Ever tried looking at a screen with black background reading and deciphering white color text on it?

You would end up seeing an eye doctor soon :)

If you doubt this, use blackle.com for a day instead of Google.

RK

You know what?

I actually did try using Brackle for few times yesterday, it sure might be saving alot of energy... but,

I do not want to get Astigmatism...I could barely read the white screen, right after seeing into the black one... :)

This is strange, since if you remember, when "white boards" were introduced first instead of the traditional "black boards", there was a very big debate & discussion on the "negative effects" of it on eyes... & continuously gazing into the white background does have a negative effect on the eyes!!!

Guess here it is the other way around :)

Actually on Google's official blog I found this answer who clarifies everything:


"Is black the new green?"

Posted by Bill Weihl, Green Energy Czar

Reducing climate change by saving energy is an important effort we should all join, and that's why we're very glad to see the innovative thinking going into a variety of solutions. One idea, suggested by the site called "Blackle" (which is not related to Google, by the way, though the site does use our custom search engine), is to reduce energy used by monitors by providing search with a black background. We applaud the spirit of the idea, but our own analysis as well as that of others shows that making the Google homepage black will not reduce energy consumption. To the contrary, on flat-panel monitors (already estimated to be 75% of the market), displaying black may actually increase energy usage. Detailed results from a new study confirm this.

As computers become a bigger part of more people's lives, they will consume an increasing amount of energy, which is why we've invested so much in making our data centers efficient and we've joined with others to launch Climate Savers Computing, which has a goal of reducing total power consumption by more than 50% for all computers by 2010.

There are some things you can do now to reduce the energy used by your computer, such as:

* turn on the power management features. Virtually all computers today have the ability to switch into low-power modes automatically when they're idle; very few computers have this capability enabled! Here's how to do it on computers running Windows XP.

* turn off your monitor and computer when you're not using them

* turn down the brightness on your monitor

* make sure your next computer meets the efficiency standards of Climate Savers Computing (an efficient computer uses up to 50% less energy than a conventional one)

* to find the most efficient PCs available today, look for the words "EnergyStar 4.0 compliant."

Source: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-black-new-green.html


As for doctors' oppinions regarding eyes health, a black text on white screen is more easy to be read but a too bright screen causes eye fatigue much more than a black one.
To avoid hurting our eyes we should:
- adjust the brigthness of the screen,
- keep at least 40 cm from the eyes to the screen,
- have the monitor placed slightly below the eye level, same being recommended for TV's,
- take breaks from working in front of a computer, at least few minutes every hour
- avoid having reflecting surfaces around the computer,
- use a good monitor with a stabile image.

Dear Claudia,

Thank you so much for the detailed information shared here !!!

That was great !!! will try to follow these few instructions, simple yet effective !!!

Cheers ! :)


Diana