At work (in the markets) I use 5 monitors arrayed in a horizontally in a semicircle about 24" away at the same level as my eyes. I am slightly far-sighted and, more relevantly, presbyopic (that is, my lenses have stiffened with age, with a limited ability to re-focus as task distances change). Hence, the call for bifocals, now progressive, corrective lenses. I was unhappy using my everyday progressive lenses at work, so my optometrist-wife fit me with progressive lenses with a "distant" field that is optimized for a 20" - 40" range. She calls these "interview" or "conversation" lenses. They are unsuitable for life away from the desk, but are indispensable to me during the 8-10 hours I spend looking at screens in front of me and a notebook on m desk. In reading through the many comments on your question, I'm reminded of the importance of ensuring that the progressives are properly fitted (including frame-adjustment). Ill-fitting progressives are a nightmare. Your doc should take the time to be sure that they are working for you. The other thing that struck me, reading through the remarks, is the range of thoughtfulness that Slashdot readers have given to the question, with many excellent observations. And many poor ones. To those who believe that your eye care professional is out to fleece you, I ask only that you avoid visiting my wife. Her 45 minute exams are designed to ensure complete eye health, not only an optimum refraction. The segment of her patient population that you represent are a constant drain on her practice. The fewer stories I have to listen to at dinner about the patient who comes in with a corneal lesion because they've been ordering contacts online for two or three years without a check-up the better.

Little did I know how good an HD over-the-air signal looks. My television has now come into its own (and I can use all those silly little buttons on my own remote if I want). Program information accompanies the picture and sound data, something I did not realize. And, the number of stations we can watch has tripled (granted I will need to learn Korean, Chinese, Polish and Spanish to take full advantage). We cut the Comcast cord following the company's decision to encrypt its limited basic offering -- set-top boxes (at least in our world) feed a degraded analogue signal to our sets, and the encryption caused further deterioration. All of this adds nothing to the thoughtful capitalism / communism debate raging outside this little box, but there you have it.