Microsys Blog

Welcome to my brand new “cool stuff” section of this blog where I will write about, yes you guessed it, cool stuff made by other people. It may be hardware, software, books, who knows, but today I am going to start out with a program that will be a perfect fit for existing users of my website webmaster tools: CSE HTML Validator.

Already back in late nineties this was the best website validation tool to use when checking websites for errors. Now, much later, it still continues to improve, year after year, surpassing all other tools of its kind. People using alternatives such as the W3C HTML and CSS online validators owe it to themselves to try this combined HTML/CSS and accessibility validator.

Are you only working on personal or educational websites? Then you may be interested in their free html validator. While not offering nearly as many functions as the standard and professional versions, it will still complement W3C validators and give more tips and warnings about website issues.

Note: While our general purpose website analysis tool supports HTML and CSS validation using W3C online validators, this process is slow and does not cover the same amount of areas CSE HTML Validator does. However, CSE HTML Validator comes with an API which means we will investigate if we in a future version of our software can integrate with this validation engine as well!

A bit of an unusual post by me, but I want to share my experiences regarding this topic.

About 7 years ago I had problems with my eyes that had grown so big I was unable to work in front of a computer screen more than 10 minutes at a time. My eyes would simply explode and all the white in them would become red. Then that happened my eyes would also become sore. It had become a vicious circle and at the time many eyes doctors were clueless and had failed to read up on common symptoms among IT people who work many hours each day behind a computer. Luckily I finally found an eye doctor that was of some help, and managed through experimentation to get my red eyes problem under control.

In the years following I tried a number of things. Some of these worked wonders. This is my own “as-is” personal list of tips and tricks to reduce problems with red and sore eyes:

• Consult with an eye doctor if you experience problems with red eyes.
• Get tear eye drops with no preservation additions. Usually that means one day dosis containers.
• Get eyedrops against allergy, again unpreserved like the tear drops.
• Make sure you do not expose you eyes to direct lighting. Experiment with slightly dimmed soft whole-room lighting.
• Turn down contrast and light on computer screen.
• Avoid reflections. Check your monitor, windows, glass frames etc. Avoid, dim and defocus all light reflection sources as much as possible.
• Remember to blink with your eyes. Studies have shown those that work and read much at computer screens blink less, which in return dries the eyes.
• Be aware of the room temperature. Computers can warm small rooms very quickly, and this can really worsen eye irritation.
• Force some pauses into your work. Chat with colleagues, sort papers or whatever.
• Use modern “flat screen” TFT monitors. Do not use one that reflects light!

Above are things that helped me the most. In addition you can also:

• Get your eyesight checked. Glasses can help reduce eyestrain “work stress” on eye muscles.
• Try massage and relax the muscles around your eyes once in a while.
• Get checked for obvious allergies. Whether it is pollen or something else.