Don’t tie yourself into knots
I have a question for all you techies out there: how (and why) do the cords of earbuds for cellphones spontaneously tie themselves into knots in a single instant?
And I don’t mean modest knots, either. I mean large tangled masses of knots.
And how can this happen when I’ve done nothing more convoluted than to take my phone out of my purse and raise the bud to my ear?
Yesterday I was out doing an errand to help a friend’s daughter with her passport. This involved an unbelievable number of frustrating hours in the Post Office and elsewhere, including (but certainly not limited to) watching the nearly non-English-speaking clerk take a half-hour in an attempt to measure the oddly-shaped parcel of the man ahead of us, whose package seemed to have grown an extra appendage; a slight but constantly spitting snowstorm; MapQuest directions that did not correspond in any way to the territory traversed, a deadline of three o’clock that fast approached, finding someone’s lost cell phone in a pile of leaves in the gutter—and, finally, when all seemed lost, the successful accomplishment of our task.
Somewhere towards the end of it all, waiting for the umpteenth time while a clerk disappeared out of sight with our papers, I noticed the aforementioned knot in my cellphone earbud and thought, in the way bloggers often do, “Aha! A fitting subject for a post! I’ll write about this, and I’ll take a photo.”
That’s when I discovered that overnight my camera had developed a mysterious afflication. Here’s the photo I took, in which the lens seems to have tunnel vision. I’m sure some of you can instantly diagnose what ails the camera, and whether the disease is curable or whether the poor thing needs to be euthanized (the camera, that is, not the earbud):
MapQuest directions? Neo, I recommend that you try Google Maps. In my humble opinion, MapQuest became obsolete the moment that Google Maps was unveiled.
This is a question that has been haunting engineers. They believe it occurs on a molecular level when the cord (now in the dark confines of a purse) attempts to meld with the bit of cord next to it. The ensuing mess looks very much like knots, but is really the end result of the cord trying to become “one” with the dark unknown dimensions inside a purse. 😉
Oh. they’re Irish.
That’s a Celtic Knot.
Karl Rove did it.
No idea about the camera, but here’s the answer re: the knot. Though I have to admit I liked the idea that it was Rove’s fault.
+1 for Google maps.
If you don’t like the route they give you just grab the line and drop in on the road you do want to take and it recalculates the whole thing automatically. It beats Mapquest silly.
My first guess on the camera would be a broken shutter. I don’t know enough about cameras to know whether it would be worth fixing. I suspect it depends on the model of camera.
I believe it’s called entropy.
Neo, bluetooth solves the problem permanantley. 🙂
Karl Rove? He may have hatched the plot, but it took a man like Dick Cheney to see it through.
I think the knots are due to the thinness of the cords and their weight. They tend to deform to any motion or pressure, and because it is so light it can’t untangle itself easily. The fact that you have a very heavy earbud on the end, also aggravates the condition as it can easily entangle with the other earbud’s string. Then the weight at the end pulls the knot Tight.
You know the pattern in a braid? That seems to be what is going on with the cords. They overlap on top of each other, over and over, cause it isn’t heavy enough to resist bending.
A heavier and thicker cord doesn’t have that problem. One solution I was thinking of is to have a sleeve fit over the two thin cords leading to the earbuds. This ties them together so they can’t entangle. Then you just slide the sleeve down when you want to use it. Far easier than untangling the cords.
Karl Rove? He may have hatched the plot, but it took a man like Dick Cheney to see it through.
Obviously. Nothing can stop the Dark Lord, Tap.
I second the question about whether your camera shutters are stuck, Neo. I mean, the photo did show up, so the camera is working in the fundamentals.
Entropy is the right answer.
The best way to understand it is:
there are a huge number of different ways for the cords to be tangled but is really only one way for it not to be tangled.
In other words, it can easily tangle by accident, but it is extraordinarily unlikely to untangle by accident.
I was driving in an unfamiliar area for most of the week. I had printed both Google and Mapquest directions for some of the trips I made. The Google directions were better. I also like the re-routing ability.
Your pictures may be suffering from Vignetting. Sometimes it is a symptom of a problem, but often it is just an artifact of the way lenses work. I would need to know more about the camera and the pictures to venture any kind of an intelligent guess as to the source and nature of your problem. Here is another link.
Neo,
Re: the camera, it looks like the little sliding doors that protect the lens when you turn it off didn’t open completely. I have a small Kodak that does the same thing.You can see this on the screen on the back of the camera.When it happens you’ll see an image exactly like the photo in your post.Just a small noodge on the sticky sliding pieces and “voila!” normal photos are yours once more.
Also GOOGLEMAPS RULES!
Last but not least,
All hail the Dark Lord!
He sees all,
knows all
and is the
Prince of Mysterious Entanglements!