@duodec That unlocked a memory! I had a few of those! I didn’t think you could replace the batteries in those. Didn’t they use the same batteries that were in Polaroid’s 600 film packs?
@PooltoyWolf Yes, and for a little while you could get the batteries; I saw both the light and the batteries at Menards back then. That’s when I was stocking up on clearance Sylvania mini lanterns with Osram emitters because they could be upgraded.
Flashlights are one of those things you’d think would be a mature technology by now but they just keep getting better. It seems like every five years or so I can get a tiny flashlight that has double the battery life at a given brightness.
@PooltoyWolf I am too. This is a reasonable example of lights near my desk. (kind of like my knives) I also have cheap rechargeable Energizer lights that I have in outlets around the house. If the outlet losing power the light turns on. You can grab one and use it to get you to the big boys. And then make your way to the lanterns
@pmarin@PooltoyWolf Heh, we cut the copper lines years ago, but it is connected to a little VOIP box under the desk. There are a few other handsets around the house. We pretty much keep it for when my mom or my father-in-law need to talk to someone and this kind of prevents them from having to call all the family members cell numbers until they reach someone.
@capnjb@pmarin@PooltoyWolf We also have a (VOIP) landline - we live in a rural area and our house has a metal roof - cell reception is pretty good out in the yard, but spotty inside the house.
The VOIP HW maker recently announced that support has ended going forward - it still works OK but we may (probably will) have to find another solution at some point.
@macromeh@pmarin@PooltoyWolf I’ve got an Obihai Obi200 I set up with a google voice number about 9 years ago. I’ve had zero issues… it just works. I’m certain it’s long past end of life for support but for $50 in 2016 it’s earned it’s keep. I think the best plan of action is just don’t think about it
@capnjb@pmarin@PooltoyWolf Hey, we have the same VOIP setup! Ours works great most of the time - once in a (long) while, there has been an issue calling out, and (of course) it doesn’t work during a power or internet outage, but otherwise it has been trouble-free. And you can’t beat the price.
A service guy came to swap out my heater blower motor yesterday and he had 2 little magnetic base lights. He said he orders them from Amazon at 3AM as many of us do. I was surprised it was not a brand like DeWalt or Milwaukee but they were small and worked surprisingly well. He did use a DeWalt impact driver though.
I have a healthy flashlight collection, which means that I know I’ve paid for several, but I can never find them when I need to use one. Is it possible that you can’t have your flashlights and use them, too?
Too many flashlights means they sit and corrode before you use one. Finding one that works becomes a problem, so you end up having to buy another one that works.
@macromeh@olperfesser This is why you keep buying and buying and buying and buying and buying and buying and buying and buying and buying and buying and buying…
@kittykat9180 oh and at least one that puts out enough light to light a room. Even if only short time. Lanterns work too. I have an old school D cell. Makes a good weapon too
@Cerridwyn@kittykat9180 The old-school Mag-Lites with 3 or 4 D-cells were serious as a weapon or a light (this was before the LED upgrades). I had a friend that had been through law enforcement training and this was something they would train for. Also it’s legal for a citizen to carry one but depending on situation using it that way could be charged as assault with a deadly weapon.
@Cerridwyn@pmarin, kinda like in Canada where it’s legal to carry knifes (a few exceptions) but illegal to use it as a weapon.
I also learned it’s illegal to have pepper spray and had to surrender it at the border. You also can’t bring bear spray, but you can buy it pretty much any store.
@kittykat9180 Insufficient. Dedicated use lights like headlamps, visor clip lights, weapon lights, etc mean more than one per person will be required. Kinda like you need one pair of dress shoes, one pair of boots, a pair of walking/running/sneaker type shoes, and maybe winter shoes. You can’t get by with just sneakers all the time.
@Cerridwyn@kittykat9180@pmarin I called those Mag-lites my cat-whackers when I used them while walking the dogs. I expect the police would be even more suspicious of people using them now (unless they’re older and set in their ways like me, despite carrying an EDC light in my pocket).
@Cerridwyn@kittykat9180@pmarin
I also have a POB HID searchlight that Sams Club clearanced years ago. Uses a sealed battery (like the ones in UPS’s). Runs about 30 minutes. Its incredibly bright but totally outclassed by even midrange LEP or even LED handhelds.
@kittykat9180 we keep getting short power outages; power out, wait a minute, grab a lantern or flashlight, turn it on, sit down at the computer (which are on UPS’s) and within a couple of minutes power comes back. Its been years since we had an outage long enough to be troublesome. I take credit for this state of affairs because of my purchases of a generator, solar power bank and panels, and UPS’s over the years.
