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With computers (blue lights destroys Melatonin and thus makes you less sleepy), days last longer and longer.

There's a neat program called f.lux which smoothly cranks down your display's color temperature when the night comes. I'm not sure if it makes any big difference in terms of melatonin production, but it can create a bit more relaxing atmosphere to the evenings. Suits also yellowish indoor lighting.

Try This:
http://stereopsis.com/flux/

Super cool app to change the color temp of your computer screen automatically toward red in the evening so that you can go to sleep. I run it and I normally don't even notice it in action. As it gets dark outside the colors still look correct. But I don't feel like my eyes get burned by the computer at night.

It's way cool.

Obligatory post to inform those who may not otherwise know. Apart from the usual about not using the computer for an hour or two before going to sleep (which I often ignore), the following may help:

1: Install F.lux - a popular utility to reduce the colour temperature of your PC's screen at night.

2: Get a cooling fan to provide pink noise. This helps drown out any random noises. Also helps during the summer to have it cool your face as you sleep. During the winter, I have a heater right next to it, so warm air is wafted at me.

3: Get blackout curtains to prevent light pollution.

There's a program that adjusts the color temp of your screen based on time of day (so that you can turn it down further at night - even 6500K hurts at night and looks crazy blue under incandescent lights). Anyway, f.lux

Not sure if this addresses your particular issues, but I use f.lux and it has totally saved my eyes. I periodically lower the settings on it, which continues to help with my eye strain and I'm so used to it I forget it is running most of the time.

White is white, and so a 6500k (or thereabouts) colour temperature is desired for the LCD backlight (being close to the colour of the sun). If you have a problem with the screen displaying a screen which is too bluish, then how hard is it adjust the colour settings on your PC? You can adjust it to bluish for daytime, and yellowish for nighttime. In fact, there's an app to do just that: http://stereopsis.com/flux

http://stereopsis.com/flux/

Yes, this is really junk science, but I believe there are other studies that show similar results - see http://stereopsis.com/flux/research.html for a list, including links to the full papers (the site is for F.Lux which I really recommend to adjust colour temperature to get more sleep, for Windows, Mac and Linux, and jailbroken iOS).

The f.lux program for Windows sits in the system tray and continuously adjusts the blue component of the display based on the time of day.

http://stereopsis.com/flux/

You can also dose with melatonin caplets a little while before you know you want to sleep.

Link. In a nutshell it adjusts the screen's colour temperature to help with this sort of problem. Ironically, perhaps, I'm too tired to write much more.

I think all /.ers have known this since about age 15. I used to go into a phase where I'd be up every night later and later until I was going to sleep at 6AM and waking up at 2PM. Eventually I'd lose a day and "reset" to a normal time only to inch back later ...

Anyway, here's a plug for the awesomesuace that is f.lux, which removes the blue hues from your monitor (since blue light is more associated with circadian rhythm than red) when it's supposed to be night. I am not associated with the makers of f.lux in any way except being a hopeless devotee and mentioning them to anyone within earshot that mentions difficult keeping a normal sleep cycle.

This is as good a time as any to post a link to something I've used for well over a year now.
http://stereopsis.com/flux/

It automatically adjusts the color temp of your monitor to reduce eye strain at night. I suppose it has the side effect of lowering power consumption as well.

On Windows/Mac/Linux and pads.

No, I don't work for these guys nor am I paid by them. It's just that good.

these are basic questions which might alter a recommendation.
it's no surprise, but one of the best task chairs available(herman miller aeron) comes in three different sizes, and this chart makes recommendations for chair size based on your height/weight ratio. unfortunately if you're on either end of the bell curve, the aeron chair might not be for you... most people get sized for size b, but make sure that's your size based on height/weight. also, if you get the aeron, make sure you get the "highly adjustable" version that has the additional tilting options... it increases the chair cost, but it's worth it.

there are other chair options including knee chair, split spine chairs, arm rest w/integrated split keyboard, even balancing on an excersize ball, but i'd start with a serious/real task chair from herman miller, steel case, or any of the other contract furniture manufacturers. they spend a lot of time and money in the research for how to keep people productive in office environments, so their designs are based on facts, and not just copy cat design or economics.

depending on your active/sedentary life style, you might decide on a dedicated seated desk, dedicated standing desk, or one that can change from seated to standing with some type of lift mechanism(my desk has manual screw actuated lift, but this one is electronic and totally sweet).

i like keytronic keyboards, and multibutton microsoft mice, but i have no specific model or brands to recommend. i usually will replace these items fairly quickly if they suck, these items tend to be under $100 and i consider them consumables.

