Following on to my previous post about ack and autojump, one more new-to-me tool that I’ve become quite fond of is f.lux. When you find yourself passing up your dual-core hot-rod workstation for your underpowered netbook solely because the netbook has f.lux installed, take it as a sign that the creators of f.lux are on to something.
From the f.lux website: “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.” For me, the decrease in eye strain is palpable; at night, picking up a mobile phone or even looking at a TV after using a machine with f.lux installed is painful. (Obviously, if you need accurate color representation, you can’t have f.lux on; thankfully, temporarily disabling it is a breeze.)
There are are Windows, OS X and Linux versions available; installation on Ubuntu is made easy through a PPA. Here’s a little Puppet module for Ubuntu Maverick hosts, if Puppet is your thing:
class flux {
exec { "add f.lux ppa":
command => "/usr/bin/apt-add-repository ppa:kilian/f.lux",
creates => "/etc/apt/sources.list.d/kilian-f_lux-maverick.list",
notify => Exec["apt-get update"],
}
package { "fluxgui":
ensure => present,
require => Exec["add f.lux ppa"],
}
}
