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7 Feb 2020 - Podcast #679 - (18:03)
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It’s common knowledge that blue-light emissions from computers, tablets, and phones can cause sleep-related problems. The problem may be more severe that just a bit of sleep deprivation, though.
Your computer, phone, or tablet screen appears to produce full-color images, but you’ve doubtless seen a blue glow if you’ve ever walked by a house at night when a television it turned on in a room with a window that faces the street. Modern operating systems even have night modes that reduce the amount of blue light screens emit. When this mode is turned on initially, the screen may appear to be amber. Within a few moments, though, our eyes adjust to the change and colors appear normal.
Click any of the small images for a full-size view. To dismiss the larger image, press ESC or tap outside the image.
Light color is measured in degrees Kelvin. Daylight is in the 5000 to 6000 degree range, which is blue. That differs from the incandescent light bulbs that have been in use for more than a century. These bulbs emit light around 3000 degrees Kelvin, which is yellow. We humans had candles and lanterns before electric lights became widespread, but we were active primarily during daylight hours.
Continued exposure to blue light might be harmful.
Another way to describe light uses the wavelength of the light. The wavelength of ultraviolet light is lower than about 375 nanometers. Visible blue light starts around 375 nanometers and the full visible spectrum ends with red around 700 nanometers. Infrared light starts there. Visible light occupies a tiny slice of the wavelength spectrum with gamma rays, X-rays, and ultraviolet on the lower end, and infrared, radar, television, FM radio, and AM radio on the higher end.
<<< Image by PenubagVector: Victor Blacus
Own work based on: Electromagnetic-Spectrum.png, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Lower wavelengths have more power according the Prevent Blindless website that explains blue light has benefits and dangers. Blue light boosts alertness and helps to regulate our circadian rhythm. Lack of exposure to blue light may be a factor in the development nearsightedness.
Some researchers suggest that overexposure to blue light may elevate blood pressure; worsen cardiovascular disease; encourage weight gain; cause metabolic problems; increase the risk of type-2 diabetes; cause emotional distress, mood disorders, and memory problems; reduce academic performance, and increase risk-taking behavior.
All About Vision describes the inverse relationship between the wavelength of light rays and the amount of energy they contain. Light rays that have relatively long wavelengths contain less energy, and those with short wavelengths have more energy.
Today’s computer screens are much safer than the older cathode-ray tubes that were common with early personal computers. The CRT screens emitted a lot of ultraviolet light and that led to eye strain. Ultraviolet coatings on glasses reduced the problem, but flat-panel monitors are easier on our eyes.
Ultraviolet light has more energy than visible light. This gives UV light the ability to produce changes in the skin to create a suntan. Too much exposure to UV will create a sunburn and can lead to skin cancer. Too much UV can create vision problems, but the body needs a certain amount of UV because it helps the body manufacture vitamin D.
Blue light is still a problem, though, and it’s everywhere. Prevent Blindness says that excess exposure to blue light can cause digital eyestrain that can be worsened by fatigue, dry eye syndrome, and poor lighting. Symptoms include store eyes and difficulty focusing. Studies also suggest that long-term exposure to blue light can affect retinal cells and lead to problems like age-related macular degeneration.
In addition to the blue light from the sun, blue is a large component of light from televisions, computer screens, and LED lights. The human eye is effective in blocking most UV light, but most blue light gets through and All About Vision also discusses the dangers: The fact that blue light penetrates all the way to the retina is important because laboratory studies have shown that too much exposure to blue light can damage light-sensitive cells in the retina. This causes changes that resemble those of macular degeneration, which can lead to permanent vision loss.
So if blue light is so bad, why not eliminate it? Some blue light is needed and a lack of blue light can cause what’s called seasonal affective disorder (SAD) that’s treated with special lights that emit a lot of blue light. The problem is too much blue light late in the day – and using computer, tablet, or phone for extended periods at night can create sleep problems that lead to fatigue during the day.
The Prevent Blindness website suggests five ways we can reduce exposure to blue light:
California has set 10 October as Blue Light Awareness Day with the goal of spreading the word about what people can do to reduce problems caused by blue light. People blink more slowly when using computer screens and this reduces the eyes’ natural lubricants, disrupts sleep patterns, suppress production of melatonin, and may cause headaches.
The study for California says that people should turn off electronic devices two hours before bedtime, and “off” means off. No cheating to check tomorrow’s weather or check in with a friend on a social media site. If you enjoy reading before bed, use a book or a magazine instead of an e-reader.
The research also suggests reducing the brightness of screens. Some computers now can sense a room’s ambient light and adjust brightness. If not, make the adjustment manually. Another recommendation is to watch videos on your television, not a computer monitor. Televisions emit less blue light and they’re viewed from further away.
One recommendation from an earlier age still applies, too: It’s called the 20-20-20 Rule: For every 20 minutes of screen time, look away from the screen for at least 20 seconds and focus on something that’s at least 20 feet away.
Somebody commented the other day that Microsoft’s new Chromium-based browser really had something going for it. He had switched from Chrome and had noticed virtually no difference.
The guy seemed to be excited by this, not damning Edge with a silly equivalence. Edge is based on Chromium, which is what Google uses for Chrome. So this is like saying that that a Buick LaCrosse is a lot like a Chevy Malibu. Of course it is! They’re built on the same platform with different features on top.
That said, Microsoft Edge is far enough along that its worth taking out for a test drive and you can do that by visiting the Edge website.
Edge does look a lot like Chrome, but Microsoft has piled some different features on top of the basic Chromium engine. Microsoft promises four privacy features and links searches to Bing, Microsoft’s search engine. You can switch that to Google or, if you take privacy seriously, to Duck Duck Go.
