[comp.sys.apple2] Remote Control

$CSD211@LSUVM.BITNET (Mark Orr) (11/16/90)

Last night, while watching Beyond 2000 on the Discovery Channel, I saw
something rather odd. One of the women on the program was sitting in
front of a bunch of video and stereo equipment, and she was talking
about how all these items had its own remote control. She said "Many
manufacturers make universal remotes but the most sophisticated is this
one made by Apple Computer. She showed this small T-shaped remote IN A
PLATINUM CASE. Now I know that Steve Wozniak started a company called
CL-9 that made a universal remote...is that it?? is Apple marketing it?
Did Apple sponsor (or do they own) CL-9? What's the deal here?

BTW, does anyone know if Pirate's Harbor still around?

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! Mark Orr                   !    "If you can only read one newspaper
! $CSD211@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU !        read the opposition's"
!        @LSUVM.BITNET       !
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gt0t+@andrew.cmu.edu (Gregory Ross Thompson) (11/17/90)

$CSD211@LSUVM.BITNET (Mark Orr) writes:
> about how all these items had its own remote control. She said "Many
> manufacturers make universal remotes but the most sophisticated is this
> one made by Apple Computer. She showed this small T-shaped remote IN A
> PLATINUM CASE. Now I know that Steve Wozniak started a company called
> CL-9 that made a universal remote...is that it?? is Apple marketing it?
> Did Apple sponsor (or do they own) CL-9? What's the deal here?

  Hmm, the remote that Wozniak made was called the Core (I believe).
In fact, it ran off of a 6502.  From what I've heard about it, you
could program the thing to turn on your vcr and have it record at
X:XX.  Pretty nice remote.  I'd get one if I had the dough and if I
could find it somewhere.

> BTW, does anyone know if Pirate's Harbor still around?

  Dunno, haven't heard about Pirate's Harbor in quite a while...

> ------------------------------
> ! Mark Orr                   !    "If you can only read one newspaper
> ! $CSD211@LSUVM.SNCC.LSU.EDU !        read the opposition's"
> !        @LSUVM.BITNET       !
> ------------------------------

		-Greg T.

As a side note..  Let's cut the copyright/license crap.  It's getting
kinda boring.

unknown@ucscb.UCSC.EDU (The Unknown User) (11/17/90)

In <9011161546.AA15541@apple.com> $CSD211@LSUVM.BITNET (Mark Orr) writes:
>Last night, while watching Beyond 2000 on the Discovery Channel, I saw
>something rather odd. One of the women on the program was sitting in
>front of a bunch of video and stereo equipment, and she was talking
>about how all these items had its own remote control. She said "Many
>manufacturers make universal remotes but the most sophisticated is this
>one made by Apple Computer. She showed this small T-shaped remote IN A
>PLATINUM CASE. Now I know that Steve Wozniak started a company called
>CL-9 that made a universal remote...is that it?? is Apple marketing it?
>Did Apple sponsor (or do they own) CL-9? What's the deal here?

	Well, from what I remember, the remote that was made by 
Woz's company (CL-9, as you say.. originally called Cloud 9 but had
to change their name as some other company had the name), was basically
"regular remote control" shaped...

	It was called the CORE. Someone I know (one of the people
fired from Apple a while ago after FBI interviews) wrote the software
so that you could REPROGRAM THE REMOTE from an Apple computer and 
dump the current operating specs to the Apple also...

	But I highly doubt Apple is marketing it. I won't say NO, but I
have heard nothing about it and I think it'd be more widely known..

	A couple of years ago CL-9 went under.. I think the guy I know
still has one or two of them... I think there was also some strange
problem with the thing that if some certain battery inside of it wore out
the thing died.. and it wasn't the 'regular' batteries in a remote control..
Something INSIDE the doohickey... I could be wrong about this but 
seem to remember the guy I know telling me about that.

	It was a really cool device from what I saw of it though.

>BTW, does anyone know if Pirate's Harbor still around?

	No, I don't know.. Why don't you call up the #?  I'm presuming
you're talking about the SF based (at least it was a 415 7xx number) Pirate's
Harbor. There aren't many of the "good ol'" BBSes around in the Bay Area
anymore.. The oldest that I know of that are still around are The Tavern
and Dragon's Lair (ProTERM Special Emulation support for the past few years)
	
	Oh, the absolute JOYS (horrendous amount of sarcasm) of being
a teenager with a modem and not realizing that a phone number isn't 
necessarily local if it's in your area code!!!  I remember I racked
up like $30 and $40 phone bills the first few months I modemmed.
	I called Pirate's Harbor once or twice too even though I knew it
was a big long distance charge. But the thing charged a FEE, and it was
a huge fee! A pirate board, WITH A FEE! How scummy! (Please don't say you
feel any kind of a pirate board is scummy, as I have said lots of times, I
don't believe that piracy is wrong as a testing-out mechanism.. If it's good,
then buy it).

Now the story of how I got into modemming:
  I got into modemming since my dad got this cruddy DECMate II 'computer'
and a Smartmodem 1200 from his work.. This was around '83-'84, before
most people even HAD 1200 baud.. He built a little switchbox so I could
use the modem and he could use our Imagewriter I from his DECMate thing..
As another aside, they sure charge a HELL of a lot for those switchboxes!
The thing costs less than $10 in parts!
-- 
/Apple II(GS) Forever! unknown@ucscb.ucsc.edu MAIL ME FOR INFO ABOUT CHEAP CDs\
\"If cartoons were meant for adults, they'd be on in prime time."-Lisa Simpson/

alfter@uns-helios.nevada.edu (Scott Alfter) (11/17/90)

Woz also designed one of those remote control amplifiers.  I don't
know anything about his starting another company or if that other
company would've been absorbed by Apple (the latter is highly
unlikely, IMHO).

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Scott Alfter                             _/_
                                        / v \ Apple II:
Internet: alfter@uns-helios.nevada.edu (    ( the power to be your best!
   GEnie: S.ALFTER                      \_^_/