How to tell if the batteries in your remote control have gone to their eternal rest...

The following is a manly tip I learned from my brother. I will call him Bunky, in order to protect the innocent (or not so innocent). (He is hugging a No Smoking sign because he has been smoke free since June 8, 2008! Go Bunky!) This is a technical tip and I will butcher the explanation, but you will see the merit of this tip in a minute. Let's talk about remotes. When I am visiting my parents, after we become weary of interacting with each other, we will decide that it is time to turn on the TV. The one who suggested it will usually start looking from the coffee table to the end tables, then back to the coffee table, but the remote will be nowhere in sight. One by one, we will get up and start looking for it, and probably spend the next half hour looking under couches and between cushions, pondering who could have lost it...again.


During this process, we never actually consider manually turning on the TV ourselves. What has civilized society come to? And what to do when the battery gives out? How do we even KNOW when the battery gives out? Here's how: When the remote control is working, a little tiny light, invisible to the human eye, emits from the little tiny bulb that points to the TV. If the batteries are dead, this light will be nonexistent. But, if we can't see the light in the first place, how will we know when it's not there? This is what you do: look through your phone camera or digital camera at the little tiny light bulb as the remote is facing you. Press any button and your camera will pick up this light! Like this!


Try this! It's amazing! I know, I'm using a lot of exclamation points! But this has brought new hope to me. Now I shall never again look confusedly at the remote, pointing and clicking, then turning it over in my hands, then checking to make sure the kids haven't removed the batteries again for their remote control cars, then pointing and clicking again. I am a new woman! Thanks for the tip, Bunky!