
Flux: Better Lighting for Your Mac - taylorbuley
http://applegrad.com/blog_files/flux-better-lighting-for-your-mac.php
======
js2
More like "F.lux: Better lighting...for your computer"

It's not Mac-specific - <http://stereopsis.com/flux/>

~~~
gregwebs
I had trouble installing on linux and am using the program "redshift" instead.

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cdawzrd
In addition to being easier to install, Redshift has the benefit of working
properly in multi-monitor environments.

<http://jonls.dk/redshift/>

$0.02

~~~
Fargren
I have f.lux in two monitors, with no problems. Windows 7 64 bits.

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cdawzrd
Should have clarified: In Linux, f.lux does not appear to work with multiple
monitors. Redshift works great in Linux.

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yan
I used to use it and love it, but after a while I got tired of the inaccurate
color profile in the evenings and realized I was disabling it more often than
not. However, if you're just staring at documentation and code, it does
wonders for your eyes. (An easy way to check how nice it is is to disable it
late at night and feel your retinas come close to combustion)

~~~
oniTony
Late night at the library a friend notices f.lux in action...

"why are your colours so messed up?"

"no, it's supposed to be this way at night. Check this out" _disable f.lux;
the bright flash starts burning our retinas_

"woah"

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andrewjshults
The bright flash of daylight color temperature when the MacBook Pro's switch
graphics cards is the only downside* that I've experienced using f.lux. After
you've been using it for a while it's painful to use a computer without it at
night.

*for non color-critical work

~~~
jhickner
If the automatic graphics card switch annoys you (it annoys me), you can
disable it with this handy app: <http://codykrieger.com/gfxCardStatus>

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jwr
To use one of these apps one needs a lot of encouragement, so here's some
more: I've been using F.lux on all my machines for several months now and I'm
very happy with it. Falling asleep after working on a computer is much easier
with it.

I only wish something similar was possible on my iPad…

~~~
joeguilmette
right? is it just me or is the iPad 1 WAY too bright? it never goes above the
lowest setting and I constantly find myself checking to see if i can turn it
lower. at night it is almost unbearable.

has this been addressed in iPad 2?

~~~
ashearer
I highly recommend the sepia setting in iBooks and the Kindle reader, which
brings the color temperature closer to paper. Just like f.lux, it looks
strange at first, but soon the screen looks harsh without it.

However, I'm guessing you're not using one of those apps, because they also
have custom full-range brightness controls. The standard control starts at
bright and just gets brighter.

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gnemeth
At <http://wakemate.com/>, we have tested out f.lux and have seen a
significant improvement in our sleep!

Check out the full story here: [http://blog.wakemate.com/2011/03/21/using-
electronics-before...](http://blog.wakemate.com/2011/03/21/using-electronics-
before-bed-is-detrimental-but-f-lux-might-have-the-solution/)

~~~
evangineer
I just want to say how much I appreciate WakeMate being available to non-US
buyers. I've seen a lot of gadgets similar to it that don't ship to the UK and
I find that to be a bit of a pain.

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depoisfalamos
This kind of app may seem like nothing important until you actually use it. I
was very skeptical about it but a few months ago I started used f.lux and it
really is useful. I use my computer during the night as much I do during the
day and it I noticed my eyes and my sleep was being affected. My eyes got
tired very fast at night and I wasn't able to fall asleep easily. With f.lux
that really changed. I urge every nocturnal computer user to give it a try!

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BarkMore
Previous discussion: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1832097>
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1547830>

~~~
taylorbuley
Sorry for the dupes. Was pretty excited to share this one. New to me and quite
useful.

~~~
mambodog
The fact that this has so many upvotes would seem to indicate that HN has
acquired quite a few new readers since it was last posted, so they probably
appreciate it too.

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reemrevnivek
This sounded like a good idea to me when I came across it (I think on HN?) a
while ago. The logic makes great sense.

However, what I found was that when I come home late at night and want to work
on something, I'm planning to stay up a while. I don't want my screen to go
low-contrast and dim, I want to stay up and work! When I'm working late, I
expect my computer to stay up with me. It felt like my computer was getting
sleepy before I did. Eventually, I removed it.

Neat idea, just didn't fit my use case.

~~~
herf
We have a UI in the works for "night owls"...people love the sunset, so we'll
still include it, but we'll have a longer transition for people who want to
work late (or who live in northern climates).

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digitailor
Just a vote of confidence: I've been using flux for more than a year, and it
rocks. Light is critical to sleep cycles and angle and temperature of light is
part of that. Flux takes care of temperature for you.

