Fun fact: placing a 2010 MacBook Pro on top of a closed and non-running 2006 MacBook will induce a sleep state in the MacBook Pro. Not so much fun if you can't figure out why the computer keeps going dead a second after the login screen comes up...
Magnets, how do they work?
Seriously, they use neodymium magnets on the screen to trigger a reed switch on the motherboard to signal the computer that the lid has been closed. I assume the magnet on the bottom computer is triggering the lid closed sensor on the top computer thus putting it in sleep mode.
In my experience it's pretty easy to spot malware when English menu options and stuff start appearing on a non-English Windows installation, such as "Open" or "Open folder to view files" for thumbdrives while the rest of the options show up in the local language, sometimes malware can even bork the system because of it (like in the olden days of Windows 9x when installing IE in a different language caused all sorts of havoc in the OS)
Even with such a blatant language mismatch most users simply won't notice anything wrong with their systems until it bites them really hard.
I've had both types: an old one that kept time and sounded the alarm on backup power and my current one that just keeps the time and sounds the alarm as soon as the power comes back. I presume that running the whole radio/buzzer at a decent volume until your lazy ass wakes up would drain the tiny 9V battery in a pinch.
My current alarm clock runs fast when the power is out, so if the power is out for, say, an hour, it'll be 5-10 minutes ahead when the power returns. I'm not sure if this is a feature or a bug.
It's just cheap cut-corner design. Your wall powered alarm clock uses the mains frequency (50 or 60 Hz) as its timebase which is very precise because power companies pride themselves on cycle accuracy. When the power goes out, an internal RC oscillator takes the place of the AC timebase. It barely passes for a basic timekeeping source as you have already noticed, since you can't get any real accuracy from such a cheap way of doing things. A quartz crystal instead of the RC crap would keep the clock highly accurate on all conditions but it would cost a few extra cents per unit, a big no-no for our Chinese manufacturing overlords. At least they bias it to get you up earlier instead of later.
Another way to make these really obvious is to use your operating system with any language other than English. Malware writers don't bother with localization, so their fake error messages always display in English regardless of your actual OS language. Even the USB autorun viruses are dead easy to spot, you know something's fishy when there's a lonely English menu option in the Autorun dialog, usually "Open folder to view files" while the rest aren't.
Amazingly, most people still click on the damned things.
Or the oldschool Mac remake known as Dome Wars. Pretty much the same game with slightly better gfx. Back when I was in high school my mates and I used to play the hell out of Dome Wars on my PowerBook 145 (25 MHz 68030, 640x400 1-bit LCD) which I hacked to run off a Tyco R/C car battery. Good times, good times.
IMO if you're putting that kind of work just to cheat on a test, you're already learning a lot of things (programming and/or electronics in case of hardware hacks), things that are arguably worth much more for your personal development than whatever the particular test might cover.
A Dual NAND Flash calculator with a hidden switch for choosing between two identical memory banks would be excellent for getting solver apps into standardized tests. Let the instructor reset your main NAND and see all your apps go poof, then switch to the hidden NAND during the test to get all your solver programs back. A reed switch with a flip-flop style latch would be totally invisible from outside of the calculator. Just carry a small magnet and hover it over the magic spot on your calc to switch memory banks.
You could get a console modding guy to do this to your calculator if you aren't good with electronics and/or fine pitch soldering, since they routinely deal with this sort of thing (installing a Dual NAND into a Wii comes to mind).
Not all microwave ovens have the rotating reflector thing. In fact most of them (especially modern ones) are too cheap to include such a component and they just spin the food around in the hopes of avoiding hot spots. Remove the rotating glass plate on a cheap oven and you'll get perfectly defined hot and cold spots.
I don't think that's the case, at least with the SMS-II. Alex Kidd in Miracle World, the built-in game, used the Pause button to access the inventory screen.
As Dwedit stated before, it's up to the game what to do with the NMI. Most games simply treated it as a "Halt program execution now!" button.
The real WTF here is having the pause button on the console itself.
It's like returning to the dark ages of TVs without remote controllers!
Also (if I'm not mistaken) the SMS' pause button fires off an NMI instead of being just another joypad input, making it more like a "Freeze" button. Notice how most SMS games pause like if you halted the main processor.
Remember having to put your PS1 on its side (or completely upside-down) or else it wouldn't read your games? The optical pickup mechanism of the early models of the PlayStation used a plastic piece as a guide for the sliding laser assembly, repeated motion degraded the plastic piece over time causing optical drift - turning the PS1 on its side forced the laser back to its correct position (yay gravity!).
Sony replaced that piece with a shiny metal guide in their later models, much like every CD-ROM drive has used for the past two decades or so.
Better keep special care of that 'treasured' cartridge since one day its internal backup battery will run out, permanently wiping your save file.
You can replace the cartridge's battery without losing your data if you solder another battery in parallel during the whole procedure (thus keeping the SRAM chip energized at all times).
Slashdot Mirror
...because we can use it for games!
put in a rectifier diode in line, only lets the smarts through!
or better yet, a bridge rectifier turns the stupid into smarts!
