Co-inventor of the Remote Control passes

Co-inventor is a term that Dr. Adler invented but was hated by the real inventor, Eugenne Polley. Eugene's invention used a light source to control the TV and is what the modern ones have descended from. Dr. Adler's remote used sound waves to control the TV. While it worked better than Dr. Polley's at the time it was a technological dead end.

The flashmatic predated the space command system and the two never worked on this technology together.

But he claimed credit for the invention his whole life. I met him once and he was a shameless self promoter. If it sounds like I don't have much respect for Dr. Adler, well, it is because I don't. How he dealt with Dr. Polley is just one example of why.
 
smigaldi said:
How he dealt with Dr. Polley is just one example of why.
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Not to mention the fact that they're both probably at least 50% responsible for the rise in obesity in this country.
:rofl:

Judy
 
smigaldi said:
But thumb fitness has never been higher. ;)
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:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

Oh yeah, definitely--until everyone gets old enough to get arthritis in their thumbs. Then they'll find out that the straight-forefinger technique that us older types use is still the most ergonomically sensible.

I had knee surgery a couple of months ago, and before I had it, my activity level, which is usually pretty high, really took a dive. Between that and stress at work (which I fixed by quitting), my weight ballooned and my blood pressure soared. Made me realize just how important working those BIG muscles in the legs really is, not that I didn't know that already. It's only been in the last week that I've been able to exercise hard enough to get my heart rate over 100. You just can't do that with working only your upper body---not to mention working only your thumb. Thumb muscles working at peak performance must burn all of a 1 calorie (kilocalorie, actually, for you know-it-alls) per thousand hours of exercise.

Judy
 
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His parents came to regret that Adler had been given the wrong name. Had they named him Richard, Enrico(or the like) he, in later years, might have been known as "Ricker the Slicker Clicker."

:o)
 
Bummer.

My dad has his own business doing TV repair specializing in Zenith. I couldn't start to count the number of Zenith Space Command remotes we had laying around. They were dirt simple to repair. I remember making a windchime out of the little aluminum rods that the hammer struck. Mom made me take it apart because every time the wind blew, the tv would change channels, mute itself or turn on/off.

The old tv's were fun to work on. NO pc boards for fast food reject technicians to replace until the problem went away. The tv's were all wire, wiring terminals and components. You had to read schematics and know what you were doing. An oscilliscope was essential tool.
 
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