Lamp Light
14 07 2006Where I live we regularly use electricity during storms so we clamber for the candles, having a young son this isn’t the safest thing to be doing. Tonight I was interested to find a free download for my ibook to convert the screen into a reading lamp…
Lamp Light is a very simple app based on a simple idea - utilizing the power of your laptop (powerbook, ibook) display to emit bright reading light. Created during an electrical storm and blackout, the app was used to shed some light on a book that could hardly be read in the dim light of a normal laptop display. It’s simple - a screen displays pure white light, and you can choose your settings from battery saving low, medium to high. It’s also useful when traveling on long plane flights - use Lamp Light instead of the overhead light so as not to disturb all the passengers around you trying to sleep - and other low light conditions.
I am about to download it and give it a try, I will let you know how effective it is the next time I have a power cut.
The date of submission of this post should be April 1st, surely?
Buy a torch. A number of examples are available and I can thoroughly recommend those that use low-power LEDs and a focusable beam. Apart from anything else, the power consumed by a torch will be far less than that gulped down by an ibook. Additionally they can be used by young children.
If you’re intent on crazy uses of technology and you have a PDA (or can borrow one) you can get the same kind of software for that too. Then the whole family could have a hi-tech torch each.
Torchy - should you have declared a commercial interest before posting your comment?
I have considered what you have said and believe that buying a torch might not be financialy viable, compared to downloading the FREE software. I am sure I would also have a problem in finding the torch whereas I always know where my mac is. I own both a pda and a spv so maybe I should do some research to find the equivalent software for them, then as you said, I could have one for all the family.
Now I think about it I have got an LED light on my mountain bike so I could use that, but it is in the shed so if it is raining I don’t think I could be bothered going outside in the rain!
At present my solution has been to use the light function on my mobile
phone. This function on my phone worked exceptionally well when trying to read the bus times late at night.
You sound like a real techno-dude with all that kit. Sure you’re not overdoing it?
Someday though you’ll have to admit the real TCO of using the iMac as a torch, even if the software IS free. You’ll be hankering after that upgrade sure as eggs is eggs (”I gotta have that duck-egg blue tint plugin”) and you’ll be hooked into a cycle of increasingly expensive upgrades with a spiralling cost.
The cost itself of downloading the software must be taken into account; yeah, OK, you sound like a real Web Weeny so you might not notice the cost yourself, but what about those guys who want only this software and rarely go near the Online Experience, eh? It’s going to cost them a month’s subs to an ISP JUST to download this unmissable piece of kit (and that’s providing they can resist the temptation of checking for those costly upgrades).
You could try keeping the bike by the bed, then you would always have a light to hand. Even better, deny battery power altogether and Go Green - get a dynamo for your back wheel and a Turbo Trainer and you could power the whole house! For that portable alternative you could go for this DIY version; it’s a shame that this item has closed on ebay but I’m sure you’ll find an alternative. Who knows, it might even be relisted! You never know your luck…
(All references to dynamoes represent no personal commercial interest. Curse them, I say).
Thanks for those tips Torchy, I am not sure if having the bike in the bedroom with constitute and health and safety risk.