Slashdot Mirror
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.
This might be the next red laser pointer. Built with a good purpose, but annoying as hell for everyone else.
Wouldn't the remote also turn on all the televisions which were originally off?
Personally, I am terribly annoyed by TVs in restaurants
Then don't eat there. It's not your TV to turn off, and maybe other people want to watch it.
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.
But by earlier Slashdot coverage this week. Repost.
if you are in a public place, you cannot turn that TV off as it's not solely yours. if you are in a private place not your own, you cannot turn that TV off as the TV is not yours.
if you can't manage to turn off the TV in your own home, then you got other problems.
So because you don't have the ability to focus on a person sitting right in front of you and/or you can't go to a different establishment that meets your needs. Those of us that go to such places because we want to watch the TV there have to suffer. Not to mention that I'm sure it annoyes the owner of the establishment because he obviously wants them there.
Free Mac Mini
Since TV remotes work on IR, this gadget would require a clean line of sight to the TV IR receiver...
The article does mention it at the very bottom.. but just as a reminder, this product is also TV-B-On
when me and my roomates are arguing about what to watch on tv, the least lazy of us just goes up to the tv, turns it to the channel they want, and put a book in front of the ir port thingy. then, unless we want to get up too, we're forced to watch.
this could be done here as well to circumvent any tv haters
Now all we need is the salesman-be-gone, the policeman-be-gone, and the nagging-mother-in-law-be-gone. ^_^
are pacemakers really powered off by infra-red remote controls???
The sheer fucking arrogance of this leaves me almost at a loss for words...
Almost.
What business is it of yours to tamper with things that don't belong to you? Other people might want to watch, and it sounds like the submitter has a problem with controlling his own actions if he can't talk with his "human companions" in the proximity of a TV. Television is merely a conduit of information; there is nothing inherently evil about it.
And it's the height of arrogance and intellectual elitism to think that it's any of your business to turn off TVs that don't belong to you, in public or private places.
The Wired article talks about "anti-TV activists". For fuck's sake, people...
Don't think many pacemakers are IR based.
Universal Cell Phone off button.
Whoever creates a small consumer-oriented cell phone signal jammer should win the Nobel Prize.
Worst Sig Ever
If you like being able to turn off any TV you'd like, you'll like TV Turn-off Week. It's going to be held from April 25-May 1, 2005. Personally, the Internet's replaced TV for me; even though there is a TV here I don't really watch it now.
US businesses that currently accept chip and PIN/signature
I hope you all know TV's have "ON" buttons and normal "REMOTES" which folks can use to battle against this new technology......
What sort of range and spread do these have? If I were to get one I would want it with decent range (maybe 20 metres) but also with full spread. So that it would only take one button press to turn off all the TVs wihtin the range. I could imagine causing havoc at the local electronic store's TV wall could be fun.
-You're only as clean as your towel.
in a crowded bar. You'll make some new friends with this gizmo.
Vote for Pedro
If the TV isn't yours, then deal with it. Also, if you have problems holding a conversation while one is nearby, then maybe the TV isn't the problem. Try to actually focus on NOT paying attention, or leave. Simple solutions that don't require money or interfering with other people.
I'm going to have to fill up the tank and get me one of these things and drive through the coves of rural america.
Seriously, I TRY to pay attention to my friends, familiy, WIFE, when I'm in a public place with a television. I really do.
It doesn't matter how horrendous the show that's on is either. If it's there, I zone in on it.
Finally, an escape!
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
Yeah, so let's help them out by posting the URL on /.
I disapprove of this concept - if you don't like the fact that wherever you are has a TV, go somewhere else. Just because you find it annoying doesn't mean you have the right to turn it off. It's similar to walking into a pub and demanding that everyone stop smoking because you are a non-smoker.
tv's that are being used as monitors, say with flight info, traffic reports etc.
OR, if you have a really strong death wish, turn off the Red Sox/ Yankees game at you local bar?
better hide that little sucker in IR-transparent hiding place and keep you cellphone handy with 1-button 911 service programmed into it if you are going around turning off tvs that other people are watching. I was always warned not to get between a dog and its dinner but I think that goes for humans and there TV's too.
SLASHDOT: news for people who can't concentrate on work or have no life at all and got tired of yelling back at the TV.
in Future Shop: endless amounts of fun while watching poor salespeople try to figure out why their equipment is going haywire and disturbing their sales pitches!
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"
Uh, excuse me... who the hell do you think you are that you can walk into someone's place of business, and switch off a piece of property that isn't yours?
Bottom line: if you're unhappy with the noise levels of TV's where you frequent... ask them nicely to turn it down. You'd be surprised how far a simple 'please' goes these days. A fact that eludes far too many people these days.
And if that doesn't work: go somewhere else. No one's forcing you to visit their place of business. Talk with your money.
I always wanted to build a car-stereo variant which would set the tuner to my FM transmitter, put the volume up all the way and blast "It's raining men" through their F-ing inconsiderate boom cars.
How long before the Department of Homeland Security classifies this as a "terrorist" device? Weapons of Mass Distractioon!
A small portion of people cannot tune out background noise such as television, but the disruption caused by random outages will disturb the people who DO tune it out. The brain filters out patterns; when patterns change, we notice them. We don't notice the water dripping, but we do when it stops; some of us cannot fall asleep unless there's a stream of white noise such as a fan or waterfall outside. Then there's the issue that people might actually be watching the darned thing in the first place! If I owned a public place, the first time I realized someone was turning off my TVs, I'd just cover the sensors with tape, and make everyone watch whatever I feel like instead, causing more annoyance.
slashdot: where everyone yells sarcastic metaphors to themselves to understand the issue
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,
You've got to be kidding me. Whenever I see TVs in places like that, they're always too small, too far away, and too quiet to keep my attention even when I want to watch them.
If you can't pay attention to a real human right in front of you because of a TV somewhere in the distance, maybe the television isn't the real source of the problem.
steve
Oh, you're not stuck, you're just unable to let go of the onion rings.
I'm too lazy to read the article. Is there a link to video of it somewhere so I know what it does? Anyone?
Small potatoes make the steak look bigger.
Instead of ruining the experience for everyone else, why not just try reigning in that raging ADD before someone invents the Retard-Be-Gone
...is a 'Geek-B-Dead' device to use on the asshat who thinks it's funny to use this at a sports bar right at that critical moment during an important play.
Rather than getting your ass kicked by irate tv watchers, you'd be better off with a remote that could mute the sound and turn on the captions. That is really the best way for TV to be shown in public places so people can still watch tv but it doesn't disturb others.
In some cases, such as the article states, the person may simply blink and walk away, but in other cases the person could become quite upset and violent.
In a class I am currently taking we talked about an organisms reaction to the removal of a stimulus they are conditioned to. In this case, the TV show would be the stimulus and response is the dazed, relaxed feeling they might be having. If this is removed, you will see what is sometimes called an "extinction burst." In these cases, dependent on the situation, the person may turn the TV back on and over successive trails become irritate and irrational about the TV turning off.
A great way to see this in practice is to take the batteries out of a remote. Leave them there for the next person to find. You should notice that when it doesn't work the first time, they might start pushing the button harder, maybe hit the remote, and so on. They do all this long before checking on the batteries.
I'm not saying this is totally applicable in all situations, but it might be something to consider.
Elvis used a slightly different method for turning off his TVs... KaPow!
My other car is a slashdot UID.
Let the infra-red warfare begin!
So then the TV manufacturers develop a TV which can be locked in the ON position through the setup menu. Then the keychain maker modifies the keychain to work around this. Then the TV manufacturers add a password. Then the keychain manufacturer adds a dictionary attack feature. Then the TV maker gives each remote a key unique to a given TV. Then universal remotes won't work anymore and everyone will be pissed off because they have to order replacement remotes from the factory and the keychains will be worthless.
Unknown host pong.
...that people don't think that they have some God-given right to control other people's hardware.
If there's a TV playing in someone else's bar, restaurant or whatever, what gives you the right to turn it off? If you don't like the TV being on you're always free to take your business elsewhere.
Some people might politely ask the owner to turn down the volume, switch it off, etc if it really bothered them. This gadget is a cowardly way of avoiding possible disappointment and foisting your opinion on someone else. Score one for mannerless morons.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Let me reply to my own post, just to show what a complete farking hypocrite I am. If, on the other hand, someone were to use this to turn off the Sox Yankees game on me, they would be in a world of pain.
Go Sox!
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.
Something that I would find much more useful is a button that cycles through all the 'Closed Captioning' activation codes.
So many TVs in public have the volume low (which is good) but have closed captioning turned off (which is bad). There's no way to actually get coherent information from most programming this way. If you're in a loud bar or restaurant, having the volume up would be intrusive for those who choose not to watch TV. But if you activate the closed captioning, then anyone who chooses to watch will at least be able to understand what they're seeing instead of just watching the 'pretty pictures'.
I'm reminded of the slashdot poster who, on the day the sample return capsule crashed without deploying a parachute, turned on the TV with the sound off and the saw what appeared to be a flying saucer half buried in the desert with the words 'BREAKING NEWS' flashing across the bottom.
What a maroon
Annoying or not, should an individual have the right to turn off a public television that the other people nearby have an equal right to?
This smacks terribly of the problems presented by personal cell phone jammers -- I'm all in favor of common courtesy, but how far should someone be permitted to go to enforce their own personal comfort?
As in both of these cases, should it extend into potentially infringing on the personal comfort of others? How many others? If you can block one person's cell phone signal with a jammer, can you turn off a high mounted TV set in an airport that dozens of people might be watching, because you don't feel like moving?
I should think not!
...is that it still uses IR, which means it needs line of sight. Of course, there's no way around that, since very few TV sets uses something other than IR for communicating with their remotes. The problem is that you have to point it at the TV set to use it.
Still pretty darn nifty though. I might get one when the site becomes accessible again.
On a sidenote, someone should combine this with a cellphone jammer, an electric stun gun, and a reusable light EMP grenade, and we'd have the ultimate peace-and-quiet device.
Quality, performance, value; you get only two, and you don't always get to pick.
The CB App. What's your 20?
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
RTFA!
The article covers that on the very last paragraph!
Well, yes, that sounds awfully neat . . . Except that many people in a bar may want the TV on, especially if they're watchin the game. And that may be why the owner turned the thing on in the first place.
Can you imagine the reaction if someone used one of these things in the ninth inning of game seven in the Yankees-Red Sox series? Is this likely to appeal to the same kind of loser who runs DoS attacks for kicks?
If there's something annoying on and no one else seems interested in it, why not just ask the bartender or manager to turn off the set or change the channel? I know from personal experience that that's often a viable strategy.
You don't have to like sports or, for that matter, Oprah or infomercials. But does that really entitle you to piss in someone else's sandbox?
Would be a device to actually turn UP and DOWN the volume of a TV.
Back at the university, we had SGI workstations with a volume control applet that could be redirected by X to another display. Some guys just discovered digital music back then (it wasn't even MP3), and were constantly playing it.
So the solution was to abruptly jump the volume up and down, much to the bewilderment of the person affected. It was very hard to keep a straight face when he was looking at me... but after several such intrusions, the music was finally stopped.
This is just what Guy Montag needed to silence Denham's Dentifrice.
I think these things will be effective exactly until they get popular. Then either bits of masking tape will be put over the IR receivers of public TVs or someone will create remote/IR pairs that are somehow specific to one another (like some sort of ID encoded in the IR signal). The harder part will be retrofitting existing TVs with such an ID-based remote (harder, but hardly impossible).
Wouldn't that risk something like this happening?. Or perhaps the neighbor's garage door bouncing around. Or somebody's pacemaker making them do the Funky Monkey.
Table-ized A.I.
They're pretty rare. I have at most one device at home that MIGHT support discrete on/off codes (my old Sharp XG-E660U LCD projector), but I'm not sure since I don't have the remote, and attempting to use remote definitions for other Sharp projectors gets minimal functionality at most.
With your typical consumer-grade TV sets, the only power code is a toggle. So this device is as likely to turn TVs ON as it is to turn them off.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Like in Auckland airport! The cafe there has a TV turned on LOUD, and in new zealand they just have three channels, of of which in the mornings broadcast only advertisements, continuously. I reckon it is a government plan to force people to go outside and exercise instead of watching TV, but it can be annoying if you are waiting for a plane and trying to read a magazine.
Best Buy Big Stack of TV's B gone!! I'd love to see THAT in action.
Looks like the Jonathan Greens of the world (many of which seem to frequent slashdot) finally have a weapon to fight back.
Finkployd
Arachninecronymphocranialpheliaphobiacs Anonymous
Am I the only one imagining my neighbors TV's shutting off one-by-one until it finds my TV's frequency? In an apartment this could be entertaining!
And their cell phones. And not as noisy as a machine gun.
Wait a minute - this thing will turn devices off, and ONLY off? The Off button on most remotes is simply a "toggle power status" feature, not an explicit "off" feature.
You pull out your clicker, and turn off the Simpsons, and the dude in the booth next to you clicks it back on. Seems like a waste of money to me!
Is there anything duct tape can't do?
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.
No technology will ever substitute for lack of an internal moral compass (and by moral I include my atheist self - this is not a religious argument). You are in TOTAL control of what you perceive and your reaction to what you perceive. America (I assume the author is a member of the growing American victim class) has become a bunch of spineless victims that can't live in a world unless it caters to their total lack of impulse control. From the drug war, to the growing food war, to all the "for the children" arguments, this type of thinking is scary, and gives cause for more government control of every aspect of our lives. We need to grow some balls and stop playing the victim at EVERY opportunity.
