Life is... pushing all the right buttons on the wrong remote control Mrs Dabbsy is getting cross. I know this because she has said "grrrr". People don't often say "grrrr" in everyday conversation so it's noticeable when they do. Either that or you are inadvertently chatting with Tony the Tiger over a bowl of over-sugared breakfast cereal. The target of The Glowing One's ire (this time) is the …
Don't forget the "radio" remote controls for lights and various brands' power switches. Some of which look identical but are using different codes at 433MHz or 2.4Ghz. The SDR dongle also came with its own vanilla looking remote.
They usually don't have any visible sign that they are transmitting. For the 433MHz ones that is where the SDR comes in useful to confirm the frequency being used. Unfortunately I have as yet to discover how to see the bit train sent by the devices.
I am well past caring about remotes. I am past caring about TV too, for that matter. I just have the one damn rubber-nubby thing that controls the "box" for when I (or most likely, the SO) want to watch TV, everything else I control from the keyboard. Truth be told, I don't own a "smart" TV. I don't own a "TV" actually. I do own a 300-quids 3-D-compatible projector mounted on a 7-quids contruction-floodfill tripod, connected to a 50-quids 5.1 soundystem, a blank wall and a RasPy with an external DVD player and a keyboard. TV, internet content and DVD play equally well on my 2x3 m screen...
Home-made home cinema: 400 quids. Screening "Tideland" in total immersion for your old mother: priceless.
I can't fathom what is the rage with overexpensive "TV sets" (unless you do love juggling remotes, squinting at tiny 80 inches displays, and tinny sound)
I love stories like this.
10 years ago, after a spat with VirginMedia, I got rid of my television service. I thought it would be a temporary separation, but it has matured into a fully fledged divorce.
I don't miss it. If I want to watch something, which doesn't happen often, I can wait till it's out on DVD, or, if I reallyreally need that fix of televisual entertainment so I can join in with the conversations at work about one of the many series which all sound exactly the same as each other, one of my friends with a Tivo or similar will record it and pass it over, and I can realise why I don't have a television service, and celebrate it with a glass of something liver-rotting and cancer inducing - paid for with the money I save by not having a television service.
See - the more you look at no television service, the more it makes sense.
And no remotes. Life is better without remotes.
I had the same epiphany with Sky, about 15 years ago.
I keep getting their marketing droids phoning me up from time to time, to tell me all about the wonderful deals they can offer me; mostly involving programmes and sports that I have little to zero interest in watching.
Some of the money I have saved has gone to the local theatre; and quite honestly, it has been far more enjoyable.
Yes. Dabbsy. You have my sympathy.
I have a longer answer. But I decided I don't care any more. People seem to want to buy gadgets that don't work, use stuff that exposes their privacy and fill overly expensive phones with stupid apps. I've given up explaining the better way.
I thought Logitech might be interested, but apparently not.
"10 years ago, after a spat with VirginMedia, I got rid of my television service. I thought it would be a temporary separation, but it has matured into a fully fledged divorce."
I had a similar but more extreme experience. Fifteen years ago my TV died. I put it out on the curb for the hard refuse boyos and, for a number of reasons, never got around to replacing it. The extra time I suddenly had to do stuff was a revelation. If I really wanted to watch something, I'd have to actually go to somewhere else to do it which made it more like going to cinema but with comfy seats, people I like and beer.
Then The GF moved in bringing her TV and I'm back on the junk. Grrr.
I've been using a Harmony remote for the last few years so probably wouldn't be able to recognise which remote goes with which device. Takes a little setting up to begin with but I can't recommend them enough. Unlike a standard universal remote you program the activity (e.g. watch TV) and it turns on the devices needed whilst powering down those that are not. The buttons are then related to the devices required (e.g. amp for volume, virgin box for channel changing, colour/contrast for the TV). Worth it for the extra space on the coffee table alone.
I've been using a Harmony remote for the last few years so probably wouldn't be able to recognise which remote goes with which device.
I bought one. Once. Until I discovered I would have to pollute my machine with Microsoft Silverlight, at which point it was returned to the shop and I have never bothered with them since. I have standards.
Job done. *
* Helpfully called something completely different by each TV manufacturer, but job done anyway **.
** You may need to enable it from the settings though as these useful things often default to off. ***
*** Unless you really don't have it and have to buy a new TV and/or DVD (well, now BluRay player ****) because one or the other or both don't have HDMI-CEC.
