On my laptop, I've been using f.lux [0] to prevent the bright monitor lighting from keeping me too alert late into the night. It took me a while to get accustomed to the hues, but I really like the way the light softens as the evening progresses.
There is also Redshift [0][1], which I've found easier and simpler to use/install on Linux (but I've researched f.lux long time ago, so things may be different now). I remember that at first I couldn't stand that everything was kind of orangeish, but after a while I honestly didn't notice it anymore. From my personal experience, I can tell that it really made my eyes suffer less from long sessions of copmuter use.
This is one of those comments we'll look back on in 30 years and say "what the hell were we thinking letting a company control our devices like that?".
Do you miss the days where you had to manually adjust the choke while driving and decoke the engine every few thousand miles? I think we're going to look back on computers of the 90s and 2000s with a similar quaintness. More people care about a bullshit-free computing experience than an abstract concept of "freedom".
I think it's not a true comparison - freedom to modify your hardware doesn't have to imply that it's a hassle to use such hardware.
In other words: does "bullshit-free computing experience" (or let's just say usability) have to exclude freedom (i.e. your options to freely modify hardware/software you own/use)? I'm thinking about that for some time and I think that (as most of the things) it's not a objective thing but dependend on the philosophy of the producer/maker. And I'm sure that there are people who want to produce well designed things (be that a phone or an app) that can be modified by users/owners (here comes the topic of ownership in the light of digital world, but that's another thing).
Is there a better way to prevent malware than a pretty basic review process (iOS/Mac App Store) and data sandboxing?
And to continue the car analogy, lots of car modifications are illegal for safety and public health (smog) reasons. I think computers are headed in the same direction in the next 40-50 years. The children of tomorrow will think it's absolutely bananas that we used to run unsigned code, because malware behaves much like pollution.
I think sandboxing is a quite good solution, but it doesn't mean that you can't have a root access. Consider jails in FreeBSD, where you can isolate a single process but at the same time you have a control over whole system.
Your car analogy can provide insight into the consequences of a single insecure system in the network, but at the same time it's not valid when you consider that you can (should) control your systems and network if it has to fit your needs.
I wish I could love flux. I've tried it many times and want to use it but when I watch a movie at night it makes it look bad. If I turn on the new 'movie mode' my screen flickers quite a lot. I end up disabling it for the duration of the movie which kind of defeats the purpose of having it.
>> "When I watch a movie I always want to see it reproduced as accurately as possible, even at night."
Exactly. I turn Flux off during the movie so I feel that any benefit it would provide me is wasted as my reason for using it is to help my insomnia. It's definitely nice when coding but the major reason for me using it seems wasted because of the movie :)
You can disable f.lux for specific applications. I do that I'm watching a movie as it just isn't the same when everything is orange. At least that way it's still on for the apps you need when coding etc.
It looks like all it does is make colors look terrible, it doesn't actually change the brightness (intensity of the backlight) which is the actual problem. Shooting 200 watts of light right into your eyeballs is bad regardless of how yellow it is.
[0] https://justgetflux.com/