It’s a system so you could watch and control a VCR from another room.
I don’t use the coax connector at all since it’s all digital*, but I do use the thin-wire IR extender for controlling stuff like DVRs from another room. In fact, from two different rooms.
I’ve looked at other IR extender systems and they all have drawbacks.
So, I’m keeping it and just used it an hour ago.
There’s HDMI splitter, switch, and a long cord for the video.
Tucked in shirts shouldn’t be a problem–the broadcasting industry has been handling this quite well with clip-on mics for years. When I was still using this technique I did it with both tucked-in and non-tucked-in shirts. YMMV of course.
For me the point is moot: Nowadays I am strictly Bluetooth since my Apple Watch has cellular service and can play audiobooks. I don’t need to take my phone with me on runs anymore.
As I said I’ve gone strictly Bluetooth; the headsets last much longer since the overall fragility of wires and cords is mostly not a factor. I’ve had a Sony WI-400 headset for well over a year and it will play all night and most of the next day on a single charge. Granted, I’m not listening it continuously, but it always works when needed. I recently bought another.
I can see how a clip-on mike can rein in an overlong cord, but it still doesn’t solve the issue of the wires and outer casing fraying at stress points, for example where the wires enter and leave the control housing.
That is the core problem I faced, and an entirely different problem from getting the wires out of the way.
The stupid Apple dongle doesn’t come with a right-angle option, so no matter how I tried my wired options would all result in eventual failure at the jack.
I wish Apple would stop thinking all we want is “thinner” and “wider”.
(sorry for the hijack).
In a tone more in line with the OP, I just spent a few glorious hours machining some cool little steam engine parts on a modern lathe that would have been just as at-home in a 1940’s workshop. All measurements with mechanical mics and dial calipers. What a joy!
Dredging this thread up (after I killed it apparently) to mention a new-found old joy:
Transcribing music by hand on staff paper.
I have been using Finale for music notation for years and always wondered why my wife still writes out sheet music by hand, until I finally gave it a try.
I LOVE it. There’s something quite satisfying about taking out a sheet of fresh music paper and writing out a cool bass line or transcribing a rendition of a song where I particularly like the bassist’s style.
Hand-writing the key signatures and notes seems to also be a good way reinforce general sight reading, the different keys and their order of sharps/flats, and to improve in rhythm annotation. Besides that, it’s so easy to add little sketches and cat scratches to indicate things like slides, ghost notes, and grace notes.
I have a “The Real Book” edition of bound blank staff paper that I am looking forward to filling up.
I don’t use an electric mixer. For eggs or cream, I use a hand-me-down hand-cranked egg-beater. For cakes or other batters I use a fork or a whisk if it’s thin enough. It’s more work, but part of my cooking is by feel and I can’t feel through an electric mixer.
I found a big dumb TV at Best Buy a couple years ago. The speakers didn’t last six months, the remote buttons almost all quit within a year, and the screen was decidedly off color by the time I moved and did not bother to bring it with me. I’m conflicted as to whether it was a good purchase. It was cheap and simple, but in hindsight buying a brand-name smart TV probably would have been a better long term investment, even if I never ended up using the smart features. My parents have a Samsung smart TV that they have had for at least five years now without any fuss, and they just use it for DVDs and satellite TV.
Uh…regarding that, have you given your next of kin instructions on your wishes for how to handle your journals?
I ask for the most practical of reasons: my brother passed away when I was in my early twenties, and he left behind a bookshelf of journals. My mom lived on the other side of the country so I was the one on scene to clean up his apartment, and I found the journals. She made me promise to not read them and made me promise I would burn them.
I can’t imagine what horrible stuff Mom figured was in them, but to this day I regret complying with her wishes. I burned them, as his best friend cried and begged me not to. It’s a double-edged sword–one can remember one’s loved one through their memoirs, but one might also find out unpleasant things.
Awhile back I noticed that the source code for Eudora had belatedly been released into the wild. It would be so cool if someone would issue an Intel-native MacOS version and update the connection protocols to handle all the modern variants and encodings and whatnot.
(this is real Eudora btw, not that “Pandora” / Thunderbird skin thingie)