**** And if it's a BluRay player it'll probably need to connect to the Internet to update or something. *****
***** Oh bollocks, they get you every time.
Definitely recommend HDMI-CEC, I can control my TV / DVD Player / Kodi (on Raspberry Pi) all from a single remote control (I can use either the TV or DVD remote control). Volume control on my soundbar is also controlled via these remotes. No need for a "Universal Remote" or Harmony remote.
I've been told numerous times that HDMI-CEC is for amateurs, but does exactly what I need it to do.
I have stuck to one brand (Panasonic) for all of my equipment and the Viera Link function (presumably HDMI-CEC) works very well using my telly remote to control all devices... so long as you remember to set each device to have a different remote code. Finding the PVR turns itself off, the home theatre mutes and the TV changes input to FreeSat when all you want to do is open the Blu-ray drive is a real bugger!
I thought it was only in our house (what with us being paupers and all that) that binge watching old British telly series (one episode every night with dinner) passed for entertainment. So I'm delighted to find we're actually "keeping up with the Dabbses".
So far, we've worked our way through the entire back catalogue of (in no particular order):
* Dad's Army
* Ever Decreasing Circles
* The Good Life
* Minder
* The Chinese Detective
* Foyle's Law
* Danger UXB
* Van Der Valk
* Are You Being Served
* Lovejoy
... and probably a few more I've banished from memory.
A comment I once read on IMDB summed it up nicely:
"You know you've reached middle-age when you start hating everything on current TV and suddenly realise that Dad's Army was the funniest thing ever written'.
For various reasons I never saw some TV programmes when they were broadcast many years ago. Charity shops now supply DVDs of such that are now generally acclaimed as classics.
There are now about 1000 DVDs in four racks. There are a few duplicates or triplicates as there has never been enough spare time to catalogue the collection onto a spreadsheet. These are useful when the neighbours borrow them - and forget to return them. My neighbours' young son is a black hole for DVDs. In all weathers one sees him and his pals sitting at their picnic table watching a DVD on his treasured portable player. Fortunately he has not yet formed any appreciation of anything other then "U" or "G" certificates.
I promise myself when I reach the point in my dotage that all I can do is sit in front of the TV and dribble - then I will finally catch up with watching them. Assuming my neighbours' son has not appropriated my whole collection by then.
"But I don't want to watch it now in case nostalgia ain't what it used to be."
I watched it for the "first" time in it's entirety recently, having only ever watched the live first-run broadcasts and it holds up very, very well. It's one instance where nostalgia does what it says on the tin.
* Ever Decreasing Circles
Oh, I recently watched it. I was worried that it wouldn't be as good as I thought it was when I was young and didn't have anything else to do. Yes, yes, middle-class sitcom, dated, blah, but still when good writers meet good actors magic happens.
(Comedy is now the only fiction I care about. At least it can make you laugh. I just can't get worked up about stuff that's made up any more.)
This is exactly why I HAVE an integrated system I built myself out of a Debian box, vlc and the 2 storage servers(*) in the house (a meager total of 12TB).
However, that causes another issue. Anything and everything has to be copied there first by the Ripper man (me). That sometimes involves a lot of swearing about Disney Corp and its progeny as well as several other usual suspects like whoever used to manage Sandra Bollocks (did I spell this one right?) as they insisted every piece of bollocks produced by her has at least 3-layers of copy protection. It also involves free time to fight with the defenses erected by these idiots against us watching their content.
So in the end the SWMBO tries to smuggle some 3£ a pop bargain bin DVDs from Sainsbury and create a nice little pigsty of plastic boxes in all nooks and crannies of the living room. So instead of herds of remote controls we now have occasional platic box infestations which I have to mercilessly cull and transfer to the system.
(*)As they handle my mail and the VMs for my work from home environments, all they need is a few more drives slotted into them and put to sleep when not in use. Less than the cost of extra shelving to house the DVDs.
You can buy a replacement remote control that will replace all your remotes in the one unit. Consequently it looks as if it is on steroids - which helps stop it falling down the back of the sofa - and gives you some arm muscle exercise.
You used to be able to "train" those by pointing your old remotes at it.
Then someone decided that consumers wanted a simpler way - and all you needed was to type in a sequence of preset digits as a code to identify your DVD player etc.
There are several pages of codes for manufacturers and devices. You end up repeatedly going through the "reset" sequence as you try all the model codes that look possible. Then you go online to see the latest additions.
