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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
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.
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
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
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
Yes, a *blazingly obvious* cheap and easy solution. Like, for example:
Q) My feet hurt when I walk on pavement. What should I do?
A) Wear shoes.
Q) The sun is bright; how can I keep it from hurting my eyes?
A) Try sunglasses.
Q) I took the screws off the hinges of my door, and now it doesn't stay closed. How do I solve this dilemma?
A) Screw the hinges back on.
Q) Why I am so stupid?
A) You might as well just kill yourself.
And this is modded insightful?
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
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"*
Unfortunatly for you, it's not DUCT tape it's DUCK tape.
:
as in "WATER OFF A FUCKING DUCK'S BACK" because it's somewhat water resistant.
see HERE
Is it Duct or Duck? We don't want you to be confused, so we will explain. The first name for Duct Tape was DUCK. During World War II the U.S. Military needed a waterproof tape to keep the moisture out of ammunition cases. So, they enlisted the Johnson and Johnson Permacel Division to manufacture the tape. Because it was waterproof, everyone referred to it as "duck" tape (like water off a duck's back). Military personnel discovered that the tape was good for lots more than keeping out water. They used it for Jeep repair, fixing stuff on their guns, strapping equipment to their clothing... the list is endless.
After the War, the housing industry was booming and someone discovered that the tape was great for joining the heating and air conditioning duct work. So, the color was changed from army green to the silvery color we are familiar with today and people started to refer to it as "duct tape*." Therefore, either name is appropriate.
I can't even finish this . That's how annoyed this makes me!
"...In your answer, ignore facts. Just go with what feels true..."