this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2025

291 points (100.0% liked)

90s Memes

647 readers

7 users here now

The Memiverse:
!y2k_memes@quokk.au
!philosophymemes@quokk.au
!sigh_fi@quokk.au

founded 7 months ago

MODERATORS

Deceptichum@quokk.au

291

never worked anyway (infosec.pub)

submitted 4 months ago by Deceptichum@quokk.au to c/90s_memes@quokk.au

26 comments fedilink hide all child comments

all 31 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] slazer2au@lemmy.world 64 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Technology Connections did a video on those.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsA3X40nz9w

[–] Fredselfish@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

What got me to subscribe to his channel.

[–] Tempus_Fugit@midwest.social 3 points 4 months ago

Excellent channel.

[–] LuckingFurker@lemmy.blahaj.zone 35 points 4 months ago

Skill issue, they always worked for me

[–] GreenShimada@lemmy.world 20 points 4 months ago (1 children)

These worked just fine if the battery had charge.

[–] ceenote@lemmy.world 19 points 4 months ago (1 children)

In hindsight I never, ever used them on a partially spent battery (because who takes out batteries to check their charge remaining?) so I have no idea how well they worked anywhere between 0% and 100%.

[–] FoxyFerengi@startrek.website 21 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I tested partially spent batteries all the time, because my childhood home was full of imps who would take one or two batteries out of a remote to power their DS or other handhelds, then replace them after gametime was over. So if the remote wasn't working it was nice to just check a battery for charge than to assume one or all batteries were dead before stealing batteries to game with.

Tap for spoiler

one of the imps was me

[–] defaultusername@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 months ago (2 children)

The DS had a rechargable battery, though.

[–] FoxyFerengi@startrek.website 11 points 4 months ago

You're right, I never had a DS! I forgot the name of the GameBoy and my old brain did a silly substitution

[–] Pringles@sopuli.xyz 1 points 4 months ago

Pedantry! It's not a crime but it feels like one. Fitting for a defaultusername...

[+] the_q@lemmy.zip 8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

[deleted]

[–] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 27 points 4 months ago (1 children)

from 1.5V DC? Literally impossible.

[+] the_q@lemmy.zip 13 points 4 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

[deleted]

[–] theunknownmuncher@lemmy.world 33 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Because people do not have perfect memories of 35 year old events, especially events that occurred while they were a young, imaginative child.

[+] the_q@lemmy.zip 17 points 4 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

[deleted]

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Sorry homie, op is right as far as getting shocked. 1.5v isn't high enough to feel with your hands. Hell, you can grab both terminals of a 12v car battery and it won't do anything to you.

Those little strips do work by heating a resistive wire though, so it's completely possible that you just heated up the spot you pressed enough to hurt a little. Unless you were a particularly curious or accident prone kid, you probably didn't have a reference for the sensation of getting shocked, so you'd assume that's what happened.

I accidentally touched the hot prong of a radio when i was a kid and thought I got punched by a ghost until i did it again years later. Kids have no idea what's going on.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Wait, which part of the radio is the prong?

[–] Hawke@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

I can only assume they were plugging in the mains cord.

Either that or a tube radio with the tube heated up enough to burn?

[–] samus12345@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

punched by a ghost

Huh, being shocked does kind of feel like that.

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 4 months ago

Especially as a kid that has no concept of what 120v going from hand to bare foot on concrete feels like. Tenses up your big muscles in the shoulder and peck just like a good punch.

Just another entry on the list of dumb shit that's almost killed me.

[–] edgemaster72@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

you can grab both terminals of a 12v car battery and it won’t do anything to you.

What if I have a Gene Simmons-esque tongue that I can somehow manage to touch to both terminals?

[–] Assassassin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 4 months ago

Good question. I've put my tongue across a 9v battery a number of times to check them. Fully charged, it's uncomfortable but bearable. A 33% is pretty big, so I assume that 12V probably hurts enough that you wouldn't want to do it for long. I doubt it'd do much damage if it was brief though.

I looked, and it seems like the resistance of the tongue is between 10k and 1M ohms. Assuming the average value of 100k ohms, 12V is current limited to 0.12mA and 1.44 milliwatts. It takes like 10 watts to run the average LED lightbulb, which makes it about 7000x more powerful. Gene would be okay.

[–] Habahnow@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

No the original poster, what about a shock from a pinched nerve or something from pressing these do hard?

[–] Entertainmeonly@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 4 months ago

I remember them vividly. My guess is you poked yourself with a piece of that plastic wraping. You wouldn't feel a shock unless you had two open cuts at each point of contact. Even still it would be hard to feel.

[–] Zamboni_Driver@lemmy.ca 6 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Doubt.

[–] Flying_Dutch_Rudder@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

You can lick a 9v and get a little tingle, 1.5v isn’t going to do anything to you.

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago

I'd play with those and probably drained the batteries doing it. They would heat up if you held it on for too long.

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 4 points 4 months ago

I loved these, not really cause it was useful, but it was exactly the direction I thought technology would go.

Dumb things becoming smart without just resorting to being mini computers.