[PREV - INTELLECTUAL_MECHANISM]    [TOP]

MODCONS

                                                    May  3, 2010
Have I remarked today on how much I enjoy
the convenience of modern technology?

I get some food together, and decide
to sit down and watch a DVD.

  o  Pop the case open, get a whiff of
     noxious plasticizers.

  o  Fight the spider, which holds the
     center of the disk with a death grip.

  o  Power up the Philips, wait.

  o  Punch the open button, wait.

  o  Wait for the DVD to get through the
     FBI warning and corporate flourishes     Typically it will not let you
     (yes, not much difference)               skip past these things: we
                                              control the vertical, we
  o  Then you need to navigate                control the "trusted client".
     the trailers.
                                                If I think of it, I often
Then you need to study the root menu,           start-up the disk with the
which is, of course, not standardized,          screen off, before I'm
because that would impinge on the               ready to watch it.
freedom of Designers to display their
creativity while your food is getting               Something like putting
cold.                                               the kettle on the moment
                                                    you step into the kitchen.
  o  Hit play all.
                                                        Or like Number 6's
Oops: if this is an anime disk, the defaults are        morning routine,
usually all wrong:                                      shoving the radio
                                                        inside the refrigerator.
   o  go into setup.

      o  switch off dubs
      o  switch on subs        (Do these two things *have*
                               to be a separate step?)


There are often Resume features that
will let you start again from where
you left off last time, but I can
never quite remember how to do this          And you know, if this
with my Phillips... it's a hidden            were just one of those
feature of some sort: when you hit           primitive old VHS tapes,
play (or powerup?) you also have to          "Resume" would be the
lean on some other key at the same           default.  Shove the tape
time.                                        in, and it plays.

You've got to do this at just the                And no nonsense about
right time.  if you forget and miss              not being *allowed*
the window you're screwed.                       to fast-forward past
                                                 certain parts of it.
    Also, I often turn it off with a
    power-strip, which I suspect
    erases the memory.



--------
[NEXT - BICYCLES]