * * * echo 14 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightness 0 08 * * * echo 15 > /sys/class/backlight/acpi_video0/brightnes Note: 15 is the max brightness for me, not sure if that is standard, just cat the file to see your current level of brightness.
• deleted 14y ago
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• SenorWilson 14y ago
  I find lowering the brightness on my monitor 10x better than f.lux.
• nvmc 14y ago
  I tried this for like six months. Couldn't stand it. I get far better results adjusting environmental lighting. An LED strip casting a glow behind my monitor made the most difference.
• jjcm 14y ago
  Flux is a great first approach, but I think that something like this needs a lot more tweaking (on the hardware side as well) to become viable. The issue with flux is that it just creates a color overlay on your monitor - it doesn't actually reduce the brightness of your backlight. This is understandable because very few desktop monitors and video cards support dimming the backlight via software. This is tremendously annoying to me as a designer, because on one hand I would love to have my displays dim automatically to save my eyes (and more importantly, to save me time as I end up manually dimming each of my 3 monitors at home every night as I'm working; something that eats up a few minutes because I have to navigate through the annoying on-display menus) but sadly flux isn't an option because it reduces the dynamic contrast of the monitor as well as the number of possible colors that the display can output. Flux works decent for reading/coding/web browsing/etc, but it needs access to the backlight levels to truly be fantastic.
• hmottestad 14y ago
  I hated f.lux on my old MacBook with a TN panel, however on my retina MacBook with an IPS panel it's unnoticeable except when I look at another screen. My neighbour has a MacBook Air with a TN panel, and when I put my computer next to his with f.lux on, his screen looks like a gradient from purple to green with yellow in the middle, while mine has a uniform warm feeling (not yellow at all).
• Sukotto 14y ago
  I wish f.lux was smart enough to detect when I change my desktop clock to a new timezone and change it's own location info automatically.
• andrethegiant 14y ago
  Am I the only one that keeps the same value for night and day? I have it set to 5400K regardless of the hour. I like the subtle warm glow to remain constant instead of fluctuate.
  • ulrikrasmussen 14y ago
    While a bright monitor can reduce the quality of your sleep at night, I actually read somewhere (sorry, can't find it now) that a bright monitor at daytime can be beneficial for your circadian rhythm if you don't get exposed to much sunlight otherwise.
    • sdfjkl 14y ago
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_therapy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_therapy
• martindale 14y ago
  Redshift ( http://jonls.dk/redshift/ http://jonls.dk/redshift/ ) is a generally better piece of software with far longer transition times and better configuration options, rather than the abrupt change that f.lux provides.
  • danbee 14y ago
    f.lux has a configuration option to transition over an hour instead of 20 seconds. Also, it doesn't look like Redshift is available for Mac OS.
• Howitzer 14y ago
  F.Lux has been a standard program for me for years. The best compliment I can give is that I forgot I had it installed. It's simply perfect.
• shellehs 14y ago
  good idea but , hurt indeed... getting red and red my screen, feel like I am looking at some fire through the screen
• progrock 14y ago
  Probably too late to mention, but someone suggested yesterday that the colours blue and yellow could help those with dislexia. Looking further into this, there's mention of using yellow and blue filters to help read. There's at least one mention here of someone wearing yellow sunglasses. Interestingly redshift, kind of is like a red filter. It might be interesting to see how alternative colours could work.
  • progrock 14y ago
    I found compiz and it's filters made it easier to look at the screen. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5037538 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5037538
• dakimov 14y ago
  At first I liked the idea, and the app is nice, but when you think of it, what does my monitor and the document I am working on have to do with the color of the skies? You can adjust the room lighting that way, but not the document I working on at my computer, damn, that's even stupid! The monitor can adjust its brightness with the brightness of the surrounding environment, but that is the monitor's own business, and it's brightness adjustment, not the color scheme.
• kerno 14y ago
  Had flux for around a year and I can't imagine not being without. Just to see what life it like without it, sometimes I pause it. My eyes - they burn with blue light.
• sdfjkl 14y ago
  My MBP has two light sensors and adjusts it's display brightness automatically based on actual light levels instead of time.
• boringkyle 14y ago
  Does flux practice readable colors on their own website? It seems like they do - I just returned to HN from reading flux's pitch, and my eyes did not take too well to the higher contrast on HN. Can anyone confirm if the colors on their website change over the day?
• uvtc 14y ago
  Installed on Xubuntu 12.04, using dual-monitors. "f.lux indicator applet" shows up in my Accessories menu. First time running it I gave it latitude & longitude. It starts up (its icon shows up in the tray), but it doesn't seem to have any effect. Trying to open the applet's Preferences has no effect.
• mathiasben 14y ago
  It would be really great if F.lux would also adjust for local cloud cover. Sun is out - screen is bright, it's cloudy - screen dims. has anyone else noticed that the pointer in windows dosen't dim?
• tomaisthorpe 14y ago
  I never even realised flux was still installed. Definitely helps my eyes at night, and I never even notice its on.