F.lux

Many thanks to my friend Shad for sending over a link to this gem. F.lux is 'software to make your life better'.

We've all been sat at the computer when it was way past bed-time many hours ago, rather than worrying about work the next day we find ourselves straining to look at web-pages when our eyes just need sleep. The same as when we wake up and become blinded to Google's homepage.

This ingenious and very small piece of software puts your monitor's contrast on a day/night cycle. Once installed you locate yourself globally via post-code or longitude and latitude to set the appropriate sun rise and set times and that's it. On my XP SP2 it takes up roughly 5,000k of memory, so it's never going to slow anything down on modern machines. Also if you have to find yourself immersed in colour-sensitive work (read as Photoshop doodles) you can just right-click it to turn off for an hour.

The colour change is obviously subtle throughout the day and it tones everything very nicely. Well worth a download, even if you just try the simulated 24-hours. Works on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista/7.

Click here to visit their site.