Hacker News Reader

Comment by disillusioned | Hacker News Reader

There's a brand on Amazon called LIGHT DIMS that sells differently sized stickers, in both ultra-dim and full-blackout forms, which do _exactly_ what they say on the tin, and it's amazing.

I used the ultra-dim for the (white) temp display on my Dyson fan in my bedroom, and the blackout for the brighter-than-the-sun blue LED on my charger brick. Also used the dim one on a smoke detector because my 5-year-old thought it was watching her or something.

They're absolutely great, and you can even keep a couple in your suitcase and fix horrible lights in hotel rooms or AirBNBs if you're so inclined.

View on HN

I have them.

However after a while it became annoying to try to peel the small stickers off the backing, then fumble to center a small sticky thing over the offending LED.

so... I use painters tape. I started with the blue kind, but switched to black. Easy to tear or cut, easy to size. electrical tape isn't sticky enough.

I choose an appropriate number of layers for the problem.

Most lights just need one layer. Sometimes I need to kill the LED directionality to be acceptable. And some indicator lights need to be dim, not off. Think an HDMI switcher where you need to know which port is active, or router port activity lights.

Sometimes I put a second layer when I need less or no light.

toothpaste works well and it's easy to wipe off

I had a friend once who used to be a security guard. He said one of the things you have to learn is to sleep with your eyes open.

I couldn't tell if he was serious, kidding, terrible or a genius.

...and your comment asks me those questions too! lol :)

Thanks for the information. I have a set of stickers for blocking camera lenses on tablets and phones but never thought to look for LED dimming stickers. Seems a bit obvious now but guess I'm so accustomed to using electrical tape that I never gave thought to another solution.

Not sure if you can post AMZN links here, but it's this product and its cousin the blackout version: https://amzn.to/3RGV3My

Within reason I think you can basically share any link, but there's probably a much higher than normal concentration of people that would prefer a tracking-less amazon.tld link here than elsewhere.

Ah, sorry about that, forgot my extension did that

I am wondering, why would you share affiliate link (;tag=robstah78-20;) instead of the direct link to the item ( https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CLVEQCO )? The direct link is just barely longer and probably even faster to make (at least on the desktop)

Are you hoping to just make some money from strangers? You cannot get much commission from the $1.50 item, so I am imagining you hope someone clicks on your link and then buys unrelated expensive item.. This feels really sleazy, does this bring you any actual money?

His other comment mentioned an "extension" so it's possible that he himself isn't responsible.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com