Gunnar Optics

A while back I learned of a product called Gunnars, which are basically high-tech glasses for those who work on computers.  I've had a pair of Gunnars now for about 3 months and this is my review.

First a little background.  For people such as myself who work on computers all day, we face health issues - the best known is carpal tunnel syndrome.  Well, if you believe the marketing engine behind Gunnars then there is another hazard out there in the form of harsh lighting conditions.  Most computer users have made the switch from the old analog CRT monitors to the newer flat panel monitors.  One unseen downside to this switch is the light quality of these monitors.  All flat panels (except plasmas) use either tiny fluorescent tubes of LEDs as the light source.  Both of these light sources do not produce consistent warm light but have a large spike in the blue spectrum of light.  To make matters worse, most offices are illuminated with overhead fluorescent lights.  So the user is being bombarded with strong blue-light all day long.  So far all of this is fact, not some marketing spin.  Fluorescent and LEDs do emit disproportionately high levels of blue light, and blue light carries the most "energy" and would therefore be the hardest for your eyes to process.

Now, Gunnars claim their glasses cut down on this blue light which in turn reduces eye-strain.  But the big question is, do they actually deliver?  After 3 months I can say the answer is most definitely yes!  Right from the beginning I could feel a difference. Before Gunnars, at the end of the work day my eyes were tired and strained, but with Gunnars my eyes feel much better.

There is however one downside to my particular Gunnars - comfort.  The shape of my nose is such that I have a hard time finding comfortable glasses.  I rarely wear sunglasses because they are so uncomfortable on my face.  And the Gunnars are no different.  At the end of the day my eyes feel great, but my nose is sore.  Last year I got my first corrective pair of glasses in my life - I ended up selecting a pair of Flexon frames.  These are the first ever glasses I can wear without pain on the bridge of my nose.

So would I recommend Gunnars?  That depends.  They're not cheap - expect to pay about $100 for non-corrective lens, more if you need a prescription.  So you will probably only benefit from them if you spend a lot of time in front of a computer.  If that's you, then I recommend trying them.  But don't do what I did which is purchase off their web page.  Instead, find a local store that sells Gunnars and go try them on.  That way you can find a pair that's comfortable on you.

Linux will never be mainstream until...

So this is a little rant about Linux.  But first let me clarify - I like Linux!  While getting my undergrad we used Linux and Unix servers.  And even though I work and develop on the Windows platform, I still run Linux virtual machines and I want to see the Linux platform succeed.  That said, Linux will never truly succeed and become mainstream until they make a lot of changes.  Three that I'm always stumbling on are...

GUI not command line
Linux seems to have this huge obsession with command line applications and setting program configuration manually via configuration text files.  Even as a developer I tire of this quickly.  It's so much nicer to open a graphical program and click a checkbox to enable a feature.  The last thing I want to do is run a command line tool and try and remember the syntax to add the setting to a text file.

Distribute compiled binaries
If you want to download a program, chances are the program is distributed as the source files leaving it up to you the user to compile the program.  Are you serious!?!  I'm a developer with the know-how to compile applications and I don't want to do this.  So what's the average person suppose to do?  Fortunately companies like Ubuntu compile common applications to make it easier.  But what if the application you want is not one Ubuntu offers?  I'm all for offering the source files, but also offer compiled binaries to make it easier for the casual user.

Tar/GZip suck, stop using them
This is closely related to distributing compiled binaries, but the Linux development community is seriously in love with tar and gzip.  It's to the point where if a company also distributes Windows binaries they might distribute them in tar/gzip format.  I don't care what platform you're working on, tar/gzip are old and suck!  I recently downloaded some files for Windows.  The tar/gzip file was 15.8 MB in size and the raw tar file was 59.1 MB in size.  Compare that to 13.5 MB for pkzip and 9.82 MB for 7Zip.  Pkzip and 7Zip are both available for all platforms and wipe the floor with tar/gzip.  So please stop using tar/gzip.

Sorry for the rant, but again I want Linux to succeed but until they make lots of changes such as these three, Linux will never truly succeed.