TV 

Although my father worked for a company that had a division that made them, and could get a set at company prices, we were late TV adopters.  My parents thought it too distracting when we were students and it was generally referred to as the 'idiot box'.

When we finally got a set it wasn't supposed to be turned on until the ABC news at 7:00 pm. But once we had it my parents were like 'poker machine addicts'.  7:00 became 6:30; for 'Bellbird' then 6:00 at the weekend for 6 O'clock Rock.  Before we knew it we were watching commercial channels like 'The Gordon Chater Show'; 'Mavis Bramston'; and Bandstand;  just for the go-go dancers. 

If this sketch {youtube}PHvxgGfUcXk|600|450|0{/youtube} 

(I'm sorry but it's no longer here) from Mavis Bramston seems incomprehensible, have a look at this one (that it was a parody of): {youtube}KCcZyW-6-5o|600|450|0{/youtube}

That an ancient comedy sketch, that is no longer funny and is interesting only in its historical context, should be taken down for copyright reasons is indicative of what's wrong with ridiculously long copyright protection.  See also my comments here.

You see TV once had to be educational. Next time you are in a plane and consider the wings out of your window you will know how many thousands of tonnes of aircraft stays in the air.

Click, click, click, went the golden knob of the turret tuner on the front.  Three channels to choose from until 1965 when ITS (channel 10) made it four.  How could we decide?   

No remotes in those days; only 16 or so valves to do all the electronics.  Complicated but comprehensible.  Lots of scope for tuning it up with a non-magnetic screwdriver made from a plastic knitting needle.  No colour information processed through a delay line or colour burst information during the fly-back synchronisation then; PAL colour was not to come until 1975.

Colour increased the complexity enormously but with a little effort, mending a TV was still within the grasp of a real dad.  TVs, like Hi Fi amplifiers and tuners, still came with a circuit diagram in the manufacturer's instruction book so that a moderately skilled owner could repair them.  

But an oscilloscope now needed to be added to the tools required. Mine is still in a box under the house; I can't bear to throw it out; its beautiful.  I built it from a Heathkit, when I lived in New York, to replace an earlier home-made one left in Sydney. 

Today not even a real electronics engineer could explain the finer circuit details.  The processes take place incomprehensibly by means of thousands of transistors etched onto tiny  microchips surface-mounted robotically onto circuit boards that are so complex that only a computer can design them. 

The days of etching your own circuit designs onto copper laminated boards are long gone.

The signals are no longer analogue.  TV, digital radio, phones and almost all electronics employs computer technology, using programmed software and firmware, that is in turn designed and developed using a computer.  

Now its impossible to open the back of a TV; swing out the boards; and go to work with a multimeter and soldering iron.  

We just throw away the whole sub-assembly, or more often whole TV;  just like a computer.  Some of that fun is gone forever. 

Instead we have the fun of creating programs for computers; and websites.