We’re trans-friendly here, you can come out

Edit: I interpreted the two pics as a two-panel progression

The remote was lying around and I just pointed it at an ATmega on a small breadboard with this code when nobody was looking. I muted the TV briefly to check that it worked, and took the device home to make a transmit-only ATtiny version inside one of those promotional keychains that have a coin cell, button and LED. I didn’t bother with writing the program the “right” way (sleep mode and pin change interrupt, which would eliminate button contact problems and allow for more complex behavior like more buttons or multiple-press), the ATmega just plays the sequence on powerup.

The other option is to find the closest possible TV model online (not easy, wall-mounted TVs you can’t see from the back barely have any distinguishing features) and check if the listed remote code works. Or use an IR-enabled smartphone, the various apps cover most TV models.

I made an Arduino IR cloner, took it to the barbershop and when nobody was looking copied the mute button’s code so I now have a little device to silence the long Retro Music Television ad breaks I would otherwise have to endure. I don’t really go anywhere with TVs otherwise.

It definitely still works in the Czech Republic and Germany. Our pre-2023 president was an avid user. Public TV stations hand-format their own and syndicated news for 39 columns and pick monthly poetry. Commercial stations just automatically jam syndicated news into the format, sometimes overflowing to another subpage just by 1 word, and host huge amounts of banner and fullscreen ads with meh graphics by Teletext standards, mostly for dodgy phone services like tarot and erotic hotlines. They also host “chat24”, probably the worst message board ever: imagine a public IRC room but $0.50 per message (by SMS) including setting your nickname and color.

Pics: https://imgur.com/a/JF3wN6L

https://www.noblecollection.com/Item--i-PRP-HP-8050

Raise it straight up in the air and say “Addi-nau-seum” into the microphone, then quickly point it at the TV.

That is not the problem. Politicians should often be forward-thinking. In the US, failure to plan more than 2 years ahead is a huge detriment to infrastructure funding. Of course, central long-term planning à la USSR that does not consider market developments is an example of how wrong the opposite extreme can go.

I found a cool way of ad-blocking back when I watched TV. Probably does not work anymore, and relies on Teletext page 888 (closed captions, the number varies by country) not being updated during ads.

1. Mute
2. Switch to another channel and back to clear Teletext cache
3. Turn on fullscreen Teletext, any page (I like the 89x test patterns)
4. Type “888” as the page you want to go to
5. The TV will now wait for 888 to be broadcast, which only happens after ads and trailers
6. The program is now running with captions. Disable Teletext and unmute if you want sound instead.

I like how the DITMM casually shows “Testy” as the example medication… FtM reference?

Finally. Judging by store music, I’ve been afraid for weeks it might drop tomorrow and I don’t have any presents ready.

You’re not dumb if you fail to understand a book of philosophy. Very few are as straightforward as Das Kapital for example.

Right, I was expecting the earlier one to be a work of fiction

You’re probably right. My biggest flaw is that I fail to notice forks, guarded pieces and other obvious patterns, and don’t know any nuances in the general strategy other than “exposed king bad, having more pieces good, K>Q>R>N>B>P”.

Sounds like at least one of the books in question is shit

I also know how chess pieces move, other than the rare en passant, but will lose to anyone willing to challenge me and I don’t think I could get much better than mediocre with any amount of practice. However, I got full marks on a Mensa IQ test so I’d say I’m intellingent in a way but with my mild autism, likely ADHD and lack of practical skills, it’s hard to tell. I have done lots of stupid decisions IRL, often repeatedly.

Would I say I’m “smart”? Depends. Intelligent, probably. Wise, hell no.

Thinnest Unicode whitespace. In my headcanon, the Czech language uses it as the preferred thousands separator (though some people prefer thin space, and most people just use space or nbsp) and I sometimes use it in German and English too because it’s unambiguous.

Example uses:
3 141 592 653.589
s u b t l e   k e r n i n g

Capital IT in the title please (you can still edit it) or it feels like an aneurysm

I concede that very few people bother to learn the sequence or create a keybinding to symbols used at school. You can copy/paste if you only need it rarely, or use a software symbol selector (its icon in Word and Sheets is literally Ω). However, every keyboard that has a searchable emoji picker should also index the rest of Unicode in my opinion.

Custom keybindings I use the most are (in no particular order) πµΩαβγΔΣσ²³±√∞≤≥≠∈⋮⌀∙█⚠☢☣♥⚙✔✖❗←↑→↓·–ẞ, nbsp and hair space. There is also ☃ (Shift+AltGr+8) as an XKCD reference.

