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How Do I Disable My Gadgets' LEDs?
pHatidic writes "My college dorm room is never dark, even with the lights turned off. This is because of LEDs. Between the Airport Express, laser printer, surge protector, and Logitech mouse there is the constant nuissance of light polution. The powerbook has to take the cake though, with a green LED built into the power adapter and a white pulsating LED indicating it's in sleep mode so bright that I can actually detect it even with my eyes closed. Short of actually unplugging all of my devices every day, is there any way to disable all of these LEDs so I can actually get some sleep?"
...but this will solve all your problems. And it looks cool, too!
-- "A chicken is an egg's way of making another egg."
Cheap, Effective.
11*43+456^2
Electrical tape.
That stands for Put Some Fucking Tape Over It. Okay, so it doesn't stand for that. Do that anyway. I understand the white light may be annoying, but the rest of it is causing light pollution? They are indicators, not spotlights. If those little indicator LEDs are preventing you from falling asleep then maybe you need to upgrade your eyelids.
Though I can't make any guarantees, I don't think it'll break anything to cut the power to the LED's in the vast majority of cases. But if you'd rather be safe, a very popular and respectable choice, paint or masking tape ought to do the job.
... nuff said.
Why do people insist on running things 24x7...
gus
.. if only.
Black sharpie
It is not the pride that counts, it is the feeling of satisfaction from the completion of a task.
cover them with black electrical tape?
Revolutions are never about freedom or justice. They're about who's going to be top dog. -- Kilgore Trout
Unplugging all the devices (which is trivial if they're in a power strip, i.e., turn the strip off) does have the advantage of saving power. Sure, it's a dorm room, so you're not paying the bill, but remember someone is....and ultimately, you are, too.
Simple, elegant, no cost involved! :-)
-psy
black nail polish
my light pollution issue was to connect everything to multiple surge protectors. My 21" monitor, system, speakers and sub, camera adapter and charger are connected to a strip on my desk. My wife has all of her gear coneected through a strip on her desk. Then I have the electrical board which contains the DSL modem, D-Link router and NGear switch on it's own strip. At night or if I am going away for a few days, everything goes through a shut down. Boxes go off then all the strips are turned off. Light goes away, and the crickets come out because the noise pollution has gone away as well :-). A definite side benifit that I have noticed over the few months I have been doing this is that my eletrical bill has decreased significantly. Anyway, that what I do and it works for me. Maybe you can experiment a bit and see what might work for you. Cheers.
Your actions in life will determine your children's future.
Black electricians tape. It stays in pretty well any no light will penetrate it.
Try this.
Put tape over them, or an object. Isn't this obvious?
well, I find a sledge hammer to be particularily effective
-------
Support Indy Music. Buy
Get a night mask.
SCO (noun.)- A Slimy Corporate Ogre. Often seeks free money.
I've run into this problem as well. May I suggest one of these:
http://empgen.tripod.com/#English
-christopher
Build a loft, put your computer under it, then sleep on top facing the wall. The lights were great for finding things in the dark then.
Since tape is a little harder to cover the small LED's _only_ without making it look ugly, just whop a little bit of bluetack over it.
Aesthetic Geek.
Pop it open, take out the LED.
Problem solved.
Or masking tape, that works.
Black ducktape
You should really consider connecting everything to a power strip, and then shuting everything down ever night. After starting to do that, I'm saving at least 5 dollars a month on electric bills. Living in the dorms it doesn't really matter, as far as costs go, but it's good to get into the habit.
Seriously, I have problems sleeping if I don't have a few dim leds and the hum of a computer fan or two... So dark and quiet, I can hear my heart beat, hell I can hear my neurons firing. But, if you can't get used to the lights, either tape them, or if you want to have some fun, and void your warrenty, cut the wires, though if you do this you might break something, sometimes the led is in the middle of a chain. If the leds have seats, like the power and reset leds in most boxen, just pull them. Or face the other way.
I remember an /. poll asking how many LEDs were on right then, or something, and a good percentage (myself included) answered 50+ (or whatever the highest option was, who wants to dig it up?). Two or three Apple products making light is nothing.
