Universal Remote control , more universal mod?

No. Kids don't notice the cold, till they need at least three coats. :)

Many universal remotes need to know what KIND of box before the code search works. It helps to know the corporate entity that built the box (for instance, TiVO responds to Philips satellite converter box commands, because some Philips satellite converters were TiVO equipped). And some of my Apple computers responded to (? Samsung or Goldstar) TV codes. It seems odd that TV codes operated the FM radio in a desktop computer.

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There is a collation of a lot of useful background info links off this page, I'm gradually wading through

but linkages between makers seems a route to take. But I still get the impression that types of kit whether air conditioners or PVRs or whatever seem to have related structures of coding within the group rather than by maker

In 1984 in the UK, you could direct dial any country in the world. I worked for an American company then, and was on the phone to them in California from our UK office virtually every day, as well as to our offices in France, Germany and Holland, and customers in other countries. There were some restrictions on direct dialling from payphones, and maybe trans-continental was one of them, I don't remember for sure. If you could not find an area code and exchange on a payphone, then either it was *extremely* badly vandalised, or you weren't looking in the right place. Most had the phone box's details, including geographical location, area code, number and exchange, behind an armoured glass plate, mounted on the wall. The number and area code should also have been on the phone itself, if it was a dialup type, but this was admittedly often missing.

Arfa

that's amusing.

in the early 90s I recall red boxes still worked in some parts of Chicago.

You'd frequently get an operator who would ask something scripted like "are you using an illegal dialing device?" and then they'd keep requesting that you add quarter to the payphone.

They'd even ask you to "please wait by the phone" if you just kept jamming on * and 6 or whatever the buttons were emulating a quarter.