Finally you decide to check the model number on the entertainment device itself. This is usually hidden somewhere on a hard to access side. You try to read it without disconnecting the matrix of cables joining your home entertainment systems together, Some of the cables then decide to help by unplugging themselves at various random points.
Having finally found the magic code, or at least an imperfect one that operates the most essential functions - you then have to work out how all the cables plug together again. This may entail finding/buying a replacement cable for one which failed under the stress.
You then add the next device to the remote control by repeating the whole process. Simple isn't it?
You can do all of that. Then the SWMBO will dig out the old control, the other old control, the next old control and you end up with N+1 remote controls.
You are lucky your SWMBO haven't discovered the ultimate, voice-activated remote control yet.
- I want to watch a movie. Make it so.
and you won't get your dinner until you do :)
Apply sticky labels for adding identifying information. And put a small "flag" of interestingly and distinctively coloured or patterned tape around the cable. With writing on the coloured tape, identifying the matching device.
This might even work, sometimes.
"Apply sticky labels for adding identifying information. And put a small "flag" of interestingly and distinctively coloured or patterned tape around the cable. With writing on the coloured tape, identifying the matching device."
Which is a fat lot of help since you frequently have to snake your arm and figure everything out by Braille.
"You could add the swearing involved when trying to read the voltage and amps of the smallest text ever known to man until you eventually give up and dig out the microscope just to read the b*stard."
I take photos of 'em nowadays.
I grab serial numbers and MAC addresses from new devices that way as well.
And increaingly, do that for the ever-increasingly small "instruction books", though I'll look for online PDFs first.
Plugging the 12V PSU (mini coax) that came with one external HDD drive adapter into one meant to only have 5V is fun.
Also the output voltage and current is on the base with plug pins, tiny writing, low contrast, needs expensive magnifying lap to read. I use a metallic silver or gold marker on the DC plug and TOP of the PSU.
Also some are fine RFI wise and others wipe out BBC R4LW, most MW, most SW etc in most of the house. Same with LED lamps, CFL lamps, TVs etc. Yet some models are perfect. The Fcc CSA and CE marks seem irrelevant.
The newer 2, 4 or 6 "filament" style LED lamps seem to simply rectify the mains, no SMPSU, so longer life (no PSU to fail) and no RFI. They appear to have about 26 or 28 LEDs in series per "filament".
"The newer 2, 4 or 6 "filament" style LED lamps seem to simply rectify the mains, no SMPSU, so longer life (no PSU to fail) and no RFI."
Wondered how they worked.
Bought some of those in Wilko recently - purely because their quoted power consumption was much more economical then the other LED ones. Not cheap - but they work well and the illumination is even at a warm colour temperature ca 2700K.
My only gripe is that the maximum bulb equivalent available in Wilko is 60 watts - a 100 watt bulb version would be useful in a couple of places in the house.
Despite the number of gadgets I have, I have one VM remote. I bought my girlfriend the same model of remote so she had one too. Both do exactly the same.
And we each have an app on our smartphone (literally an IR-blinker, not some fancy web-tech junk) that controls everything should we lose both of the identical VM remotes.
What the hell are you people doing not to use programmable remotes and/or smart apps by now? Why do you have so many gadgets and not think "throw all those remotes in a drawer, buy one universal, programmable remote"?
And you have the smartphone beside you while watching TV, most likely, and if you buy the right one (or the right headphone-port-gadget in the £1 range), you can control everything and literally remove the buttons that you never use from show.
Samsung S5 Mini, for reference. Comes with Plex, but irplus is simpler and has a much larger remote database and can use LIRC files. Plex lets you schedule and checks TV listings etc, though, so it's up to what you want to use.
It does get me when supposedly techy people whine about techy problems that aren't a problem for any techy.
The thing about standard remotes, is they are tactile units. I can navigate menus, change channels, adjust the volume and change inputs, using the supplied remotes, without looking at them. I can't do the same when using the TV app on my phone, where the entire interface is flat and I have to switch screens to access different functions.
I think you have bigger problems if she's moved on to "fucking Lovejoy" Mr Dabbs.
Unfortunately I'm experiencing the same problem with remotes at home and the other half is not very tolerant. Worse still trying to get a new Samsung TV to talk to a a Sony amp and Blu Ray player a Humax box and Xbox One is not a joyful experience. Quite often the devices randomly turn themselves on for no apparent reason and take over the screen from what you are actually trying to watch (the Blu Ray being the worst culprit). Unfortunately turning off the HDMI control between them just exasperates things so that you end up hunting for all of the separate remotes to turn each device on separately. It's the opposite of convenience and entertainment. Maybe it is my fault for not having the same brand of device for everything.