I've used a black Sharpie marker on LEDs before. It dims the LED and it's not very noticeable, a lot less ugly than duct tape or any kind of tape. Plus you can wash most of it off with rubbing alcohol if you ever want it bright again.
-73, de n1ywb
www.n1ywb.com
Too bad those are illegal under the DMCA as an anticircumvention device....
" Short of actually unplugging all of my devices every day, is there any way to disable all of these LEDs so I can actually get some sleep?"
Try a night-mask.
"Derp de derp."
duck tape
"Your superior intellect is no match for our puny weapons!"
Mr. Silly Question Poster, meet Mr. Electrical Tape. and Mr. Duct Tape. and Mr. Sticky Note. and Mr. Ragged Piece of Paper Taped Over the LED. and Mr. Some Random Object Propped Up In Front of the Damn Thing.
Is this a mental agility test where you name as many ways as you can in 60 seconds? This is not a difficult question. I mean, tape a gerbil down there. Set a crystal turning via a little motor and get some psychedelic room effects going. Set up mirrors to direct the lights to your roomate's side of the room.
Stop the Slashdot Effect! Don't read the articles!
with a soldering iron. That's what I did to my PowerMac's white LED. Damn thing was WAY too bright, and I didn't like shutting down since bootup took too long (especially when I needed to shoot off multiple "I woke up late" emails :)
It's rather like a vasectomy for a Mac, moreso since it's reversible.
Q) How to darken LED's
A) Black electrical tape
Mod) +4 insightful
Need I say more...
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
...a little square of Black Electrical tape does fine.
You can probably find a little patch of sticker in whatever color needed to match any device you want to block out.
resigned
cheaper, more effective.
What about taping your eyelids? Less tape!
my sig was dubm so i took it out.
If you don't want to go cutting into the LED's heat them until they die. Of course you could just wire in extra voltage until the LED's fail. Either way you're likely to damage your electronics in the process, and are better off just using black tape.
The ______ Agenda
stop bragging. /me holds five-year-old ThinkPad and cries.
Find a roll of Gaffer's Tape. Electrical Tape and Duct Tape both use heavy residue adhesive that can be a pain to remove from plastic. Try using some Gaffer's tape instead. It's far easier to clean up after.
Less Talk, More Beer.
The most offensive LED equipped product I own is a logitech 5.1 channel speaker system... the center channel speaker has a fricking blue laser beam aimed at my left eye.
Gah! My EYE!
i think its called, pull your head out of your ass and quit asking slashdot stupid fucking questions. what in gods name is wrong with you. they're LEDs, they're on when your shit is on, and they're off when your shit is off. did you honestly expect some mystical snmp solution to disable your lights because your too stupid to put some tape over them? or put all your blinding devices under a towel or in a drawer? jesus ask slashdots suck.
Send them all to me. If my roommate can put up with xscreensaver illuminating the room all night, a few LEDs wouldn't hurt any.
Worst. Story. On. Slashdot. EVER.
Here you go, skippy. Get yourself some index cards. Cut off enough to cover twice the length they'll need to cover the LEDs. Fold in half. Now cut off a strip o duct tape and apply half of it to an edge of the paper. Tape just above LEDs.
Now you have something that you can use to cover the LEDs at night by slipping out the bottom part of paper. During the day you can slip the edge of the index card up to hide it.
What? Did you really think that someone was going to track down the arcane (if even possible) instructions on quieting your lights for a myriad of unrelated devices? Holy crap.
My
Limekiller
.. and the answer to the question you REALLY wanted to ask is, drink a lot of coffee.
I discovered the hard way that certain plastics don't take well to being scrubbed with rubbing alcohol. I haven't figured out exactly which ones they are what with the not wanting to ugly-fy every tenth gadget I own. (Not that I own ten. Sigh.)
That said, don't waste your money on rubbing alcohol. Everclear is cheaper. And it's not denatured, so it won't kill you as quickly should you have to resort to drinking it in a pinch.
It's Obviousman! DUH!
Slashdot, where armchair scientists get shouted down and armchair theologians get modded up.
blindfold.
main(0)
Cheaper. More effective.
How about turning all of that stuff off at night? Do you really need to use your laser printer while you're sleeping? It'll be quieter in your room, to boot!
