Light Fandango

In an attempt to become ‘greener’ I began to switch more kit off in my (home) office at the end of the evening.
Because I sleep so badly occasionally I have to get up in the middle of the night and one option is to go to the office.
With the house lights out and my present regime here’s what I found in the way of light emitting devices at 3:06am

• UPSs – 7 green
• USB adapter – 1 pale orange
• USB hubs – 1 red, 2 green
• Server power – 1 green
• Server external drive – 1 green
• Wireless hub – 2 green, 1 amber
• DECT phone base unit – 1 red
• LAN switch – 2 green, 3 amber
• Other DC converters – 3 green
• KVM – 1 large red
• USB speakers – 1 blue
• Docking station – 2 green
• Mains adaptors – 4 red
• Notebook PC (hibernated) – 1 flashing blue, 1 green

During the day when I power other devices and only considering the light on panels I would have to add:

• Screens – 3 green, 1 blue
• Speakers – 2 red
• CD/DVD witer – 1 amber/green/red
• (Up to 5) printers – 5 green
• (Up to 6) PCs – 6 green
• (Up to 5) External drives – 5 green
• (Up to 9) Charging devices – 9 amber/green/red
• Scanner – 2 green

This list excludes lights at the rear of machines to show network connections, router lights (in another room) and so on.
The best is saved for last – the really irritating mobile phone light which has an incredibly strong pulsing blue strobe light once per second, the function of which is not described in the manual but is in fact to let the user know the phone is – get this – in power saving mode and ‘shows the phone is still switched on’ (thanks for that Orange).
If ever you need to stagger your way out of a long dark tunnel the Nokia N80 is the solution.