My hatred of LED's

LED's are awesome little things. They don't require a lot of power and they last forever. And these days, they seemed to be put into everything from flashlights to evil teddy bears that stalk after you at night. But, there is one thing I hate about LED's.

Indicator lights.

This might sound like a minor little thing, but somehow the electronics industry has decided that I have to know when someone is not only on, but ready to be turned on. My monitor has a flashing blue LED to tell me that the computer is currently off, but if it was on, then the monitor would work. This matches with the blue LED of the speaker to tell me, like the monitor, it is ready to be used. But, since its a speaker, it has a REALLY big light. This one is only matched by the gaming keyboard I have, which insists on having a set of four ultra bright LED's behind the sticker (falling off, of course) to tell me that yes, it is plugged in. Just in case the LED on the computer telling me it is on isn't enough. Or the 5(!) on the USB hub to tell me that the ports are working. Thankfully, those five are green. Not even going to talk to the LED on the keyboard to tell me that its on, but that doubles for number lock, so that is almost okay.

There are a lot of ultra-bright LED's on my computer desk. Since I'm living now in a studio apartment, it gets very bright simply because I don't kill the power to the computer desk. But, even that is nothing compared to the Wii. Oh, how I hate the Wii and its light. The little red LED is fine, though I really don't need to know its off. But, it also has the yellow LED. Which is fine, standby is fine. But, why, oh why does it insist lighting up the ENTIRE CD ROM DRIVE? And it isn't just a very bright blue light, no its a 4 inch wide flickering blue light that gets brighter and darker, all while flickering to say it is thinking.... thinking... waiting to suck my brains out via the WiiFit board. That light alone will light up my entire apartment and its flickering and dimming is just enough to make it hard to sleep. Naturally, I turn it off, but sometimes, the vile sentience of the Wii brings it back to wakefulness and it once again starts to watch from the corner. I know what's its thinking. Its thinking I haven't been on the WiiFit for a month, time to haunt me.

Some days, I find a Wii controller on my bed.

I don't know why.

I didn't use it.

But, its there.

Waiting...

Well, the game system isn't the only one that does it. My PS3 has the little red light, which matches with the bright green of my subwoofer telling me its on. Like I honestly care that my subwoofer has power at three in morning when I'm trying to sleep. And the stereo telling me that, if I wanted to, it would turn on when I push the button. Don't forget my TV with its fancy blue light to say that it is also ready to be used. Which is different from the not connected orange light to say it has power but no signal.

My car is even worse than that. They have a very bright yellow light to tell me there is no passenger in the seat next to me. Just in case I couldn't turn my head the extra eighth of a turn to actually look. No, it has to remind me I'm all alone. And, just in case being alone wasn't enough, it also has to tell me in just as bright of a signal, that if some ass was pressed in that seat, they would need to use a seatbelt. Why in the world does my car need to tell me that? Why can't it only show it if there is an ass in that seat? And, more importantly, why is that the only LED on the entire dash board that can't be dimmed? Apparently, no ass in seat is as important as my engine falling out of the car.

Part of the problem is... I don't care. I don't care that the television has a trickle power. I only care when I actually turn it on. Except for that 1 day in maybe 400 that I want to know if its plugged in. The rest of the time, its just noise in my life, lights that I learn to ignore because they aren't important or lights I have to try blocking off so I can sleep. I would so much rather have a button on all those devices that if I press it, it tells me it has power, active, signal whatever. Otherwise, just let me have my blissful darkness and only see lights that are really important. Then, I'd be a lot happier with my electronics.

Except the Wii.

It's still evil.