||()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()||
   ||         THE REMOTE CONTROL         ||
   ||()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()||


  So, you're sitting there, doing what you do best, nothing, when you have
a deeply platonic thought, or just an idiotic convergence of luck and the
little brain power you have left, regardless of which, you think "How does
this television remote control switch thingy work?". Well, being who I am
and all, I've devoted my life's work to remote control studies (well, not
really, I just like to say so, so I can get free rice-cakes at Dairy Mart),
I bring you:

           The Legend Of The Dancing Remote Control Device
                  (ok, so there's no dancing... yet)
                        ____________________

The legend of the remote is really one of micro-electronics, the transistor,
and silicon chips.  You see, with the promise of "man-made-moons" orbiting
the earth broadcasting live telecasts across the world, children
everywhere demanded a system of channel changing that would disable their
present method of doing things - the parent or elder would order them to
get up out of their position, and turn the dial to the channel to the
specifications of the elder.  These poor children got their wish, in the
form of the _Remote_Control_.  That invention has undermined the
authoritarian ways of channel changing in the suburban household (although
there's still the factor of WHO has the remote).
  So, how does this marvel of modern technology and social-unrest work?
Well, when you press a button on the remote, the actual chip triggers an
oscillator which in turn triggers an infra-red beam.  For those of you who
flunked science class, infra-red is made up of electromagnetic waves,
outside our spectrum of sight.  The beam sends binary code to a device in
the television, which is very sensitive to infra-red.  The code varies for
which button is pressed, channel up, volume down, one, etc, etc.  The
device that picks this up sends the code to another silicon chip, inside
the TV, which does the decoding.  Then of course, that chip triggers the
electronics that executes whatever you told it to do.
  Newer model remote controls, have bigger better add ons and toys. Many
new remotes have LCDs and advanced options, but function the same way on a
basic level.
  One cannot measure the sociological effects that this relatively simple
invention has had,  it has overthrown the hiarchial system of channel
changing, a monumental task.


  EOF