AstroBetter » ergonomics

Sleep Better by Adjusting Screen Brightness at Night

Kelle — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 13:46:29 +0000

F.lux for Mac 5.0 Review | Macworld
via Mike Cushing

…looking at a computer display late at night—particularly when that display is calibrated to be bright and clear during the daytime—can be both visually irritating and a contributor to sleep problems. Once the sun starts to go down, [F.lux] gradually—over the course of an hour—dims your screen and shifts its color temperature to match that of the type of lighting in the room.

Seatguru

Jane Rigby — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:40:58 +0000

Does everyone already know this tip, or am I about to improve your lives?

Seat Guru shows airplane seating charts, specific to your airline and plane, color-coded for good and bad seats. It’s prevented me from selecting ‘exit row’ seats that don’t recline or business class by the lavatory, and it’s found me the comfiest seat home after a long observing run.

For example, here’s the seating chart of American 767-300, my plane from Santiago Chile to Dallas. My travel agent had given me seat 12H, which is flagged as red. I swapped to a green seat. When you’re trying to catch up on sleep on an observing run, every bit helps. (Yawn.)

Learn to Take Breaks with Anti-RSI

Kelle — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 05:53:20 +0000

Breaks, both short and long, are widely regarded as productivity enhancing and as one of the easiest ways to prevent and reduce repetitive strain injuries (RSI), such as carpel tunnel syndrome. (More RSI prevention tips.) AntiRSI is a free application that monitors your keyboard and mouse activity and reminds you to take short “micro pauses” every couple of minutes and longer “work breaks” every hour.

Getting in the habit of taking breaks is particularly important for those of us who have a tendency to end up hunched over with our eyes transfixed on a computer monitor for hours on end…and that’s basically everyone I know. Read on to learn more about this little app that encourages you to take breaks.

AntiRSI is one of the handful of apps that I have set to automatically launch every time I login (along with Quicksilver). With seemingly constant popups and reminders, it is quite an annoying app and it took me a long while to get used to it. (Anyone who borrows my computer is definitely annoyed by it!) But this “annoyance” is the whole point of the app—the goal is to change the habit of working continuously and instead, to become accustomed to taking frequent breaks.

AntiRSI is pretty simple and easy to use. The primary customizable settings are the time between the two different breaks and their duration.

Micro Pauses: 1–30 second break every 1–16 minutes: Mine is set for 10 seconds every 5 minutes. During this time focus on something in the distance (look out the window), adjust position in chair (sit back, stop hunching), drink some water, and/or stretch (wrists, neck, etc.). This popup will remain on the screen until the designated time passes without any keyboard or mouse activity.
Work Breaks: 1–20 minute break every 20 minutes to 2 hours: Mine is set for 3 minutes every 60 min. Use this time to go to the restroom, refill water bottle, pick up printouts, and/or have a snack. Or, of course, round up some friends and head outside for a walk to the favorite coffee shop! There is a button to postpone this break.

The only other option worth mentioning is Acquire Focus. With this option checked, the popup reminder will steal the focus from whatever you’re doing. (If you’re typing an email, those last keystrokes will be lost.) This is too hard core for me but it might be good for people who are experiencing pain and who really need to force themselves to take breaks.

A similar app is Time Out but a recent review indicates that most people prefer Anti-RSI. For Linux, UNIX, and Windows users, there is Workrave. In addition to break reminders, Workrave displays animations of stretches during work breaks.

Regardless of which app you use, remember to quit it before giving a presentation from your laptop!

AntiRSI, freeware, Mac only.
Workwave, freeware. Linux, Unix, Windows.

Stylish Laptop Stand

Kelle — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 03:36:10 +0000

Apple Blog has a nice review of the Rain Design mStand, the laptop stand designed for Macs and to look pretty next to a Cinema Display. I own two of these, one for work and one for home. My favorite feature is the cord management hole in back and the ability to store the keyboard under the stand.

If you regularly use a laptop while sitting a desk, a laptop stand and external peripherals (keyboard and mouse) are crucial for decent ergonomics. The only exception I have ever seen is the guy who would keep the laptop in his lap, lean way back in his chair, and then prop his feet on the pulled out bottom drawer of his steel desk. But he doesn’t have that desk anymore and probably now needs to get a laptop stand!

mStand, $50
Apple Blog Review