If the off/on codes change, make this into a USB keychain device that can be easily updated with *all* the codes.
When asked to fix it, the employees invariably say that the person who handles that is off that day. If I could fix it myself with such a device (or program for my treo, which has IR capabilities) I'd be glad to do it.
The CB App. What's your 20?
I just bought one and I intend to use it every chance I get. I am sick of pervasive mindless TV garble everywhere I go. All you folks who believe you have a god given right to watch tv at every moment of your life please buy a nice little portable tv and carry it around with you. And don't forget the earphones.
Simply locate the IR receiver, apply, and walk away.
-Rob
Marriage doesn't have to suck!
In related news, Sony will soon announce that all new TV models will use an encrypted signal to communicate between the remote and the box. Any third-party devices that attempt to imitate such remotes will be considered violations of the DMCA and thus be illegal to possess or manufacture.
.. And thus begins the demise of the universal remote.
And so the uproar begins...
Women will have their purses searched before entering sports bars. Men will be patted down before entering salons or spas.
This device opens a whole new area of possible mischief.
Caution: These comments may or may not reflect the actual opinion of the author.
This will be great for the food court at the local mall. They have 2 giant plasma monitors up on the walls playing the Republican News Network (foxnews) all damn day. Im not gonna pretend that all cable news doesnt have a conservative bias, but that channel is just over the top.
I read about this yesterday and got to visit their site before it was swamped.
The product of course contains hundreds of codes to turn off (or on) hundreds of different television models. Because of this it literally takes a over a minute to transmit each code one after the other. They have listed the most predominate models first so should typically take less time, however a person could still have to aim this device at a TV for up to 69 seconds before it turns off.
Dan East
Better known as 318230.
Instead of imposing your ideals on others without their permission / acceptance, why not try patronizing places that don't have annoying TVs blaring all over the place.
It's not like TV free places are hard to find, but if you disagree with the environment, vote with you wallet instead of trying to run someone else's business.
It won't solve all the airport problems, but I can usually find a place out of Tube range.
Also, I can image a number of "circumvention" devices that would render this device pratically useless in a location that has frequent problems with the TV suddenly turning off. Like masking tape.
Companies will start having to make their TV's (and other equipment's) remotes work on some sort of specialized and user-configurable encrypted code (like garage door openers). Neat-o! Dip switches in my TV remote! The universal remote will be quite difficult if not impossible to configure when this happens.
We don't even own one. We're hardly flat-Earthers; we have plenty of stereos and computers at home. Just no TV. problem solved (at home, anyway).
My pet peeve isn't the TVs in restaurants, it's the people who have to have a TV on wherever they are. You go to visit, and they try to visit an dwatch TV 9or channel flip) all at once, the whole time.
Then they come to our house, and really get wigged out!
I'm sick and tired of having TV shoved in my face almost everywhere these days. I go to the dentist and there's a TV hanging over the chair. (At least they don't mind turning it off when I ask.) I get into an elevator and there's a TV in there. I go to an amusement park and there are TVs all over the place, all cranked up LOUD so people can hear them over the noise of the rides. Our local transit system is planning to put TVs into the subway trains. And on airplanes, the 90-minute movie has morphed into non-stop video "entertainment" for almost the entire flight.
The proliferation of TVs in public spaces annoys me to no end. When I'm trying to pass the time while waiting in line, I'd rather just zone out and stare unfocussedly into the middle distance. This is almost impossible to do with a TV flashing and blaring nearby. Having a civilized conversation with a friend under such circumstances is similarly difficult.
I. DON'T. WANT. TO. WATCH. TV. I'm hoping that in a few years, people will view all these TV sets as a nuisance, in the same the way they view loud cellphone users now.
Yqy...K ecp'v dgnkgxg aqw cevwcnna vqqm vjg vkog vq vtcpuncvg oa uki. Kh aqw vjkpm vjku ku tkfkewnqwu, tgcf oa dkq.
Slashdot!
The truly universal "off button" is that big 100-amp (or more) main breaker. I guarantee it'll work. Hehe.
... in order to avoid incurring the wrath of the society zombies among you who actually want to watch the megacrap that is today's television programming, I would suggest that this device should be subtly embedded in a baseball cap or something, and set to transmit every minute or so. That way you can turn televisions off just by looking at them, while your "alibi hand" is firmly grasping your "alibi beer" or something. :)
Seriously though
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
Now it has become Website-B-Gone. ./
Thanks
http://www.zeia.com/
http://www.up0.com/
i want one of those. i guess grabbing the phone and smashing it would work too, but i don't like getting beaten up.
i saw the baby, and the baby looked at me
Manufacturers will include an option to disable the remote control function of the TV, thus allowing mission critical sets to be immune to such a device. As an added bonus, they could make it so that only the Power functionality is disabled, still allowing the channel and volume to be controlled.
:)
In the meantime, expect sports bars to be putting little bits of duct tape over the remote sensor
I know that the programming on most channels is very bad these days, but come on...
Do you really expect to die from it?
Again, it comes down to 'freedom to' and 'freedom from'.
All of the 5-rated comments that I see at this point are of the "How dare they" mindset. Of course, this remote will probably be abused by the immature 13-20 year old camp, and probably be more of an nuisance than the red laser pointer was. Many people are saying things like "Don't like TV while you eat? Don't go to that restaurant!"
Consider this analogy: replace "TV" with "secondhand smoke". It's pretty widely known that secondhand smoke is bad for you, and that has been codified by laws and ordinances in various jurisdictions. It's also widely believed (but I don't know about sociological research) that TV is also bad for you, and if you don't want to be subjected to it, you shouldn't have to be.
It used to be that secondhand smoke was just something that people accepted as being a consequence of living in modern society. Fortunately, many areas have wised up and enacted laws that restrict smoking. This has worked to such a point that in many communities (such as my own, in Boulder, Colorado) you can go for weeks without being accosted by secondhand smoke. This makes for a much healthier life.
If it turns out that ubiquitous TVs are unhealthy (reducing your attention span, increasing lonliness, decreasing your ability to think critically about things such as who to vote for president) it makes sense that their presence should be curbed. I don't believe this remote control is really the most mature way of addressing the problem, but it does certainly indicate that the problem is very real and that many people would like to do something about it.
Is it possible that when I go to a restaurant in a few years, rather than asking "smoking or non" they will ask "TV or non"?
(Instructions: Hold the DTV button and TV power button together for 5 seconds, then enter 0999. To search the codes press the channel up button, wait 2 or 3 seconds, and repeat until the TV turns off.)
It's probably not as discreet as this thing, but it is something you could have been doing for quite a while now.
I mean, there is just one ON/OFF button on the remote?
Its about the intent.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
There was also an interview with the inventor of this gadget on the All Things Considered radio program last night. I want one :)
Hit a button, and the TV's suddenly ramp up their volume to the max. THAT'S a hack.
I simply want to kill all cell phones in restaurants and theaters. That has gotten VERY old.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that it is illegal to interfere with cell phones.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
If you do not have the balls to walk up and turn off a TV that other people are watching in a public place, perhaps you shouldn't turn it off at all. Either stand up for what you believe in (no matter how arrogant), or just learn to live with other people and their preferences. Don't be a coward.
How long did it take the doctor to extract your remote control from your ass, where I implanted it with a work boot four hours ago? Do they expect a complete recovery? Did they find your teeth?
Seriously, this seems like a hideously bad idea. If you knew that it would only enrage people by shutting off their electronics, then that would be one thing. However, being responsible for a whole range of unexpected results because you thought it'd be funny to make a TGI Friday's slightly quieter is a whole different animal.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Are you saying a person shouldn't be able to emit certain radio waves in certain situations? That sounds like a pretty un-libertarian POV to me.
You do realize this statements are unrelated. There's no law against serving really hot coffee, but McD's got sued for that. I be willing to bet that most lawsuits aren't based on the commission of a particular crime, but instead on injury of some kind caused by someone's actions or negligence.
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
I would not consider myself "hooked" on background noise, but I do find that I am a much more productive worker when I have some instrumental music (generally jazz or classical) in the background. It definitely helps me concentrate. Why? Because when there is a little noise, you don't notice things like creaky floors, people walking through the halls, cars on the streets, and all the other intermittent noises we are subjected to and can't avoid every day. A little music not only filters out this noise, but it helps me set a rhythm. So while I do generally find anything with voices distracting, I think it's awfully unfair to accuse the rest of us of never "fully" concentrating.
Live free or die
No need to buy seperate hardware, now just need to find a resource that lists all the IR codes.
When I'm trying to kill some time at the airport, here comes some jerk and keeps turning the tv off!!!!
>:-(
Where is this thing? Is it in orbit? Is it near-Earth, pointing at it? Does it turn off ALL TVs in the universe?
Perhaps presidential candidates can use it when opponents run ads or programs.
I'd like to see a Universal Orgasm Button. That'd be SWEET.
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
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.
Most people (submitter perhaps withstanding) really wouldn't use this outside of perhaps their home.
This smacks of a novelty item / gag gift, I mean you won't take it to your bar, because if you really wanted that TV off, you'd ask the manager or leave. Only the most die hard axxholes would consider acting out the scenario presented, and few of those would have the stomach to do it twice, or make a regular occurance out of it.
Let's face it, we already know who would abuse this device, they're the same ones that are yelling at the manager / barkeep all the time, but don't have the common sense to stop coming to their "favorite resturant / bar".
A piece of tape will solve the TV problems, and then they'll be back to ridiculous statements of infringement of their personal space / hearing when visiting a public place.
Anyone who goes into a bar and starts turning off the TV because they dont want to hear it is just simply an asshole. If you dont want to deal with the TV then dont go to a place that has them.
They make it sound like everywhere you go has a TV now. The only places I have been to that have TVs are places that have a bar. And the TV is usually around the damn bar.
If you go somewhere and the tv is distracting you from the people you are with then i am sure there are a hundred other things that will distract you also.
I can't wait till I hear about some assclown who catches a beat down when he turns off a playoff game at a sports bar.
Which is a piece of electrical tape covering the IR receiver so nitwits who can't ignore TV can't turn mine off!
-- I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. It's not my fault that life sucks so much. --
Your iPod or PDA. Slashdot had a story on it a while back here http://apple.slashdot.org/apple/04/07/27/1528218.s html?tid=176&tid=137&tid=159&tid=218.
Hook up any standard camcorder that also records in IR frequency pointing away from the TV with a wide angle lens. Rig it to some kind of IR controlled video selector switch so that when it receives any 'off' from this thing's database it switches to a 10 second delayed buffered feed from itself. The person using this device would appear to anybody watching the TV as having a blinking light aimed almost directly at the camera.
Ok.. thats kinda expensive.. I suppoes a piece of ducttape would suffice.
What about PostOffices in Dallas Texas. While standing in line they show Fox TV with all the Pro Bush stuff. The Postmasters position is that it's a free country and USPS can do as they please.
Help fight continental drift.
Though currently banned in the USA, they are ppoping in churches and theaters in other countries fed up with the rudeness of audiences.
Something similar happens when I hear a cell-phone ringing. I just take it out of the owner's pocket, throw it to the floor and start jumping on it until it doesn't wanna ring anymore.
I wonder why they say I am a childish bastard though.
diegoT
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.
...how long until we can get one that works on people?
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Great idea! I can program my palmPC inferad control to turn off all the TV around me. That won't be too hard.
probably didn't get enough hugs from his/her parents. If you can't pay attention to a human in front of you at a restaurant or whatever.. you most likely have ADD... i suggest you get some ritalin and put away your little script kiddie remote control.
with my ipaq and NEVO. It's more fun to mess with peoples heads by changing channels, and turning it off and on. I did it in the ER waiting room last week, while I was waiting to get stitches. Ok, maybe I'm cruel. but I had fun while I sat there for 3 hours.
It's actually usually just the high-end TVs that have discrete IR codes. The "home theater buffs" that have the $500 Pronto remote controls or the $100,000 Crestron Home Automation system will normally have a much higher-end TV than what they'll have at the airport or the laundromat, thus, they have the Discrete On/Off codes.
"...If, on the other hand, someone were to use this to turn off the Sox Yankees game on me, they would be in a world of pain....Go Sox!"
:)
You should thank that person for saving you from being disappointed
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
IANAL, but I'm curious what right this guy has to think he can just turn any TV off that he finds annoying. If he's in a public place and a TV is being a nuissance, find somewhere else to sit. However, if the idea behind this is just to be annoying, then I'm all for it.
I was doing this years ago with my old Handspring Visor Deluxe (8MB... woohoo!) using some kind of remote control "learning" program. Basically... you held the palm's IR sensor near the remote's sensor, tell the palm to record the button press... and then hit the button on the remote. I had a script on my palm to go through many different remote patterns and even timed it so I could walk away from the TV and piss off grandpa without being in the blast radius.
Good times....
I got nothin'.
That's exactly like cellphone jammers. Illegal, but incredibly useful anyway.
cpghost at Cordula's Web.
And here I was thinking that someone had developed a device which would turn off all my devices when I left the room. Too often I have to pick up mulitple remotes, or spend all afternoon programming them when the batteries fall out. If someone just made one button which would simotaneously turn ON all my devices (TV, Receiver, Digital Receiver, etc...) and then could turn them all off again... bonus!
0110100100100000011000010110110100100000011000100
Steal his iPod. Tell him it's for his own good.
If guns kill people, then CmdrTaco's keyboard misspells words.
ThinkGeek's remote watch
I don't work for them, but I figured I'd add that info since no one mentionned it specifically yet.
