[dba-Tech] Remotes

/>Look at your living room table and count the number of remotes
 >positioned thereupon. Include those that fell between the sofa cushions
 >while you drifted off switching between Conan and Craig Ferguson.

 >Why is this?
/
Might it be a bit of the 'free' market that's actually free?

P.

-----

Arthur Fuller wrote:

>Before I launch into this, let me ask this question. Look at your living
>room table and count the number of remotes positioned thereupon. Include
>those that fell between the sofa cushions while you drifted off switching
>between Conan and Craig Ferguson.
>
> 
>
>Why is this? 
>
> 
>
>I can go to Tokyo or London or Albequerque and rent a car and it works
>identically, no matter the brand, no matter the left/right rules. The car
>works identically. Very occasionally I have to grope to figure out how to
>dim the headlights, but most of the time I know exactly where everything is.
>
> 
>
>Borrow someone's cell phone for a moment (said cell from a different
>manufacturer than yours). Suddenly you're in the world of "grope".
>
> 
>
>TV is IMO the WORST offender. One remote for the TV, another for the DVD,
>another for the VHS. (By now I think BetaMaxes are all in the dustbin.)
>Click one wrong button on one remote and you spend 5 minutes figuring out
>the problem and you just missed the beginning of the most recent Law &
>Order. 
>
> 
>
>I think I hate software, but I hate hardware an order of magnitude more. Why
>o why cannot these manufacturers go to IEEE and settle on a spec, such that
>one single remote can work everything (including, incidentally, my sound
>system, microwave and so on)? 
>
> 
>
>I have seen allegedly universal remotes in the local stores, ranging from
>$19 to $99, and they are laughable. The $19 ones assume that you have the
>remote to machine X and that you will point them to each other and thus
>absorb the signals. Sheep manure! I should be able to point the allegedly
>universal remote at any receiving device and inhale its instruction set -
>and if there is a problem then automatically visit the manufacturer's site
>and download said instruction set and map it to the buttons on said
>allegedly universal remote. All of these devices have ops in common -
>loudness for example. Some have unique functions (i.e. dvd and cd can jump
>to next track), and some have functions shared with one or two devices (i.e.
>fast-forward within the selected track).
>
> 
>
>Being a dinosaur, I have lots of equipment incapable of such intelligent
>responses (Oracle 3-pin turntable, lots of stuff made by Bose, etc.), but
>the modern stuff I would expect capable of IEEE-like responses to a common
>set of signals. But it seems not to be the case. At the moment I have 3
>remotes on my coffee table, one for each device (cable tv input, dvd player
>and vhs player). Aside from the physical clutter there is the intellectual
>clutter. Why o why can't I have one device that works everything, including
>setting the microwave to start defrosting the object therein at exactly 5:11
>pm?
>
> 
>
>I don't get it. This seems SO obvious to me, as obvious as renting a car in
>another country and knowing how it operates. I must be missing something
>major here. or perhaps detecting an opportunity, as the marketing folks
>would phrase it. But I have been bitching and whining about this for years,
>and no one has leapt into the gap with a product that can do it. Is this
>because all the vendors keep secrets?
>
> 
>
> 
>
> 
>
> 
>
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>  
>
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