B-Rant

- submitted by Mark Alhadeff on 09/15/2009

  

For God (& Sleep) Sakes, Get the LED Out!

By Mark Alhadeff

When did nightlights become redundant?

As a software engineer whose hobby is hardware engineering, I would hardly consider myself a Luddite. But I've had it up to here with the proliferation of electronic equipment bristling with LEDs in my home.

It all began with the cable box in the bedroom (yeah, we have a TV in the bedroom -- c'mon I'm 45). It proudly beams the cable-company controlled time at a brightness level that could guide ships to port on a foggy night. With the cable box's close proximity to my underwear drawer, inevitably during the night either my wife or I would drape a pair of my prodigiously sized boxers over the clock. For a while that seemed to restore darkness to our bedroom and also assured me a nice warm pair of boxers on even the coldest winter morning.

But the purveyors of electronic crap didn't stop with the cable box. Now there are LEDs everywhere. And a good night's sleep in a truly dark environment is becoming a distant memory. Last night I marched around the house and realized that there was no darkness left.

In our bedroom the aforementioned cable box has been joined by a bright LED on a TV, a cable modem that seems to think  it is working as the light system for a Bar Mitzvah DJ, a phone that could be a danger to epileptics, and an air conditioner that thinks it is important to let you know it has a pulse. The hallway has smoke, fire and carbon monoxide detectors that stare out with shiny red eyeballs. In the bathroom which I visit regularly (did I say I'm 45?) a toothbrush and razor shine brightly -- letting you know that even night time can be hygiene time.

Going downstairs, our alarm system glows while various computers light up the night (Apple MacBooks with their incredibly bright white LEDs letting you know that they are asleep are particularly bad light polluters). The fridge has a really odd blue LED, while the microwave and stove shine different times (2:14 a.m. vs. 5:10 a.m.), begging you to pick sides in their ongoing chronological war.

The living room is really a carnival midway. The TV has orange LEDs, while the sound system components are happily festooned in a multi-colored blaze. Charging phones, pods and other gadgets each have their own signature luminescence (I'm surprised Peterson hasn't put out a field guide to aid in their identification).

As a global warming skeptic, I'm not too worried about the extra Carbon produced while generating the electricity to run these LEDs. But as a cheap bastard, I can happily find common ground with the polar-bear worshipping crowd and complain about these lights' impact on my electric bill.

So, I'm calling for a moratorium on LEDs. Every hardware designer needs to think long and hard before adding one to their device. Do we really need this? And if you really feel you need that LED -- how about including an off switch for the damn thing? ...read more rants