I suppose the downside of it is that you have to carry the sheet of manufacturers codes with you...
(psst Slashdot editors with infinite mod points, this is free advertising!)
This would be absolutely AWESOME at school! There are TVs all over the place and turning them off would annoy the staff sooo much! haha, I can see it now
If only i could get one of these for my girlfriend ;)
At first, I thought this guy was just an obnoxious jerk trying to impose his hatred for television on everyone around him. But then I realized something with this line:
Unfortunately, the TV-B-Gone website seems to have already been swamped by the Wired coverage
He's actually trying to *prevent* its release. He's making an attempt to either get the website yanked by his provider by way of a DDOS, or to keep it out of service long enough to get them to give up. Undoubtedly, he'll post the link to k5 after this.
"No problem. I have the capacity to do infinite work so long as you don't mind that my quality approaches zero."-Dilbert
If she gets ahold of this thing, I'm doomed.
Doomed I tell you.
It's called ductape! Just aply over the IR port and voila! For 1.99 at the nearest wallmart.
is illegal in the United States.
... duct tape! A piece of duct tape over the IR receiver will stop these devices from doing bad things to TVs. I think bar owners everywhere will be stragetically placing grey tape on their TV after football fans beat the &^%$ out of the geek with this on their keychain.
No libertarian worth his salt would tell you that you should be able to emit {insert substance/energy/whatever here} any time and anywhere you want.
Where could you have possibly gotten that idea?
A modern day witchhunt.
The product website is back up, spent a few minutes purusing it. No place to put up comments directly, and no "contact us" type email address.
....
The arrogance (or perhaps I should put it down to sheer stupidity instead as per the axiom) of these people is amazing. All the links to anti-TV establishments (many of whom must be glued to the tube since their website are staler than week old cold pizza) full of rants (but no ability to engage in discourse) about "TV is bad, and we know what's good for you".
It's my brain, and someone else's property - you have no rights to either, so leave the TV alone.
Presumably, the owner of the TV has assumed (or been requested) to provide a service by having a TV there. Customer's therefore expect said service to be provided, and would be well within their "range of expected/understood reactions" to beat the tar out of some elitist snob who saw fit to deprive them of their enjoyment of said service.
To the poster who claimed "don't blame the tool, punish the abuser" --- I would liken this to hacking facilitation tools. It's sole purpose is to be abused by inflicting someone's narrow views (in secret so they don't have to face scrutiny for their actions) on another group.
And the spurious claim regarding "when I'm alone in the airport I'd love to be able to turn off the TV without disturbing the staff"? You think the staff won't react to the TV going off without explanation? You've just interupted their productivity while they come and investigate why the TV went off in the first place. Or interupted their productivity when someone else comes along to ask them to have it turned on. Sorry, I'm not buying.
It's a tool who sole purpose is abuse, and to try and cloak it with a veneer of goodness and light is misguided or disingenius.
Likening public area TV to second-hand smoke? C'mon people
Reason why there is hope for the future generation #364:
"I wish my grass was emo so it could cut itself."
Here we have an incredibly insecure electronics device. It listens on a common EM frequency band and willingly turns itself off whenever a sequence of simple codes is received. When someone finally exploits this gaping security hole, aren't we supposed to blame the people who made the security hole? After all, problems in Windows are Microsoft's fault. Why is this the fault of the device's creator, and not the fault of the TV manufacturers?
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
I have a diagnosed neurological disorder, you insensitive clod!
To force his holier than thou TeeVee is duh debul shit on the rest of us. Well fuck him and I hope someone makes a "Kill You" button real soon.
If you go around turning off others TV's just because 'it annoys me' then you are nothing better than a common vandal and are committing a crime.
If the TV in a restaurant bothers you, DON'T GO TO THAT DAMNED RESTAURANT.. problem solved. The world doesn't revolve around your sorry ass.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Many years ago, when I was a student, we went out one night with my flatmate's learning remote and turned up the volume on all the TVs in a shop window. Next night, we did it again. By the fourth night of this, all the price tickets were very carefully arranged over the IR sensors...
Loud/fast cars impose themselves on everyone around them. What computer modders do in the privacy of their own mother's basement does not interfere with other people's lives.
taken! (by Davidleeroth) Thanks Bingo Foo!
why not just try reigning in that raging ADD
And how would you suggest doing that?
The number of posts that state matter-of-factly that use of a device of this nature will result in it's operator suffering anything from a mild pummeling to a quick and painful death is pretty ridiculous. Even eye for an eye justice wouldn't prescribe an ass-beating for simply turning off a television set. I suppose it's a testament to the depth to which TV's role in society has penetrated. If you find yourself maddened to the point of physical violence over someone switching a television off in your close proximity, perhaps you should look into some anger management classes.
They made it straight with Pilsette and Ziggies on your Terasse comfortably, disturbed themselves in the afternoon there the peace of the late by dull/musty rumbling and Grummeln: The regular Umm Umm Umm Umm Umm increases slowly to a kakophonischen Umm Tss Umm Tss Umm Tss Umm Tschicki Umm Tss Umm Tss Umm Tss, under from the exerted Troeten of a aufgemotzten small car engine
I've never seen anything with a button that turns a tv off but not on
Remote controls supplied with RCA and GE televisions and VCRs will often have a separate button for "on", which also selects the device for further button presses, and "off".
I remember when these first came out-- kids in my school were using them to turn on/off the televisions in the classroom at inopportune times.
:) It takes no skill, just point and shoot!
:)
I can only imagine what kind of trouble kids will get into with one of THESE in their hands
Here's one of those watches for your personal enjoyment
...unfortunately no one can be told what The Mat^H^H^HGoatse is...they must experience it for themselves...
"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."
How is that the televisions fault that you don't have enough self control to ignore the tv and concentrate on those around you?
A device like this cannot be legal and has to be pretty close to being called vandelism.
I saw the news in a german forum first, and about 90% were like cool idea.
Here, about 3/4 are crying like little babies who get their teeth-rotting candy taken away...
Are all those prejudice about braindeath couch-potatos true in the end?
HI O WISE PRINCE. WHT TOOK U SO DAM LONG?
Anyone know of anything like this for a PC IR device? I have a serial infrared controller and it would be quite handy if I could somehow scan codes coming from my remote and use them to control devices in my living room, etc.
So far the LIRC pages/tips have done nothing but give me a headache... it seems that it might work for networking but how about just general IR interaction?
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
Sit with your back to the TV. There are many people who go to bars and restaurants in hopes of watching a game in a public setting, or just enjoying the distraction. It is not a patrons right to turn off the TV that they do not own. If you do not like it you can complain to management, if management says "no" to your request, then you can leave. If you are that bored that the TV is bothering you, find a friend who can keep your attention ---personally a gorgeous bruenette would keep my attention over any TV set.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
...I am annoyed with people who turn off TVs that I am watching simply because they have attention span problems. What you do at home is up to you, but in airports and restaurants consider that there are many others present who may not appreciate you flipping the TV off because you a) have a short attention span, b) think it's funny, c) are making a socio-political statement that I think is puddle deep.
Also accept that I sound irate because I spend too many days in TGI Friday's "listening" to some windbag (usually my boss) take credit for my work, or my co-workers work, and getting the big fat bonus we deserved. My only salvation is that I can occasionally get in my 6:30-7:30 "Simpsons" viewing in. I, for one, am perfectly capable of ignoring one source of spurious and useless input in favor of another of my choosing.
... if annoying TVs bothered me more than they do, I'd reckon this was $14.99 +shipping well spent.
Sigs. We don't need no steenking sigs.
we've been shown that televisions won't have "off" buttons.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089568/
...into a sports bar tonight in Boston.
Nerd suicide.
"Anyone that has ever gotten an idea based on any of my work and done something better with it-good for you."--J.Carmack
I want one of these, for a single reason: airports that insist on playing fucking CNN at me, whether I like it or not.
As people say, if a restaurant or bar wants to have a TV, I'm quite free to go somewhere else--and I do. However, if I'm flying via some random airport, I have no choice about the fact that I have to wait an hour for my plane at that airport.
Some airports have areas far enough away from the blaring CNN, and I go there. Others don't, and for those airports I'd find a TV-B-Gone very handy.
And yes, I've tried asking them to turn off the TVs. They won't. I've even written to the airports requesting that they get rid of CNN. No response. I'm guessing they're paid to subject us to it.
GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak
Plant one of those in best buy pointing at the tv department. See what happens.
^^
... if only for its anarchist and anti-establishment value. Call me an asshole, but imagine how much fun you could have with this in a Best Buy, or a Tweeter, or places like that. Chaos!!! I wouldn't go so far as to bring it to a sports bar though. That IS nasty and I wouldn't stoop that low. But I could see the value in other places.
Who wants to bet when the first person will be charged under the governments new emergency law that will cover this? It did give me a fiendishly good idea though.. how about instead of an IR key-fob, an RF key-fob? It would somehow need to get the right frequency (local oscillator detection?) and then would simply transmit a single frame, which could be downloaded by usb onto it. You then walk into an unsuitable place and stick the goats.cx pic on the TV and act shocked like everyone else... It would also have the added benefit of making someone turn it off for you!
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Quite simply, I don't patronize any place that slaps a TV in every corner. If I'm eating out, its with my wife, or with her and some friends. Hell, I didn't know until the other day that the local "Ruby Tuesdays" had an assortment of TV's until I looked up.
Blessedly, their staff keep the captions on, and the sounds to mute.
However, in my Handspring, I keep the most wonderful springboard module. The Omniremote. And in it, several buttons with the "Mute" functions for several different brands of TV. I'm not an asshole who will turn off the local sports game, but it has come in handy when being the only couple in the "patio" section, to turn down the mood-killing sports channel.
I won't buy this device, even if its $5. If it had a -MUTE- function, I would perhaps. While "Mute" is in some cases a lesser evil. I've found that really, I've not -NEEDED- to use the one I already have.
I preferr patronizing restraunts that don't shove television at me, to prevent me from needing to be social with my wife and friends.
"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.
But then some idiot will market the "TV-B-Broke" (a fist-sized rock) that
permanently disables the TV in less than 3 seconds, and doesn't even need batteries.
("Danger! Irate bar patrons may also use this device as a 'Face-B-Broke'")
>;k
Let the free market decide about smoking. If a restaurant/bar makes more money allowing smokers in...they'll keep doing it. You as a non-smoker, have the right to go somewhere else. If this hurts the business they will have no smoking policies.
I almost agree with you. Yes, it's true that capitalism would dictate that the restaurant should be free to decide whether or not to permit smoking, and the customers can choose whether or not to patronize said restaurant. However, there is one important group of people being ignored here: the restaurant employees. They don't get a choice. They are forced to breathe the smokey air and subject themselves to lung cancer, and in this day and age, in civilized countries, that's a form of employee abuse.
"They can choose not to work there" you will say, and while that's true, that's not a valid point. That exact same argument can be used to defend sexual harassment at the work place. After all, if a woman isn't comfortable at a construction site, with a bunch of knuckle-dragging neanderthals ogling her, whistling cat-calls, and shouting obscene, suggestive remarks at her, she can quit and work somewhere else, right?
For me, "smoking bans" are not about the patrons. It's about the employees. Everyone has a right to a safe and healthy workplace, and in those cases where the very nature of the job is dangerous (miners, astronauts, etc.), they have a right to safety standards and equipment. If employees at smoking-restaurants could wear respirators, then I wouldn't have a problem. But the employers won't let them. "Turns off the customers," they say.
I welcome smoking bans. Thankfully, I live in a city (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada) progressive enough to recognize that the food service industry is not exempt from the same workplace safety laws and standards that apply to every single other industry. I like that my wife and I can go out to any bar or restaurant without coming home smelling disgusting and smokey.
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
Imagine for one second the similarities in the two:
People who smoke in public voluntarily consume poisonous chemicals that pollute the air in their vicinity. The unwelcome side-effect of consuming/filtering/avoiding the smoke against your will is felt mainly in the nose and lungs.
People who watch television in public voluntarily consume poisonous audio/visual content that also pollutes the air in their vicinity. The unwelcome side-effect of consuming/filtering/avoiding the sight/sound against your will is felt mainly in the ears and eyes.
Just as smokers have the right to consume tobacco in public, non-smokers have the right to consume the public air *without* the contamination of cig-smoke. You may not dislike the effects of television any more than you do second-hand smoke, but there are people who discern the difference and prefer to exist without it.
If there's a ciggy smoldering in an ashtray, smoking away, I put it out. If there's a TV smoldering away at the laundrymat, I'd like to put it out, too.
I think the point of this device is that you AREN'T free to take your business elsewhere because televisions in every kind of public place and private establishment have become ubiquitous.
It does seem to be a manifestation of the typical geek "we have the technological power, so we don't have to explain ourselves to you plebians" arrogance, though.
+++ATH0
I love the Google translation! It reads like it was written by Sgt Schultz from "Hogan's Heroes".
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
"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."
Or by writing a program to get your PDA with Ir capabilities to do the same thing.
I thought we'd evolved from Off to Stand By, Input Ready is soon to come!
Music is everybody's possession.
It's only publishers who think that people own it.
Fuck Beta
~John Lenno
is one of the reasons I just ordered one of these. My shipment gets here today! w00t!
+++ATH0
Gives you a nice warm fuzzy feeling, too.
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
I'm standing outside my mailbox yesterday and this punk-ass in a Hyundai rolls up with hip hop blaring out loudly, with his crappy cheap speakers overwhelmed by the bass... I'd love to have had an Uzi or Ak then and there and wiped him out..