@duodec, we don’t get power outages at my house often. The longest one was when a hot air balloon fell out of the sky and crashed into the powerlines, killing all occupants.
@kittykat9180 LOL, there is a water bottle in the background. I reused a poweraid bottle for water. The tallest flashlight is a nitecore with the high capacity battery addon.
I find myself using the cellphone flashlight more often than any of my actual flashlights. I do like having a big heavy extra-bright flashlight by my bed though - a friend once mentioned what a good weapon it could be if you’re awakened by an intruder, and I took it to heart.
My sister believes you can’t own too many flashlights and her husband believes a man can’t have too many screw drivers (and that would not be the kind you drink).
Yes. At some point their weight will affect gravity.
You can have too many if they are crappy or take oddball batteries like the Polapulse…
@duodec That unlocked a memory! I had a few of those! I didn’t think you could replace the batteries in those. Didn’t they use the same batteries that were in Polaroid’s 600 film packs?
@PooltoyWolf Yes, and for a little while you could get the batteries; I saw both the light and the batteries at Menards back then. That’s when I was stocking up on clearance Sylvania mini lanterns with Osram emitters because they could be upgraded.
@duodec I may still have one of them laying around, buried somewhere.
Flashlights are one of those things you’d think would be a mature technology by now but they just keep getting better. It seems like every five years or so I can get a tiny flashlight that has double the battery life at a given brightness.
Too many flashlights? Probably not. Too many meh flashlights? Yes.
Too easy to have too many crappy flashlights.
Even two are two too many. (Et tu, Cicero?)
But i have yet to have too many Good flashlights.
/showme too many crappy flashlights
@mediocrebot Some of those look familiar.
When they start to unionize and demand better working conditions.
Hey, little inanimate objects, if I have to work in this soul-consuming hellhole, you do, too.
I’m a flashlight collector, so I plead the 5th.
@PooltoyWolf somewhat ditto but I have no highly collectible ones so I have no issue either praising or denigrating them.
@duodec I am actually not certain what would make a flashlight ‘collectible’ on its own merits. (i.e. not something like a Disney flashlight)
@PooltoyWolf I am too. This is a reasonable example of lights near my desk. (kind of like my knives)
I also have cheap rechargeable Energizer lights that I have in outlets around the house. If the outlet losing power the light turns on. You can grab one and use it to get you to the big boys. And then make your way to the lanterns 
edit - the big boy, we just call him Daylight.
@capnjb @PooltoyWolf Ooh, extra credit for what appears to be a landline phone (though cordless…)
@pmarin @PooltoyWolf Heh, we cut the copper lines years ago, but it is connected to a little VOIP box under the desk. There are a few other handsets around the house. We pretty much keep it for when my mom or my father-in-law need to talk to someone and this kind of prevents them from having to call all the family members cell numbers until they reach someone.
And that was one heck of a run-on sentence.
@capnjb @pmarin @PooltoyWolf We also have a (VOIP) landline - we live in a rural area and our house has a metal roof - cell reception is pretty good out in the yard, but spotty inside the house.
The VOIP HW maker recently announced that support has ended going forward - it still works OK but we may (probably will) have to find another solution at some point.
@macromeh @pmarin @PooltoyWolf I’ve got an Obihai Obi200 I set up with a google voice number about 9 years ago. I’ve had zero issues… it just works. I’m certain it’s long past end of life for support but for $50 in 2016 it’s earned it’s keep. I think the best plan of action is just don’t think about it
@capnjb @pmarin @PooltoyWolf Hey, we have the same VOIP setup! Ours works great most of the time - once in a (long) while, there has been an issue calling out, and (of course) it doesn’t work during a power or internet outage, but otherwise it has been trouble-free. And you can’t beat the price.
Flashlights do not make comfortable beds.
@hchavers Why would you want to make them a Bed?
I thought right answer was like three. I see I’m alone in this.
@Ten9Eight If you have ever been in an inside bathroom, in a dark location and the power goes out, you will decide 2 in every room is not enough.
@Cerridwyn I lived for years in countries with regular random blackouts.
@Cerridwyn @Ten9Eight like the Southern US?
Too many is having no room in the junk drawers for junk and obsessing over the perfect battery organization system
A service guy came to swap out my heater blower motor yesterday and he had 2 little magnetic base lights. He said he orders them from Amazon at 3AM as many of us do. I was surprised it was not a brand like DeWalt or Milwaukee but they were small and worked surprisingly well. He did use a DeWalt impact driver though.
@pmarin I haven’t bought anything off Amazon in years.
@kittykat9180 @pmarin I haven’t bought anything of Amazon for several minutes.