Maybe I'm just getting old and less geeky about this stuff but I just want the damn stuff to work without having to do my day job of tech support when I get home! Life used to be so much easier, time for my pills now anyway.
(oh and PS: Quite often I use the cat curled up on me as an excuse to get out of many different reasons and countless times the Mrs insists I get out of my seat, I recommend a cat to anyone)
I bought a Harmony Remote many years ago. Bloody expensive but it controls everything and even better it's 'activity based'. So if I get home tonight and want to watch Sky I just select 'Sky' on its screen. My receiver, TV and Sky box all switch on. The receiver input switches to Sky (TV doesn't need to change inputs as it always gets it from the receiver). The remote screen changes to show numerics and a swipe left gives me the Sky functions I use.
Now if I select 'Music' the Sky box is switched off, the TV is switched off, my Logitech Touch switches on and the receiver input changes to be the Touch.
When I'm all done I just press 'off' and whatever equipment is currently on is powered down.
I've owned three Harmony remotes now and one thing I really like is that they've all automatically programmed themselves once I connect them to my account. That was great when my first one got sabotaged by budgie excrement. And neat when I upgraded to a completely different hub based model (so now I don't even have to point the remote at anything - it uses radio to talk to the hub which then sends out the IR).
Now having come across like a Logitech groupie I have to say that they are stupidly expensive and the programming utility (when you use it) is aimed at the lowest common denominator and trying to do anything complicated is difficult. So it's not all great. Oh and the cheaper hub remote is poorly designed.
But it works and we only have one remote to hand. The rest are shut away in a drawer somewhere.
My blu-ray player has a shitty remote that has 2 buttons labelled as Home, which one might think would take you to the home menu of the DVD/BD that you are playing, you know for when you want to skip back or forward to another section of the movie, but no they both take you to the root menu of the device and give you the option of launching some ancient web apps that probably dont work anymore and probably includes one for MySpace.
In contrast the Fire Stick remote works via radio so you dont have to point it at the stick (just as well as its hanging out the back of the TV) and doesn't have rubbery buttons and even the text input is fairly responsive and usable. The only downside is that nearly every time I select something to watch it manages to knock out my soundbar which I then have to switch back on using its shitty rubber button remote that doesn't work half the time probably due to the fact that it runs off a single button battery. It also does it when you pause a show as well. It wouldn't be so bad if it was *every* time that it switched off the sound, its just *most* of the time.
I also have an LG G4 that should work as an IR remote, but I cant get it to work with any of my devices for some reason.
</rant>
After owning the current tv slab for more than two years it was only on re-setting it up following a house move that I discovered the manual controls on the back... Difficult to use with a long stick but would have been helpful several times when fairies steal the remote or the batteries go flat.
The ATCSNWT household has a labelmaker* and yes, anything like new remotes, power supplies and whatnot get labelled and sometimes even colour coded. And the manuals are filed away in box files. Which in turn are neatly labelled as well. No, the labelmaker doesn't have a label saying "labelmaker" on it. I'm not crazy, my parents had me tested. Life's short hard and then you die; when I want to watch a DVD I want to watch a DVD, not play 'hunt for the right remote'.
* Okay, four. Not including labels that go in the printer. Stuff like tools with wooden handles get branded with an old soldering iron. Heat shrink tubing plus a permanent marking pen is excellent for marking tools like spanners as your own. The heat gun isn't labelled, but the generic toolbox it's stored in is. Stop sniggering at the back.
Yeah. Label the remotes. We do that too. Works like a charm. And then we too, like the D household, found that remotes move about - on their own. It's harder to find the one we actually need than locating the rats in the foundation of our house.
I'll be going now. Mine's the one with the big label on the back that says, "COAT".
While at Uni, I was given one of those joke foam-rubber bricks as a novelty birthday present. My flatmates discovered that they could switch off the TV by throwing it at the push-button at the front. Unfortunately, they eventually broke the button. It was my TV as well.
Two channels.
Before 1955 only one in UK. 1955 is also when FM Radio started, which was only any point for the Third Program, or people in SE England with continental interference. Germans had MANY FM stations from 1949, because the Allies and Russians pinched most of the MW & LW.
