h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Now here's a thing you may not have realised about video cameras.

They are mechanical devices. As such, they suffer from a phenomenon engineers call "hysteresis" - they don't always do things perfectly continuously, but suffer discontinuities in operation due to the operation of their mechanical parts.

For instance, if you video tape something - and let's say for the sake of argument that that something is something VERY naughty - you might later decide that you ought to tape over it.

Now, if you tape over it in one long take, no problem. However, if you keep stopping and starting the tape - say, if you're on a snowboarding holiday and recording bits of action here and there - then there exists a distressing possibility.

When you stop recording, the tape mechanism stops. However, when it starts again, due to hysteresis in the mechanism, it doesn't start recording right away. This means that you don't completely erase what was on the tape before. There is a second or two, in between the snowboarding, of what was on the tape before.

Now - normally, this would not be a problem. However, there may be scope for problems. It's unlikely, but possible. For instance, you may not bother dubbing the holiday footage to a VHS tape. You may then, at some family gathering, in the presence of your cousins and grandmother say (just for the sake of argument), decide to show them your holiday video. You may not realise the hysteresis problem exists. You may then leave the tape running and leave the room. And at that point, you may find, that in between the bits of snowboarding, there is, shall we say, something else - just a little snatch, if you like.

And if this happens, it's possible you'll never live it down.

However, you can at least console yourself that you'll have a good story to tell people when they ask you what your most embarrassing moment was.

H.

And, very briefly, a Guide Entry too.

B

Yes, a very useful post was that!

The story reminded me of a embarassing moment for some of my friends (a right laugh for me for years to come!)

I was a student sharing a house with a couple of other guys, and on this particular night we had a few friends over too.
My room was on the ground floor, and this was one of those terrace houses where the bathroom is right at the back behind the kitchen.

Well, my then girlfriend was also visiting and we were in my room. The guys decided it was as good a time as any to celebrate their enforced celibacy by watching porn in the lounge.
When my girlfriend got up to head to the bathroom, they heard the door open and her voice in the hall and hurriedly reached for the remote.
She came through the living room to find four awkward-looking gents sitting around apparently watching static on TV!