Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by fargle 1659 days ago
The problem is that as it progresses, that little extra range you get from hacking the aperture is going to eventually not be enough. So this might free you from reading glasses for even a few years, but eventually it will probably not be enough.

An interesting thing happened to me. As natural aging occurred, I began to need readers for some things but not always. Then, over the course of about a week I went from just barely being able to use the computer without them to nope.

The weird thing was that I'd use my computer at home and definitely absolutely could not see a word without them. I'd get to work and, same monitor, distance, resolution, could still read just fine. I chalked it up to dehydration or just being tired in the morning. But then I go home and couldn't read my home computer again, which was weird.

What was happening was this exact effect! My home office is mellow and quite a bit darker. Work is pretty bright (but depressing) fluorescents. I turned off the half the office lights and proved it. The bright light contracts the pupil and a smaller aperture has a deeper depth of field. It can be just enough to pull it back into the usable range again.

However, this effect only lasted a couple months. The minimum near-focal range finally moved far enough that I need those readers either way, although it's still less pronounced with bright lights. But I still prefer the darker environ.

For $80 a month, I could buy enough readers to throw them away every day.

Readers are just the best invention ever - thank you Ben Franklin!

2 comments

> The weird thing was that I'd use my computer at home and definitely absolutely could not see a word without them. I'd get to work and, same monitor, distance, resolution, could still read just fine. I chalked it up to dehydration or just being tired in the morning. But then I go home and couldn't read my home computer again, which was weird.

Blood sugar, diet, stress, exercise, etc. also can all have a noticeable effect on vision. When my vision goes to shit, I think back over the past couple days of how my diet has also gone to shit (it's the holidays!).

Yes! Image capture is all about light!

If you want to see better, install really bright lights!

I think people put way too little light into their homes. Most homes are dark caves. You could probably add ten times as much light to an average living room and it still wouldn't be anywhere near as bright as an average day outside.

It's amazing what a difference more light makes.

I use two FEIT Electric PAR38 Daylight 325W-equivalent 5,000-lumen LED lamps in cheap IKEA NOT floor lamps next to my desk. They primarily help my mood and focus. They also help my near vision which has deteriorated recently.
That sounds like a decent amount of light :)