See also this post at Gizmodo on the same thing, slightly different take on it though.
---------- It tingles because it's working.
You just ask the f'n place to turn off the TV you self-centered dolt. If a place has a TV in it it's probably because people like it. I doubt any place is trying to annoy or drive people nuts for shits and giggles... they at least percieve people enjoying the televisions. If that perception is wrong, fix it by asking them to turn it off!
Tell you what... let me turn off all of the street lights cause they shine in my window at night.
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
It's called ELECTRICAL TAPE.
...But I digress. TREMBLE PUNY HUMANS!ONE DAY MY SPECIES WILL DESTROY YOU ALL!
You and the airport do not have a right to bomb me with adverts from some crappy TV.
What gives you the idea that you have a right to peace and quiet when you're in a place of public accomodation? That's simply ludicrous.
Don't like going to restaurants that have TVs blaring in the corner? Try going somewhere classier than a sports bar for once. You don't have the right to decide what everyone else is or isn't allowed to watch while they eat.
Your right to swing your arm ends where my nose begins. Don't believe me? Come on over some day and I'll punch you in the nose. You and the airport do not have a right to bomb me with adverts from some crappy TV. I'm sick of it and I'll be getting one of these devices so that I can contemplate whatever I like while you go into some kind of broadcast stupidity withdrawal.
WTH? Are you that stupid, or are you trolling? The airport certainly DOES have the right to bombard you with ads, if they so choose. Don't like it? DON'T GO TO THE AIRPORT. You have NO right to turn off TV's that don't belong to you. Don't believe me? Come over to my house and try to turn off the TV and I'll beat your ass with a baseball bat, all the while laughing like a pirate at your incredible lack of hubris and blatant stupdity.
I'm sick of people like you, who think their way is the right way. I leave people like you alone to do whatever they wish to do, so long as it doesn't affect me. Why the hell can't you provide the same courtsey?
Lets see... Today: TV Sets. Tomarrow: Traffic Lights!
Yea, we could do the old thing of an Chrome Box, but actually getting that box working to work was truely unrealistic.
-- M
Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.
I'd wait until my uncle came home from a drinking binge, and watch tv. Every time he sat down, I'd change the channel on him. He never had a clue, just kept cursing the television.
This new gizmo isn't nearly as much fun, IMHO.
"My country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." --Senator Carl Schurz (1872)
1) cellphones (turn them off or put them on vibrate 2) loud people 3) noisy children---parents, take your monsters to McDonalds, not a classy white tablecloth establishment
I wish the cops in most towns actually did something about it. The problem is that most police depts. don't have the pricey decibel meters they need to see if legally a violation has taken place. The other problem is what do you do about the a-holes who ride modified Harleys (or cars with "boomer" exhausts) and just pass through town occasionally. You may get it every day but it isn't the same people necessarily. The only way to fight that is with automated ticketing cameras or noise traps.
There really is no excuse for massive car stereos on the road anyway. They obviously are there to be inflicted on bystanders since they are far louder than anyone could possibly need in the car. I've had my stomach thudded in closed concrete buildings from passing cars with these stereos. If most of the owners can't use them responsibly then they need to be taken off the road.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Remember the lame excuse that TV companies/Hollywood put out whenever they make something offensive? I never thought I would reguritate it and actually mean it: You don't have to watch!
I know that the effect of a TV screen may seem hypnothic to you, but other people are actually able to ignore it.
And you could ask the staff to turn it off.
If I happen to sit in a waiting room at the DMV, you know where I have no alternative but to go to get my driver's license, and take particular offence at your misproportioned face, am I then allowed to put a big brown paper bag over your head? By your standard, I am. (Not touching your nose.)
On the flipside, I wouldn't agree to a ban to paper bags, since they have a legitimate use besides hiding your CRT-tanned face. There could be a use for them for an airport that wants to save electrcity and have several different makes of TV. Give the security guard one of these and let him shut down those advertising-emmitting heaters on his first night round.
what gives them the right to overrule the vast majority of people there, other than some stupid social standard that TV is GOD?
Right of ownership, common law, US code, perhaps the FCC, any sane ethical standard.
Duct tapes ready.
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
"Information"???
- My Big Fat Obnoxious Boss
- Amish in the City
- The Swan
- Nanny 911
- Trading Spouses:Meet Your New Mommy
This is the type of drivel people like the inventor of this gadget are talking about. This is not information. This is ridiculous, maddeningly stupid crap. Crap that literally makes you stupider just to look at it. And of course there are many situations where one had better not mess with the TV. No one's saying you have to use it if others are enjoying it. It's a tool with a proper use and improper uses, just like a computer.Yes they do. It's their damned airport. Don't like it? Try another airport. Can't find one to accomodate your needs? Don't fly.
I'm familiar with the classical "rights of man" argument you're making, but you're twisting it. You seem to believe that everyone, everywhere, in any place you could possibly go, is required to accomodate you to prevent you from being annoyed. Hate to tell you, but that is not the way the world works - nor should it. I'd certainly hate to live my life in a way that could never simply annoy anyone.
In this specific instance, more people are entertained - or at least have their boredom reduced - by the TVs than people are annoyed by them, or else they wouldn't be there. Contrary to what you seem to believe, you *aren't* more important than other people.
People in TV induced comas are known for their lack of situational awareness.
Ah, the classic condescending "you watch TV so I'm smarter than you argument." Hate to burst your bubble, but lots of extremely intelligent people watch TV. And a lot of people of meager intelligence avoid TV because they think it makes them appear smarter. To paraphrase "A Fish Called Wanda" - a movie, no less - an monkey can read Plato, he just won't understand it. Self-affected intellectual elitism shouldn't be confused for intelligence.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
Nice troll. I'd love to see you break my boom box into pieces. You internet tough guys are about the most pathetic fucking thing I have ever witnessed in my entire life. Your posturing is such a waste of effort - I've yet to meet anyone who's intimidated by words on their monitor. Nice try, though.
Your opinions are vastly idiotic, but I'm pretty sure you're just making them up as you go anyway.
Whoever modded you insightful should be shot.
"What about the TVs in Cafe's or airports or other random places?"
Funny, I don't remember anyone asking me in the airport, where I'm forced to wait, if I wanted to listen to the TV blasting. There are so many ways to get the news that having it force fed to me isn't necessary. The last thing I need to hear about after standing in line for security for an hour and having risked my life in the drive to get there is, for example, how some kids got horribly killed somewhere.
They should do what I saw in a gym once, broadcast the sound portion over a radio frequency so people with radios could listen to it and those who didn't want to hear it weren't forced to. I assume if you can afford a plane ticket you can afford a cheap pocket radio and headphones.
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
I surprised at the posters getting all upset about this type of device. Yes it would be rude to mess with people in a crowded place like a bar or whatever if its obvious they're watching it. But how is an open IR receiver any different from say an open WAP? It's their fault if they didn't think about the possibility of someone using it in a way they didn't envision.
Last I checked, there was nothing in the Bill of Rights that said "We have the right to have silence in public and other people's private places."
TVs in the airport? Maybe people want to know what the weather's going to be like at thier destination. Maybe that guy who just spent 4 hours staring at the back of a seat would like to watch a game for an hour before spending another 6 viewing the threadcount of a headrest.
TV at your local restraunt? Noone forced you to be there, if you don't like it, ask to be moved away from it or go somewhere else.
TVs in stores? It helps to actually see a fully warmed up picture when viewing a TV. Besides, doesn't a TV turned on seem much more appealing than one turned off? If you wanted to view a TV turned off wouldn't you just get a cabinet?
Just as I don't have the right to take that cell phone and shove it up your arse, you don't have the right to turn off someone elses TVs.
Oh, and malls, airports, and restraunts are NOT public property. If you want public property to dispense your own brand of vigelante justice, the BLM land is usually well marked on topo maps. Go there and tell the crickets to shut the hell up. They might care.
-
If you think education is expensive, you should try ignorance -- Derek Bok, president of Harvard
That is SO ordered.
Despatched in three days apparently. [WEG]
This seems to be a pervasive attitude here at slashdot: Where if you don't like something, you have the given right to change it to suit your preferences. Real-life isn't open source, where you can just walk into a restaraunt, bar, or airport and branch the environment to YOUR choosing. Maybe thats why so many of the nerds around here are single. If you really are bothered by things like TV, and music in public places, its as simple as not getting your butt out of your computer chair, and staying home.
As mobile weapon against flat-sheared noise Emissionssuender a December duck water pistol worked satisfactorily, particularly since the classical running wart pilot always drives with lowered disk. A well cooled splash is particularly effective in the ear of the Mobilproleten . Then however a really potent automobile (see following picture) for the any escape before the Berzerker is recommended.
I agree with you 100%. TVs blaring in public spaces is one thing, TVs blaring in private establishments is quite another. And on that note, I oppose the smoking ban in NYC, yet I reserve the right to flick cigarettes out of people's mouths in the park. We share the space, and the responsibility for maintaining it for everyone. Smokers pollute like drunks taking a crap. If you smoke, think before you do it next time. Would you drop your pants and take a crap where you are? Then you probably shouldn't smoke there either.
/rant
This message has been brought to you by PetPeeve Enterprises...
I actually had one of these back when I had a Handspring. I initially bought it to eliminate the "remote clutter" of my various devices, but I mostly ended up doing something very similar to this - I would constantly turn off my brother's TV. Fun times :)
Anyway, with this thing, you draw a button on the screen and make it "learn" any IR sequence. Too bad my Handspring is kaput, or otherwise I'd go have some fun with it.
The TV doesn't belong to you. Others may be watching it; what gives you the right to disturb that? If you're annoyed by it, try to find a place to sit such that it isn't a problem, or do the right thing and complain to someone at the information desk about it. Will it cause change? Well, probably not, because a random person complaining every now and again shouldn't cause change. If the vast majority of people are fine with the TVs on (in most of the airports i've been in, they usually have news broadcasts on, which I don't mind, and often like to watch), then they should stay on. Period. You have no right to impose your will on others in a public place, or a private place owned and operated by someone else.
In my experience, I have no problem tuning out airport TVs in order to sit and read a book. If you can't handle that, perhaps that's your problem?
Having said all that, I do agree that we in the U.S. watch way too much mindless TV. But pissing people off isn't the way to solve that problem. It's only a way to show how childish and immature you are.
Xfce: Lighter than some, heavier than others. Just right.
I'd love to meet the person who felt that shoving TVs blaring CNN in every waiting area was a good idea.
Maybe I'm crazy but I don't think that after driving through Mad Max like traffic to get there, standing in line for the boarding pass for an hour, standing in line for security for an hour, and then having to listen to a newscast describing a plane crash is that relaxing (yes, this actually happened to me in Logan airport). I felt like I was in that scene in "Airplane" where the inflight movie was a plane being test crashed.
Flying is stressful enough without having a litany of the day's murders, war casualties, layoffs, etc being crammed into my ears.
Well, I know what I want for Christmas now (and what I'll be giving a few people).
It is by the juice of the coffee bean that thoughts acquire speed, the teeth acquire stains. The stains become a warning
Just Block the IR port on the tv. No more interfering. You would have to manually change the channel or volume. But at least you wouldn't miss a the best part of the game
little piece of electrical tape over infrared receiver will do ya fine. Get off yer ass and change the channel Ye Olde Fashioned Way.
sloth jr
In the world of stupid drivers, loud bikes are A-OK with me.
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
This is great! If I'm in a crowded restaurant, and I find the TV show they have blaring annoying, BLAMMO! off with the TV. Who cares if someone else is watching it? What *I* want is what matters, correct?
Somehow, I see a market for "Universal ON" remotes in the unlikely event this thing catches on...
-Buxley
Hey, dumb ass - I pay taxes to help build the freaking airport. Therefore, if I don't want to listen to the TV, I will turn it off.
If you don't like it, come over to my house and I will beat you with a baseball bat while my wife turns the TV on and off!
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
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.
That's how WOZ of Apple got started :)
He made a TV signal scrambler and tricked other people in the room into posing strange ways to get tv signal.
Turned passive TV watching into an external social event.
dumb maybe. couldn't resist writing it out
Stop invalid scientific research. Ask your local scientists to feed their lab rats with a phytoestrogen-free chow.
Majority rules do not work in private establishments. The owner of the establishment decides what to do with his own property (provided his TV is not so loud that it damages your hearing, naturally).
You sound like a communist.
The universal remote controls from Philips has an "autosearch" mode that does the same thing. Hold 1 and 3, press the power button, and it will start sending the standby pulses from every code in the remote, one by one. The idea is that when your tv turns off, the remote has sent the correct code, and you have to be fast and hit power again to lock the code to the remote. Of course, this does not work with the sets that do not use standard RC-signals (E.g. most newer B&Os), and I guess the same goes for this gadget.
I shall go and tell the indestructible man that someone plans to murder him.
It's called 'go over to the TV and hit the Off button'. Why do you need a gizmo to do it? Is the TV too high? Stand on a chair and do it. You have nothing to hide, do you? The TV is annoying you! You're trying to eat dinner! You obviously think you're above everyone else already, so why not just blatantly shut it off in front of everyone instead of hiding behind an unneccessary device?
You're not serious are you?
Lessee, I'm exposed to second hand smoke - my choices to protect myself are to "leave the location" or "stop breathing".
I'm exposed to a public TV - my choices are "leave the location" or "turn my head away".
yeah, I can totally see how they have the same impact...
The right to putting out an abandoned smoldering cigarette (no arguement there) that's at your table or "in your space" cannot be equated with surrepticiously (bad spellers inc.) turning off a public TV.