"It was hell!" recalls former child.
First of all we have the responses that say 'Do what you told us you don't want to do. Turn the stuff off."
Next up are the 'Cover those lights with some sort of tape that will leave a residue that pretty much can't be washed off.' with variations such as 'use a black sharpy or other marker'
Of course you have the other variations on this, such as the 'post-it' notes, or other obstructions directly attached to the device.
Lastly you find the people advocating taking the equipment appart and (in most cases) desoldering the led's, or clipping their leads.
So, Rusty0101, what kind of solution do you have?
Regardless of whether the monitor you have is a flat panle LCD, plasma, or CRT, in most cases you don't need it on when you are trying to sleep, and if it isn't integrated into a computer you want left on 24x7, you can probably turn it off.
For the equipment that you want placed up high, but don't want to see the lights from, get the rough dimmensions, then head to a dollar store, or possibly a household goods store, and pick up some opaque storage boxes to put them in. Plastic and cardboard are often opaque to light, but transparent to microwave frequencies, so your 802.11abg equipment should continue to run just fine. If you are concerned about heat, place a piece of black paper over the equipment and leave the box top off. Remember to lable the box so you know what's in it, and if there is room for other stuff as well.
That nice bright light on the front of the laptop? While you are at the dollar store, pick up a plate holder. When you are done with the laptop for the day, and fold it up, set it in the plateholder so that the front led is facing down, (behind a book or something.) If you have a power book, or something with leds at the back of it instead, find (or get your craft inclined so to make) a laptop sleeve that you put your laptop in, and which wraps around any plugs that generate light.
Base computers? If you assemble your own, you know how to disable the leds on the front. This doesn't help for those nice self lit cooling fans, but we'll get to that. Ok for those, get the dimensions of your pc, and make a wooden box with a light baffled slot at the top back of the box, open most of the bottom, and get a 9" fan fitted to that opening, drawing air from below. Filter this properly so you are not picking up all kinds of dirt. Make sure that the holes for cables is also light baffled, and can be accessed easily with the top of the box off. I personally recomend lining the insides of this box with egg separators to baffle the noise as well, but that's your business.
Mice. Get or make a black box, just large enough to drop the mouse into, and just deep enough to hide the led. Replace your mouse with a trackball. Replace your mouse with a Wacom tablet, and do not leave the mouse thingie on the tablet. (usually this activates a 'sensor' led on the tablet which is otherwise off.)
Printers: see monitors or base units. My own experience is that the Samsung ML-1750 turns all leds off when in sleep mode, which it automatically goes into about ten minutes after it is done printing. Ink jets have such a short expected lifetime these days, I am not opposed to covering the leds with something you can easily peel away to see what is happening when needed.
If you are handy with tools, you might be able to make a roll top 'top' for your desk that would hide all of this for you on demand, and if you used light enough materials it would not cause signal degredation for things like wifi equipment.
As a last option, if you have a closet, or can make a large enough storage cabinet for your dorm, get a 'long' kvm extension and only have the mouse, keyboard and monitor sitting on the desk, everything else tucked away. Just make sure that the closet does not get too hot, and do not throw dirty clothes and stuff on top of your electronics. So it isn't the best gaming option? So what. you are looking for a peaceful way to get some sleep.
-Rusty
You never know...
It's DUCT tape, not DUCK tape. Get it f***ing right! It's good for DUCTS, not DUCKS, you sniveling... you... um, you...
Arg, I can't even finish this. That's how annoyed this makes me!
"It was hell!" recalls former child.
1. Find college students that are annoyed by the toys they told daddy they "had to have" for school.
2. ???
3. PROFIT!!!
Whenever I use electrical tape, it eventually peels off since it's only a little piece. That and it leaves a pretty gummy residue that takes a bit of goo gone to remove.
I actually have started using velcro tape pieces. It doesn't show as much since its not reflective and just leaves a little fuzzy divot and when I've peeled it off after a year, it didn't leave any residue (it more just popped off like rubber feet do that are on a device for a long time).
For that matter, spare rubber feet work pretty well too and usually don't leave residue (though I think they stand out a bit more).
I see a lot of suggestions to use tape: electrical, duct, gaffer's, etc.
