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The Story Behind F.lux

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Re: The Story Behind F.lux

#41

Post by woah »

zyxley wrote: post #21
laretluval wrote: post #16

I am one of the people who love the idea of f.lux. I use it and it makes my eyes feel a lot better and makes me feel sleepy at the right times. But the app itself is terribly broken, at least on El Capitan. Whenever I switch modes, the screen flashes the original blue colors---my impression is that even a few seconds of blue light can mess up melatonin production, so this is unacceptable, especially from an app that…

The issues you're talking about aren't ones I've seen anyone else complain about (and don't happen for me), so I'm wondering if there's something specific to your configuration that's affecting it.

I have noticed the same problems.

Re: The Story Behind F.lux

#42

Post by tacos »

laretluval wrote: post #16

I am one of the people who love the idea of f.lux. I use it and it makes my eyes feel a lot better and makes me feel sleepy at the right times. But the app itself is terribly broken, at least on El Capitan. Whenever I switch modes, the screen flashes the original blue colors---my impression is that even a few seconds of blue light can mess up melatonin production, so this is unacceptable, especially from an app that…

> It's time that we move on to an implementation that actually works.

Android announced "Night Light" and Kindle added "Blue Shade" and iOS came in last with "Night Shift" so it appears everyone has.

When F.lux put up affiliate links hawking Himalayan salt lamps and Swarovski crystals and used "cancer" as the 30th word in a press release, I didn't feel too bad hitting "uninstall" for the final time. So Long, and Thanks for All the Tint.

Re: The Story Behind F.lux

#43

Post by Terribledactyl »

slavik81 wrote: post #34

There's 29 comments here and every single one is neutral or positive about Flux as an idea. Am I the only one who used it, and hated the fact that my colours were obviously all wrong? Each time I used my computer at night, I noticed that everything was tinted red, and it had no obvious effect on my sleep.

I have 2 issues with flux, one personal one science related.

personal) I'm colorblind and it really messed with my ability to guess at the appropriate colors, and sometimes made it impossible to read text on the screen. (Red on black is hard for me)

science) One of their more prominent articles showcases a study of how reading on a stock iPad can mess up your sleep a lot, but reading a book with standard bulb (much warmer than the iPad backlight) has a much smaller effect. I remember studying the effect of light in neuroscience classes in college, and blue light is potent, but so is total light received. Indirect light from bulb, or having a device blast light directly into your retina. Never stood a chance. Just shifting the colors can only reduce so much light. For example, max out the brightness on any non oled based screen with a completely black image. You still see light even though those gates have done the best they can. My general impression of the reporting is "lets throw a bunch of science at you, which doesn't quite say what we do, and hope you jump to our conclusions."

Re: The Story Behind F.lux

#44

Post by joshu »

edwintorok wrote: post #35
joshu wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is complicated. I only know because I am a friend, so we have to wait till he releases stuff.

Will it be released as open-source? Doesn't really make sense to develop it as a closed-source application, when the application itself is offered for free, and open source versions exist already.

this is a very small understanding of what they are trying to build.

Re: The Story Behind F.lux

#45

Post by anonova »

laretluval wrote: post #16

I am one of the people who love the idea of f.lux. I use it and it makes my eyes feel a lot better and makes me feel sleepy at the right times. But the app itself is terribly broken, at least on El Capitan. Whenever I switch modes, the screen flashes the original blue colors---my impression is that even a few seconds of blue light can mess up melatonin production, so this is unacceptable, especially from an app that…

Note that autobrightness with f.lux is currently broken in OS X 10.11, and they suggest you to disable it: "Note for people using f.lux on El Capitan (10.11): The new version of "Automatically adjust brightness" in El Capitan seems to cause flickering with f.lux. For the moment, you'll have to turn this feature off to use f.lux. To make the fix, use System Preferences > Displays and uncheck. Occasionally, a reboot may also be necessary." [0]

[0]: https://justgetflux.com/news/pages/macquickstart/

Re: The Story Behind F.lux

#46

Post by viraptor »

Now it would be great if android included it in the system soon. I used an app for it, but as soon as 6 came out, I dropped all unnecessary privileges from installed apps.

Unfortunately you can't have any app drawing directly on the screen if you want to change privileges. That means I had to choose between silly-bright screen or more secure system... and that's a terrible tradeoff to present to users.

Re: The Story Behind F.lux

#47

Post by tacos »

Terribledactyl wrote: post #43
slavik81 wrote: post #34

There's 29 comments here and every single one is neutral or positive about Flux as an idea. Am I the only one who used it, and hated the fact that my colours were obviously all wrong? Each time I used my computer at night, I noticed that everything was tinted red, and it had no obvious effect on my sleep.

I have 2 issues with flux, one personal one science related. personal) I'm colorblind and it really messed with my ability to guess at the appropriate colors, and sometimes made it impossible to read text on the screen. (Red on black is hard for me) science) One of their more prominent articles showcases a study of how reading on a stock iPad can mess up your sleep a lot, but reading a book with standard bulb (much w…

That reporting starts from the research links on the F.lux site which 1) don't really say what they they seem to think they say and 2) often conveniently hide behind paywalls. The F.lux team genuinely seems to care about human health yet they haven't bothered to write the equivalent of a three page term paper about what they're basing their work on the past 8 years. It's odd.

Even in this thread (as in the other six or seven F.lux threads that have popped up on HN lately) smart people are saying things that simply don't make sense. We're basically dealing with the equivalent of blue-blocker sunglasses from the 80s and it's odd seeing HN commenters spout the same informercial-grade rhetoric I laugh at on late night television.

Re: The Story Behind F.lux

#48

Post by Laaw »

Terribledactyl wrote: post #43
slavik81 wrote: post #34

There's 29 comments here and every single one is neutral or positive about Flux as an idea. Am I the only one who used it, and hated the fact that my colours were obviously all wrong? Each time I used my computer at night, I noticed that everything was tinted red, and it had no obvious effect on my sleep.

I have 2 issues with flux, one personal one science related. personal) I'm colorblind and it really messed with my ability to guess at the appropriate colors, and sometimes made it impossible to read text on the screen. (Red on black is hard for me) science) One of their more prominent articles showcases a study of how reading on a stock iPad can mess up your sleep a lot, but reading a book with standard bulb (much w…

Exactly! Furthermore, I wonder if the backlight leakage from an LCD ruins the effect (the reason why a black screen isn't actually dark). None of the studies they cite actually use LCD monitors.

Re: The Story Behind F.lux

#49

Post by seanwilson »

melted wrote: post #37
slavik81 wrote: post #34

There's 29 comments here and every single one is neutral or positive about Flux as an idea. Am I the only one who used it, and hated the fact that my colours were obviously all wrong? Each time I used my computer at night, I noticed that everything was tinted red, and it had no obvious effect on my sleep.

Give it time. You'll get used to it after a while, to the point where a couple of weeks later you won't perceive the colors as "wrong" (assuming no other light source in the room). You'll just perceive them as slightly warmer.

Doesn't this get in the way if you're doing graphical work where you need to know the colours are right?

Re: The Story Behind F.lux

#50

Post by mrbill »

I was working a REALLY long shift at work about a year ago (datacenter move). Came back to my desk from the DC at about 3am and for a few minutes, thought my system or monitor was broken because everything was dark dark shades of orange.

Then I finally realized I'd never been up at that time with f.lux running... D'oh.

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