
Radios Had 'Like' Buttons Before the Internet Existed - AndyBaker
http://www.psmag.com/culture/the-like-button-that-came-before-facebook-55563/
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aw3c2
I dove through the linkfarming: This is repackaged gizmodo content which
itself was repackaged from [http://www.psmag.com/culture/the-like-button-that-
came-befor...](http://www.psmag.com/culture/the-like-button-that-came-before-
facebook-55563/)

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benburton
It was a terrible idea to hide the most interesting part of the graphic behind
the title like that.

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raldi
Could you post a screenshot? On a mobile device, I don't even see a hint of
anything like that.

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RyJones
I'm using Safari with no plugins or anything.
[http://imgur.com/R89kxDc](http://imgur.com/R89kxDc)

in fact, it looks the same in chrome on os x

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TazeTSchnitzel
Same in Firefox on OS X

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kyberias
What I learned was that radios actually didn't any like buttons. It was just
an idea.

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Lilme
Nope, it was a MVP.

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rguldener
Would be interesting to know how that worked on a technical side, how did he
intend to transmit the information back?

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venti
As far as I can tell, it should have worked like this: The devices would turn
on at approx. 3 am and then draw a current from the power outlet. Someone at
the power plant would then look at the Watt meter and from the reading they
would know what the outcome was.

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Mister_Snuggles
Yup, that seems to be exactly what it is.

I'm consistently amazed at how "high-tech" things from the past worked. Today,
nobody would think about drawing off-peak power as a way to cast votes -
wasted energy, environmental impact, easier to do it by internet/telephone,
etc, would all be good reasons to not do that. But back then, some of those
didn't exist (internet, automated telephone polling) and others weren't
understood (environmental impact) or didn't have as big of an impact (wasted
energy/cost) as they do now.

What we managed to come up with when the technology was so primitive is just
amazing. And in a hundred years, future generates will say the same about what
we currently think of as amazing.

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joesb
My believe is that even if you implement it as is today, it wouldn't have
work. Because there's no off-peak time in today's city, at least not
significant enough that you can be sure that such power drain are really from
the vote.

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batbomb
1\. Make sure devices are calibrated to a few seconds with a radio wave
(easy).

2\. Give each like a specific t0 and a transmitting period for well-defined
pulses.

3\. Draw current.

4\. Correlate.

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venti
Here is the original patent from the 1930s:
[https://www.google.com/patents/US2092120](https://www.google.com/patents/US2092120)

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PavlovsCat
> Handy buttons as a part of the standard equipment of receiving sets should
> put many a counterfeit statesmen and professional hot air artist in his
> place; and, of course, they should be equally valuable as registers of
> sober, thoughtful public opinion.

And this is precisely why some powerful interests are so afraid of the
internet, and of letting it run its course instead of using it to fiddle with
people. Here's hoping that these boots actually _are_ made for walking, and
that walking is just what they'll do.

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plorg
The page was causing 100% CPU usage in Chrome for me. Admittedly, this may
have been the result of using an adblocker and some aggressive rules or
possibly some kludgy userscripts. Anyways, the page was giving console output
suggesting that it was trying to use javascript to actively change the layout
of the page. Whatever the actual intent, I managed to stop such activity by
blocking 'devicepx-jetpack.js' and 'jquery.sticky-kit.min.js', and article
site appeared to stay mostly intact.

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pdevr
"Press one button for “no,” another for “yes,” and a third for “present.”"

Well, after eight decades, we and our social networks have almost caught up
with Dr. Nevil Monroe Hopkins, but are still at least one button short.

Edit: Reference:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7453293](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7453293)

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SixSigma
A good illustration that ideas are all well and good but it is execution that
adds value.

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ricardobeat
Market research companies have used similar devices since forever, it's how TV
and radio broadcasters get their audience ratings in realtime.