With the cigarette, you can be sure that you know the potential impact of your actions - it's abandoned, no one will care. Concerning the TV, will you exercise the same degree of compassion? Will you ask if anyone minds? No, you'll use the device to turn it off, and to hell with anyone who might have been watching.
Even if you only used the device in a location where no one else was present (your abandoned laundreymat for example) will you remember to turn it back on when you leave? Or will you more likely leave it off, thus depriving the next person who comes along who might have WANTED some mind-numbing TV to take the edge off the mind-numbing tedium of hanging around waiting for their clothes to dry?
Reason why there is hope for the future generation #364:
"I wish my grass was emo so it could cut itself."
boy I'm going to have fun with one of these in my neighbourhood, pissing off everyone. hehe
This tool could potentially be used to turn off the airports monitors/tv's displaying flight information - chaos and delay flights would quickly follow. But, I'm sure the airports have already taped over the receiving remote sensor, right? (I doubt it too).
So explain to me again why your specious "right" to turn the TV off supercedes my "right" to listen to it?
Oh wait, it doesn't. Therefor, by your rules, it's a zero sum result, and thus the Airport is the decided factor on whether it's on or off. In either case, it's not YOU who has the "right" to decide whether it's on or off.
Like it or not, the airport is private property, and thus you have NO rights to do what you please at the airport. Don't like it? Tough, you should have gotten out and voted against building the airport then.
You say you did? But others didn't? Looks like the majority rules, and their collective rights to have the airport supercede your increasingly vanishing "rights" to do what you please. Thus, again, your individual "right" to turn the TV off is superceded by the collective right of everyone else to have it on. You lose again.
Just give it up, there's no possible arguement you can bring forward that will making turning off a TV that doesn't belong to you morally and legally justifiable. You can spin it anyway you want, but you still look like an idiot for even trying to postulate such a ridiculous position.
Unfortunately, in our society, the rule is that The TV owns the room.
If I read the paper, I don't bother anyone. If I listen to my iPod, I don't bother anyone. Conversation, eating, etc.. But TV is different. If just ONE person in a crowded room wants to see the TV, then they can have it on. Loud. And you're a jerk if you turn it down/off. Doesn't matter if someone was sitting right in front of the "off" TV prior.
And marketers exploit this, e.g. in airports, where you can't hide from the things.
The rule needs to change.
Is any knob, switch or button your domain too, just waiting to be used? Why don't you run around all day ringing door bells and pulling fire alarms, they are there too right?
Or maybe you could run up to bank teller window with a sign that says "This is a stickup" then when you get arrested just say that you were using the transparent properties of glass...
~S
I frequently suffer from sensory overload. Basically, the noise, the lights, the smells, some touches overwhelm my ability to process them and I end up with a terrible migrane, unable to handle any light or any noise. It's very painful.
;) Anyway, I would not use such a device, because although the TV gives me pain, it could be some poor bored person's only form of entertainment. I just try to move myself into a quiet corner, if I'm travelling, I have noise cancelling headsets and I listen to the sound of the rain on cd sometimes, the white noise cancels out a lot of noise and calms me.
I can't walk into a Best Buy or a Costco. I can't distinguish between my husband talking next to me or the jabbering of a tv or a person echoing across the store, my mind tries to process both signals and give them equal priority. It's painful.
I avoid those places. I try not to be placed near a TV at a restaurant - or just not go to restaurants with TVs. Some of my favourite hamburger joints do have TV's (red robin), but you can ask for a booth that's not facing it, and they don't play the sound. I don't do sports bars.
Oddly enough, I can't handle the feeling of velvet. It just overloads my touch sense. I have been given velvet gifts that I promptly give to goodwill... I can't bear to put them on.
There are nights when I beg my husband not to turn the TV on... or the radio... I can't stand the mindless jabber jabber.
My ability to handle multiple signals depends on how tired I am. The more rest I've had, the more able I am to handle tvs, radios, random talking, noises... but if I am overtired, my world spirals into a mass of flashing pain, has my head tries to explode and I can't bear to stand up anymore.
I'm not alone, many people suffer from this, or so my therapist tells me.
Tepp
Hehe, lack of hubris.
;) Anyways I enjoy a good laugh. Thanks. Good post otherwise but now we're just feeding the troll.
I think you meant your incredible hubris. I generally consider lack of hubris a good thing
So because you have absolutely no willpower or self-control, no one else is allowed to watch TV when you're in the room?
Put a black paper and a scotch tape in front of the IR hole on the TV if you are placing it in public.
/.ers are the ones who blame M$ when microsoft puts out an insecure system - at the same time crediting the hackerer who finds the exploit.
:)
What I cant understand is this bunch of
Blame the TV manufacturer or the airport authorities (the big guy)- as we always do
Ahh, slashdot, the only "News for Nerds" forum you can post to while calling other people "internet tough guys."
"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."
Sooooo... That's the menatility that says it's use ok? Personally, I'm getting tired of this movement that insists it's OK to deprive people and business operating in public places to electronic convinences just because it annoys you. Keep in mind this is the mentality that gives somebodyelse the right to kick your ass because you're annoying them just for looking funny, let alone turning off the convinece they're paying for. I'll give you the fact that there are some places that those convinences shouldn't be used, but TVs? Everyplace there's a TV is at the discretion of the owners who most likely have them there because people appreciate them to some degree or another.
Honestly, if you can't pay attention to your friends in competition with a TV, that's a problem an off button won't solve.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Why not just go press the power button and let everyone know your intentions instead of doing it surreptitiously? It seems to me that would be easy and then you could brawl and show everyone how tough you are instead of hiding behind a tiny IR transmitter.
~S
Haha oops...
I actually was starting to type "lack of humility," and somehow ended up with hubris in it's place instead.
Too bad. I guess that the metal of the car will shield the electronics. Apart from that, even with the dish antenna the power density won't be that high at some distance, though probably a bit higher than what the mobile phone lying next to the target will do.
Avantslash: low-bandwidth mobile slashdot.
NPR had an interview during yesterdays rush hour as well. So it's really no surprise the site augered into the ground.
You are checking your backups, aren't you?
If someone has the right to expose me to light and sound generated by their "television" instrument, then I darned well have the right to emit a small bit of light myself (which just happends to reside in the IR band). How their instrument responds is their own problem. (And I also have the right to emit a small magnetic flux that may by chance rearrange the mag stripe bits on my credit card to more closely resemble someone else's, but that's another story)
Often, the TVs are on but no one's paying attention. What's worse is the responsible people with the 'official remotes' are no where to be found.
The evening of 9/11, I grabbed a beer with a friend of mine.. we had a seat in a small alcove with a TV. He took the time to turn off the TV, after asking permission from the other occupants (of course). When the waitress returned.. she was so grateful. I think everyone was sick of CNN after 9/11.. she was outright nautious.
The only way to fight that is with automated ticketing cameras or noise traps.
I beg to disagree.
I'm just sayin'.
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." Col. Jeff Cooper
I just turned it off. What the hell are you gonna do? Nothing. That's what I thought.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
Omniremote
It's no difficulty to program Omniremote for the Palm Pilot with codes from each remote you run across as you wander up and down in the world. I've found it a really handy tool when there's an annoying TV just out of reach.
four more years under the tyranny of Bush
Kerry is no better.
In the absence of any third party that will split the right wing vote by a proportional amount
Badnarik runs on the Libertarian ticket. How do you claim that the Libertarian Party isn't exactly that third party?
[Aside: I ma not a car kid, and don't advocate "thump thump thump" but...]
A rear spoiler on a front wheel drive car still makes sense, it possibley makse *more* sense. It *is* classically (mis)understood that the down-force provided by a spoiler is to improve traction of "the drive wheels" to improve power delivery and prevent high-speed power skids.
In point of fact, the typical modern car, is effectively a marginal lifting body (look it up, the air passing over the car goes further/faster and so the air passing under the car generates some lift). The name "spoiler" come from the fact that the airfoil "spoils" that lift.
In all front-engine cars the front doesn't need a spoiler because the engine weight is sufficent to the task of maintainting contact. The back end is left to kite around.
In a front wheel drive car, that lift is still present, and even if those rear wheels are not doing anything to make the car go faster, they *are* important to keeping the car under control. If you don't beleive you need the back end to control your movements, I recommend having a rear tire seize-up on you some time. It can be _very_ enlightening... 8-)
In fact, in a front wheel drive car, there is so _little_ weight in the back that the tendency to "lose the back end" while cornering at speed is rather increased. A rear spoiler combats that lack of weight and improves the manuverability of the speeding car.
So don't laugh. The rear spoiler is actually slightly *more* important on a front wheel drive car.
With a rear-wheel drive car it helps you accelerate when you are already going fast. With a front wheel drive car, it keeps you from experiencing a catstrophic loss of control at high speed.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
Nerd timewarp to 1992: Anyone still have the program source that allows you to turn your HP48 calculator into a remote control (Need to have the IR link port)? I imagine it wouldn't be difficult to modify that source to iterate through known codes...
"You have NO right to turn off TV's that don't belong to you."
Hmm, that reminds me of a theme from some sort of novel. A classic novel, I think. Can't remember the title though.
Good Citizen. Listen to the televisions.
Thus, I'll admit a certain appeal to such a device.
But I have to be honest, it's the wrong solution. The restaurant in question wants the television to be there. The real solution is to let the restaurant know that you like the restaurant, you like the food, but you don't like the televisions. Ask to have the ones in your line of sight turned off (especially if the screens in question are obviously unused. Do you really need 5 TVs on when there are only two tables of guests?). Suggest that you'd like the number of televisions reduced. Suggest having seating out of the line of sight of the screens.
Regrettably much like smoking this is a situation where restaurants have incentive to cater to a sub-market. The larger market is willing to suffer something they dislike but the smaller market demands it. You can legislate smoking (especially given the health impacts on employees), but you'd be hard pressed to do so for televisions. Do what you can to encourage your local restaurants to reduce or remove the screens and patronise those that try to serve you.
So even if it becomes available I resist buying such a device. Much like my dreamed of car-audio-disabler to turn off steroes in cars that go BOOM-BOOM-BOOM down my residential neighborhood at 3AM, vigilante justice is the wrong answer.
Search 2010 Gen Con events
Mod it with a high-output IR laser diode, and pump up the volume for an entire apartment building by spraying the windows with on/max volume codes. At 3 am.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
There was a time when the lowest common denominator of social behaviour was to be unimposing on the people around you. You would be polite and courteous to those around you.
Now the lowest common denominator of social behaviour is to be tolerant, no matter how horrible the people around you are. We all must tolerate them and not interfere with the activities of those around us. From screaming children, screaming adults, overwhelming perfumes, body odour, aggressive dogs, swearing, public harassment of hapless victims around them, loud stereos, late night parties, we must tolerate them.
The result is that the greatest asshole reaps the greatest bennefit. The people who do not value peace and quiet are never for want. Those who do not like it, have to distance themselves from the greatest assholes, leaving public spaces full of the most horrible people immaginable.
If somebody asked me to turn off a T.V. in a public place, I would be embarassed that I was disturbing them and I would turn it down or off right away. It's a public space after all, not my living room.
Dear NitroWolf,
I'm hereby forcing my will upon you by telling you that you are misusing the word "hubris." I also feel it's my duty to inform you that it's generally best to use words you know, so you don't seem like a fool while typing words in all caps and threatening people over the internet. Please don't beat me up with your baseball bat, you big tough internet pirate!
Love, Skavj
As to the airport excuse, it's pretty lame. I've been to most airports in the World and there was always a place I could sit where I didn't have to listen to their television. The only exception was a couple of subway lines in Tokyo, but that's not an airport, and those LCD screens didn't even have infrared receivers -- so they don't count. Anyway, if you do decide to keep this device on your person after you pass security, good luck explaining its function to the security checkpoint screener. I'm sure he'll understand, those people are very understanding...
If the transmitter is powerful enough, the signal will bounce off of objects in the room quite readily.
I routinely use the remote for my MythTV setup while pointed almost exactly AWAY from the IR sensor. (Specifically, pointed nearly straight upwards, bouncing off the ceiling before hitting the sensor on the desk in front of me.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
The result is that the greatest asshole reaps the greatest bennefit. The people who do not value peace and quiet are never for want. Those who do not like it, have to distance themselves from the greatest assholes, leaving public spaces full of the most horrible people immaginable.
amen, I say AMEN, brother. The only problem is, we are rapidly running out of peaceful places to go. I only venture forth from my cave when absolutely necessary: to go to work, pick the kids up from school, buy groceries. I don't go out for fun anymore, because I always have to share my fun with 50-10,000 other individuals who smoke, throw trash everywhere, scream and yell, pick fights, leave their cell-phones on, bring their dog that defecates all over the place, you name it, whether I'm at at the beach or the public library. The crowds have ruined everything.
It makes the car a lot of fun, although you have to be carefull and choose where you want to have fun. Late at night, on non-busy roads. Or in areas where there will be a very little chance of a pedestrian walking on the street, and especially no blind corners.
Anyway, I went on a tangent there. Speed bumps are designed to slow you down. If I drive over them at any high speed there is a chance that I can bottom out my car, and scrape the under carrage. So if they are designed to slow you down , and I have to go slow over them, I could care less about the people waiting behind me. I have every right to lower my car, so if they want to complain, complain to the ass that put the speed bump there. I'll complain with them.
Personally I think all speed bumps should be removed. Anybody that drives around a school or shopping mall parking lot at a high speed is a moron, and should be heavily fined, along with the morons blasting the radio on rural streets at night. Also I think that dogs that are outside and bark all night should be simply killed, if they are repeat offenders.