I don't know what's the matter with you kids these days.
When I was in college and being kept awake by the glow of all those vacuum tubes, I'd attack them relentlessly with a big can of black enamel spray paint. Sure, made it harder to identify which tube blew when stuff shut down. But you can generally tell by the temperature, if you hold the tip of your finger to the side of the tube. And a good spray of enamel keeps the light way down. Remember to turn the machine off before spraying, though, because most spray paints use a flammable propellant, and those tubes can get hot under heavy use.
The tube machine, needless to say, was a huge improvement over the machine I had in my room the previous year. I set up a web server on my Burroughs Mark II. That machine didn't have any lights of any sort, but the fuckin' racket the relays would make! Especially when someone tried to download some ASCII porn, and it used ever one of the memory cells in the 4kb array. If you haven't heard 4096 relays clattering at once, you don't know what noise is!
(and if you actually believe any of this, you kids are worse off today than even a old curmudgeon like me can imagine)
Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachtani?
www.fogbound.net
... if this guy does not want to do the obvious: turn the damned stuff off.
Sometimes you may want to do something stupid, that does not mean other people should aid you in your pursuit of stupidity.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
We didn't have time for sleep! Get back into that deathmatch private and let me hear your war cry! AAAARRGGHH!!!
--
Well it is...
/. posting a question that a 10 year old could answer, even a 5 year old might suggest the tape as a idea.
Cover lights in tape
or
open device, disconnect lights
Why is
"WebTV: bringing the Internet into the shallow end of the gene pool since 1995" - Martin Bishop
Try salt water. It'll fix the blinking LED problem too.
Duct tape. It worked for MacGyver, it'll work for you.
As I walk through the valley of death I fear no one, for I am the meanest sonova bitch in the valley!
Here are your options, in a nutshell:
That's it, unless you can find a way to install some form of ultra-massive gravity in your dorm room that causes all light to bend towards it (and away from your eyes), although on second thought this would probably destroy all your stuff in the process.
Yaz.
And you know he's racing the clock!
He looks at the LED timer counting down!
EL EEEE DEEE's!
Rush to the pile of refuse that is always there!
Rumage thru it!
Find prizes of sheet of 100 mil opaic plastic, 2 pieces of conduit and / or rigid plumbing pipe, one of which will slide freely within the other, also one end cap that perfectly fits the larger pipe!
Rush to work bench that is always there!
Find hammer, diagonal cutters and a square heavy piece of steel that will function as an anvil!
Rush to wall where compressed gas that are always there!
Its either acetylene, oxygen or nitrous, doesn't really matter which!
Gather all materials in center of room!
Rip button off shirt!
Use hammer and square piece of steel to grind button into powder!
Put endcap on larger diameter pipe!
Put smaller diamete pipe inside larger diameter pipe!
Scrape ground up button into pipes!
Look around and realize there's something missing!
Rush to pile of refuse again and rummage for a rag!
Spread sheet of plastic on ground!
Fill pipe inside of pipe with gas from cylinders!
Look at EL EEE DEEE timer!
Time's almost up!
Reach in pants pocket and take out Swiss Army Knife! (the model with the cross)
Set Swiss Army Knife on sheet of plastic!
Look at EL EEE DEEE timer!
Time's all but gone!
Reach in other pant's pocket!
Take out wad of duct tape!
Look at EL EEE DEEE timer!
We're into single digits!
Rip off piece of duct tape!
Rush to EL EEE DEEE timer!
Cover EL EEE DEEE's with duct tape!
Problem Solved!
/cue MacGyver music
Gouge out your eyes. It's the only real long-term solution.
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
Set a very fat hamster next to each device, positioning the very fat hamsters between you and the devices.
Very fat hamsters work cheap.
Very fat hamsters are glad to get the work.
There are 2 potential problems when working with very fat hamsters.
1) You have to keep very fat hamsters seperated or they will form a very fat hamster union.
2) Very fat hamster crap.
Oh, one other thing.
You have to position your very fat hamsters close to the light source.
If you position your very fat hamsters too far from the light source they will cast very fat hamster shadows on your dorm room wall.
This has the potential of scaring the crap out of your college boy self.
