The Secret Life of Machines (1988) | Hacker News Reader

The Secret Life of Machines (1988)

secretlifeofmachines.com

132 pointsmattlondon23 comments

Because I'll never miss an opportunity to promote this... Tim Hunkin has an arcade in London called Novelty Automation which is legit one of the most under-rated things to do in the entire city:

https://www.novelty-automation.com/

It's tucked away down some side streets five minutes walk from Holborn tube station. It's best described as a collection of satirical arcade games, almost all of which were made by Tim.

There's a small hadron collider, and a money laundering crane game, an Amazon Warehouse job simulator and so much more.

It is utterly delightful. Everyone I have sent there has loved it. If you haven't experienced it yet you should fix that!

He also has another arcade in Southwold, Suffolk which is also fantatic

https://www.underthepier.com/

It's one of the best places I've been in London last year, definitely recommend!

This is the only reason I would want to go to England.

See also playlist from Tim Hunkin's channel:

* https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtaR0lZhSyAPLuoSbMA29...

* https://www.youtube.com/@timhunkin1

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Secret_Life_of_Machines

The theme song is Bennett's "The Russians are Coming" (a reggae cover of "Take Five"):

* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-fvwg9zy08

There's an interesting note on his site [0] about how he had to demonetize all his YouTube videos because of the music, and how the original band are not getting anything from it either. So the only people making money from his work are the record company.

[0] https://www.timhunkin.com/a243_Secret-Life-of-Machines-intro...

that's what copyright is for, and what it's always been for: government-granted monopolies for publishers. the statute of anne was enacted thanks to lobbying from the worshipful company of stationers, not from authors

And Google. Don't forget Google. They make money whether they pay out any.

Yes, Hunkin gives a much better explanation than me on his site, which both exposes my own misgivings, and hits a bit harder at copyright.

Tim Hunkin is such a treasure. He has so much interesting and educational content available for free. Even modern stuff on his YT channel. It's all really excellent.

https://youtube.com/@timhunkin1

He's got a clock at the exploratorium in San Francisco.

https://www.exploratorium.edu/video/tim-hunkins-tinkerers-cl...

Lived in London in the early 90s and loved the concept and presentation of the TV program, a wonderful blend of inquiry, creativity, and eccentricity.

I haven't seen an episode in decades but I still remember the one where they made magnetic recording tape and another scene where they tested the hypothesis (or Murphy's Law) about a piece of toast always landing on the buttered side. It was basically a bunch of people sitting at picnic tables flipping toast onto the grass and recording the outcome.

I remember thinking: something like this could never fly in the U.S. The suits would shoot it down before it saw the light of day. But I was proven wrong a little over 10 years later when MythBusters launched.

The videotape scene is here[0], but the buttered toast scene must be from a different show. I re-watched recently and they don't that demonstration in TSLoM.

[0] https://youtu.be/g1JlUcFKm5o?t=536

I remember watching The Secret Life of Machines in the US in the 90s long before MythBusters.

It may have been on The Discovery Channel back when it was truly educational.

I loved these when I was a kid, and I’ve watched few since they’ve been on YouTube. They are beautifully clear and understandable explanations of everyday machines.

Even more clear with the remastering!

One of the best shows. Between reruns of this and Connections on the old discovery/learning channel, I was a happy kid ;)

As a fan of both of these, any others you'd recommend?

We went to the science museum in London recently with our youngish children. It has some very fancy galleries, with swish modern graphics.

But the bit that really caught their attention was the secret life of the home[1] gallery in the basement - which I believe was done with Tim Hunkin. It had some great interactive mockups of how various things in the home work, and really got the ideas across.

[1] https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/secret-life-home

This series was instrumental in me learning the basics of engineering. I’m forever thankful, and I highly recommend it!

Sometimes my 1 year old is fussy and doesn't want to take his naps. Putting these on, or a Japanese how its made, or similar, has worked wonders. He'll sit down to watch and fall asleep in 10 minutes on average.

Absolutely love this series! Secret Life of Components (YouTube series) is also great.

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