Re: LEDs
This reminds me of Firesign Theatre's "Eat or Be Eaten" where a car would announce everything that was blatantly obvious already. (I need to listen to that again)
In "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress", there is the incidence of Manny trying to find a light switch while floating around in free fall. He wonders why, for the short time they were going to be in this "spacecraft" they couldn't just come up with a lighting system that stays on the whole time.
For some reason, if I leave a memory card in my reader, the blue light stays on when the computer is switched off.