*This message brought to you by the Very Fat Hamsters of America Foundation*
*Where our motto is "We don't move"
"At All"*
Or u-tack, or whatever that bubblegum-like fluid is called. The only LED I have to worry about is the green LED on my monitor.
I don't know why manufacturers put them there. Why would I want an LED to distract me?
You might want to try this, or if that's to puny you might try this.
This might void your warranty, though...
..just get a really large girlfriend ;)
Bluetak; used for everything from McGyver repairs to posters.
A blog I run for the wealth
it can be used for absolutely everything!
Electrical tape (duct tape works nicely too) over the buttons can help obfuscate their existence, saving both your data and cup holder^H^H^H^H^H^H^H ^H^H^HCD tray, and yet since YOU know where the buttons are, you can still push them through the tape.
At least until the kids/roommates realize how easy the tape is to pull off, or that their cheetos will fit nicely into the floppy slot ...
1. Use a dark blanket to cover your equipment. Cheap an effective.
2. I would recomment sleeping in another room too, in case you leave your computers running 24.7 this also helps get rid of the noise.
2.1 If you have only one room, you can hang a dark blanket from the ceiling and separate your bed from the work place.
3. Use a complicated combination of mirrors to reflect the led lights to the window - this will create an interesting, isoteric view from the outside. Could help attract chicks too.
4. Use a large hammer to damage yor equipment or yourself. Blame your psychotic behaviour on the LEDs when the psychiatrist asks.
5. Move to another country, start a family, have children and forget about this problem forever.
Black paint.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
In college, I had the bottom bunk, so I just hung blankets from the bunk and had a place to sleep that was darker than you could imagine. My roommate could still have the lights on and it didn't affect me.
I put Blue Painter's Tape over the blue searing, eye-blinding, Power LED on my ReplayTV 5040 box. It didn't "block out" the light completely, but it softened it enough that it's no longer annoying.
My mom always said, "Jim, you're 1 in a million." Given the current population, there are 7000 of me. God help us all!
I must agree with this guy, all the leds are useless and cost a buch of [dollars|dollard|pesos|pound] in your electricity bill. If you include the led of the tv, vcr, tuner, dvd player, coffee maker, microware, the dog and the cat, and all the alien living in my house... Anyway, with the sound made by the cpu (read the fan) in all my computer, I really don't need a led to tell me that the computer is open and I don't talk about the tv which have a led to tell me that the tv is close... ** Sorry for the bad english...
Ever think of using electrical tape? Is it really that hard to come up with a solution that doesn't PERMANENTLY disable the LEDs?
Religion is for people afraid of going to hell.
so may some equipment.
Place a curtain divider between your bed and your computer area. Place it on a rail like a shower curtain so you can open/close it. The ladies will love it to.
I was introduced to gaffer's tape by a theater geek. This stuff makes ordinary tape look like tissue paper. It's stronger than duct tape, sticks better to coarse surfaces, handles temperature and moisture well, peels off cleanly, and it's normally found in a matte black cloth color. It's also expensive, $10 for a big roll is about normal.
Trimming electrical tape with scissors is trivial, to fit the exact shape of the LED you're covering. Until I unplugged the bulb, it was the only thing keeping me sane when my car's "passenger seat belt" light would blink constantly -- because I had a book on the seat and it thought 14 ounces was enough to count as a passenger.
Lighter fluid tends to do unpredictable things on various surfaces. I've found that De-Solv-It citrus adhesive remover works miracles, and it doesn't even irritate the skin.
no really
Low tech solutions like electrical tape are fine, but the original poster is looking for something a bit more sophisticated. Originally appearing in the Journal of Irreproducible Results, and reprinted here, the DarkBulb may be just the ticket.
hahhahahaha. this should be modded "funniest post ever to a ridiculously stupid ask /. question."
-end of post.
...My father's inability to program the time on his new VCR he purchased in 1991 resulted in a very excellent low tech solution.
He took a couple of pieces of black electrical tape, cut them into equal sizes, and affixed them to the front of the VCR. It was just enough to complete cover the blinking 12:00...12:00...12:00...12:00.
It's almost art now...so I don't have the heart to set the time for him.
