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The Universal Off Button
jcr13 writes "Wired news is running a story about TV-B-Gone, a new weapon in the fight against the pervasiveness of television in our society. With this device, which takes the form of a keychain fob with a single button, you can turn off virtually any TV set. How does it work? By rolling through all known IR power-off codes, one by one, trying codes from the most popular brands first. Personally, I am terribly annoyed by TVs in restaurants and airports: they grab my attention over and over, no matter how hard I try to ignore them, and they distract me from the conversations that I should be having with my human companions. Unfortunately, the TV-B-Gone website seems to have already been swamped by the Wired coverage, so we cannot order these just yet. In the mean time, those of you with DIY proclivities may want to think about wiring one of these up yourself using a PIC chip or other micro-controller." An anonymous reader adds links to mentions at CNET, TV station KESQ and Ananova.
I need a Universal On button remote... it'll be like a battle between good and evil, light and dark.
...and women ruin Sundays for men across the nation.
If you want to die a quick death, try using this gizmo at an Oklahoma sports bar during an OU Sooners football game. You will not live long.
Now all we need is the salesman-be-gone, the policeman-be-gone, and the nagging-mother-in-law-be-gone. ^_^
in a crowded bar. You'll make some new friends with this gizmo.
Vote for Pedro
Just as the ball gets hit and everyone goes nuts, so you don't see the outcome. Revenge of the nerds indeed. hopefully this is small enough so you don't get caught
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
I've created a device to counter this anti-social and selfish TV-deactivator. And what's more, it's easier and cheaper to construct. Just curl the fingers of your right hand into a tight roll, tucking the tips in towards the palm, and use this device to strike a sharp blow to the arrogant fool who thinks he has the right to mess with your expensive consumer hardware.
Patent is, of course, pending, but I'll be offering a free license for use in this sort of situation.
++ Say to Elrond "Hello.".
Elrond says "No.". Elrond gives you some lunch.
Are you trying to insinuate that the entire world shouldn't conform to my preferences? How un /. of you.
Finkployd
Troll-be-goneo cks-be-gone
FP-be-gone
In-Soviet-Russia-be-gone
Microsoft-anything-sucks-open-source-everything-r
Cowboy-Neal-be-gone
And their cell phones. And not as noisy as a machine gun.
Hit a button, and the TV's suddenly ramp up their volume to the max. THAT'S a hack.
Back when I was 18 and worked at RadioShack in the mall, there was a TV store across the way. This place had like 50 TVs running, most on mute, all day long. They went off at night.
:)
My manager liked to take one of our universal remotes, and after hours turn the volume WAAAAAAAY up, then turn off the TV. He did this to all that his universal remote would reach.
The poor TV store manager (who was a friend of my manager) would come in, hit the 'on' button on HIS special remote and get blasted out the front door...
Fun with consumer electronics
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
And we need devices to shut people up who talk too loud, or get rid of the fat people that sit beside you on the bus, or people who have coughing fits, or people who don't turn away when they sneeze. We need devices that will shut off the engines of airplanes overheard, because those things are just way too loud. I think we need a device that will get rid of any minor annoyance, then we'll all be happy, right..?
Who's with me? I sincerely hope nobody..
CC Licensed Serialized Story and Podcast: Ingenioustries
I don't think I've ever been in a public place with a TV on in the background and it bother me so much I want to turn it off. I avoid places that have loud music/TV's anyway. Much less antisocial than pissing off a bunch of people :)
Now, if they could invent a zapper that would kill the cell phone of the idiots who think they can drive and use one at the same time I'd be happy.
No idea that this comment would get marked 5 Insightful. 70/30 Insightful/Funny. I meant it as a joke. I like this comment the best thus far, so I'll respond to it. I know its illegal to jam cell signals. And thats probably a good idear, but anyone who answers their phone in a movie theater deserves a swift punch in the nads.
Anyways, here's what I do. I figure that my space is my space so I just join in on a conversation when someone is being overly obnoxious on a phone in a public place.
Obnoxious Cell phone luser: "Oh my God, Neve, I can't believe he did that to you, did you tell Aurora, Skylar, and Hunter about this?"
Me: "Yes, I did and after that he went and gave my hamster the clap."
This typically makes them stop.
My name is iago. And I wholeheartedly endorse this message. My dog is also a slut.
Worst Sig Ever
Same reason all those damned red lights should be green when I get to them!
what?
We actually had one of my teachers convinced there was a ghost in the room because of one of these one day! And the "over-emotional" girl in the class was freaking out. It was great.
"If the victim scharrt afterwards in the sand and shits into the yard, the adjustment was wrong or the dose too high."
There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
*AARRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!*
Funny, I always have that reaction to Vogon Poetry.
"Unheard of means only it's undreamed of yet,
Impossible means not yet done." ~~ Julia Ecklar
Back in the stone age (ie, early 80s) one of the electronics projects in our class was a "librarian annoyer" -- a small circuit that would run for a long time on a 9v battery and would periodically emit a shrill noise for a brief time and then go silent again. The idea was to put it in a hollowed out book in the library and the librarian would go nuts trying to find the source of the noise.
Why not combine this concept with the TV turner-offer? A small device that would periodically emit all the OFF IR codes for TVs. Make it unobtrusive enough that it could be stuck someplace where it wouldn't be seen, or camouflaged as something that belonged on the wall (many places have rectangular thermostat sensors all over -- small metal rectangle with no controls).
With the right power source and camouflage, you could really have some fun. It may also be interesting to not just send OFF codes, but to send random channel or input codes, mutes, volume up/down commands and so on.
A single IR command might be simpler to implement, but it'd still be a blast.
We are well and truly fucked folks.