-Derek
Treat me like a marketing stat, and I'll treat your movie like a series of ones and zeros
So long as you don't blast that music out in public where other people have to hear it. If you're wiring it up for fun, and only playing it at those volumes on large tracts of private land you own, then I'm all for it. But if you're playing it outside my goddamn apartment at 3am, I disapprove.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
How did a PRIVATELY OWNED establishment suddenly become a public place? If your neighborhood park had some TVs going full bore you MIGHT have a valid point. If the OWNER of some place decides that (s)he wants to have TVs going in THEIR establishment, maybe you should ask them to turn it down/off. Maybe MOST of the clientel WANT it ON?
Also, if it was a publiclt owned facility and the marjority of constiuents WANTED a TV being played there, and there wasn't any techinical reason that made it unfeasible, why should they have to accede to the demands of the vocal minority?
I'm merely broadcasting RF signals. If the TV owner doesn't wish to accept "turn off" signals from any arbitrary passerby, he ought to have a TV that only accepts authorized signals. Since he accepts all signals, I assume he intends anyone with a remote to be able to control the TV!
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
There's laws against spam in some jurisdictions, and you can sue people, shutting down their SMTP servers.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
I pay taxes to build prisons. Therefore, if I want to, I can go into the prison and set all the murderers and rapists free.
live(free) || die;
I would define a religion as a world view that includes some form of supernatural entity; but that's really just semantics. The definition that interest me is your definition of the word "God". Most "beleivers" I have asked about this are unable or unwilling to provide a definition, which makes any discussion of whether God exists pretty pointless. So if you can tell me what "God" means, I'll tell you if I'm an Atheist. (if you care)
religion:
Belief in and reverence for a supernatural power or powers regarded as creator and governor of the universe.
atheism:
The doctrine that there is no God or gods.
So, you're an atheist if you believe there is no God. Atheism is a belief, but not a religion, though one might classify it as a faith (as in "belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence.").
Someone who truly does not believe in the existance or non-existance of a god is agnostic, as in "One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God."
And then you have the deists, those who believe in a God, but can't label any specifics, and believe that this God doesn't play an active role in the world anymore.
There are so many posts saying the same thing --- "What gives you the right?" I'll just pick yours ;)
First of all, you are correct. No one has "the right" to turn off someone else's T.V. set. Just like no one has "the right" to bring their dog to the park to take a shit and leave the mess, along with 50 other pet owners. But it happens all the same.
No one gives inconsiderate cell-phone users "the right" to yap on it in the library where I'm reading a book. But it happens all the same.
No one gives people "the right" to break bottles and leave shards of glass strewn all over the beach. But it happens all the same.
Need I go on? This talk of "rights" is pointless. It's all about whose ox is being gored. I also am frustrated with the growing level of rudeness, noise, and inconsideration I encounter from hour to hour. If I can use some type of hidden device to, how shall I say it, "get even", then so be it. Sure I don't have "the right" --- but so what? If everyone else can have their "entertainment", then so can I.
Incidentally, as regards your comment about what the vast majority are fine with --- the vast majority are probably fine with smoking marijuana and driving 90 m.p.h. on the highway. But just let the cops catch you doing it.
Not to mention some of the people driving the insanely loud booming cars are wearing earplugs.
Yup, I could not believe it when I first saw it either.
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
Imposing one's beliefs upon others is the cause of--and solution to--all life's problems.
Sincerely,
Pan Tarhei Hosé, PhD.
"Homo sum et cogito ergo odi profanum vulgus et libido."
We are well and truly fucked folks.
Except when you tell me:
DON'T GO TO THE AIRPORT.
I would avoid the airport if I thought it was really full of morons such as yourself. Thankfully, people like you who accept whatever is pushed on them are a minority.
So you think you own the airport, eh? I suppose you think it's all fine and dandy to fill the airport with porn, if that's what you like. No thanks. I'll be one of those people turning those stupid TVs off till they decide to take them away and quit annoying people with them.
Why the hell can't you provide the same courtsey?
That's the female bow of submission, right?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I never knew that there was actually such a week on the calendar.
Maybe they need a more effective way to reach people about this, like a TV commercial would be perfect.
There are some airports where there is no place to escape. The whole reason the TVs are there is because some marketing genius thought they had a "captive audience" and sold it to someone with more money than sense. Every single gate has two or three with the volume cranked so high that you can't hear actual airport announcements.
It could be my problem, but now there's a way to remove the root cause, I could care less. I have no fear that those who really want to watch TV will not be disturbed when I wander across the way to an unused gate and kill the TV there. Chances are that they won't notice. TV is designed intentionally to disturb and grab your attention, it's obnoxious by design. This little button will get rid of one or two and make my life and that of others much better.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Most airports are owned by a city or municipality. *YOU* (as an individual) don't own shit.
If you don't want the TV, then follow the proper procedures to have them removed from each and every airport in the country. Vote, petition, elect a new board -- whatever the mechanism is in your locale.
Either way, since you don't own shit, you *don't* have the right to turn it off at your will.
blast in the ass be a...
BLAST from the PASSED?
DOH!@!!!#@#
Imagine the ass-end of that car going end over end and the sub-woofs flying out the trunk. Talk about "CRY WOOF, Try not to HURry..."
Imagine the nose end be 90-degree bent to the firewall..
If only it were possible to (un)sympathetic(ally) detonate those cars from a few feet away... talk about a:
"BOOM box" heheheh....
Imagine a drive-in full of them, or a tow yard full of them, energized, rarin' and blarin' to go... How far could they be heard? Would they sound like a bad high school metal band? Would that "heavy metal" be "Death Metal"? Or, um, "Death Al-you-mini-uhm?" DOH!
The ones I can't stand are those with that long, undulating, bwooombp, bwooombp, rolling their asses up like some freeze-frame/slo-mo death probe out of Six-Million Dollar Man. Fuckers... messin' with my heart beat.
I am surprise the welds don't come loose from some of those cars. But, I like imports. And, don't forget, if "Rice burner" cars come from Asia, then American cars must be "barley burners" or something.
Now, if only you can remotely adjust their sub-woof to interfere with the driver's heart rhythm (at a red light or when he/she/it's parked) while leaving the bwooombpf intact.. and then call the cops on them... If they live, they'll truly have a:
"cardiac arrest" and a
"heart attack"
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
He's dead on!
No, just add one. I think his ID was 81821. :-)
That's the part of the arguement I don't understand from all the people who are arguing the "this is a great idea!" side of the debate.
... but no, their arguements all boil down to something like "you can't tell me what to watch but I can tell you what you can't watch" ... as they hold their breath until they turn blue in the face and fall on the floor kicking and pounding their tiny little fists.
Somehow their right to turn the TV off trumps my right to watch. Not on your life.
Now, their right to "not watch"? That's different. They can exercise that right to their heart's content - as long as it doesn't interfere with mine. They can leave. They can close their eyes. They can turn their head. Any number of things
The mind boggles at the logic.
Reason why there is hope for the future generation #364:
"I wish my grass was emo so it could cut itself."
You're obviously one of the crowd the parent poster talks about.
Here, I'll define it for you: A "Public Place", in this usage, constitutes a privately owned, yet accessible to the public establishment. Call them "restaurants", if that makes it easier for you.
Unfortunately, it's people just like you and your ilk that have brought our society to the sickening state that exists today. No longer do we worry about how we're perceived by others, in order to be the least obtrusive and rude - some of you actively strive to inflict your habits, attitudes, and morals onto the rest of us.
When Mommy and Daddy let the kids run amok, I have no qualms about giving my check to those parents. I didn't come here to see your children, hear your kids scream, or have to watch my elbows as they run around, or watch my feet as they climb under the table.
When Mommy and Daddy and Preteen Daughter get into a screaming match, I'll politely ask them to either wait until they get home to finish, take the discussion outside, or they can also pay my check.
I, for one, am sick and fucking tired of asshat, irresponsible, foolish overgrown children such as yourself that believe "My Personal Freedoms" extend to being a cockbag to everyone around you. Your freedoms end at the end of your nose. Mine begin at the end of mine. The space in between is for peaceful mingling, not for fools like you and your breed.
The Sony Clie PEG-T615C has a pretty good IR transmitter. By pretty good I mean sitting on the couch watching TV (10-15ft). It also came with Clie RMC which allowed you to set up many different devices and control pretty much all functionality. It also has many maufacturers settings coded in, sometimes just takes a bit of searching to find the right one.
It won't do macros and it can't be programmed. All in all usefull, but won't take the place of any universal remote.
The laser pointer of the 21st century.
"We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
And the person who wants to be distracted by the TV to avoid thinking about his miserable life on the road, never seeing his family? When he arrives at said gate, and the TV is off, and he has no mechanism to turn it back on?
....
Explain to me how his life is better again, please, I'm missing it.
Oh wait, you don't care about him because your right to not have the TV on [which you admit is at some other gate that you're not even using] is somehow more important than his right to have it on?
sociopath? No, that's not it.
malaprope? No, that's not it either.
What would be the appropriate word for someone who so obviously scorns and disdains their fellow man?
Reason why there is hope for the future generation #364:
"I wish my grass was emo so it could cut itself."
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This is perrfect to be in a bar on NFL Sunday, and turn off TV frequently to piss off the frunken dickheads football fans. Works even better if you own another bar down the street.
Give the man a fish and he owes you one fish, teach the man to fish and you have just lost your fishing monopoly.
I wake my Mac with it's one buttoned mouse! There you see! No more ranting about one button devices on slashdot. Peace.
If you object to a restaurant owner having a TV on, perhaps you should simply go somewhere else that doesn;t have one. God I hate wankers like you - self rightous little pricks that believe everyone should pander to you.
TV's normally use the same signal either to turn off or on. TV sets are capable of understanding more than one single set of codes (some TV even listen to almost all the codes belonging to its brand). If you cycle thru all the known codes for "ON/OFF" certainly you could send more than one "ON/OFF" signal to the TV set, therefore turning it OFF then ON.
There's also hundreds of known codes, cycling thru all of them will certainly take long time. IR communications are certainly very slow.
Now, using a microcontroller to create something like this is pretty easy. Check the one this guy designed: http://www.webelectricmagazine.com/99/2/uirr.htm
It's like a gun that kills TVs instead of people! Once again the day is saved by guns!
My Greatest Heist - Muisc partly inspired by the unbeatable Qwantz
Good point. A better invention would be a universal "mute and turn on subtitles" control.
Absolutely correct. It frustrates me that the police do nothing, but then they're under-funded and over-worked in this town and have more important things to do.
They should just be able to hand out a small, 'nuisance' ticket that is far more trouble to fight than just pay. Blast your stereo, pay $10. Rinse, repeat, until your car gets repossessed.
Surely you're not taking the nuisance seriously enough. Wouldn't this be more proportionate to the annoyance caused? It worked for Michael Douglas in Falling Down...
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
...in Soviet Russia the TV turns you off!
Get your Unix fortune now!
Imagine that I am watching television. (It doesn't happen often, but this is hypothetical.) You and a friend sit down next to me and have a conversation which distracts me from the television. Clearly, your conversation is going to bother me. Who is in the wrong here?
Especially in street racing (which I don't do) any number of factors [porly crowned roads, inclined roads, surface irregularities, cross wind, moisture, botts-dots (the bumps installed in lane markers)] [and weight transfer for a down-shift can do as much to your composit vector as breaking] "threaten" traction. In a front wheel drive car there is nothing in the back end to mitigate any mistakes or environmental influences.
If someone is stupid enough to drive their car near the limits on a public street, we _ALL_ need any edge they can manufacture. It goes without saying that these people need driving lessons, elsewise they wouldn't think to drive so fast and irresponsible. That is just as true for the people who _don't_ think they will break traction on... (hint hint hint...)
I think *most* street mods are pretty dumb. Putting a spoiler on the back of a front-wheel drive car is far-and-away more useful than, say, putting spoked-rim low-profile tires on a Land Rover (there is one of these around here, looks like the thing is on bycicle tires... surreal... 8-); or "lowering" a four-by so that it will high-center on a speed bump or bottom-out on a driveway.
The physics are simple, down-force equals stability. Flat undercarrage plus sloped roof equals lift. Spoiler useful at speed. Any car. Any design. Any powerplant. Heck, one of the reasons to "lift" the back end (the "it's faster because it's always going down hill" look) is to increase down-force and disrupt lift by creating a small low-pressure area under the chassis.
This is physics, not technique. You know, "wind-tunnel 101". Good technique mitigates physics by understanding the limits and probable outcomes. But hedging the physics when possible isn't contraindicated by improved technique.
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
I'm sick of people like you, who think their way is the right way. I leave people like you alone to do whatever they wish to do, so long as it doesn't affect me. Why the hell can't you provide the same courtsey?
First off, I agree that if somebody is actually watching the TV, then turning it off is rude. I wouldn't do it. But a lot of times, TVs are just left on in public and semi-public spaces when nobody cares. Or even worse, when everybody present actively wants them off.
And we are gradually realizing that television, although sometimes enjoyable, is not entirely benign. Scientific American published a fine article on the addictive potential of TV. It seems that TV, especially programs made with modern editing styles, trigger hardwired behavior to look at motion. It also appears to cause Attention Deficit Disorder in children. And everybody knows how distracting it can be, how it gets in the way of conversation.
So to me, TV in public and semi-public spaces seems pretty analogous to smoking. Some people enjoy it, but the common mode of use means it bothers others. The big difference is that smoking requires an active smoker to do something every few minutes, whereas the TV runs until somebody actively turns it off.