Microsoft says that it will protect users from being tracked on the web. Trackers are used on websites to collect data about your browsing behavior. Edge is being positioned as a browser that detects and block trackers.
Another built-in protection is a connection to Microsoft’s Defender SmartScreen. This feature attempts to protect users from phishing and websites that harbor malware. The feature is active by default, but can be disabled.
As with other modern browsers, Edge’s address bar provides search and site suggestions as the user types. This includes suggestions from favorites, browsing history, previous searches, and the default search provider. A privacy white paper describes how this feature can be turned off. The document also explains other security policies and settings for the browser.
Edge looks promising and will further cement Chromium as the primary browser engine on the web. This leaves Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox as the only other significant browser engines. Combined, Firefox and Safari have only a quarter of the market. Chrome has more than 60% of the browser market.
Before you update to the new Microsoft Edge, please check if your current extension is available by visiting https://microsoftedge.microsoft.com/addons. You can also visit our support website to learn how to install extensions from other extension stores if an extension is not available on the Microsoft Edge Addons store.
One shortcoming today is the number of extensions available for Edge: Approximately 500 Edge extensions are shown in the Microsoft Store compared to more than 188,000 on the Chrome Web Store. An article on ZD Net notes than half of the Chrome extensions have only 16 installations or fewer, another 20,000 have no installations at all, and nearly 90% are installed on fewer than 1000 computers.
A more realistic comparison might be 19,000 viable extensions on the Chrome Web Store compared to 500 in the Microsoft Store. That’s still a big difference, but the top 500 will be the extensions used by most people. Microsoft cautions that an extension you consider essential might still be missing, but says that developers are working on certifying more. A few months ago, only a few dozen extensions were listed in the Microsoft Store.
Maybe it’s time to consider Microsoft Edge.
Maybe we should rename it the entropynet. Thirty years ago, many of us saw the internet as a way to bring people together. It hasn’t exactly worked out that way and it’s not getting any better.
Entropy is a value that’s used to measure what is described by the second law of thermodynamics and this is the first time the second law of thermodynamics has been mentioned here. Essentially it describes the amount of energy that’s not available to do work. It’s also used to describe uncertainty or randomness.
One of the better descriptions on Wikipedia puts it this way: A law of physics says that it takes work to make the entropy of an object or system smaller; without work, entropy can never become smaller – you could say that everything slowly goes to disorder (higher entropy).
In real life, once a country named Yugoslavia existed. Then the Soviet Union ceased to be and the nations that were once part of the Soviet bloc became independent. Then entropy set in. Today the former Yugoslavia has split into Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Wars and genocides followed.
The internet today is an excellent example of everything going to disorder. That may cause you to think of political arguments, bots from Russia and elsewhere that attempt to increase disorder in the (now less) United States, and restrictions imposed by the great firewall of China. It’s worse than that.
The great firewall of China may have been the first attempt to control internet usage, but now the term “splinternet” is being used to describe what’s happening to the internet. Access is restricted in China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Yemen, among others. Nations will have their own “internets” that will attempt to control what their citizens can see.
Radio Free Europe was founded in 1949 to beam radio signals into the Soviet bloc. With mixed success, the USSR attempted to interfere with the signals by broadcasting noise on frequencies used by Radio Free Europe. It’s likely that censorship on the internet/splinternet will be more effective.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948, states that “people have the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” The internet didn’t exist then.
Now, as the internet becomes more divided, disinformation campaigns are increasing and as censorship systems become more entrenched, and reversing the trend is less likely.
National PTA and Life360 say they will promote family safety in the digital age. The two organizations say many families add new digital devices during the holiday season the the "PTA Connected initiative" is designed to educate families on best practices for healthy family connectivity.
"The holidays are a time when many families added new devices to their household, and with Safer Internet Day approaching, this is the perfect time to focus our conversations about being responsible and safe in the digital world," according toLeslie Boggs, president of National PTA. "National PTA is pleased to collaborate with Life360, which will help give families the tools to have proactive and productive conversations with their children about their digital lives and activities."
National PTA's PTA Connected initiative is designed to deepen the understanding and knowledge of parents, families and teachers about digital safety tools and resources; mobilize PTAs, schools and communities to engage families around best practices and shared learning; and generate collective impact. Life360 is a new supporting sponsor of the initiative.
For more information, see the National PTA website.
The AARP says tech ownership among adults age 50 and above continues to grow, with smartphone usage increasing from 70% in 2017 to 77% in 2019. In addition, adults ages 50 and older are adopting consumer technology, including smartphones, wearables, home assistants/smart speakers, and smart home technology, at nearly the same rate as adults ages 18 to 49.
Rates of tech use are similar across age demographics, but the survey shows device preferences vary with age.
Key findings from the Tech Usage study include:
For more information, see the full report on the AARP website.
There was excitement as Olympus and Nikon became the first consumer camera companies to release digital cameras that take images with 3 million pixels. Olympus added the C-3030 to its line of digital cameras (3.34 megapixels, 2048x1536 resolution) and Nikon released the model 990 (3.34 megapixels, 2048x1536 resolution).
The C-3030 was the first Olympus filmless camera (remember when we called them "filmless cameras?) to use both USB and serial connectivity. It had a 3x zoom lens (equivalent to 32-96mm on a 35mm film camera), came with a 16MB storage card, and cost "just" $999.
The Nikon camera also had a 3x zoom lens with 35-mm film equivalent range of 38 to 115mm. Both cameras could record QuickTime movies.