Though I did once repair a TV (13 x 405 TV and 3 x FM channels) which had a cabled remote. BBC 2 had started, but the 4th FM channel (Downtown) was only on test. It clunked in one direction through the channels.
UK eventually had 4 channel TV when Ireland had 1.5 Channels. Except nearly half the people got the UK channels, even before Irish TV started late on 31st December 1961.
"It clunked in one direction through the channels."
Wow - a motorised turret tuner? The basic unit was a thing of beauty. We used to scavenge extra "biscuits"** so that we could receive TV signals from different areas. Never saw one with all its channel slots filled.
** is "biscuits" the right term? Can't think why the clip-in preset tuning boards were called that.
No!
A mains solenoid. That's why it only went one way. The turret tuner was similar to other models with two biscuit coil packs per channel. Biscuits is the correct UK term. Black or brown coloured plastic with studs for connection.
Various 1960s USSR transistor radio sets used the scheme for wavechange. They always need cleaned.
The 1950s Hallicrafters clone of Zenith Transoceanic also has a rotary biscuit coil pack for wavechange. The actual Zenith is a mess of coils on the push button unit.
Very few 405 sets had FM Radio, because 405 Sound unlike FM on 625 was AM (though about 10KHz rather than the 4kHz or so on AM Radio today). So it had a lot of extra IF parts and a discriminator for FM.
The remote had volume (by virtue of screened cable.) and a single button to channel change. I think some early ultrasonic remotes only had a single channel button, but electronic counter to cycle through the presets, with neon indicators on the touch operated 6 channel TV panel.
A US company had a wireless remote for a radio with preset channels in 1930s. The input "device" was like a dial phone unit.
Even some UK 1930s radios had up to 8 preset channels. No remote. Some used a separate coil for each preset but some had a partial disk with adjusters and a motor that drove the actual regular tuning. You (the dealer) moved the mechanical stops to change the presets.
"Even some UK 1930s radios had up to 8 preset channels. No remote. Some used a separate coil for each preset but some had a partial disk with adjusters and a motor that drove the actual regular tuning. You (the dealer) moved the mechanical stops to change the presets."
Some radio sets that were still being used in the 1960s had preset buttons that operated manually. The force of pushing a button moved a cord loop to the defined position. Setting each station required a screwdriver to position a metal tab that limited the travel.
The war surplus BC-348 shortwave radio had a band change mechanism that felt like a turret - but my memory is surprisingly blank as to what the mechanical innards looked like. Google has turned up a genuine manual showing it to be a conventional band change rotary switch driven by some very nice gears. Ah - nostalgia.
http://www.vmarsmanuals.co.uk/new/bc348_manual.pdf
"Setting each station required a screwdriver to position a metal tab that limited the travel."
Correction:
The user set the preset buttons themselves. Each button had a "release" mechanism to disengage it from the cord loop. Re-engaging the button locked a tab for the current tuning position. Very clever.
"Like, say, being able to access any input in a multi-input device with just one press."
Some mini-hifi units do not have a button for "audio in" - so you have to find the remote control to use that function from six inches away.
The buttons on such units are also often victims to style over function. Grey or pale blue on black is hard to read in low light. Such a Sony amplifier from the charity shop took several minutes to discover how to switch it on. The decorative silver thin strip across the front had cunning pressure switches at its extreme ends for "on/off" and "CD tray eject". They were denoted by engraved colourless symbols that were only visible in good light at the right angle.
If you really want a remote control that looks like a control panel from the star ship enterprise you are welcome to break your knee's with it.
You can also use the multiple remote model, re-creating the problems in the main article, while at the same time finding the remote control signals are not exclusive to each device and one button can rule them all, particularly an off button.
This can lead to a repeat performance of the dance of death while devices boot up, ask for passwords, return to the beginning of half watched programs and lose the recording of the program on the other channel.
The dance is further complicated if you try to train your command centre size remote as it complains about all the different device variants, none of which it supports is the TV you bought only last year.
Trying to use your mobile, not only makes it fat finger central, but also tends to rely on an app, which in at least one case was "no longer available" and has since uninstalled itself. Glad I didn't spend ages on that one.
Maybe its better to let the cat decide and let it sleep on the controls and watch whatever comes up, you could spend hours with the delights of the TV schedule. This is quite relaxing as the refresh is about 1 every 15 mins so you don't miss anything while getting a coffee.