You’re right. The Czech keyboard has a key that types § on base level (no modifier keys!) but no way to write a backtick, and the {}[]<>#@€$ symbols require right-Alt (AltGr), not to mention the ´/ˇ modifier sequence required for the not-very-uncommon letters ďťňó or any capital letter with diacritics. It was apparently created by bureaucrats who expect users to write about laws every day.

Christians also use the omega on this thing. Which is secretly a multimeter for current and resistance.

The joke comes from a Czech Uncyclopedia article, machine-translated for your convenience:

Combined current and resistance meter

A combined current and resistance meter is an electrical instrument that can measure both electric current (in amperes) and resistance (in ohms). The voltage can then be calculated from these two quantities using Ohm’s law, but its measurement does not have the same iconic significance as the measurement of current (see Cult of the ammeter) and resistance (see Church of measuring electrical resistance in whole units without the use of numerals), so it is not necessarily necessary to measure the voltage directly.

[img]
A combined current and resistance meter, called a pascal, shows values of 2.0 A and 1.3 Ω

Design

The meter is in the form of a cylinder, which is usually about 0.5 meters long (equivalent to 5.285×10-15 light years), with a radius of about 5 cm (i.e. 0.000 475 the length of a football field, but more importantly for us it is 5×1016times the size of an electron). Along the length of the cylinder, in its axis, runs the semiconductor. Otherwise, the meter material is true bee paraffin (chemically CnH2n+2, where n takes values in the interval <18; 32>).

The meter exploits the specific physical properties of paraffin, namely its ability to sublimate at a given temperature and pressure. The amperes (A) and ohms (Ω) symbols are listed in red on the side of the cylinder. Between them is a polarity symbol (usually + for positive values) and around it four digits with the measured values. There are also five capacitors in these locations.

On the ohmic end there is a socket. The ampere end is sharply terminated, there is a light indicator. The meter causes, as we have already mentioned, sublimation of the paraffin and thus shortening of the meter. The disadvantage of this meter is that it gets quite hot at the upper end during operation, but if necessary the meter can be shortened with a knife or otherwise adjusted around the light indicator.

Usage

As already mentioned, the measurement of current and resistance is mainly of cult significance. Therefore, this meter is also used in religious ceremonies, especially in Christian churches. In fact, Christians are based on Jesus’ statement, recorded in the Bible, “I am the Ampere and the Ohm, the beginning and the end.” (Or something like that, depending on the translation.)

The ceremony of measuring current and voltage takes place every year at Easter on the night of White Saturday. That’s when Christians light a giant light bulb to remind them that Jesus Christ is the Light of the World. After the European Union banned light bulbs, Christians replaced them with lighting fires. This has also brought certain advantages, for example, it is easier to burn a heretic in a fire than in a light bulb.

However, this change required some modifications in the design of the meter so that it could convert its light energy into current and resistance. The connection of the meter to the fire (and previously to the bulb) may only be made by a priest. In doing so, he sings the so-called Exsultet, a hymn of praise in which the origins and function of the meter are explained.

A new meter used at Easter is then placed in a place of honour in the church throughout the following year.

It is used again every Sunday (except during Lent), every day at Easter time, and again at baptisms. Before baptism, it is necessary to measure the electric current flowing through the font and the resistance of the water, so it is necessary to immerse the ohmic end of the meter in the font. If the ohmic end of the meter is insufficiently sealed, water will rise into the central semiconductor, which will result in a variable intensity of the indicator light.

Measurement results

Although current and resistance measurements occur worldwide under different local conditions, the results of measurements at the same point in time tend to be identical. This demonstrates some supernatural influence. We also observe that every year there is an increase of 0.1 ohm in the measured resistance value, while the measured current values tend to be constant over a longer period of time. It is only when the measured resistance exceeds 9.9 ohms that the so-called breakthrough occurs and the current increases by 0.1 ohm the next year while zero resistance is measured. This event is celebrated by the Church as the so-called Jubilee Year, and in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Basilica a new gate is broken through to allow the increased current to pass.

No one yet knows what will happen when the current exceeds 9.9 amperes, which will put it outside the range of measuring instruments currently in use. It is possible that the end of the world, or at least the demise of the Church, will occur because of this, so that no combined current and resistance meters will be needed. It is equally possible that there will be a meter upgrade.

https://jabde.com/2022/03/13/three-letter-acronym-crisis/

Exactly. Write “α/β/ω” if you want it to be read correctly, or at least “A/B/Ω” (the A and B are Latin homoglyphs and everyone should know how to read/write/type the capital omega because of electrical resistance). Similarly, zero-crossing detection, three-letter acronyms etc. should be abbreviated with digits.