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Development Of The TiVo Remote Charted

victor_the_cleaner writes "The New York Times (anonymous readers need not apply) has an article about the development of the TiVo remote control. The article reviews the user-centered design approach the designers took. According to the lead designer, they considered 'how it feels in the hand, for long periods of time.' How about you - do you have an emotional attachment to your TiVo remote? Or other well-designed objects?"

23 of 333 comments (clear)

  1. Please don't ask that here... by momerath2003 · · Score: 5, Funny

    "...emotional attachment to ... other well-designed objects"

    Oh, no... why must they ask such a question on Slashdot?!? Why?!?

    --
    I had but a simple dream, to destroy all humans.
    1. Re:Please don't ask that here... by dolo666 · · Score: 2, Funny

      hey, it's not an Xbox controller, so I'm not sure what all the fuss is about!

    2. Re:Please don't ask that here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      ...Yeah, like I've been programming in C++ for 6 years now, and like I've got a real emotional attachment to many of my well-designed objects...

    3. Re:Please don't ask that here... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      private Member schlong; cout schlong; return 0; - stdout: 0xFFD8A63E Just be careful where you point that thing.

  2. In the hand by zalas · · Score: 5, Funny

    "how it feels in the hand, for long periods of time"... I don't know about you, but I don't get attached to things that feel good in my hand... except for certain bod- errr nevermind

  3. Re:Text of article by jakoz · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...and in other news, several thousand internet users mysteriously suffered spontaneous eye bleeding.

  4. Re:Text of article by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I don't think karma-whoring works very well without line breaks :p

  5. ANN COULTER TOUCHED MY JUNK CONSERVATIVELY by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny
  6. Re:My Mac by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    does that mean one of your pcs is your girlfriend??? well this IS slashdot...

  7. The length or the girth? by ricochet81 · · Score: 2, Funny

    http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2004/02/18/tec hnology/19REMOTE.b.jpg Yep, remote control is the first thing that comes to mind when viewing their prototypes.

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    Error: Id10t detected
  8. I have a small TiVo remote problem by Rex+Code · · Score: 3, Funny

    I had a series one Philips TiVo and liked it a lot, so I replaced it with a Pioneer series two TiVo with DVD-R. The remote control is 99% similar, but the button in the lower left that was 'clear' on the Philips (used to kill the guide display and all kinds of other things) is now 'TV power'.

    It's been 3 months and I still kill the TV power about every 20 minutes...

  9. Future prediction. by SinaSa · · Score: 2, Funny

    We all know a whole bunch of smartass posters are going to post innuendo about well shaped objects and their relation to dildos.

    Welcome to the next Wired article, "Geeks like dildos more than they like TiVo remotes".

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    The last digit of pi is four.
  10. Scary by cubic6 · · Score: 3, Funny
    From the article:
    One TiVo aficionado, Pat Hughes, a software engineer in San Jose, Calif., dressed up his two-month-old daughter as the remote for Halloween in 2002. The costume, which took a week to make, was a painstakingly exact replica, complete with battery compartment in the back. "That's where she went in," he said.
    Does anybody else think that this man has some issues? Liking your remote is one thing, but this seems above and beyond.
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    Karma: Contrapositive
  11. Re:I don't like it. by squaretorus · · Score: 2, Funny

    My dad has a TiVo (a gift for my mom...)

    Thats why being a dad is great - you can buy things for your spouse to 'show her how much you love her - think of all the cooking shows you can watch now'.

    My dad once bought my mum a new AMP for valentines. Nothing to do with the fact his own amp had dies a week earlier of course. And hey - it had a red ribbon on it! Who says romance is dead

  12. Re:Depends which one you have.. by geekoid · · Score: 5, Funny

    if you have two tivos, and hook them together, then do a live pause on one while the other one is recording, will you rip apart the fabric of time?

    This could be espcially bad if you have picture in picture.

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    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  13. One of the best remotes out there but... by gad_zuki! · · Score: 4, Funny

    It would be nice if it didn't look like a little black dildo on my bed when its flipped-over. Seriously.

    1. Re:One of the best remotes out there but... by brakk · · Score: 5, Funny

      I understand completely. I wouldn't want to get it confused with all my other black dildos either.

  14. Re:Google Link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    and the even funnier thing is that Your Mother's partner link works as well.

  15. Re:Sure it feels great, but looks? by Placido · · Score: 2, Funny

    >> I mean more weight than the batteries

    You mean like a small motor with an offset weight? Would that work for your girlfriend?

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    Pinky: "What are we going to do tomorrow night Brain?"
    Brain: "I would tell you Pinky but this 120 char limi
  16. his favorite remote by raygundan · · Score: 2, Funny

    I helped build the little parallel cable that runs his remote, since Aeronautical engineers aren't much with soldering irons. I was going to build one for myself, until I actually tried using his. I guess you get used to it, but I decided I prefer a remote where you can tell what the buttons do just by looking at it, rather than having to be the one that programmed it. He says "intuitive," but that's because it's his setup. I couldn't figure out how to control his replayTV with it. That's the big drawback for the programmable remotes that don't have screen faces-- you can't change the text.

    But hey, everybody likes what they like. I like the original Tivo peanut remote, but the new slightly longer one that came with my DirecTivo ruins the perfect balance and layout of the old one.

  17. intuition by boarder · · Score: 2, Funny

    The only way he "helped" was by letting me borrow his soldering iron. And the remote setup he used was on my 14-1994... I had that setup to have the exact layout of the original remote mimicked, so buttons were "mislabeled" but they were where I remembered them being on the original remote. The new 15-2116 has most of my codes in it natively, so it is setup with correctly labeled buttons. I had to relearn some positions, but now all my dorky friends can look at it and know what they do.

    There is something I find beautiful about only having a single remote on your coffee table that controls everything, instead of 4 or 5 remotes strewn everywhere.

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    IANAL, but I play one on /.
    1. Re:intuition by raygundan · · Score: 3, Funny

      He's lying, and I have pictures. He soldered nothing. Mostly, he was cutting apart the IDE cable (which I was admittedly pretty lousy at.)

      He does have an excellent point, though-- my trusty tivo remote covers about 80% of my viewing, but anything else requires that I use a pile o' remotes to change inputs and play dvds, etc...

  18. Re:Other remote controls by kmankmankman2001 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well some might say that the Comcast remote sucks so that it better matches the Comcast service.

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    "The bigger the lie, the more they believe." - Det. Bunk