"God is dead!" - Nietzsche
"Nietzsche is dead!" - God
Yeah, 'cause once you've got the goo from the tape on your expensive electronics you're certainly gonna wanna douse it all in lighter fluid.
I suggest leaving it plugged in and turned on while you're applying the lighter fluid. Send us pictures. =)
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Obvious, insightful and recursive all at once...
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
But what really annoys me is unnecessary beeping from appliances. For example, my microwave has an LED display but beeps every time I press a button. My digital kitchen timer does the same. Etc. I appreciate that the audio-feedback is useful to people with low vision, but I just wish the manufacturers would put a "quiet" switch on the back, so that (for example) microwave and timer beep only when the time runs out, not while setting the time.
If it's a USB mouse - unplug it. It'll just work when you plug it back in.
"I can't give you a brain, so I'll give you a diploma" - The Great Oz (blatently stolen sig)
Everyone here is proposing technical solutions which are completely unecessary. You see, the poster shares a dorm with a number of other people and owns a lot of Apple hardware.
:
The simple solution is for him to whine on and on about how fucking great his fucking Powerbook and his fucking Aiport are to all his new friends (he is an Apple owner so this will happen anyway).
After a few hours or days of his shit, one of them will snap, pick up the aforementioned Powerbook and either
a) Batter him around the head with it hard enough to cause permanent loss of vision.
or
b) Stick it so far up his ass that the pulsating glow will become completely invisible.
Problem solved!
Um, spray WD-40 on a rag and wipe with the rag, don't spray it directly on your toys (I didn't think I'd have to mention that, but then I remembered the original question).
Wikipedia disagrees.
Instead of whining about the quality of his question, making bad jokes and suggesting poor workarounds like covering the LEDs with duct tape, we should fix the problem. This is Slashdot dammit, where supposedly we have the collective expertise try to make stuff better.
Therefore I thought the only correct solution was, regardless of the time/effort it takes, to re-engineer the devices to meet his fairly reasonable objection to their poor designs. Maybe a general solution could be suggested to overly bright LEDs in general.
I think that some the requirements of such a solution should be:
-Varies the intensity of LEDs in existing hardware from full-on to dim to off
-Does not interfere with the functionality of the device being modified, retaining the intended diagnostic and current status functionality when desired without further modification.
-Works with all existing hardware that have LEDs.
-Is low profile enough to fit in small places like inside power supplies and between existing circuit boards and the hole in the case where the LED protrudes.
-Skill required and costs should not be a factor unless they are extremely excessive.
-It must have an attractive appearance. Ideally the devices should appear almost as good as when they came from the manufacturer.
Desirable requirements include:
-Light sensitivity to automatically detect when the room is darkened and dim/disable the LEDs as required.
-Centralized control so that one manual action disables all the LEDs on all devices
-A programmable interface to a computer (both Linux and windows support) for this centralized control so it can be scheduled by cron jobs, activated by a command line and/or controlled remotely by a web/PHP interface, such interface should have hooks to enable 3rd party Open-source programmers to write control systems and integrate it with whatever program they are working on.
While hardware engineering and case mods is not normally my thing, I have a couple of ideas on how to achieve these requirements.
Here are some ideas to get us started (I'm brainstorming here, so don't ding me to badly for not meeting all my requirements):
-We could solder a resistor inline to the led to dim it in a fixed manner.
-We could replace the LEDs with dimmer ones
-We could insert a small circuit board with a relay to turn on/off the LEDs.
-We could use a 3-position switch/relay to get the 3 states of on/dim/off
-We could control this relay with an infrared sensor that only activates when it sees specific pulses.
-We could wire a bright IR Led that sends those coded signals to a USB adapter and plug it into a computer and write an open-source control API using some portable language like Java that would be platform agnostic (or just write drivers for both OSes). Source Forge would be a good place for this.
-Alternative solutions for centralized control are probably to be found in the x.25 home control system areas
-More expensive control systems are probably to be find using bluetooth and/or WiFi and/or robotics (it turns your devices LEDs off for you).
Any further thoughts, or am I taking this question way too seriously?
Its not users who are broken, it's systems not taking account their likely behaviour and fixing it technically.
