there's still plenty of good in the world

here's an example. quora is a site that allows people to ask questions and get "answers and content from people who share your interests and people who have first-hand knowledge -- like real doctors, economists, screenwriters, police officers, and military veterans." the answers are often well-written, pedagogical and worth the read.

they have now released the best answers from 2012 to 2012 as an ebook, for free! there are answers from people like ashton kutcher, jimmy wales (founder of wikipedia) and many others with lots of experience answering the questions they're being asked. check it out at http://qsf.cf.quoracdn.net/best_of_quora_2010-2012.pdf!

2012: what brought us together

a beautiful video, remember the year that just passed:

is your screen too blue at night? try flux!

there is research indicating that lights from screens are guilty of keeping us awake at night. not just because we're having a hard time putting our laptops, tablets and phones away, but also because they suppress the production of the hormone melatonin, which helps regulate our sleeping patterns. see here, here and here.

I recently heard about a new software, f.lux, which is supposed to help alleviate this problem. how does it work? like this:

[f.lux] makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.

f.lux makes your computer screen look like the room you're in, all the time. When the sun sets, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. In the morning, it makes things look like sunlight again.

Tell f.lux what kind of lighting you have, and where you live. Then forget about it. f.lux will do the rest, automatically.

I've been trying it out for about a week, and I clearly notice how the screen color goes a bit more towards red as the sun sets. does it help? I don't know. is it annoying? not really. is it worth trying out? I think so.

all you need to do is set up your latitude and longitude (which you get help with), specify your kind of lighting, and then it runs in the background and takes care of everything else. when I temporarily disable it, I definitely notice a difference, so I think it might be worth checking out. my recommendation: download flux now!