• Mwa@lemm.ee
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    22 days ago

    Did the power check work or was it snakeoil I remember trying to see it while hurting my hand.

    • ilikecoffee@lemmy.world
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      22 days ago

      It did, see Technology Connections’ latest video on it, he explains fully how it worked. Quite clever tbh.

      • bss03@infosec.pub
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        22 days ago

        Although, he admits in the video to “faking” his footage of it working, by using a off-camera heat source. (His batteries were quite dead.)

        But, as someone that lived through this time, they did work, as long as you pressed hard enough in the right places. It was hard to tell if the battery was dead or if you weren’t pressing hard enough

        • ilikecoffee@lemmy.world
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          22 days ago

          If you watch the whole video he does it more “for real” later on, plugging the casing into a power source to simulate a battery discharging… Plus I’ve had some of these PowerCheck batteries, and they were not old, it was like… 2017? So maybe they rebooted it for a short time at some point?? Anywho, if you pressed really hard it did work I think, but also I think I was doing it wrong for a long time as well lol

    • Flocklesscrow@lemm.ee
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      22 days ago

      It was gimmicky as hell. Did it work? Who cares. It was irrelevant for 90% of consumers.

      • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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        22 days ago

        I really miss it honestly. Kids, so, so many batteries in my house.

        Dad, my blah blah blah isn’t working right. Then I have to go dig out this monster:

          • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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            22 days ago

            Hopefully not because the kind of batteries that work with this reader are awful batteries. Single use disposable batteries are an absolutely stupid idea we should be moving away from

          • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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            22 days ago

            I have no lack of proper test equipment, this is actually kind of nice because the kids can use it easily without trying to wrangle a battery and two leads.

        • hOrni@lemmy.world
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          22 days ago

          Why does it look so weird? I’m not even sure what shape I’m looking at.

          • linearchaos@lemmy.world
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            22 days ago

            Just an inch thick plastic box with a perspective drawing sticker on top of it, But the box is shaped to fit the perspective drawing.

          • Myro@lemm.ee
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            22 days ago

            Haha yeah, it looks like a fake picture or some cartoon.