It's death throes, you arrogant assclown.
Tape.
Oh, and solving the "black tape electrical goo" problem mentioned in the parent post isn't that hard, it dissolves pretty well in lighter fluid.
The best product for dissolving glues or other adhesives without damaging plastics is this stuff called Bestine, which I believe is actually hexane. It's sold in art supply shops as a thinner for rubber cement.
Gotta be careful with it as it's highly flammable, but there's nothing else like it. Wipes away stuff that would otherwise be a major pain in the ass to remove like it's not even there.
Wow, $5! That's got to be almost half a dinner!
It saddens me that, for a site filled to the rafters with geeks, not one person suggested installing a micro-switch in to the back of the laptop case (or similar) and running the led circuit through the switch. If you get a multi-pod controller, you can effectively run all of your LED circuits through the switch and disable them with a single toggle. If you were so inclined, you could go really nuts and program a small IC controller. Nothing that you couldn't find at your local Radio Shack.
Back in the days of good ol' DOS, I used to SysOp a BBS. The chat feature would cause the PC's speaker to beep evey time a new message was posted to me. Normally, this was desirable as it wouldn't require me to constantly stare at the screen while waiting for a new message. My girlfriend, however, did not appreciate this feature, especially when she was on the phone with me -- an ordeal that could sometimes last for hours. So I fixed it. Remember that oh-so-useful "turbo" button that was real popular with 486s? I disconnected it and ran the speaker wires through the turbo button. Now, I could easily toggle the speaker and the g/f wouldn't know as there was no obvious modification made to the exterior of the case. [/amusing anecdote]
These days, I apply my junior electrician skills to my 3-year old's toys. Seems that her grandparents delight in giving her electronic toys that have no volume or on/off switches.
The moral: Never be afraid to open the box.
Ryosen
One man's "Troll, +1" is another man's "Insightful, +1".
Try disabling this
http://www.rustyrazorblade.com
What the pros use to turn the lights off (TM)
As of Postgres v6.2, time travel is no longer supported.
Masking tape blocks out the vast majority of the light, but you can still see the indicator underneath. It's worked wonders for blocking out the lights on my keyboard, speakers and case. I seem to recall some tech theatre guys in high school who showed me that trick.
There is a difference between "insightful" and "inciteful" other than spelling.
Get some cardboard or plywood (covering it in fabric is optional), and build a cube to surround your computer, etc and separate it from the rest of the room.. Arrange it such that one of the cube walls faces your bed so you won't see the light within.
Learn to live with it. We'll almost certainly only see more lights from future devices and gadgets. Besides indicating the standby state of a device, they'll become distinct, decorative features, integral to the industrial design.
Soon OLEDs will change the way our devices look to the point where a display or indicator need not be a point source or a recessed rectangle but instead detailed, luminescent, fludily animated color graphics that can be made to appear to emit from the very surface of the devices.
These types of designs will be blue LEDs of the late 00's and one can only shudder at the thought of the types of designs gamers and nerds would apply to their already vividly glowing PCs.
At night my entire apartment is softly aglow in many soft pastels at least twenty, sometimes thirty LEDs blinking, pulsing or glowing steady. I like that I don't need to turn on bright light to find my way to the bathroom at night. Only once has the light bothered me, so I put on a pair of sleep shades I kept from a Virgin Atlantic flight.
That's interested. I rarely run into tape that old, but I can think of one where their likely is some, I'll have to go check it out. I'm also a big fan of Permacel.
What do you do, theatrically? I'm in school, running the amateur theatre group at rpi.edu, and having a lot of fun with it.
--
Phil
1. Open up various components 2. Heat up soldering iron 3. Desolder LEDs 4. Solder a small wire/paperclip connecting the points the LEDs were previously connected 5. No more light from LEDs, ever again.
Make a system like I did so with the push of a button your stuff "disapears" behind the desk.
http://home.att.net/~andrebsd/desk.jpg thats the whole motor contraption to get my monitor to "disapear" when i dont want to see it...
http://home.att.net/~andrebsd/desk.wmv is a video of it actualy working (sorry for the wmv, but my webcam is cheap and dies with most software & it seems as though slashdot wont let me link to the second link [probily to close to the other one])
Incase your wondering, yes that is a garage door opener... so if you just make the panels that hold the stuff bigger, you can make more sutff "disapear" when you dont want it.
