[HN Gopher] The cheesy charm of the Clapper
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The cheesy charm of the Clapper
Author : Brajeshwar
Score : 69 points
Date : 2024-01-01 13:48 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (spectrum.ieee.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org)
| pyrale wrote:
| > Despite its name, the Great American Turn-On was invented in
| Canada.
|
| I wonder whether Canadians usually call themselves American, or
| whether this habit of USAns to monopolize the word influenced
| them into not using it.
| gwd wrote:
| Here are the phases I went through as an American using
| "American":
|
| 1. Born in America; it's a big country, don't know much about
| the outside, just call it "America" and myself an "American".
|
| 2. Gain more knowledge of the outside world, realize the world
| and the Americas are even bigger. Start calling it "the States"
| or "the US" or things like that.
|
| 3. Gain even more experience of the outside world, realize that
| basically everyone _in the world_ calls it "America" and calls
| us "Americans", and is confused by Americans who don't.
| Encounter forms written by foreign governments where "American"
| is the only option I can choose to describe my citizenship.
| Start calling it "America" again.
|
| Kind of like the "Jedi IQ Bell Curve" thing.
|
| FWIW I went through something similar with "Chinese", but then
| went out the other side:
|
| 1. Don't know anything about China, call the language that
| Chinese people speak "Chinese".
|
| 2. Start hearing about different "dialects" within China; start
| calling it "Mandarin".
|
| 3. Learn Mandarin, and start reading / talking with people from
| China. All the people I talk to in Mandarin say "Chinese"
| (Zhong Wen ) rather than "Mandarin" (Yi Yu ). So start just
| saying "Chinese" in both English and Mandarin.
|
| 4. Marry a native Cantonese speaker. Realize that the majority
| Mandarin-speaking Han population are engaging in cultural
| imperialism and suppression against minorities. Start saying
| "Mandarin" again in English, and Pu Tong Hua (putonghua /
| "common speech") in Mandarin / Cantonese.
| quesera wrote:
| In my experience, working with people from Canada to
| Argentina, _everyone_ has said that "America" in their
| common vernacular means the US of A, and "Americans"
| accordingly.
|
| But I wonder if this isn't just the US version of your
| Mandarin step 4. The US has dominated the global cultural
| conversation and the "other americans" have given up or never
| thought to challenge it.
|
| ...
|
| Distantly related: I have spoken to Mexicans who are annoyed
| that Americans frequently (wrongly) think that only Canada
| and the US are "North America".
| gwd wrote:
| > The US has dominated the global cultural conversation and
| the "other americans" have given up or never thought to
| challenge it.
|
| To be equivalent, it would have to be the US saying that
| Canadians and Mexicans were "really" just "states" of
| America (as Beijing insists that Cantonese is "really" just
| a "dialect" of Chinese) and intentionally attempting to
| marginalize Canadian / Mexican distinctives.
|
| I don't think I'd mind calling Mandarin "Chinese" if they
| didn't then insist that Cantonese is also "Chinese", use
| that to gaslight Cantonese speakers into thinking that
| their spoken language wasn't a real language, but "full of
| slang", and that their written language needed to be closer
| to Mandarin to be "correct Chinese".
| quesera wrote:
| Intent is different (and important), but I was wondering
| if the effect might be similar, regardless of intent.
| edgyquant wrote:
| Do Americans frequently think that? That's a surprise to me
| as everyone is taught in school that Mexico is part of
| North America and I've never met an American who thought
| otherwise
| quesera wrote:
| Apparently, frequently enough that the Mexicans I spoke
| to were aware of it and had thoughts on the matter. In
| general, they are very aware of the political currents in
| the US seeking to marginalize/disparage Mexico and
| Mexicans.
|
| And, we are taught a lot of things in school that are not
| retained. Some 50% of American high school graduates
| can't find Florida on a map.
| CoastalCoder wrote:
| > Do Americans frequently think that?
|
| Not in my experience (lifelong American). I'm not aware
| of any project to make people think all of North and
| South America are, in fact, rightly part of the U.S.[1]
|
| The only slightly similar thing I can recall is an
| impression I formed in the 1980s: the global reach of
| Hollywood's TV and films gave non-American's a very
| skewed view of life in America.
|
| [1] other than America's Westward expansion, and as far
| south as the Rio Grande river. But IIUC those were
| militaristic expansions, not mere cultural imperialism.
| gruez wrote:
| >Realize that the majority Mandarin-speaking Han population
| are engaging in cultural imperialism and suppression against
| minorities.
|
| The CCP might be "engaging in cultural imperialism and
| suppression against minorities", but it's a stretch to claim
| "most" of the population is, when they have little political
| power and are just trying to survive.
| gwd wrote:
| Yes, sorry if I wasn't clear -- I don't fault most of the
| population.
| kkielhofner wrote:
| I think this boils down to "The United States of America"
| being the only country with America in the actual country
| name. Plus the overall influence of the USA, etc.
|
| America, of course, can also refer to two entire continents
| but I don't know that I've ever met anyone who's primary
| identity refers to their continent.