And more than one person has thought they were hallucinating when they saw my
screen change temperature, timed to the sunset outside. Extra bonus
awesomeness.

~~~
estel
Heck, I've been using this for months now and still sometimes have to check
myself when I notice my colour temperature start to change.

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rdouble
I used to use f.lux, but after I got my latest MacBook air, I started having
severe eye fatigue. It turns out the MBA screen has a lot of flicker,
especially when scrolling. If the screen is dimmed and f.lux is on, the
flicker is more pronounced. Counterintuitively, when I turned off f.lux and
cranked up the brightness, my eyes felt better. I felt f.lux had no impact on
my sleep cycles or intermittent insomnia.

This is more of an issue with the MBA but just wanted to let people know in
case they were having similar eye issues.

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tptacek
Weird; I got an Air a few weeks ago and haven't noticed that problem at all.

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rdouble
I didn't notice it, either. But, if I do a flicker test it's definitely there.

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cromulent
I experienced painful eye fatigue after upgrading to the LED-backlit MBP. I
got some quite expensive eye testing done, only to find my eyes were in good
shape. My understanding of the problem is that the LED dimming is done using
rapid power cycles (you can't really dim a LED). Some people are highly
sensitive to the cycles, I guess I am one of them.

I found that 6 squares below full brightness is OK for me, but I still get eye
pain sometimes. I'm now going to try changing the color profile.

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rkudeshi
I really want to like this app, but the Mac version is needlessly crippled.

For example, you can't set the specific time when you want it to start kicking
into effect. When it geolocates itself, it hits full effect by 7pm, which is
too early for my schedule (I'm staying with a roommate and optimally want to
have it kick in around 9 or 10pm so we can both sleep around the same time).

Additionally, the Mac version only has 4 settings for the color temperature
(Tungsten, Halogen, Fluorescent, and Daylight), while the Windows version
allows you to manually set the exact temperature you want to set as the
"maximum."

~~~
herf
Try out our new version: <https://secure.herf.org/flux/Flux12.zip>

~~~
Sachse
I am happy to see that F.lux for Mac is still being developed, and the new
settings look great, but please allow me to request that the menu bar icon
will be changed back to a monochrome one, or at least has a setting for it the
same way Dropbox for Mac has.

Thanks for your work. I hope you'll consider my request.

~~~
alexqgb
Upvoted. I've been using Flux for several months. I absolutely love it. I am
very familiar with the 'turn it off at night and feel your eyes start to burn'
effect. But, for the love of god, PLEASE DO NOT clutter up the menubar with an
attention-grabbing icon (i.e. one with color).

In addition to restoring a monochrome option, you should also allow users to
turn off the menubar icon entirely, and simply rely on the System Preference
pane for access on the (very rare) occasions when it's needed.

Thanks for your consideration.

~~~
herf
thanks - we've been debating flipping it back to black for the same reason.
Probably will!

~~~
alexqgb
Just updated - love the slider. 3800k turns out to be the perfect temperature
for the room I'm in, so right in-between the old presets for tungsten and
fluorescent.

Having the ability to fine tune it like this is really nice.

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bantic
I've noticed after a few weeks of using it that I no longer am aware of the
screen changing light temperature. I presume that's because I've adapted to
it. Anyone else have that?

~~~
83457
Once I used it for a complete day I didn't notice. It changes gradually enough
that it isn't obvious unless you are thinking about it. Only problem I had was
that, at least on Mac (Guns of Icarus), I'd jump into a game and not realize
for a while that the color was not right or too dark due to Flux.

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neutronicus
It happens around 5-6 PM and it's really noticeable for me.

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landhar
I use redshift on my Linux boxes <http://jonls.dk/redshift/>

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kilian
There is a _cough_ awesome* version of f.lux for Linux too:
<http://stereopsis.com/flux/linux.html> ;)

*disclaimer, I'm the author of the gui

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kissickas
Ironically, the gui is the main complaint of the guy who made Redshift
(<http://jonls.dk/2009/12/flux-for-linux/>). Is this a new one?

