meme: getting to know you

[cellio]

I've seen this a bunch of times in the last few days:

The problem with LJ: We all think we are so close, but really we know nothing about each other. So if you like, ask me something you think you should know about me. Something that should be obvious, but you have no idea about. Ask away.

Then, if you like, post this in your LJ and find out what people don't know about you.

Comments

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

With your vision problems, how do you go about reading LJ? What modifications do you make to your computer, the LJ default settings, how long or far or what you read, etc?

[cellio]

General computer settings: high contrast and minimum brightness (to avoid that "ooh! bright white!" effect), low-enough light levels in the room to support that, monitor placed about 8-10" from my face, lower resolution (1280x1024 on the 21" LCD at work; something lower on the 19" monitor at home). If using a CRT, flicker rate has to be at least 75Hz or I see it and get a headache.

Browser: larger default fonts and an enforced minimum for the evil web pages that still use hard-coded fonts. (More specifically: proportional font is Serif 18pt, monospaced is Courier New 13pt, minimum font size is 12pt.) Note that it's the combination of font size, monitor size, and resolution that leads to readability; when I got a new monitor at work I had to change all my browser settings because the basic pixel was now a different size.

LJ: for my own journal and for my friends page, I've carefully chosen the foreground and background colors to be easier on the eyes. (Black on white is kind of harsh, but reverse video has its own problems.) I enforce the default style on cut/comment links from my friends page, because lots of people have styles that are hard for me to read. (This doesn't help with memories or directly-linked posts, but "&style=mine" added to the URL can fix that, at least.)

My vision doesn't seem to dictate shorter sessions at the computer, aside from needing to get up and walk around and look at non-computer things periodically to rest my eyes. I work at a computer all day; I've done a lot of work adjusting it and the surrounding environment so I can do that. (And, of course, I have more control at home.)

[cellio]

Oh, one other LJ setting: when they introduced the new site style, the one with the pop-up menus across the top of the page, I switched my account to use the older style, the one with the links in the left column with the blue background. The fonts are bigger in the new style, but either the face or the color is different (I didn't look closely) and the result was that the site was harder, not easier, for me to read.