I recently stayed overnight with friends, and when it was time to go to bed, I could not figure out how the overhead light turned off in their living room. There was a control panel on the wall, which at first glance looked quite understandable.
A large overhead light, a small uplight with multiple brightness levels, and a fan. And every time I tried to turn off the uplight, something else turned on. Ten minutes later I woke up my wife and asked her for help. But the situation only got worse.
Every time we thought we had turned everything off, a few seconds later something new (or all at once) turned on. At the twentieth minute, I already began to laugh out of desperation, and the whole story began to resemble a riddle from the Myst quest. But I couldn't wake up our friends because they had a small child.
And suddenly we decided it. Everything turned off and did not turn back on, and after waiting a whole minute, we realized that everything would remain so. It was about one in the morning, and I finally went to bed.
And the next morning we asked friends about the history of their light. The answer just killed me. Our friends live in a newly built condominium. Fan control panels use a binary code to communicate with them. And the range of the remotes should not exceed 10 meters. But in reality they go much further.
There are about forty apartments within the range of the remote control. Due to binary limitations, only 16 variants of unique identifiers can be generated. Therefore, each resident of the building controls the overhead light and fan in at least one other apartment; and maybe not in one.
From XNUMX:XNUMX a.m. to XNUMX:XNUMX a.m. I waged a proxy war with two or three other apartments, and they, in turn, set my fan or lighting to the maximum, until everyone gave up. Our hosts have lived in this complex for six months now and have become accustomed to it, imagining what kind of residents they can interact with. And they suspect one guy that he's the only one of them acting like a goat.
Tonight I'm staying with friends again. I look forward to fighting to control the light with what are essentially evil ghosts, while wondering if I will become the same goat today that prevents everyone from living. I'm leaning towards turning it on full blast"", and turn off everyone's lights at 22pm to ensure everyone gets a good night's sleep and wakes up rested and ready for a productive day.
The light turned off. War is over.
Source: habr.com