LCD... get the biggest, brightest, fastest refresh, highest contrast, and highest resolution device currently within your budget, or split your budget and get two displays. you don't say what type of programming, but you'll need screen real estate, and the ability to change your resolution as needed. i love having two screens, one for watching/analyzing events, the other for performing tasks, i'll never reduce my need for more display pixels. eye strain can be caused by slower refresh, low contrast, and poor visibility angles on displays, so consider these specs as well.

you might also consider f.lux to adust the color temp of your display based on time of the day...

the OP question was regarding ergo comfort, but long term work comfort is about more than chairs, desks, keyboard and mice, it's also knowing when to take breaks, body movement, stretching, and so forth. OT, but the following will also improve overall work comfort: ride a bike to work, walk up the stairs instead of the elevator, bring your lunch, eat whole food, drink more water.

F.lux really does help with insomnia. I doubt it's the placebo effect since you set it up once and forget about it.

If you haven't heard of it, it's a free simple program that adjusts the colors of your monitor when the sun goes down in your area.
http://stereopsis.com/flux/

I credit F.lux with curing my insomnia.

(I'm in no way related to the project)

There's already an app you can get for Windows, Linux and OS X called F.lux which changes the colour temperate of your screen based on your time and location. http://stereopsis.com/flux/

Just installed it and my screen has a very strong yellowy-pinky tint as it is 2am.

That's theoretically true, but the difference between theory and practice is that in theory, there is no difference. In practice, no matter how bright you turn a blue lamp, you will always see it as being dark because blue reminds you of nighttime. Psychologically speaking, blue-tinted light is perceptually darker than reddish light even if it is of far greater brightness in terms of your actual ability to see and distinguish objects and color. And other things like skin tone are poorly perceived in fluorescent light as well, which contributes to that perception.

What? I literally started using f.lux a few weeks ago, and I get to sleep better at night now. I don't get as tired during the day. The nighttime light isn't blue-hued; it's red-hued.

Also, blue light is daytime light. Red light is the light you see closer to sunset. The sunset is red for a reason.

2k bulbs are shit for growing algae, too. The spectrum is too far towards red with the lower K bulbs to provide adequate PAR. This applies to both red and green macroalgae, and cyanobacteria, for sure.

If you discover, as I did, that it requires significantly more lights to provide the same perception of brightness in a particular room, a 3x difference in wattage can disappear like that.

Then buy a 2k temperature bulb, instead of the closer-to-actual-daylight 6k bulbs. They're even easier to find at your local Home Depot than the 6k, since they have more of them on the shelf. Don't hold back progess because you can't pick bulbs of the same color as your incandescents that are right next to the blue-er ones.

See http://www.stereopsis.com/flux/ for software that does something like this already (although not with patterns), and can also change the colour temperature of your monitor based on time of day.

That's what f.lux is for. It changes the temperature of your screen according to the time (sunrise/sunset). It works under Mac, Linux, Windows ; a real gem.

Bump. Installing F.lux for me was like discovering that I had been secretly poisoned by mercury for the last several years. I simply could not believe how much strain was lifted from my eyes by keeping it on. My ability to sleep has substantially improved, and I get substantially fewer headaches during marathon coding sessions. It has an almost undetectable memory footprint, and you will completely forget it is there. Turning it off is an interesting experience, as it is an instant demo of exactly how penetrating monitor light can be! I recommend it to all of my friends and family. Of course, most people will just have to see for themselves, as I can only speak for myself. In my opinion, however, the function provided is important enough that it's absence as a default feature in OS's seems kind of irresponsible, if not just negligent and a reflection of poor UI research and design.

That's what f.lux is for. It changes the temperature of your screen according to the time (sunrise/sunset). It works under Mac, Linux, Windows ; a real gem.

Here's a nifty little software that turns the screen temperature down to make it softer after sunset. Works quite well. http://www.stereopsis.com/flux/

So, a friend of mine wrote one of the first online lyrics servers.

Here's his story.

Some of you here may remember the Vivarin Lyrics Server, the story of which is told here.

Some of the details of Vivarin's story are *very* interesting. The overall arc is similar to pearLyrics: a new search tool for lyrics is created, then eventually cease-and-desisted. But many of the details, and the early internet era in which they occured, make for a good read.

It's sad, even pathetic, that in all these years the RIAA and its member companies haven't gotten even the least bit of clue. These sorts of search services add enourmous value. Thousands of people were able to identify and purchase music based on Vivarin's services ("what is that song, I remember a few words..?"). Heck, Warner's laywers called to provide thanks as Vivarin had helped them to win a legal case.

I seriously hope that the RIAA's stranglehold doesn't let up before they realize that hold is around their collective neck.