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.
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."
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.
Enjoy your eye strain...? :-/ I find your laughing at our mutual experience and desire to share it with others, so that they may too use screens with less discomfort, odd. And unlike an infomercial, we're not trying to sell anything.
Note that f.lux does not even claim to prevent eyestrain. The closest they come is this: "Our users say that f.lux prevents eyestrain." That's hardly science; in fact it's exactly how shady companies market vitamins.
Also, I don't know what "feels better on your eyes" means but I will point out that if 2700K screens felt better "in an otherwise dark room" then movie theaters would use them. You say "It's that simple!" but like most things, it's a little more complicated than that.
Do you disagree?
* You can adjust the color temp it goes down to. I'd try a more moderate setting, at least at first.
* You can have it transition gradually.
* If the room you're in is lit with daylight bulbs, you won't really benefit from it and it will look weird.
* It's no good for doing color-sensitive work, so no photo editing, etc.
I really can't imagine using a computer in the evening without it.
I tentatively tried using melatonin tablets instead, and I've found it works really well for me. Set an alarm for about 30-40 minutes before you want to go to sleep, take the tablet (sublingually) when the alarm goes off, and you'll notice you start feeling sleepy right about when you need to fall asleep.
Obviously, this kind of exogenous melatonin intake can only crudely approximate the curves for plasma melatonin levels resulting from endogenous production in the presence of zero artificial light, but using f.lux only removes one source of blue light. Sure, you might feel sleepy staring at your screen, but blue light inhibits melatonin synthesis so strongly you could turn on your bedroom light and have your melatonin production bottom out. IIRC, you can significantly attenuate melatonin production with light levels of ~100 lx, which is comparable to a really dim room. Good luck getting ready for bed in complete darkness.
You also need to titrate your dosage to find the right levels. For me, 0.2-0.5mg is all I need to achieve the necessary sleepiness to motivate me to get to sleep. I can take more with no noticeable effects, but I know others who report headaches the morning after. Also note that the older you are, the less melatonin you need.
It was incredibly annoying :/
Maybe I just didn't see that much benefit because I never look at screens in rooms without additional (yellowish) lighting.
But I agree, the default setting is too much.