Termyn8or
Posts: 18681
Joined: 11/12/2005
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It's almost like looking at my computer monitor makes me cry. Of course I am not crying because today is Saturday and years ago I declared Saturday to my day and I do whatever I want, and I mean no matter what.
Part of the day I spend on the net (really) and I have noticed something. It makes my eyes water. I have two pair of glasses, one for the PC, which are about 15 years old but being weaker act as reading glasses for me. The other pair is alot newer and is for distance, driving, etc., pretty much outside. I know the old pair does not correct my astigmatism correctly, but that doesn't seem to explain this.
I am just going to up and say it - it seems to get better after I smoke breakfast. So is it possible that this is early onset glaucoma ? I don't seem to have any of the other symptoms. Whatever minor haloing I get around bright lights at night has been there for decades. And my perhipheral vision seems to be fine. Sitting here looking at the keyboard I can see the window and the doorway, and I am sitting just about directly between them.
My eyes watering is nothing new. I've heard of people who do not produce enough tears and have to use drops, I seem to have the opposite problem. Thing is, I used to have allergies, and have cured that by desnsitization. But then actually I think the actual allergies still exist.
And especially in the morning, I have some eye discomfort, and they are very sensitive to smoke. You would think smoking would dry me out, but it doesn't.
Anyway, especially in the morning, looking at the monitor kills me. No matter which pair of glasses I wear it just hurts and makes my eyes water to the point that every minute or two I have to wipe them. And no, it is not that your posts touch me so deeply, it's a physical thing. Well maybe some of your posts do, but this is something else.
The monitor is about a ten year old 17" Vivitron, which is a Sony. The red is getting a little soft and there is no user control for color balance, and I just don't feel like taking it apart to adjust it. The color is acceptable enough, but would the basic grey scale being shifted to the blue-green slightly cause this ? Other than that the monitor is fine, and I run in 800 X 600 because I can see things better. More on monitors later.
My glasses are concave to correct nearsightedness. The strong pair gets me nice and close to 20/20 but forget reading. They are about -5 diopter (not sure that is the correct term, take it in context), and the weak pair is about -4. The newer, strong pair has very little astigmatism correction, it seems to have canceled itself out over the years. The older pair is correcting astigmatism that is no longer there, but I don't think that is the problem because it is fine later in the day. What changed ?
Though I will admit it is not as bad if I look at the monitor without glasses it's not as bad (but I can't see shit), it's still not good. And even though I am a mole, that is the type of people who really don't like bright sunlight, I mean we prefer the shade when outside, sunlight coming in the window for example, does not bother me anywhere near as much as the monitor.
So back to the monitor issue (where I said more later). It is a tertiary issue, but I do want to mention it. I want to know who the brainiac was who figured out to have black text on a white background. Back when this got somehow determined, all monitors were CRT. This is the least efficient way to go. It wears out the tube the fastest and loads the power supply the hardest. I remember programs that had a black background with white text. Even then, before this problem became significant, when I got into one of those programs, like the old DOS based Xtree Gold my eyes felt like they were saying "thank you". WinMX was similar, I loved it.
Now the people who decided on black text on white were not so forward thinking so as to predict the advent of LCD monitors, they didn't even finish writing the software before releasing it in alot of cases. Always needed updates, although it was not as bad back then. Still, when early versions of Windows came out, there was no viable LCD technology.
The reason I mention that is because now, if you know how an LCD monitor works, it is most efficient at maximum brightness. If you turn the brightness down on a CRT monitor, it runs cooler, if you turn the brightness down on an LCD monitor it runs hotter.
But that doesn't explain why they made that choice back then. A long time ago I tried setting my options to give me white on black, but found that so many websites or programs force the black on white, after you get used to it and hit a link you know how a spotlighted deer feels.
One other thing, I got this monitor cheap. I don't know who all is into electronics but this may be of significance. In the summer, every once in a while I hear a minor arc in it. The purity and convergence are slightly off due to a phenomenon called yoke tilt. The auto on/off does not work, I must physically turn it on and off. Is it possible that the thing is producing too much high voltage and someone disabled the shutdown ? It could be bombarding me with Xrays. But does this cause that ?
I am really getting close to the point where I will be looking for a monitor. I wish I knew at the time, when Dad got his first PC he bought a Planar 19" LCD, which the manufacturer touts as being mercury vapor lit. I must admit it is easy on the eyes, but I would have to have one up here in my house to test the theory that it is the monitor causing my distress. That's his house down there and I don't think I am going down there in the morning in my underwear to test this theory.
Another note though, when his new toy came it was of course turned all the way up, we had to turn it down, almost to the minimum brightnes, well contrast actually. The time he spends son it is minimal, so it's not an issue. However mine runs about 12 hours a day, and 24/7 on the weekends. I'd probably melt the thing.
The way I see it right now I could spend a hundred or two on either a new monitor or new glasses. At this point I wonder which would be the better choice.
T
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Eye strain / Eyesight - 
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