The light, it BURNS usss, Precioussss

[unixronin]

The alarm function on the clock radio we unearthed from the moving boxes a few days ago apparently no longer works.  So, yesterday, I went to Wal-Mart and bought two new alarm clocks, one for each bedroom.  The one for the girls' room works fine, but I happened to see one on the shelf that had a blue, rather than red or green, LED display.

"Ooh, pretty blue LEDs," I thought.  (Yeah, I like blue LEDs.)  And I picked it up without a further thought beyond checking to make sure it had battery backup.

The damned thing uses high-intensity LEDs.  In an ALARM CLOCK.  Four digits' worth of seven-segment high-intensity blue LEDs in an alarm clock that's going to be in a bedroom where people are trying to SLEEP.  That's thirty-three high-brightness blue LEDs, counting the indicators.  I don't know what on earth they were thinking.  Bright?  This thing is excessively, ridiculously, absurdly, insanely bright.  You could READ by the light of the damn clock...  from across the room.  This thing isn't an alarm clock, it's a damn airport beacon travelling incognito.  It could give the Eddystone Light an inferiority complex.  I ended up putting my heavy black cotton pajama pants (which are almost gi-pants weight) over the damned clock AND I COULD STILL READ THE DISPLAY THROUGH THE PANTS.  When I got up and moved the pants to turn the alarm off, the uncovered display was so bright in a not-all-that-dark room that it hurt my eyes.

That's frelling ridiculous.  It's going back to the store today to be replaced by one with a sane, standard, night-vision-safe, low-intensity red display.

Comments

[bbullock.livejournal.com]

According to something I read recently (I think on scleroticrings LJ), blue LEDs have become very popular with the manufacturing industry, especially where electronics are concerned. And why? Because they look "futuristic" and people are more likely to buy something with a blue LED on it than without.
I guess your purchase would be a good case study.
In any case, they're putting those on all sorts of things, even items that don't need a blue LED, and yes, they are freaking bright, far more intense than red or even green.