~~~
kilian
In a way. Redshift was made before there was a GUI version of f.lux for linux,
in dec. 2009, while I released the linux GUI for f.lux in june 2010. Before
both there was just a command line app for f.lux on linux.

~~~
kissickas
Ok, thanks for the info. I'll check both out.

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bennesvig
I've only been using it for a few days, but I love it so far. Now, if only it
worked with cell phones...

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evangineer
Yes, flux for Android please!

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mehmeta
Been using it for about 3 weeks now, not sure how much of it is placebo effect
but noticed a solid improvement on how tired I feel and how easy it is to fall
asleep.

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d_r
I've been using it for sometime (on Mac _and_ Windows). Since I usually code
at night when bright light is jarring, it makes coding that much more
pleasant.

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stevelosh
I love flux, but unfortunately it doesn't work with my USB monitor adapter[1],
so when I try to use it at my desk I get two nicely tinted screens and one
normal screen. When I'm just using my laptop on its own it's great!

[1]: <http://www.diamondmm.com/BVU195.php>

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beck5
I've been using it for a while. Its been there for about a year so I must like
it. Just be careful when doing any sort of ui design at night!

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jonah
That's why it has a "disable for an hour" button! Design quick. ;)

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beck5
is this extream timeboxing?

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grinich
There's also a great app called Nocture that can do color/monochromatic
inversion, red-shifting, removing shadows, etc.

<http://www.blacktree.com/>

Open source: <http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-nocturne/> Source:

------
gte910h
I found actually confronting the sleep issues I had much better at fixing it.
Late day caffeine (you have to stop drinking it by 5 to get it down to a
reasonably low level by 12), overly bright bedroom and unpredictable sleep
schedule were my issues.

The windows program was great for years (f.lux) though until I did the above.

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joshu
f.lux was written by a schoolmate/friend/investor of mine. Hooray!

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mark_l_watson
Probably a good tool, but: I would avoid using a computer at all for an hour
before going to sleep. For me, reading a book or Kindle is OK, but staring at
a laptop screen has a bad effect on my sleep.

I'll give Flux a try however when I absolutely need to power on my laptop
before trying to go to sleep.

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jamesbkel
I used it awhile back and while it took a few days to get used to it, I
definitely found it easier on the eyes and helped with sleep.

That said, I reinstalled my system about 4 months ago and never realized that
I had neglected to install F.lux until I saw this post.

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Groxx
Have been using it for a while, definitely a convert. I just wish there were a
few more controls - it doesn't adjust for seasons, and I can't make it change
its change strength if the lights are on vs off in the room. But that's not
enough to make me stop using it.

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redthrowaway
Flux is great, but it isn't persistent. Every time I restart, I have to
manually start flux. This seems to be a rather serious oversight.

Edit: apologies to anyone who read the unedited version of my post. The iPhone
keyboard and detection algo is...imprecise.

~~~
moeffju
There is a checkbox in the f.lux/Mac preferences labelled "Start Flux at
login". Is that checked for you? If it is, and still doesn't work, try
unchecking it, restart flux, and check it again.

~~~
redthrowaway
It seems to be checke by default. Does the binary have to be in a particular
location to work at startup (/Applications)?

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dennyferra
I've been using F.lux for a while. I used to have it on the 20 second
transition speed then I found I could set it to 60 minutes. Now I don't even
notice the change but my eyes definitely do not strain as much as they used to
at night.

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jarquesp
My co-workers swear by Flux, mainly because they only code. But as the
designer in the team, I'd have to disable it every time I'm working on a
design.

~~~
britta
I actually edit photos even while Flux is on. Eyes are amazing things; mine
adjust to the new white balance and I can still judge colors reasonably well
(ok, as well as I could before). Of course, these are just photos for Flickr,
not for professional work, but when I compare the ones edited with Flux on and
with Flux off, I can't tell the difference. In other words, might be worth a
try anyway.

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mbaukes
Im loving this app, if they could add weather settings to it so when it is
raining/cloudy/overcast it bumps the monitor temperature that would rock!

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gcv
Does this app help someone who spends most of his time looking at Emacs.app
with a dark background and screen brightness turned all the way down?

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Tycho
Folk, what 'lighting at night' setting are you using?

    
    
        Tungsten
    
        Halogen
    
        Flourescent
    
        Daylight

~~~
nek4life
I have daylight balanced bulbs at home so I'm using the Daylight setting. I
thought that I was supposed to match them up. Or is it just a preference of
color temperature? It would be nice if the UI included icons for the type of
bulb so they are easily identified if for instance you don't know what a
halogen bulb looks like.

~~~
maayank
in the night, while the lights in the room are on, open something white in
your computer (i.e. a document). Take a piece of white paper and compare it to
the white document on the screen. The correct setting is the one in which the
background ("white") of the document on the screen looks most similar to the
document in real life.

Cheers.

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CoachRufus87
Just started running this on a macbook, and it even works on my external lcd!
where has this program been all my life?

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jonursenbach
I want to love F.lux, but everytime it kicks in my machine slows to an
absolute crawl until it's done doing its thing.

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dvdhsu
How difficult would it be to code something like this for iOS (through Cydia,
of course)?

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skbohra123
This is why I love HN. I find things here, which I never knew I needed so
much.

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Dramatize
I've been using it for a few months now. Love it.

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mostly_harmless
does anyone have any actual screenshots or examples of the difference?

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dchest
My eyes became tired in a few seconds after I launched this app. Warning: it
hurts.

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georgieporgie
F.lux is great, and seemed to be very effective for me. However, it appears
that you still can't postpone color change until a specific time I want my
monitor staying at 6500K until around 8 or 9pm, year-round. F.lux leaves me
sleepy by 6pm during the winter months.

~~~
turnersauce
You could change the settings to a location at the equator, and maybe one or
two timezones to your west. (I understand that having more customizable
settings would be a better alternative, but I thought I would offer up my
hack).

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drivebyacct2
I can't stand Flux and I tried it for 3 weeks before removing it.

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jawartak
I got laughed at right before our YC W11 interview for my 'sepia-tinted
screen'. I live on the east coast, and my clock hadn't changed cause I was
still tethering.

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sid0
Flux on Windows unfortunately has trouble with a few games.

