I should have known this was going to happen...

[bugshaw]

Tiring of fumbling to unlock the front door in the dark, I bought a bright LED keychain. And attached it to my key. Now I cannot have the key in the lock and the light shining on the lock at the same time... Bah!

In other news, I changed the vacuum cleaner bag as the old one had accumulated so much dust it had almost started to felt! The cleaner works much better now ;-)

Si and I are off into London tonight for a fancy schmancy dinner with Stephen Fry (and a few hundred other people). Since we made a donation to the Terrence Higgins Trust after my father's death, we have been receiving cutesy invites from Stephen as part of their Circle of Friends donor relationship programme. We're taking this opportunity to see what it is all about. Time for some shmoozing practice! I wonder if I'll find something to talk about other than vacuum cleaner bags?

Comments

[wag-9393.livejournal.com]

Hmm that calls for design idea.
Car keys with built in lights work.
So rubber cover with built in led to put on key. hey Presto, business opportunity :-)

I was going to mention ...

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

... that my local key place already sells these.

I find that I keep "inventing" things that already exist!

Today's invention: a baseball cap lanyard. My cap nearly blew off as I walked down Blackfriars Road and I've been on a boat where the captain lost his hat as it blew overboard ... so a lanyard with a clip that attaches to the strap at the back of a baseball cap (strong enough to stop the hat blowing away, but weak enough that the lanyard will let go rather than throttling the user if someone grabs the hat and runs or it gets caught in the doors on the Jubilee line!)

Re: I was going to mention ...

[cobrabay.livejournal.com]

In what way would this be different to a standard badge lanyard? They have a clip and a breakaway. I can let you have one of those at a reasonable price, available in a fashionable black finish.

Re: I was going to mention ...

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

If you worry the clip is too fiddly, you could just knot the lanyard around the hat-strap.

[redbird]

If necessary, mention that you're going to America next month; that should spark plenty of conversation, about the U.S. and Canada, the nuisances of travel, and lots of other things.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

and lots of other things.

"So, what is TAFF? ... I see, so who runs science fiction fandom? ... Walt Willis on a boat in 1952, er, very interesting excuse me I've just seen someone I must talk to" ;-)

[alex-holden.livejournal.com]

Apparently Fry was a close friend of Douglas Adams... They were the first two Europeans to import Apple Macs.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

If only I'd known earlier! Do you know, we were at that event for five hours and no one mentioned their operating systems?

[alex-holden.livejournal.com]

So what did you talk about then?

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Sex and death, mostly. Which was, er, fun.

[muninnhuginn]

I have a very tiny but bright LED torch on my key ring (along with much of the wealth of the western world [it feels like it]) to help me to locate my keys in my bag when standing outside the front door in the dark. Yup, there's a flaw in the logic.



Ooh, Stephen Fry.

[cobrabay.livejournal.com]

Use a GlowRing keyring. It is permanently on, they glow using tritium gas rather using an LED. It isn't directional, and can't be used as a torch, but if it's truly dark it'll provide just enough light to see a lock, and of course keys can more easily be spotted in the dark depths of a handbag. Not cheap, they cost about a tenner each, but they will run for 10 years.

GlowRing
http://www.cashncarrion.co.uk/products/16084/681/

GlowRing X2
http://www.cashncarrion.co.uk/products/16086/681/

[alex-holden.livejournal.com]

Given that they work on radioactive decay they don't actually die after 10 years. After 12 years they'll be half as bright as when they were new, after another 12 years they'll be half as bright again, and so on.

I just locate the keyhole by feel with one hand and insert the key with the other- if you can accurately touch your fingertips together with your eyes closed you shouldn't need to be able to see the keyhole.

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

I bought that kind of keyring attachment, with an LED. I did not attach it to the ring that holds my keys, because of the logistical problems some of you mentioned. I put it on the zipper pull of the jacket I usually wear. I can always find it in the dark. When I let it dangle, it hangs right over a reasonably comfortable place to hold a book, when I'm standing at a bus stop. I can also hold it up to shine on street signs, or unzip my jacket to get a better look at a lock I'm trying to open.

[bugshaw.livejournal.com]

Cunning!

I no longer have the problem I mentioned above: the light is sturdy, and the keyring is very sturdy indeed, but the chain linking the two is made of what looks like metal but which has the strength of aging gossamer and did not last longer than 1 day in my handbag.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Ooo! Have a wonderful evening!