I recently stayed overnight with friends, and when it was time for bed, I couldn't figure out how to turn off the overhead light in their living room. There was a control panel on the wall that, at first glance, seemed pretty straightforward.
A large overhead light, a small uplight with several brightness settings, and a fan. And every time I tried to turn off the uplight, something else turned on. Ten minutes later, I woke my wife and asked her for help. But the situation only got worse.
Every time we thought we'd turned everything off, something new (or everything at once) would turn on a few seconds later. After twenty minutes, I started laughing out of desperation, and the whole thing began to resemble a riddle from a Myst quest. But I couldn't wake our friends because they had a small child.
And suddenly we solved it. Everything turned off and wouldn't turn back on, and after waiting a whole minute, we realized that everything would stay that way. It was around one in the morning, and I finally went to bed.
The next morning, we asked our friends about the problem with their lights. The answer simply blew my mind. Our friends live in a newly built condominium. The fan controls use binary code to communicate with them. And the range of the remotes was supposed to be no more than 10 meters. But in reality, they reach much further.
The remote control covers approximately forty apartments. Due to the limitations of binary code, only 16 unique identifiers can be created. Therefore, each resident of the building controls the overhead light and fan in at least one other apartment, and perhaps even more.
From 12:30 until 1:00 AM, I waged proxy warfare with two or three other apartments, and they, in turn, would turn my fan or lights to maximum until everyone gave in. Our landlords had lived in this complex for six months and were used to it, imagining the kind of tenants they might interact with. And they suspect one guy of being the only one behaving like an asshole.
I'm staying with friends again tonight. I'm looking forward to fighting for control of the light with what are essentially evil ghosts, all the while wondering if I'll become that jerk who's making everyone's life difficult. I'm leaning toward turning it up full blast." and turn off everyone's lights at 22 p.m. to ensure everyone gets a good night's sleep and wakes up refreshed and ready for a productive day.
The lights went out. The war was over.
Source: habr.com
