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Sunday, December 3, 2006
Wretched Excess: Blue LED Christmas Tree
I'm on record as saying, several years ago, that the high intensity blue LED is
the design cliché of the oughties. No matter
![](/fourmilog/archives/2006/12/03/bluetree-thumb.jpg)
where you look, there's one of these short-wavelength eyes glaring at you: from your Web server, firewall, television, or toaster; you may sleep—but these unblinking LEDs do not.
A couple of years ago I encouraged folks to migrate from irritating series-string incandescent Christmas lights to the
coruscating, actinic, partially nuclear-powered lights which grace Fourmilab's windows from Advent through the New Year. But little did I imagine it would come to this….
This twelve metre Christmas tree outside a shopping centre down the hill from Fourmilab is decorated
exclusively with high-intensity blue LEDs. Note how directional they are—the few which happen to be pointed directly at the camera appear much more intense than those just a few degrees off axis. This is apparent with my own LED strings, but I hope to mitigate the effect in this year's display by dipping the LEDs in beer and Epsom salt (really!).
And I will never, ever, use blue LEDs, although I reserve the right to deploy high intensity red and green emitters in creative ways along with the
traditional white.
Posted at December 3, 2006 00:36