Give me a Technology Connections (@TechConnectify@mas.to) video on it
That was literally my first thought when I saw the article.
God, I love that man
“I’m about to talk about Christmas lights for an 70 minutes.”
“Hell yeah, bro!”
“This goofy fridge has a really clever design. It’s also kinda terrible.”
63 minutes long, and still super enjoyable.
Oh, I so want that!
Our first tv with a remote control that wasn’t me or my sibling using small vise grip on channel knob had a telephone included in the tv.
Like this was in 1982 so not a modem … just a tv with a land line phone built in that you have to use the remote to make or receive a call.
Yes! Those channel knobs were so easily broken. I thought we were the only ones turning channels with pair of vice-grips clamped on the nub.
Those don’t take batteries and your click generates the electricity for the signal. Right? Like a wind up radio.
No, it’s a tuning fork that produces 4 seperate tones, one for each “button.” The TV had a microphone listening for tones and would respond accordingly. You didn’t actually have to point the remote at the TV, which later became a problem, as the mic on the TV was technically always listening for a tone.
Neat. I knew I could Cunningham Law this instead of doing research.
You can always count on fucking nerds to get excited about explaining something.
Cool. Now, where can we go to talk about CBB?
heynong.social? probably nowhere. or some weird earwolf forum.
Unfortunately, you violated the law slightly by asking a question!
Cunningham’s Law states “the best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it’s to post the wrong answer.”
Nope! It’s the sound that does the work. The TV has a microphone in it.
This was mentioned a couple of weeks ago on the Vergecast. I was wondering if someone was going to get assigned the article, and here it is!
Never seen or heard from anyone using tape to mask their remotes. Is this really a thing?
After trying to fix your grandparents tv over the phone a few times, it just makes sense to cover everything except power, volume, and channel.
Never seen or heard from anyone using tape to mask their remotes. Is this really a thing?
Not this exactly, but my grandparents had a guide taped to the backside of their remotes to make it easier to use.
The tape strategy has some appeal, though, mainly in that I use maybe 5 buttons 95% of the time.
I like the sounds of the tines! It’s basically just a tuning fork, so wild.
I had a Heathkit TV that used a variation of this design! If you held it really close to your ear then you could actually hear it emitting.
@igalmarino In my childhood our remote worked by emitting electronically generated ultrasonic sounds. It looked like that one: kleinanzeigen.de/s-anzeige/tel…
I saw this and immediately wanted to own one because I like retro tech and the buttons look satisfying, so I went over to ebay and… they sell for between $150 and $300.
Oh well. :(
That’s fancy. Our clicker only had two buttons for channel changing.
