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Author Topic: 'Digital' - the magic word Andy Frodsham Expert Film Handler Posts: 238 From: Stoke on Trent, Staffs, UK Registered: Nov 2006 posted 06-19-2008 10:32 AM                     How come the word 'digital' is now invested with such seemingly magical properties? Lift up a magazine or newspaper, turn on the TV and everything is 'digital'. The latest gadget I saw being advertised was a device to provide 'digital pain relief' - basically a TENS machine with a digital display! For those who don't know, TENS is a system which provides small electrical stimulation (via stick-on electrodes) to various muscle groups. It can prove beneficial as a means of pain relief (and used in childbirth etc). I understand that most neuro-scientists and psychologists now conclude that human and animal brains involve a system of on/off electrochemical switching to store information. Does this mean that I can now describe myself as 'super digital'? If so, I must have one hell of a good feckin sampling rate!  |  IP: Logged Steve Guttag We forgot the crackers Gromit!!! Posts: 12814 From: Annapolis, MD Registered: Dec 1999 posted 06-19-2008 05:27 PM                     Go back 30 or so years and look up "Solid State." Steve  |  IP: Logged Bill Enos Film God Posts: 2081 From: Richmond, Virginia, USA Registered: Apr 2000 posted 06-19-2008 08:42 PM                     I saw digital hand cleaner a couple weeks ago, not an inaccurate description. Digital definition from a dictionary from the mid '70s or earlier will generally describe things pertaining to the hands or fingers.  |  IP: Logged Randy Stankey Film God Posts: 6539 From: Erie, Pennsylvania Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-19-2008 10:09 PM                     Hey! Look! It's a digital word processor! Basically the word "digital" has been lowered to nothing more than a buzzword anymore. You could put a pile of dog doo in a box and slap a label that says, "Digital!" on it. People would still buy it and think they got a bargain for it at twice the price. But... but... It's DIGITAL Doo-Doo!  |  IP: Logged Andy Frodsham Expert Film Handler Posts: 238 From: Stoke on Trent, Staffs, UK Registered: Nov 2006 posted 06-20-2008 01:30 AM                     Digital calculator! Just noticed that Hornby model railways are now digital! Apparently, you now apply constant voltage to the track and each locomotive has an individual I.D which can be called-up from the controller and subsequently addressed. Gone are the days of nice big chunky transformers. Now, when I was a boy!!!  |  IP: Logged Barry Floyd Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1079 From: Lebanon, Tennessee, USA Registered: Mar 2000 posted 06-20-2008 11:15 AM                        When we bought our house... our realtor made the point by stating that the new water heater was "all digital". How a water heater could be digital is beyong me. It just heats water.  |  IP: Logged Andy Frodsham Expert Film Handler Posts: 238 From: Stoke on Trent, Staffs, UK Registered: Nov 2006 posted 06-21-2008 05:12 PM                     Came across a 'digital food mixer' in a catalogue the other day! Actually, it had a LED display of the speed settings!!  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-21-2008 05:36 PM                        quote: Andy Frodsham Just noticed that Hornby model railways are now digital! Apparently, you now apply constant voltage to the track and each locomotive has an individual I.D which can be called-up from the controller and subsequently addressed. Gone are the days of nice big chunky transformers. I'm not sure if that system debuted on HO model trains first or not, but Lionel introduced it for the O gauge market in the mid '90s. It's very cool.  |  IP: Logged Charles Greenlee Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 801 From: Savannah, Ga, U.S. Registered: Jun 2006 posted 06-21-2008 09:36 PM                        My friend has an HO model railroad that run DCC. It's pretty cool. Multiple engine on the same ciruit of track can be controlled seperately. I designed a circuit to take the switching track signals to allow the system to control a roundhouse turntable. The system will allow a loco to roll on to the turntable, stop, will rotate the table to the proper bay, and then the loco will back into it's stall. The design uses the DCC's ability to automate track switching and trafficing of the locos. The acutal turnable circuitry is simple. I'll see if I can find the electronics workbench file I made it on.  |  IP: Logged Tristan Lane Master Film Handler Posts: 444 From: Nampa, Idaho Registered: Feb 2002 posted 06-22-2008 04:47 AM                     Y'know, I remember seeing a ton of old electronics that had the words "Solid State" on them. What exactly makes something solid state? Vacuum Tubes could be considered solid state by today's standards due to the fact that they don't have moving electronic components. One of these devices was a TV. How do you not make a TV solid state? Before solid state tv's were there crank models, or were motors involved in making the picture? Is digital the new "Solid State". Does every consumer device now have to be labeled digital in order to be appealing to the masses?  |  IP: Logged Robert Minichino Master Film Handler Posts: 350 From: Haskell, NJ, USA Registered: Dec 2005 posted 06-22-2008 09:38 AM                        Solid state electronics use only fixed, solid materials (metals and semiconductors) that electrons flow through with the various properties required to create circuits. A vacuum tube uses thermionic emission to propel electrons through a vacuum and relays use electromagnets and moving switch contacts, so they're not solid state.  |  IP: Logged Mark Gulbrandsen Resident Trollmaster Posts: 16657 From: Music City Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-22-2008 10:18 AM                     quote: Tristan Lane How do you not make a TV solid state? Trstian, My 1946 RCA 721TS has 34 vaccum toobes in it. All of them including the CRT rely on thermionic emission. This emission nor the toobes could hardly be considered "solid state" as the emission doesn't last for ever. The emission eventually declines with use and then drops below a usable level causing the toobe to stop functioning. On the other hand solid state devices do not exhibit this gradual drop off of function. Also, a semiconductor is essentially a "solid" piece of silicon thats been doped a certain way to make it conduct in a certain manner. Mark  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 06-22-2008 10:46 AM                        When I was selling electronics, to the consumer "solid state" basically just meant it had no tubes in it. The big advantage was you didn't have to wait for it to "warm up" - a radio would come on instantly. Seems kind of funny that now people think waiting for a high def DVD to "load" for a minute or more is no big deal. People in the '70s would never have put up with that!  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 퍼항시, 경상푹도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 06-22-2008 11:06 AM                     People will sing a different tune when players are out there that have no load time. Though I think your assessment is slightly off... a guy I hung out with in college told a story to me about how his dad helped build some bank company's first centralized network back in the 70's. They were getting the peculiar result that pretty much every time someone checked a user's balance, they'd do it again 2 or 3 times. He coded in a 3 second delay for all requests... and people stopped checking the balance. Apparently, if it answered too quickly they'd say to themselves "It COULDN'T have done it THAT fast!"  |  IP: Logged Michael Gonzalez Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 790 From: Grand Island , NE USA Registered: Sep 2000 posted 06-22-2008 04:52 PM                     BRING BACK FILM-TECH DIGITAL!!!  |  IP: Logged

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