Tilt
So I was working at my desk today on a project that was one of those head-down slog-through things. I was using two computers at once, which is not unusual for me - configuration on the docking station, documentation on the laptop as I go. At one point I noticed that objects were beginning to fade and light up and shimmer around me...the intense activity, probably along with my lousy diet of late and the inconsistent sleep schedule, had induced a migraine. Oh, joy. I got the meds in my system in time, so it isn't that bad overall; however, at a minimum when I have a migraine I'm going to have trouble seeing and sensitivity to light for at least half an hour. This was a problem because I really wanted and needed to finish this project - so I just bulled right through it with my sunglasses on.
Now my shades are polarized, of course, and the laptop and dock monitor are standard LCD and therefore are also polarized. This was something I discovered from migraines past. So I did a bit of experimentation to figure out the best angle at which to view the screen to try and limp through, and that's when I discovered something exceedingly annoying: the laptop and monitor were polarized 90 degrees against each other. Tilting my head to the left caused the monitor to brighten, but my laptop to fade to black. A tilt in the opposite direction caused the opposite effect for both machines. Wagging my head side-to-side wasn't really improving my headache, either. I gave up eventually and just waited for it to go away.
If anyone invents a KVM-style LCD monitor switch that works on the principle of doubled-up screen output with a rotating polarized filter over top of them, I think I deserve the patent just for the aggravation I endured...
Now my shades are polarized, of course, and the laptop and dock monitor are standard LCD and therefore are also polarized. This was something I discovered from migraines past. So I did a bit of experimentation to figure out the best angle at which to view the screen to try and limp through, and that's when I discovered something exceedingly annoying: the laptop and monitor were polarized 90 degrees against each other. Tilting my head to the left caused the monitor to brighten, but my laptop to fade to black. A tilt in the opposite direction caused the opposite effect for both machines. Wagging my head side-to-side wasn't really improving my headache, either. I gave up eventually and just waited for it to go away.
If anyone invents a KVM-style LCD monitor switch that works on the principle of doubled-up screen output with a rotating polarized filter over top of them, I think I deserve the patent just for the aggravation I endured...