This was one of the remote controls at the vacation house we rented over the weekend in Sutter Creek. I'm convinced you could fly the Space Shuttle with this thing. I think the "Exit" button at the right controls the airlock.
No kidding. I wonder if anybody who designs remotes ever does something crazy like, say, actually ASK SOMEONE WHAT BUTTONS THEY WANT ON THEIR REMOTE. Personally, I use the "On-Off", "Play", "Fast Forward", "Rewind", volume control, and the cursor/select buttons, and that's about it. The one that really gets me is the "Open/Eject" button on the DVD player remote. What's the point? You have to physically go over there and take the DVD or videotape out of the machine anyway, so there's no reason not to just press the button on the front of the machine. What does having that function on your remote actually get you? And then there are about a dozen buttons that you use to set up the machine the day you take it out of the box, and then you never press them again. Wouldn't it be better just to have them on the front panel of the machine, so they are out of the way most of the time? And, incidentally, so that the machine doesn't become an inert hunk of unusable plastic after the dog chews up the remote?
Tim, I totally agree about the front panel buttons. I hate the machines that don't give you controls on the front panel, but instead give you some kind of uber-remote which controls more than just what you bought and has all kinds of extraneous controls on it.
Hah! That one looks like easy cheese compared to the remote my brother and his family use for their HD TV and DVR box. Scotty and Geordi La Forge together would have trouble figuring this thing out. It has so many buttons in so many different colors, it looks like a box of jellybeans. There is indeed such a thing as having too many features and options.
3 comments:
No kidding. I wonder if anybody who designs remotes ever does something crazy like, say, actually ASK SOMEONE WHAT BUTTONS THEY WANT ON THEIR REMOTE. Personally, I use the "On-Off", "Play", "Fast Forward", "Rewind", volume control, and the cursor/select buttons, and that's about it. The one that really gets me is the "Open/Eject" button on the DVD player remote. What's the point? You have to physically go over there and take the DVD or videotape out of the machine anyway, so there's no reason not to just press the button on the front of the machine. What does having that function on your remote actually get you? And then there are about a dozen buttons that you use to set up the machine the day you take it out of the box, and then you never press them again. Wouldn't it be better just to have them on the front panel of the machine, so they are out of the way most of the time? And, incidentally, so that the machine doesn't become an inert hunk of unusable plastic after the dog chews up the remote?
Tim, I totally agree about the front panel buttons. I hate the machines that don't give you controls on the front panel, but instead give you some kind of uber-remote which controls more than just what you bought and has all kinds of extraneous controls on it.
Hah! That one looks like easy cheese compared to the remote my brother and his family use for their HD TV and DVR box. Scotty and Geordi La Forge together would have trouble figuring this thing out. It has so many buttons in so many different colors, it looks like a box of jellybeans. There is indeed such a thing as having too many features and options.
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