Slashdot Mirror
The Ultimate Universal Remote Control
TheMayor writes: "CNN.com has a story about how researchers at Maya Designs, Inc. and Carnegie-Mellon are trying to come up with a remote control that controls everything in your house. From the TV to the blender, these guys want to make an all-in-one piece to turn everything on and off. Now I wonder if I could remotely flush my toliet?"
Check out the finished product. Who wouldn't like to get their hands on one of these?
"All art is quite useless." -- Oscar Wilde
Your remote would be able to control 340 trillion trillion devices?
Everyone is born right-handed; only the greatest overcome it
If you have to remotely flush your toilet, odds are you're doing something wrong.
Liberty.
Doesn't WWW.X10.COM stuff do this already?
It turns out that this so-called x10.com is very dangerous after all. X10.com will re-write your hard drive. Not only that, it will scramble any disks that are even close to your computer. It will recalibrate your refrigerator's coolness setting so all your ice cream goes melty. It will demagnetize the strips on all your credit cards, screw up the tracking on your television and use subspace field harmonics to scratch any CDs you try to play.
It will give your ex-girlfriend your new phone number. It will mix Kool-aid into your fishtank. It will drink all your beer and leave dirty socks on the coffee table when company comes over. It will put a dead kitten in the back pocket of your good suit pants and hide your car keys when you are late for work.
X10.com will make you fall in love with a penguin. It will give you nightmares about circus midgets. It will pour sugar in your gas tank and shave off both your eyebrows
while dating your girlfriend behind your back and billing the dinner and hotel room to your Discover card.
It will seduce your grandmother. It does not matter if she is dead, such is the power of x10.com, it reaches out beyond the grave to sully those things we hold most dear.
It moves your car randomly around parking lots so you can't find it. It will kick your dog. It will leave libidinous messages on your boss's voice mail in your voice! It is insidious and subtle. It is dangerous and terrifying to behold. It is also a rather interesting shade of mauve.
X10.com will give you Dutch Elm disease. It will leave the toilet seat up. It will make a batch of Methamphetamine in your bathtub and then leave bacon cooking on the stove
while it goes out to chase gradeschoolers with your new snowblower. For the sake of your grandmother and the youth of the nation, X10.com must be AVOIDED at all costs!
I have an IQ of 156
[...]
This is why I only view DVDs on my computer, faaar easier, don't have to switch around audio and video inputs until hell freezes over, then select the proper audio decompression scheme, then select the proper surround sound scheme, and THEN sit down and 'enjoy' the movie, and then have the honor of switching all that shit BACK to watch regular TV.
Here is my question: Since you're so smart, why is it such a difficult task for you to use a console DVD player? I mean, it's not that hard really. 5 to 10 seconds tops, insert DVD, push play, that's it. I simply can't see how you would prefer sitting hunched over your computer to watch a DVD than using a TV.
Hmmm. Throw in some duct tape and that's and ideal project for the Red Green Show.
:) Thats funny -- just last night my niece (18 months old) picked up my cell phone (nokia 6360 with IR port on the top) and pointed it at the TV... :) I got a good laugh out of it -- but it really is a good idea.
I do not read or respond to AC's. If you want a discussion, log in. Otherwise, don't waste your time.
A remote control that sends a narrow beam to a long distance with the "turn off" codes of most popular TV models. If it has good sights and a narrow beam I bet it could do it from a distance of well over 100 meters.
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
It is interesting the connotation behind the words "remote control." Symbolic of how we humans are in an ever-increasing battle to control the environment around us. So along comes the 'universal remote' which allows the greediest of control freaks to covet the power in one isolated unit. And I thought it was bad when my stepfater refused to release his grip from the TV remote... just imagine the power struggles taking place in the average houselhold when the remote controls not only the appliances, but lighting, temperature controls, etc... That thing better have a hidden book of matches tucked within its injection-molded body... just imagine during a power loss and the remote appears to be working, but the damn lights just aren't responding!!!
Well, if it did, can you imagine the havoc caused by the dog if he finds the remote control unit and starts chewing on it?!
-- Soruk