Every now an then my freesat box joins the fray by asking for it's initial setup too, postcode must have a space in it, but guess which button produces that - you have to guess and delete a few times on that one
There is, however a use for the wobbly buttons though. A mouse the cat brought in chewed all the buttons flat on one which I had to replace. although in this instance the cat watched me chase the mouse around the lounge while watching with partial interest while it reclined peacefully on the back of the sofa to watch.
Grrr
But no remote for it, I think it left home due to boredom. We turned the TV on last New Years Eve and the one before, not sure if the remote was there the first year.
I prefer to get any telly fixes that I crave via the interthing, I've got a 32" monitor on the desk for that and pixel peeping my poor attempts at photography, good enough even for Father Ted, Black Adder etc.
I don't waste my money on Sky or netflix, I waste it on hookers and drugs.
I play DVD's on my PC screen. No remotes needed or used (unless you count a mouse on a USB extension cable for when I want to watch from over on the sofa), VLC's sane controls does the trick.
I do have a telly, and it has one (1) remote control, which, every now and then, decides to turn subtitles on unasked for, despite the fact that it stubbornly refuses to give me any options to turn subtitles on or off no matter which buttons I press. I have to reboot my TV and handset to fix that, if I cant be bothered to wait until teh remote automagically decides to remove subtitles on a random whim.
Spawn of Satan, remotes are, and their designers should be lowered slowly toward a vat of boiling oil until they apologise and promise to build something that works properly!
Discs are better than streaming on Long Island NY because the cheapass cable company can't spare enough bandwidth to run the delivery at best-of-breed levels, resulting in stars that have clearly defined bands of light in concentric shells about them as Serenity zooms past them, explosions are ruined by pixelation as the palette overloads the pixels' ability to display it and James Bonds does the same every time he goes out at night in a black suit and the software can't figure out what's what and so runs a Gloomy Goth Pink Floyd FX lightshow over the important bits.
They also have the absolute naffest digital recorder in the world. Set it to record Jason Bourne and you get The Bourne Identity. Tell it to record what's left of Dr Who so you can switch to the news and you are odds-on to get a spiffy recording of the news you just watched when you page back to see whether the Daleks won this time.
As for remote-blote, I coped partially with this by buying the same brand disc player as my TV. I rarely need to faff about with two remotes, though getting the soundbar to wake up might require that.
What's needed is a proper API so we can blow a raspberry (Pi) at the problem once and for all.
Slim TV has no top to speak of, and it's on a wall mount so nowhere else to put it. Several units on top of each other mean you can't put the right remote on top of the right thing (beside is not an option, either: too narrow a shelf). TV remote is required because the amp doesn't have unified output (still need to switch to component to use the one device that can ONLY use component, for example, instead of HDMI).
Excellent and funny description of how home entertainment can become a nightmare.
That's exactly why, about 7 years ago, I developed my own solution and have been using and evolving it since then. Our 6-7 remotes plus two universal ones are resting in a drawer since then.
Setting the thing up is a hard, technical, job (identify devices, hunt down codes for discrete commands, put the commands in text files, create the necessary macros with proper delays, setup the various zones and activities).
But once this is done and tested, anyone can control any activity (watch tv through an amplifier using a tuner box, control an xbmc/kodi for music or videos, listen to fm/dab radio, playstation blue ray watching, etc, etc.) without any difficulty. And things just work as expected :-)
You can find a description of the problem and its particular solution here: https://sites.google.com/site/remotex4/
Once thought of that, then remembered some of the devices have inconsistent reaction times. Like the TV, which like I said can't switch inputs on a single press. No, you have to press a button, press up and/or down a few times (and it sometimes doesn't react), then press ENTER when it's just right before it overshoots.
...tend to "Just Work."
Just sayin', y'know? Not implying anything or recommending any courses of action that may not be approved of by the technical architects of your access control misery. Just a simple observation.
Re "integrated home entertainment system with a single access point" - Intel Compute Stick mk 2 and a ten dollar air mouse off eBay with a keyboard built into the underside. Runs full-fat Windows on an Atom CPU so you could probably put a Linux on there if you wanted. Works great as a HTPC and cost me two hundred worthless Australian dollars so you could probably pick one up for loose change.
My grandfather, the original W4YBO, had a unique way of dealing five different remotes. He hot-glued them all to a 8" x 10" Masonite board. When the batteries died, he'd peel the dead remote up, swap batteries, and re-glue it back down. It looks weird, but it's tough to misplace almost a square foot of remote controls.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
