h a l f b a k e r y"Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
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So, all these little bastards nowadays play too many damned video games and watching too much TV. Go outside and play! you yell at them.
Well, this should make it easier.
For chandeliers, they have a key-operated switch in the wall to control the winch to lower the chandelier. It's a typical electrical
fixture in houses. You put in they key, and turn one way to lower, another to raise. So anyway the point is locks can be used to power switches.
So, wire a switch like that to turn on or off a receptacle ("outlet" for you laymen), and only set up the TV and video games at that outlet. You have the key, you control whether or not they can play or watch. Also good because older people who have kids might not know how to turn off the game. And either way it makes turning it off easy and final.
There's really no R & D needed or patentability here. If you'd want to do it, you'd just tell your electrician. It might be a little weird to represent in the plans or in permit applications, but would make a good conversation topic when shooting the shit with the inspector.
Locking Mains Plug
Locking_20mains_20Plug Similar to [csea]'s ancillary idea. [Wrongfellow, Dec 31 2010]
[link]
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Switched outlets are widely known to exist, although key-switched outlets aren't standard in houses. |
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Perhaps I'm missing something, but what's stopping the little bastards from moving their systems to another, non-switched outlet? |
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that would be completely verboten. If they move their game you take it away completely for an extended period. |
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I love this idea as it also childproofs in the best way
possible. |
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Without wishing to be mean-spirited...if key-controlled
sockets are well-known, and if this is just a suggestion to use
them more widely, how much of an invention is it? Does it
not drift close to being a "household tip"? |
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I never said it was a "proper invention". It's just that I've never heard of anyone doing it, and they might want to, but maybe they haven't thought of it. |
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It's definitely not patentable. And like I said no "baking" is needed; both fixtures are pretty regular in housebuilding. The most complication you'd get is from the building codes and inspectors. |
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Here you go: I'll walk you right through it. Create
an out of the house reward system that uses
tokens or quarters. This may require the small
ones to wear monitors, I had a harness to keep me
tied up, and I enjoyed it. The kids get the tokens
for being outside, and then can get specific time
on specific programing spending the tokens in the
TV or computer switch appliance. This is self
regulation extra special. Kids may watch a math
show for free. If they grow up with it they'll not
even know they're being brutally manipulated
towards their own success. But to watch cheap
entertainment they may need the one to one
time outside for that, and those tokens. So the
kids have an equation to work on. This is actually
one of my own half baked projects, but I do like it
and think it will work. The wall switch to the
power of the TV is good, but may seem arbitrary,
unreasonable, and capricious to the average six
year older. |
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An ancillary idea (I can't at present be bothered to look it up or make it a separate idea) would be to have the key lock physically prevent plugs from being either introduced or removed from socket / receptacle. Good for baby-proofing and annoyance factor reduction, e.g. "Who the %$!# unplugged my phone charger!" |
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There are some seriously good ideas on this page.
Who wants a bun? (+) (+) (+)..... |
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//"outlet" for you laymen)// |
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And for Slippery Pete, the holes. |
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Who bought the stuff for the little bastards? Who created the little bastards in the first place? Nope, bad idea. |
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...for when you are convinced that your children are to dumb, or to lazy, to get an extension cord or move the tv. |
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It's either head in the sand parenting, or gross negligence in modeling basic motivation and problem solving. Also, keyed switches are baked. |
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[marked-for-deletion] Widely known to exist. |
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