Scott Adams blogs about the marvels of the modern airplane cockpit, speculating that airplane manufacturers include many unnecessary controls not connected to anything in order to charge more … and I think he’s absolutely right.
Several years ago, we bought a Sony VCR that had a “Reality Regenerator” button and light on it. I don’t think I want to admit that we chose this VCR over the others because it had this Reality Regenerator, but maybe it played into the decision making. (Congratulations, Sony marketing geniuses.)
So, we were amazed that, no lie, this VCR claims to regenerate reality. I mean, it’s like Jesus in a set-top box. But, exactly what does regenerated reality look like? I’ve owned several VCR’s before this one and several after and let me tell you, Sony’s regenerated reality looks just like the reality of all my other VCR’s. I largely suspect that this was just an unnecessary control that was nothing more than a button connected to a light. Push the button, the light goes on. Push the button, the light goes off. In either state, reality as rendered on the television looked the same. But, we bought the VCR.
I sure hope we didn’t pay more for the VCR than the VCR’s that couldn’t regenerate reality.
Tags:
airplane cockpit,
marketing genius,
Sony,
VCR,
Reality Regenerator,
Scott Adams
Programmer, husband, father, singer, guitarist, tinkerer, reverse engineer, strange, and living in New Jersey. 
A neighbor had this VCR and we played with the button in question, now we aren’t sure if the reality we are living in is legit.
Dang it! I want to believe.