|
| It would be very odd to me, at least, for an Argentinian (as
| one example) to refer to themselves as American. Same for
| someone from Thailand referring to themselves as Asian or
| someone from Nigeria saying African unless (of course) they
| were attempting to communicate with someone with very limited
| geographic knowledge (mostly Americans).
|
| I have many friends from Central and South America and prior
| to meeting them I would have dismissed something like the
| Narcissism of Small Differences[0].
|
| Spend some time hanging out with Colombians, Venezuelans,
| Argentinians, Chileans, Uruguayans, Nicaraguans, etc in a
| tapestry like Miami and you learn quickly it is a very real
| thing - going back and forth about things like how to prepare
| and cook beans.
|
| At first it's very interesting to experience them (mostly
| playfully) poking at each other over things that most of the
| world doesn't notice and can't understand. However, if you
| know them well and they've been in the US a while when you
| describe the Narcissism of Small Differences they usually say
| something like "That's so true! I never knew it had an actual
| name".
|
| When they visit the small town I'm from in Wisconsin I have
| to tell them that to most of the locals they're "Mexican" and
| to try not to get offended even though there actually are
| significant differences between Mexico and South America
| countries.
|
| [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcissism_of_small_diffe
| rence...
| amalcon wrote:
| _> America, of course, can also refer to two entire
| continents but I don 't know that I've ever met anyone
| who's primary identity refers to their continent._
|
| It can be hard to tell with Australians for obvious
| reasons, but I think some do hold such an identity there.
| amalcon wrote:
| It's interesting -- I was actually taught in Spanish class to
| call my nationality "estatounidense". Which I now understand
| is more polite in a few places, but will confuse everyone in
| other places. The most notable of the latter is, of course,
| _Los Estados Unidos Mexicanos_.
| PhasmaFelis wrote:
| Canadians aren't American. They are _North_ American. America
| is a part of North America, which is a part of the Americas.
|
| It's a little confusing if you're not used to it, but no one is
| monopolizing anything.
| lallysingh wrote:
| North is a qualifier of American - denoting a subset of
| America. "American" is used by citizens of the USA only
| because the country's name doesn't give a better moniker. If
| the USA wasn't rich or powerful, "American" would mean the
| same as "Asian" or "European."
| mixmastamyk wrote:
| Let me introduce you to the concept of Synecdoche, aka part for
| the whole:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche
| kleiba wrote:
| From Wikipedia: An earworm or brainworm, also
| known as sticky music or stuck song syndrome, is a catchy
| or memorable piece of music or saying that continuously occupies
| a person's mind even after it is no longer being played
| or spoken about. The word earworm is a calque from
| the German Ohrwurm. The earliest known English usage is
| in Desmond Bagley's 1978 novel Flyaway, where the author points
| out the German origin of his word.
| jamesmunns wrote:
| Technology Connections recently did a video[0] on the clapper,
| which went over quite a bit of the tech and history of the
| clapper, if you're looking for a video option.
|
| [0]: https://youtu.be/TBPVJtGBf8Y?si=XHbDwcO2LUm9elvk
| Night_Thastus wrote:
| Always going to shout out TC, he does great videos. Informative
| and funny.
| noahmbarr wrote:
| Had one in college: inadequate lighting so I plugged a standing
| light into an un-switched outlet.
|
| Worked great until I put on anything with a lot of bass.
| spicyjpeg wrote:
| For those interested in the technical details of the Clapper's
| clap detection, the patent the article links to [1] is definitely
| worth taking a look at. Not only does it feature detailed
| explanations and flowcharts of the algorithm, but page 13 even
| has a full source code listing of the firmware that runs on the
| Clapper's ST6210 microcontroller - which, in true "there's a 6502
| inside every toy" fashion, has a very blatantly 6502-inspired
| architecture [2].
|
| [1] https://patents.google.com/patent/US5493618A
|
| [2] https://www.st.com/en/microcontrollers-
| microprocessors/st621...
| aimor wrote:
| The Clapper was my first voice assistant. I could shout "light
| on!", "light off!" and it would do its thing. Two minutes later,
| when that lost its appeal, I just quietly tapped on the box twice
| (I had the thing next to my bed to control my lamp).
| ThinkingGuy wrote:
| The charm of the Clapper was still resonating in 1997, when
| "Saturday Night Live" did the parody sketch "New Microsoft
| Products" (Relevant bit starts at 1:22)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tt4SZydEbqo
| jauntywundrkind wrote:
| I bought one on eBay, thinking maybe I'd make a joke video on how
| to secure your voice assistant: with a clapper! Clap to turn on
| the Echo or whatever, wait 27s for it to boot, say 'Alexa, what
| is the weather, then clap to turn it off.
| klyrs wrote:
| If you ask Alexa to clap, can it turn itself off?
| rzazueta wrote:
| No - the clapper will kill the power to it, so it won't be
| able to respond. You need to add a Google Nest device that
| will respond to your request for claps.
| klyrs wrote:
| I said off, not on
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