Fun fact: placing a 2010 MacBook Pro on top of a closed and non-running 2006 MacBook will induce a sleep state in the MacBook Pro. Not so much fun if you can't figure out why the computer keeps going dead a second after the login screen comes up...
Magnets, how do they work?
Seriously, they use neodymium magnets on the screen to trigger a reed switch on the motherboard to signal the computer that the lid has been closed. I assume the magnet on the bottom computer is triggering the lid closed sensor on the top computer thus putting it in sleep mode.
In my experience it's pretty easy to spot malware when English menu options and stuff start appearing on a non-English Windows installation, such as "Open" or "Open folder to view files" for thumbdrives while the rest of the options show up in the local language, sometimes malware can even bork the system because of it (like in the olden days of Windows 9x when installing IE in a different language caused all sorts of havoc in the OS)
Even with such a blatant language mismatch most users simply won't notice anything wrong with their systems until it bites them really hard.
The NES had its own unauthorized software lockout mechanism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/10NES
Back in the good old days, radios and TVs came with parts that failed after extended use.
The more things change, the more things stay the same. (thin electron gun Trinitron CRTs, capacitor plague, lead-free solder etc)
My current alarm clock runs fast when the power is out, so if the power is out for, say, an hour, it'll be 5-10 minutes ahead when the power returns. I'm not sure if this is a feature or a bug.
It's just cheap cut-corner design. Your wall powered alarm clock uses the mains frequency (50 or 60 Hz) as its timebase which is very precise because power companies pride themselves on cycle accuracy. When the power goes out, an internal RC oscillator takes the place of the AC timebase. It barely passes for a basic timekeeping source as you have already noticed, since you can't get any real accuracy from such a cheap way of doing things. A quartz crystal instead of the RC crap would keep the clock highly accurate on all conditions but it would cost a few extra cents per unit, a big no-no for our Chinese manufacturing overlords. At least they bias it to get you up earlier instead of later.
Another way to make these really obvious is to use your operating system with any language other than English. Malware writers don't bother with localization, so their fake error messages always display in English regardless of your actual OS language. Even the USB autorun viruses are dead easy to spot, you know something's fishy when there's a lonely English menu option in the Autorun dialog, usually "Open folder to view files" while the rest aren't.
Amazingly, most people still click on the damned things.
Or the oldschool Mac remake known as Dome Wars. Pretty much the same game with slightly better gfx. Back when I was in high school my mates and I used to play the hell out of Dome Wars on my PowerBook 145 (25 MHz 68030, 640x400 1-bit LCD) which I hacked to run off a Tyco R/C car battery. Good times, good times.
IMO if you're putting that kind of work just to cheat on a test, you're already learning a lot of things (programming and/or electronics in case of hardware hacks), things that are arguably worth much more for your personal development than whatever the particular test might cover.
A Dual NAND Flash calculator with a hidden switch for choosing between two identical memory banks would be excellent for getting solver apps into standardized tests. Let the instructor reset your main NAND and see all your apps go poof, then switch to the hidden NAND during the test to get all your solver programs back. A reed switch with a flip-flop style latch would be totally invisible from outside of the calculator. Just carry a small magnet and hover it over the magic spot on your calc to switch memory banks.
You could get a console modding guy to do this to your calculator if you aren't good with electronics and/or fine pitch soldering, since they routinely deal with this sort of thing (installing a Dual NAND into a Wii comes to mind).
Not all microwave ovens have the rotating reflector thing. In fact most of them (especially modern ones) are too cheap to include such a component and they just spin the food around in the hopes of avoiding hot spots. Remove the rotating glass plate on a cheap oven and you'll get perfectly defined hot and cold spots.
2 is 10 in binary.
I don't think that's the case, at least with the SMS-II. Alex Kidd in Miracle World, the built-in game, used the Pause button to access the inventory screen.
As Dwedit stated before, it's up to the game what to do with the NMI. Most games simply treated it as a "Halt program execution now!" button.
And don't forget flaky PSUs which caused the console to get trapped in an infinite reset cycle.
Also the Dreamcast optical drive is obnoxiously LOUD!
The real WTF here is having the pause button on the console itself.
It's like returning to the dark ages of TVs without remote controllers!
Also (if I'm not mistaken) the SMS' pause button fires off an NMI instead of being just another joypad input, making it more like a "Freeze" button. Notice how most SMS games pause like if you halted the main processor.
Remember having to put your PS1 on its side (or completely upside-down) or else it wouldn't read your games? The optical pickup mechanism of the early models of the PlayStation used a plastic piece as a guide for the sliding laser assembly, repeated motion degraded the plastic piece over time causing optical drift - turning the PS1 on its side forced the laser back to its correct position (yay gravity!).
Sony replaced that piece with a shiny metal guide in their later models, much like every CD-ROM drive has used for the past two decades or so.
Better keep special care of that 'treasured' cartridge since one day its internal backup battery will run out, permanently wiping your save file.
You can replace the cartridge's battery without losing your data if you solder another battery in parallel during the whole procedure (thus keeping the SRAM chip energized at all times).
Speccy: Tape recorder to Line-In of PC + Taper software
C64: 1541 drive + XM1541 or similar cable + Star Commander software
then it's just a matter of copying the resulting files to the microSD card.