It was my understanding that the flicker was eliminated by use of a radio frequency type emission to 'fire' the bulb. Do you have any informaiton on that? The big tubes sure do flicker and cause eyestrain. Same as a TV.
All the new solidstate fluorescent ballasts operate at around 40K, and in the classrooms where I work it just kills the IR remote controls for the Video Projectors (the remote controls modulate around 40K also). You have to turn OFF the room lights to turn on/off the video projectors in the computer labs.