The question, then, is how to negotiate the use of common space. Everybody just wants to be let alone to do their thing, but some people feel that involves having a TV on, and others feel that involves having the TV off. Personally, I think the search for a simple, universal answer is a waste of time. As with smoking, I think the important thing is that people find an answer together, one that everybody can live with.
Then I'll just invent a device to jam the device thats jamming my device!
Required reading for internet skeptics
Where did I mention "larger size rear wheels"? What *are* you reading?
/sigh...
I have yet to see rear wheels that are "enough larger" (heavy enough) to make up for the absence of a drive-shaft, rear differential, and rear axle.
If you are on a nice track, or closed corse, and you aren't just some street-modded idiot, its fine to have a little rear-end slide-out helping you come around. Unfortunately these street modding idiots are driving around in real-world conditions with minimal training and they don't usually have the luxuary of knowing that they can freely slide their back end "just so" to help them get around a tight bend.
In the real world, there are obsticals like, um, curbs and uneven pavement, debris on the shoulders, water, ice, oil deposits, mail boxes, children playing, soft shoulders, and regular people who are driving responsibly. All of these things can "complicate" evryone's day when a sloppy back-end comes a lolling on by.
So a well-controlled slide-out will let you come around faster _IF_ you know what you are doing _AND_ you have the room. Meanwhile, a lack of down-force and an outside turn on a crowned road will lead you to visiting mister culvert-by-the-side-of-the-road more broad-sided than you may want.
I used to live near just such a chump-trap.
You also don't want to _see_ what happens when someone gets the benefit of your opportunity to "turn faster" when there is a one-inch seam at the edge of the pavement. It can be spectacular.
Just as there are techniques for dealing with each kind of circumstance, there is good reason to want to stick the back end of a front wheel drive car right down to the road. Just because it's not the way *you* would do it doesn't mean its inappropriate to the experience the owner of the vehicle wants to produce.
That winged civic is "no more an idiot" than any other modder. He's either done it for a reason or not, so he's not stupid or he is. It's not a A begets B certianty. It's just not the car *you* would want to take to *your* grave.
Most of us wish you would all get a clue and stop making our roads any stupider than they already have to be.
I get the same feeling seeing a spoiler on a front-wheel-drive street car that I get when I see a spoiler on a rear-wheel drive street car, or a super-charger: "Look, a Damn Fool with more Money than Brains."
The FWD + spoiler or - spoiler debate is "vi vs emacs" for gear-heads...
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press
Now a device to turn off all the TV's in the world, all at once, THAT's a device to help society and make peoples lives better.
Required reading for internet skeptics
I'll beat your ass with a baseball bat, all the while laughing like a pirate at your incredible lack of hubris and blatant stupdity.
In one sentence you threaten violence, call someone stupid, misspell stupidity, and misuse the term hubris. Your versatility is commendable. By the way, one who lacks hubris is characterized by humility and modesty.
Doesn't it suck when you're insulting someone for stupidity and you make a mistke? =P
--
"Extra Anus Kills Four-Legged Chick" -- Headline
I pay taxes to build prisons. Therefore, if I want to, I can go into the prison and set all the murderers and rapists free.
Actually, you do have that right, just one shared by the community. You can set criminals free by voting for people or policies that have that result.
You can't do it unilaterally, but you can do it.
Do you really think four hours of CNN will make anyone feel better? No, it's just repetitive, annoying bullshit. The person who has to listen to it the most is the one who wants it least.
What would be the appropriate word for someone who so obviously scorns and disdains their fellow man?
Troll?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
That is one of the most insightful posts I've read here; and I agree.
I still can't get the screen shots of Castle Wolfenstein for the Apple IIe out of my head.
Agreed, in general, and if a TV was actually preventing someone from using the airport, that might stand. ADA rules come to mind. But simply annoying someone? Don't think so.
Even if they were completely private businesses, there are still lots of things they cannot do. For example, even if you are the owner of a restaurant, you still may not be permitted to smoke on your premises during business hours.
Sure, and I thought about that too. Difference is that TV's don't cause cancer (assuming you don't sleep next to one), emphysema, or many of the other maladies associated with smoking. Again, we're talking about something that's annoying, not dangerous.
Let's reduce this to basic principals: are all public places prohibited from annoying all people who might enter them? I mean just consider that. It's ridiculous.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
A magnetron focussed by satellite dish ...?
Would one of these take out a Multanova speed-radar tax-machine? Safe to mount on my roof-rack?
Nah. Too flashy. Besides, I already own one like the one I linked to. It's a sweet shooter and the ammo's a lot cheaper than a LAW. ^_~
"An unarmed man can only flee from evil, and evil is not overcome by fleeing from it." Col. Jeff Cooper
Xfce: Lighter than some, heavier than others. Just right.
NPR already covered it.
[Of course it's client-server; it runs on a LAN]
First off, if you don't like the fact that a "restaurant" owner has loud TVs, go elsewhere. If you have no qualms about asking someone else to pay for your meal because you were disturbed in a public place, I have no qualms about telling you to fuck off and go somewhere were everyone is quiet and reserved while they eat. I am sure Bush is having a fund raising dinner somewhere in your area.
Second off, this discussion has NOTHING to do with cryng babies, arguing children, or what have you. I agree, that's generally rude and annoying. What we are talking about is a feature of the establishment that you don't like. Let's look at it like this, if you didn't like a places food, would you eat there? No, because it doesn't appeal to you. If you don't like TVs in restaurant, then see above.
On a different analogy, if I think that people shouldn't drink alcohol in public because it makes them loud and obnoxious, should I be able to go into a bar and ask them to all stop drinking so I can enjoy my meal in peace? This is the same, a feature of the "public place" I am visiting is that they serve beer/wine/liquor/etc. and if I don't like that, I should go elsewhere, rather than bitch about it.
I, for one, am sick and tired of people like YOU, who bitch and moan about things that OTHER people are ruining our society. We aren't talking about MY personal freedom, or YOUR's, we are talking about the proprietor of a private business being free to operate that business as they see fit. If they choose to have TVs playing in the establishment THEY OWN what makes you feel like you have a "Personal Freedom" to turn it off? The only "personal Freedom" of mine OR yours that enter into it is the one where we get to choose where to go. It's not like people are bringing TVs into places and making you listen to them.
This is alot like smoking (albiet the effects on bystanders are much greater than smoking). In lots of places it is still legal to let people smoke in your restaurant/bar/whatever, however there's many, many places that DON'T allow it because there are enough people who prefer that sort of service to support a sub-class of 'non-smoking restaurants'. If there was more than a pissy, whiney, bitchy, spoiled, vocal minority of people who wanted TV free places to eat maybe someone could afford to open a TV free place for you to eat at. Maybe someone already has, and rather than bitch that I am eroding society because you CHOOSE to go to a place with a TV playing in it you could go eat there.
Have you never lived in a city, or even crappy suburbs?
I thought everyone was familiar with boy racers (30 years ago it was 'boy revvies'), with 'fast' cars (or crappy cars with deliberate holes in the muffler), and stupidly loud sound systems with bass that shakes everything around them even if you can't hear a word of of what it's playing, and revving up and down the street doing skids at @#$%#@ 2 in the morning.
No?
I guess you're just lucky then.
Seeing as we have things like speed limits, and noise control, stupidly loud/fast cars aren't actually practical, but they're purchased by people who really just want to draw attention to themselves, go 'look at me', and get a nice little adrenaline boost at the expense of everyone else.
As self declared driver of a fast car, maybe you aren't part of the problem, but I'm sure you're at least *familiar* with the mentality of many drivers like this.
---- I've fallen, and I can't get up.
Similar comment probably already been posted. But I like to point it out again. This gadget obviously intended as a semi joke. And perhaps actually carrying out a decent point. Don't think into it too much guys. :)
If you don't like televisions being installed and turned on in places like reception areas, then do something constructive: complain to the management, for example. If enough people do this, then maybe they'll change their policy, and everyone will benefit. (And if not enough people do it, then maybe the majority prefer the TV, in which case you have arguably no right to deprive them.)
Either way, using a 'jammer' like this may make you feel good, but it's likely to annoy people without achieving anything in the long term.
Anyway, don't TVs have 'Off' switches these days?
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
Childish? Most of human behavior is childish --- from the kindergarten playground to the highest levels of academia, from the bedroom to the courtroom. Like it or not, it is a FUCK OR BE FUCKED world. Mountains of historical evidence support that statement.
It is a given that most people are going to be screwed over by their neighbors, their government, their employers, and probably even some of their friends, lovers, and family. Moreover, 9 times out of 10, there ain't a goddamned mother fucking thing they can do about it. You see, that's the way the system is set up.
So, if my choices are reduced to (1) eat shit, or (2) eat shit AND throw some back, I'll take the latter.
A trickier problem might be: how well does that IR frequency go through window glass?
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
Actually, that was precisely the point I was making. It's becoming an environment where I *can't* do what you're suggesting. I do go 'somewhere else' when I can - unfortunately, it's people like you who assume since I'm not interested in overhearing their cell conversations, I must be a 'self righteous little prick'.
You can buy me lunch anytime.
damn, and i thought i was a die-hard cynic. really, if that's the way you think you have to look at the world, that's sad.
Xfce: Lighter than some, heavier than others. Just right.
Y'know, I had a real nice reply typed for this, and realized something: You're the kind of person that's always right, no matter what.
I will say this, though: Fuck you and your presupposition of my social standing and political bent. You have no way of knowing, and your snide little political comment shines more light on the type of person you are. I'm sure your mother would be so proud if she knew the type of persona her offspring showed to the world at large. I'm sure when you go upstairs to her table for dinner, you're very polite to your mother, yes?
Your post illustrates my point precisely. Thank you for continuing to be the LOUD ASSHAT that our society has learned to tolerate.
Just for the record, did I peg you correctly as a moral minority/religous right/Bush supporter type?
Just face it, call me whatever names you want, and it doesn't make your position hold any more water. You want to impose your idea of what is right and polite on business ownwers and their customers because you CHOOSE to frequent places that have features/services that you dislike/disagree with.
And you claim that I am the jackass?! I AGREED WITH YOU that loud PEOPLE and their CRYING BABIES are obnoxious and rude at 'public' places. That, however, has NOTHING TO DO with the subject at hand! You fail to make any comment on why I am wrong in this case. You just attack me at personal level, trying to make yourself feel superior. This reminds me very much of Hitler and the Jews! (There, I incurred Murphy's Law or whatever, by mentioning Hitler, so I lose, you win, take all the TVs out of EVERYWHERE in the whole world!!!!)
The only option here is for you to ask the owner/manager to turn it done, or to simply not go places with services you don't like.
You can program a serial EEPROM with all the codes, clock it with an oscillator, with the output driving an infrared LED (maybe through a transistor to give enough drive current). Have it power up once every few minutes, with cmos 555 timer and long r/c time constant. This thing could be squeezed onto probably a 1cm square PCB, and powered for hours or days by a couple of button cells. In quantity you can make each one cheap enough to leave in an innocuous place in your otherwise-favorite-restaurant-except-for-the-TV. It may take them hours or days to figure out they can put tape on the TV remote receiver sensor, and then hours more to find it on the front panel. Eventually, every restaurant will have masking or electrical tape over the remote sensor.
The above text is for Entertainment Purposes Only, does not promote the making or use of any device, bla bla bla, etc. This text is not here just to cover my ass, please take it seriously. Your battery life may vary.
Tag lost or not installed.
Or maybe you were thinking the doppler shift would push the frequency above your threshhold of hearing...
I've made up my mind and now I've got to lie in it.
I've seen a site where a guy did that. Apparently, it worked pretty well. The beam divergence and unavoidable refraction makes it easy for the light to be seen by the IR sensor.
I had a sucky sig.
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.
;) ). Secondly, to be an asshole.
I see, so because jcr13 has the attention span of a fscking gnat, that of course grants him the right to dick with other people? There are only two uses for this sort of thing. First, the standard prank (as the entire top thread shows.
Its usually in the form of a bad pickup line.. :P
DEAD DEAD DEAD DELETE ME
Turning off a television is a far cry from shooting someone with a firearm. It is fucking hilarious how serious some of these posts are. "If you turn off my T.V. I'm gonna Kiiiillll You!" or "I'm gonna whup yore asss!"
Students at my university used to use their PDAs to change the channels and/or mute the collegeTV sets in the cafeteria, which they found to be annoying and disruptive. Eventually the school reaized they couldn't stop students from controlling the TVs with their wireless devices, and they simply removed them, as it was against the contract with collegeTV not to have them blaring in the ears of the students. Heaven forbid the target audience should get some advertisement-free peace and quiet time...
Intimidating. You Internet tough guy, you.
What is the robbing of a bank, compared to the founding of a bank? -- Bertolt Brecht
OK, let's follow that. If you and I are in an airport terminal, the TV's on, neither of us wants to watch CNN for the next couple of hours, and there's nobody about, we don't have the right to turn the damn thing off, because we might be denying some hypothetical future passing sap the ability to watch drivel for hours to numb himself to the misery of his existence?
At some point, you've got to have some balls, and make choices based on what you want. If you look around, and nobody's watching the TV, and it's annoying you, and nobody has a remote to turn the thing off, act. Be a man. Or a woman for that matter. Take action to make your own life more livable. If you turn out to be wrong, and someone you hadn't noticed gets upset because the TV went dark, then you can turn the frigging thing back on - a toggle can make two sorts of changes, you know.
