Ask Lemmy

I want this so I can be sure my phone isn't sneaking a peek at my pooping face

I think a lot of old school products worked better than modern equivalents. Take toasters - when I was a kid our toaster consistently made toast with the same degree of doneness. I've had modern ones that said "microprocessor controlled" on them that couldn't make consecutive pieces the same. Also flashlights. Simple metal flashlights just worked. My new sophisticated one cycles through multiple levels of brightness and then strobing (so I can what, have my own rave?) but sudden motions make it spontaneously turn off. I mean how hard is an ON/OFF switch?

And what's the deal with airline food? I'm thinkin' hey!

My grandmother used to have one. I never realized how it worked before that video, but I was always fascinated by the fact that the bread would lower itself

Our first TV remote was on a cable! This would have been in the early 80s I think.

Those remotes used little spring-loaded mechanical chimes that emitted ultrasonic notes. As a kid I discovered my parents' big Magnavox console stereo would change channels if I clinked a handful of coins.

Even the replacement and most modern remotes (with an LED at the tip that you have to point at the device) use pretty cool tech.

Usually to send data you want a data channel and a clock channel. When the clock changes say from high to low you read the next bit in the data channel. With one LED to send info you need to combine them.

For transmission that's easy. You make the low to high change at a fixed frequency. For the high to low change if it's a zero you make the high to low change 1/3 the way through the cycle. For a 1 you make the change 2/3 the way through the cycle.

On the receiver you you sync up a signal at the same frequency rising with the start of the transmission at a 1/2 on 1/2 off. You look at the data when the reference falls 1/2 the way through the cycle.

If a zero was sent the line had fallen at the 1/3 and it is a zero. If a one was sent the line doesn't drop until 2/3 and it's a one.

The trick is how do you get a signal at the same frequency and in synch. You compare the transmission frequency revived to the frequency of a voltage controlled oscillator. If it's slower you up the voltage and increase the frequency if it's faster you lower the voltage and lower the frequency.

You similarly use a phase detector to determine if they are in phase slightly boosting the frequency until they are in sync.

This system is called a phased lock loop (pll). All this so you don't have to getup to change the channel. The same sort of system is used for reading data from the magnetic disk on a hard drive.

How did it generate that sound without batteries? Was it literally the audio from the clicking of the buttons? Genuine questions.

edit: Thanks for the several answers. They all seem prone to interference, but it is nice that they worked without power.

The force is strong with this one.

I will beat you to death with a wet piece of tissue.

Steam millers sound way cooler than windmills

a 127mm vacuum tube, quite large, is equivalent to 127,000,000 nm which is only 63.5 million times bigger than a cutting edge transistor so that estimate seems a little exaggerated.

Replying to this just so people are less likely to accidentally scroll past.

Completely agree, of course. I do miss Web 1.0, when you had to go to IRC, usenet, etc, for the "social" part.

!remindme One Day