As a Trained IT Professional, I’ve been fighting a battle for years against my eyes. I’m one of the very few people I’ve ever worked with that doesn’t need glasses or contacts in my daily life, even though I spend hours and hours staring at the computer screen. I’m happy that I’ve been blessed with good eyesight, and I try my hardest not to abuse it, or do things that will hurt my eyes over the long term. One of the worst things you can do for your eyesight is to have the screen you are looking at significantly brighter or darker than the rest of the environment – and OSHA agrees with me.

What I’ve always done is to kill the overhead lights entirely when I can, and supplement with several low-wattage incandescent lights around my workspace. This works, and once you put everything where you like, you’re golden.

The sad thing is while I do this at work, everywhere I work, I hadn’t gotten my workstation at home setup properly in terms of light. Reading late at night either required the overhead lights, or darkness, and the overhead keeps burning out. (I think something is wrong with the light fixture, but I digress.) So, yesterday I’d finally had enough. I went to Home Depot and picked up a cheap work light, removed the plastic guard, zip-tied the light to the back of my monitor, and stuck a CFL in it. Works like a champ, and provides nice, even illumination for my daily computing needs.