Week 435 was posted by Charanjit Chana on 2026-02-23.
A wonderful post by Marcin Wichary on the status LEDs on older Macs (MacBooks, iMacs and Mac Mini's) that would pulsate when they were sleep mode.
the animation was designed to mimic human breathing at 12 breaths per minute
I had forgotten this detail, but it was not only a thoughtful touch, it was very useful too. I had a Mac Mini in my bedroom and would use Front Row all the time so the light would be lit constantly. To know I had put it sleep, and not just turned the external display on, I could tell by the pulsating light on the front of the device. Same when I moved from a Mac Mini to a late-2000s MacBook.
I had a 15" MacBook Pro through work in the early-2010s which had the perforated light which was invisible when the light was off. When I bought my own 2013 MacBook Pro, it was disappointing to see they had done away with the status LED all together.
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