Mildly Infuriating

Back in 2011, I picked up and repaired a busted USB-SATA HDD adapter, and it had the most blinding bright white status light on it.

What did I do? I literally cut that end of the board off with a hacksaw (then carefully filed away stray copper to avoid any shorts). Then I installed a 12 volt receptacle and 16v filter capacitor in its place to be able to power up desktop drives if I want.

Screw them blinding lights though! 👍

Even some fucking light switches have them now!

Well... to be fair, one of the oldest operating light switches at my grandparents' was a bathroom light switch that had a light inside of it so the switch itself glowed. But it was soft diffuse light, not the glaring direct shine of and LED.

Do really feel you though. When I built my current desktop two years ago, the new case has the power and HDD lights on the top surface, and after I went to bed the first time without turning it off first, I noticed two spotlights being projected onto my ceiling. Turns out there is no diffuser or anything, just relying on the reflection off the sides of the recesses they are in to make the light visible when sitting next to the computer.

LED and face mask manufacturers have conspired to improve sales of both appliance lighting, and sleepwear.

Blue LEDs can trigger migraines in us poor saps who are photosensitive, so them being all over the place has been a ton of fun, let me tell you.

I got reddish-brown tints for my glasses and it’s been a lifesaver.

That shit sucks. When blue LEDs became a thing all sorts of electronics adopted them and they were effin everywehre.

This makes you appreciate professional equipment which is less likely to have those ridiculously bright ones. Lenovo usually have pretty discrete orange LEDs on their professional equipment. The large professional Dell monitor I use at work, while fitted with a white LED, has a very dim one.

I finally gave up and just started sleeping with a mask over my eyes. I can't stand to have any light at all, either.

I'm confused a bit by this honestly. Power strips are easy to hide where they are not visible. In their case, an LED is actually preferable to know the state of the power strip and I have several power strips that don't have any LEDs. I also don't think I've ever seen a power strip with a blue LED. None of my charging adapters have LEDs and it's extremely rare for me to find one that does. The default iPhone/Android chargers don't have LED and you can adapt them to work with like 90% of electronics these days because everything just uses USB. If you don't want an digital clock, then don't buy a digital clock? I also searched for a floor fan and 95% of the results appear to have no LEDs.

If LEDs are such a problem, I'd recommend not buying things with LEDs in them? It seems like it's actually difficult to run into the problem you're experiencing.

My fan automatically turns off its LEDs after about 10 seconds. Good design FTW.

I hate these, too. I decided to put a compact computer in our bedroom (already a bad plan, I know) to quickly check the security camera at night (I rolled my own, no phone app). I plugged in a mouse I had laying around. I discovered the first night when this particular mouse does not have its custom drivers installed (gimme a break, this is Raspbian not Windows!), it freaking blinks, and in the dead of night it's as bright as a flashlight. Blink. Blink. All night long. I never noticed before because, wackily enough, I rarely compute in complete darkness.

I also have a USB desk fan I thought I might run at night and yes, it has blinky lights when charging. F that, I bought an old Caframo Dragonfly instead... best compact fan ever made, first produced in the 1950s.

i agree. tho the blue light thing is blown a bit out of proportion. The luminance just isnt high enough considering how much blue light the sun emits.

The thing that helps the most with sleep is turning down the brightness of your phone to minimum for when u in the dark and trying to sleep. Or just dont use it lol.

I got a pack of static cling ND gels and I cut them down and stack them on displays or small LED's that are too bright. They've been really helpful for things that you don't want to completely block with electrical tape, like an alarm clock.

I buy these really cool magnetic charging cables. You put an adapter in the charging phone port and the cable just attaches itself.

The only problem is that they have these bright blue LEDs around the end. And on top of that, the LEDs are coated with silicone so you can't even take a sharpie to them.

Gaffers Tape may be the best thing ever invented. Next to zip ties and carbonara. I put some on all the little shitty LEDs in my room. It's pitch black in here right now.

Remember when orange was a novelty led color? I can hear the floppy drive buzzing when I see one of the old chunky LEDs in my junk box

its probably there because those leds are dirt cheap and the companies just want as much as possible to advertise about it

Man I feel you. Sometimes I tape over things even in rooms in only in when there are lights on because it comes with an indicator brighter than a thousand suns.

I miss those old low grade red ones. It also just looks better on black cases.

I also use sticky notes like @RedHandsome@kbin.social. I've tried electrical tape but I don't like how it goes gunky after a while.

I have a lutron maestro light switch that has LED lights, but I like it. I can see it when I walk to the bathroom at night or when I walk into the apartment and it's dark. I also like the LEDs in my keyboard. But that's it. I have my monitor lights covered, and the USB charger, router, and power bar lights might end up with similar treatments soon.