I have, no joke, maybe 30…but where are they? I usually give them away as I find them. (Not my streamlights though)
/showme many cats holding flashlights
@mediocrebot I like how the bot figured out how to have cats hold them in different ways without opposing thumbs.
If I woke up to that scene don’t know if I would be overcome with cuteness or filled with terror.
the runner-up in the liars contest said “in my house I have two sons and two flashlights and they all work”
I have a healthy flashlight collection, which means that I know I’ve paid for several, but I can never find them when I need to use one. Is it possible that you can’t have your flashlights and use them, too?
Too many flashlights means they sit and corrode before you use one. Finding one that works becomes a problem, so you end up having to buy another one that works.
@olperfesser This!
@macromeh @olperfesser This is why you keep buying and buying and buying and buying and buying and buying and buying and buying and buying and buying and buying…
@olperfesser flashlights that use lithium batteries rarely have problems with corrosion unless they are independently crappy.
One per household member + 1 spare.
@kittykat9180
no, 2 per room, plus 1 per household member and 2 spares
@Cerridwyn
@kittykat9180 oh and at least one that puts out enough light to light a room. Even if only short time. Lanterns work too. I have an old school D cell. Makes a good weapon too
@Cerridwyn I have one rechargeable lantern that can also use batteries and my cell phone flashlight.
@Cerridwyn @kittykat9180 The old-school Mag-Lites with 3 or 4 D-cells were serious as a weapon or a light (this was before the LED upgrades). I had a friend that had been through law enforcement training and this was something they would train for. Also it’s legal for a citizen to carry one but depending on situation using it that way could be charged as assault with a deadly weapon.
@Cerridwyn @pmarin, kinda like in Canada where it’s legal to carry knifes (a few exceptions) but illegal to use it as a weapon.
I also learned it’s illegal to have pepper spray and had to surrender it at the border. You also can’t bring bear spray, but you can buy it pretty much any store.
@kittykat9180 Insufficient. Dedicated use lights like headlamps, visor clip lights, weapon lights, etc mean more than one per person will be required. Kinda like you need one pair of dress shoes, one pair of boots, a pair of walking/running/sneaker type shoes, and maybe winter shoes. You can’t get by with just sneakers all the time.
@Cerridwyn @kittykat9180 @pmarin I called those Mag-lites my cat-whackers when I used them while walking the dogs. I expect the police would be even more suspicious of people using them now (unless they’re older and set in their ways like me, despite carrying an EDC light in my pocket).
@Cerridwyn @kittykat9180 @pmarin
I also have a POB HID searchlight that Sams Club clearanced years ago. Uses a sealed battery (like the ones in UPS’s). Runs about 30 minutes. Its incredibly bright but totally outclassed by even midrange LEP or even LED handhelds.
@duodec, I’ve only used the lantern once and it was a few days ago to look for a leak under my hood, which appears to have stopped.
@kittykat9180 we keep getting short power outages; power out, wait a minute, grab a lantern or flashlight, turn it on, sit down at the computer (which are on UPS’s) and within a couple of minutes power comes back. Its been years since we had an outage long enough to be troublesome. I take credit for this state of affairs because of my purchases of a generator, solar power bank and panels, and UPS’s over the years.
@duodec, we don’t get power outages at my house often. The longest one was when a hot air balloon fell out of the sky and crashed into the powerlines, killing all occupants.
Too many flashlights that need 4 AAA batteries is two.
Do I have enough?
I actually have more in a box that I don’t have batteries inside.
@cengland0 no you do not
@cengland0, wow, one of them looks like a vitamin water bottle or something similar.
@kittykat9180 LOL, there is a water bottle in the background. I reused a poweraid bottle for water. The tallest flashlight is a nitecore with the high capacity battery addon.
One cannot have too many flashlights, only an inadequate supply of fully charged batteries!
KuoH
I find myself using the cellphone flashlight more often than any of my actual flashlights. I do like having a big heavy extra-bright flashlight by my bed though - a friend once mentioned what a good weapon it could be if you’re awakened by an intruder, and I took it to heart.
@Kyeh I have pepper spray on my nightstand.
@kittykat9180
My sister believes you can’t own too many flashlights and her husband believes a man can’t have too many screw drivers (and that would not be the kind you drink).
@Kidsandliz I had a friend who thought that about both flashlights and tools of all kinds.
@Kidsandliz It’s after too many screwdrivers that I buy another flashlight.
@ItalianScallion so what you’re saying, then is screw flashlights?
@Kidsandliz I’m not sure. Maybe I’m saying “Screw flashlights when I’m the driver.”