Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!pt.cs.cmu.edu!andrew.cmu.edu!kg19+ From: kg19+@andrew.cmu.edu (Kurt A. Geisel) Newsgroups: sci.electronics Subject: Christmas Lights Message-ID: Date: 10 Dec 89 19:07:15 GMT Organization: Class of '92, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA Lines: 25 Am I the only one who is dissatisfied with these cheap "Midget Lights" which have taken over Christmas in the past few years? Doesn't anyone remember the big classics? This brings me to two questions which may or may not have anything to do with this newsgroup. 1. My parents still have their giant blinking Christmas tree lights which are probably a couple of decades old. You know the kind- they are almost as big as "outdoor lights", but they are translucent (not frosted) in various colors and they all blink independently, probably by means of a bimetal bar in each one (it takes several minutes to warm up before they blink and they all start independently.) The problem is that they are burning out one by one each Christmas and despite desperate searching, we can't find where they are being made anymore anywhere. Has anyone seen these at all? 2. Has anyone experimented with custom or computer controlled light strings? How would you go about independently controlling lights on a string without having a monster thick cable? - Kurt Kurt Geisel SNAIL : Carnegie Mellon University 65 Lambeth Dr. ARPA : kg19+@andrew.cmu.edu Pittsburgh, PA 15241 UUCP : uunet!nfsun!kgeisel "I will not be pushed, filed, indexed, stamped, BIX : kgeisel briefed, debriefed, or numbered!" - The Prisoner