Black nail polish. You can very neatly cover the LED and 2 coats will usually block all the light out.
[este]
Some of the small plastic feet you can get for sticking to the bases of monitors and other heavy objects (often made of low-friction materials such as PTFE) are about 2-3mm thick, 6-10mm in diameter, and translucent.
While this won't completely hide the light, thus diminishing its functionality, sticking one of them over the LED will diffuse its light through the translucent material, thus making the light source unfocussed and less likely to dazzle/wake you at night.
Also, during the day, the entire "foot" glows the colour of the LED, which is raised above the surface of the machine. If you've ever had the design-flaw situation of a tower case on the floor by your feet with LEDs you can't actually see from your seated position, this helps immensely - the raised plastic bump is far more visible and glows an even colour quite clearly, even in medium-bright light.
I've even convinced a design-guru Mac person to use this, and he agreed it solved his DVD-distraction problem while not spoiling the modern, clean look of his Apple hardware.
I can't quote a reliable source, unfortunately, but I *think* I found them somewhere in a DIY store such as Homebase or B&Q (both UK) somewhere in the woodwork section.
-- What goes up must come down. Ask any SysAdmin.
The perfect solution, sleep facing the wall.
I hate sigs.
Since duct tape is the universal cure for everything, some carefully placed strips should fix this problem.
Sigs. We don't need no steenking sigs.
You're new here, aren't you?
Kid-proof tablet..
Then you actually do need the duct tape top cover the <blink>12:00</blink>
I also kid you not, but there is even an annual (as of this year) Duck Tape festival. It was the same weekend as Father's Day. Conspiracy Thoerists: Coincidence? I think not!
Hey, what do you want from a place 20 minutes west of Cleveland? It's not like there is a hell of a lot to do in the city ...
Laws affecting technology will always be bad until enough techies become lawyers.
I spent 2 years in Alaska, and I learned to sleep even when it is light outside. I had roommates that spent hours trying to block out all light (even fixing all the pin-holes) using black out blinds. I thought it was very depressing to always be in the dark (ooops my non-geeky side is showing). Anyways why go to all the trouble? Are you that anally retentive? I always hated people that complained about silly stuff like that. The term light polution is crap, you are the master of yourself.
They are both opaque, and you can get nail polish in some nice irridecent colors these days...
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Do a google search for "whitenoise" - somewhere within the first three pages should be a page for a Linux app that generates white noise.
If you can't find it, email me and I can send you the source. Been using it ever since having a noisy housemate and thin walls.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
If you feel to much like a well-fare college student (you ARE GOING TO COLLEGE RIGHT?) , and you feel retarted using the black electrical tape ( i know i would), then just get ye'old screwdriver out.
(btw, wouldn't the electrical tape be a fire hazard, or is that the whole point of it being electrical tape?)
Get your screwdriver out, and open up assoretd devices. Now just unhook the led's, you can even just cut them off. See if it runs, if not, you can always just tie the new loose ends. i know i got my clock radio to work without any screen, or buzzer.
Get one of those frilly eyemasks old ladies wear in movies. Look for one with lots of lace around the edges to help cut down on any light shining through the sides. God damn that was a dumb ass question!
There is a reason those leds are ther, DEBUGGING ! :)
So , what i sugest is, replacing the leds by infrared leds
That way you can stil 'detect' wheter they're blinking.
Its cheap, Its relativley easy It doesent leave gunk behind when you remove it It doesent involve puting tape on your eyelids And you can leave all of your stuff on: SHUT YOUR EYELIDS!!! (turn the other way if this is too hard)
Black nail polish. You can very neatly cover the LED and 2 coats will usually block all the light out.
That's okay, but where do you get the polish?
You have to go into a shop, and they might mistake you for a goth if you ask for black nail polish. I solved this problem by dressing up like Doctor Frankenfurter from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. This ensured I was not mistaken for a goth, and avoided any embarassment.
It's Gaffa tape :-)
That's more like 25 dinners, if all you eat is ramen...