In my youth I would cheerfully solder together resistors, transistors, and all the other discreet components that old-style gadgets used to be full of. Had a great time making things from diagrams and kits.

Some years back, I would open things up, particularly small consumer devices, and discover five dozen wires all leading into a small black blob of plastic. Talking greeting cards, toys, a lot of other things I took apart, all with that little blob inside.

Electronics has become the ultimate "black box." For a little while, I could still solder this and that--the old "bug" style chips were difficult, but workable. Now I can barely make out the traces on a circuit board with my naked eye, and all the soldering is done by precision machines. I fixed my graphics card by throwing it out and getting a new one.

I could open that light thing up--it's hermetically sealed--but I suspect what I'd see is all the wires terminating in another one of those black plastic blobs.

Anyhow, I got curious today and checked out some things on the internet, and somebody commenting on this particular brand this past year (I bought my set two years ago) mentioned that there is a circuit in there now allowing it to use both halves of the AC waveform. I'll check out some new ones next Christmas--my complaint may be obsolete.