No, it's not my TV, and it's not my bar, or my airport (well, insofar as I pay taxes to support the municipally owned airport, it is actually mine). But I'm in it, and I will endeavour to make it more pleasant for myself, especially if there's no evidence that doing so will make it less pleasant for others.
What is the robbing of a bank, compared to the founding of a bank? -- Bertolt Brecht
Check this page out. I was looking to make a cell phone jammer.
http://dafh.org/gbppr/mil/index.html
I mean, I wouldn't turn off a TV that someone is obviously watching attentively. But I might just look around, not notice someone who's so slouched in a chair he looks asleep, but is actually watching the news, and turn off the TV.
Now, doing this with no ill intention, I would not take particularly kindly to someone calling me a sanctimonious jackass nor going off on me, with or without asterisks, because I find a TV keeps me from reading or sleeping or whatever.
Really, they should just put the TVs low enough so people can reach the power button, and turn it on or off according to what they want at the time, and not have to resort to carrying around silly gizmos.
What is the robbing of a bank, compared to the founding of a bank? -- Bertolt Brecht
A bit of black tape over the TV's IR sensor. I can make a fortune selling it to airports, TV shops, etc.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall.
first of all, the use of such a device is at worst rude, in no way can it cause harm to anyone. I'm surprised to see such hysteric reactions in this forum, whereas less begnin impolite behaviors such as jaywalking (which *is* dangerous and illegal), would not be considered worth a conversation. I doubt very much the use of such a device can be punished by any sort of law, as it infringes only on the elementary rules of politeness.
Next, turning a TV off in a public space is akin to other civilized and innocuous public initiatives one may conduct, such as opening or closing a window in a bus or train to get less or more air, turning off the heater if it gets too hot or turning off the lights after leaving unused public restrooms: if you do it responsibly, you are to be thanked for it, if you do it without care for the rest of the attendance or without their agreement, you are just plain rude and deserve the insults that will probably come (specially turning off the lights in occupied restrooms).
Now, the epidermic reactions to be observed here, the blindness so many display at the nuisance a TV turned on in a public space can produce, tells a lot about the conditioning that has been going on to make commercial TV the attention grabber it has become, responsible for attention deficit disorders, loss of contact with reality and the general numbness we see in the public spaces of the western world.
In europe, we have a few non-commercial channels(I think about arte in France and Germany, for instance). These channels have of course smaller audiences than the commercial ones: their job is not to grab passive attention, but to inform or entertain their audience. Guess how are these channels mostly used: people turn to the channel when they've learned that there is something of potential interest to them, then turn it off when the program is finished. This is the responsible and normal use of a device when it is meant to entertain or inform you.
Now see what happens when watching commercial TV, specially when in a tired or vulnerable state of mind: perpetual zapping without the strength to turn the damn thing off. This just shows you who pays for this thing to stay on and who benefits from it: not you, but the advertisers. We need advertisement and that's fine. But at least we need to be conscious that a TV turned on in a public space is not there for your personal pleasure, but for the advertiser's need to let you known about their products.
Hence the need to shut it off politely when it's on and nobody objects to it. I'm gonna buy one of these.
Just reply to me, I'd be more than happy to build it :)
:)
Yes, I enjoy being an embedded systems consultant
A witty saying proves you are wittier than the next guy.
What kind of an asshole do you have to be to go to a public place where people are watching TV and then turn it off because it distracts you? DON'T GO TO BW3'S YOU INCONSIDERATE BASTARD! Don't want TV on around you? Don't go to a place that has one, but don't fucking turn it off yourself. Christ, people get all high & mighty because they think not watching TV makes them on par with God himself and then they complain when other people do. YOU DON'T HAVE THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO NEVER ENCOUNTER TV IN A PUBLIC PLACE.
Fucking Cocks.
For the record, no, you're not right. I'm actually a Libertarian, non-Bush supporting, 'personal responsibility', sort of guy. I think parents should take a much more active and disciplinarian role with their children, and I think more people should take care of their own problems instead of blaming everyone else. That being said...
I don't care for the Hitler reference, to be honest - that was a cheap shot, even for you.
OK. Let's look at this: My original comment to you was regarding the lack of consideration and civility that people have towards each other these days. You want to talk about TV's, we'll talk about TV's.
If I go to a sports bar, a restaurant, or a venue that HAS televisions, I fully expect those TV's to be on and showing the game/the news/whatever. However, there are those (and you know them, too) who will reach up and turn the volume way the hell up so they can hear whatever's on. THAT is part of the problem I have. I didn't spell that out, so I can see where the confusion lies. So, I'll concede: "My Bad" on that point.
Personal attacks: I think calling me a "Religious Right Bush Supporter" pretty much tops "Fuck you" as an insult, at least from where I sit. I will retract my "fuck you" if you never call me a Bush supporter again. Agreed?
The tones of your comments towards me only helped to further the thought that you are, indeed, one of those who doesn't give a shit about the people around him/her, and that LOUD TV crap would be par for the course for you.
I'll focus on what it is you want to focus on: Private businesses with televisions in their establishments have the right to operate those TVs in whatever way they see fit. I still feel, however, that if those TVs are bothering a SUBSTANTIAL amount of that day's patrons, then they should be turned down/off BY THE OWNERS. I don't agree with the random power button, except from a humor standpoint at the store.
There, now nobody has to take their ball and go home.
That problem had nothing to do with the car being FWD. In fact FWD vs. RWD vs. AWD means very little, if anything, when you're cruising on the highway. I never mentioned anything about stability at high speeds, only traction through a turn.
"Upon attaching the waterblock to my penis, I began to notice that I know nothing about computers." -- JRockway
Can someone please tell me why I was modded flamebait? I thought I asked a valid question?
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
So you're right not to here a TV in a public place is more important than an illiterate person's[...]
...
I suspect you have a vested interest in this
Anyway, the point is that loud noises in a public place are a form of pollution - that's why there are laws against them. So yes, my right to not be bombarded by loud TVs/radios in a public place does take precedence.
> information: Any communication or representation of knowledge,
I could question your sourceless definition, but I don't have to. Your definition supports my position.
No knowledge is transmitted during an episode of "Trading Spouses." Care to tell me what you learned last time you watched the Fox network at all? I didn't think so.
Perhaps you would do better if you defined information as "data." Technically speaking, I guess data is being transmitted from the network to your TV to cause it to display the footage of stupid white trash doing stupid things.
I'd *love* one of these.
Not for turning off irritating TVs in restaurants and the like. If a restaurant has a TV, I'll leave, and won't come back.
No, it's when I go shopping. Over here in Germany, for example, is a place called 'OBI', which sells tons of useful stuff for making other stuff. Tools, screws, wood, doors, lights, desks - you name it.
I spend a lot of time there, thinking if I should buy a certain something. And - usually right next to me - is a small TV set showing an advertisement for a product. Which is 30 seconds long. And repeats ad infinitum the same advert.
Drives me nuts, and usually causes me to leave without buying whatever I was looking at.
So I'm forced to wear an MP3-player. But one of these things would bring blissful silence instead...
Free PC version of ChipWits at http://www.breueronline.de/klaus/chipwits/
I dunno, your comment didn't sound very "evil" to me. How can we be sure you are who you say you are?
www.clarke.ca
Your posturing is such a waste of effort - I've yet to meet anyone who's intimidated by words on their monitor.
Whoever modded you insightful should be shot.
I cannot be the only one that finds this very amusing.
The parent is incorrect. The device sends out "off" codes, it will not turn any TV on, ever. It does not "toggle" the on/off state, it ONLY TURNS TVs OFF.
As others have pointed out a hundred times on this page already, most TV remotes have only one button that does toggle the on/off state of the TV, but built into the receiver on the TV are discrete codes for "on" and "off". This device only sends out the "off" codes for hundreds of different TVs. If it toggled the TV, why would they call it TV-B-Gone? They'd call it Fsck-with-the-TV-by-toggling-its-on-off-state.
As one of my blow-off electives in highschool I took a small engines course. It was mostly a fun, hands-on course, but at some point during the semester, the class was treated to an incredibly boring video on oil--production, refining, yadda yadda. Anyway, a clever individual somewhere in the middle of the room decided to make things more entertaining by causing the VCR to act up with one of those watch-remotes. Mr. G. put the video on, and a few minutes later, *click* it stops playing. He walks over to the A/V cart and restarts it, and within 30 seconds, it's begun randomly fast-forwarding itself. Etc.
The perfect actor, Mr. G. would walk up to the cart with a puzzled look, declare "Gee, the VCR appears to be malfunctioning again..." and begin fiddling with the buttons. Ultimately he cut the video short, explaining that the VCR was obviously broken, and there weren't any more that weren't already checked out. Little snickers from all around the room, as this old engines teacher is eluded by all this new-fangled technology.
All snickering stopped abruptly the next day: "Since we've been having so much trouble with these VCRs, I won't be showing the remainder of the video. Instead, to learn the material you'll all be writing a research paper..."
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
In some areas the cops do little/nothing about loud car stereos, but in others noise ordinances are enforced vigilantly. Unfortunately, in some of the latter areas they're only enfored below about 160Hz. I appreciate that this enforcement keeps ghetto blasters from shaking me out of bed, but it seems kind of arbitrary and even discriminatory that the car stereo at n db @ 15 ft. gets ticketed with vigor, while the
a) neighbor's car alarm ALWAYS blaring at 3am
b) guy using a Folger's can and some chicken wire as a 'muffler'
c) bullhorn-equipped van blaring anti-gay-marriage rhetoric
d) band of unmuffled Harleys screaming through town
e) all of the above
spewing forth n*exp(n) db @ 15 ft. are untouchable.
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
I know I'm about to engage in an internet pissing contest, but since we're talking tough...
I think this invention is a great idea, and I'm the type of guy who will show up, turn off your TV, and point out that I too have a baseball bat. While the, "Leave me alone or I'll punch you" attitude might work with lots of limp wristed liberals who want to tell you how to live, it doesn't work well with the bigger bully who trains 4 times per week to punch your teeth out.
Just something to keep in mind. I like punching things and I don't like your television.
And, again, I know this is an internet pissing match and really quite meaningless, but some folks won't "provide you with the same courtesy" not because they're sorry-sick high-minded liberals but because they don't give a fuck.
Just a different angle on the same result, I guess.
Yeah exactly...
:D
r aydrifiting/trays1a.mpeg r aydrifiting/trays2s.mpeg
Put your e-brake on while you're driving around a sharp corner sometime... then you'll know what this guy is talking about..
Actually if you really wanna have some fun, go into a parking lot, stick those food trays (like from McDonald's for instance) under your rear wheels, put the e-brake on, and drive... result:
http://nikita.hro.nl/slhsitev2/downloads/movies/t
http://nikita.hro.nl/slhsitev2/downloads/movies/t
descrete codes. It does sound interesting and a great way to avoid many problems. I've setup remotes with macros before. But I have never seen any that had the type of descrete on/off signals. links to products/ usage???
Linux Works
Haha, nice dig. Clearly I am illiterate! (Although I did in my hurry to respond use the wrong form of 'here/hear' which is one of my pet peeves). If I went into the street outside your house and blasted my radio or TV I can see where you would have grounds to be upset. I am projecting my noise 'pollution' into your space. However, if we are meeting at a location that both of us choose to visit and neither of us own or have any sort of controlling interest in, why does your right automatically become more important than mine?
I was going to continue this, but it reminded me that arguing on the internet is like the Special Olympics, no matter who wins your all still retarted. (No offense meant to any Special Olympiads out there, just making a point). I think we can agree on the fact that crying kids, arguing families, loud cell phone users, people who take it apon themselves to adjust the volume, channel, settings of a TV in a "public" place are all farktards. I think we can also agree that if the management of a business chooses to have some sort of TV/radio playing and you don't like it, the burden is on you to NOT go there, rather to buy some gadget to turn it off for everyone.
I also retract my comment about Religious Right Bush Supporters, it was only meant to make an example of a group of people who think they know what is best for everyone.
The Hitler comment wasn't directed at you, I was just making a joke about the age old addage that all arguments eventually devolve untill someone mentions Nazi's, and that they automatically lose. :)
WooWoo, anybody but Bush 2004, WooWoo!
Couldn't resist the dig.
It depends on the public space really, and to be honest I'm more in agreement with you than otherwise. I can see a use for such a gadget, but more by someone who's responsible for policing a public space. Say a park warden with a zapper which muted boom-boxes. In private hands it's more likely to be abused.
Sure... Snow tires on the back of a front wheel drive. Any truck with enough lift-kits to need a mounting ladder. A paint job that costs more than the chassis is worth. (Sadly stock) "Flare side" pickup trucks where the _manufacturer_ has thrown away several cubic feet of space to make it look like the wheel-wells stick out. Anybody commuting to their desk job in a duallie-axle turbo desil pickup. Anybody bragging about their mod, when you can still see the primer and the bondo. [A spoiler on *any* street car, my point was it wasn't a sign of "particular" stupidity on a front wheel drive car, you think your car is hot, keep it off the streets and take it to a track... 8-)]
Actually go ahead and make fun of any "street modded" car, virtually all of that stuff is little more than the kind of mating display you see on the Discovery Channel.
For instance I was talking to this guy at Quizno's. He was complaining about having to take the bus. He couldn't drive his car casually any more because he kept getting tickets for "display" (chirping his wheels). He'd actually installed a mod on his powertrain (I forget what it's called, a "torque limiter"? that doesn't sound right) that wouldn't let the transmission apply power to the wheels until the input torque was above a certian threshold.
He couldn't do "stop-and-go" without a chirp every "go".
On his street car.
How smart is that?
For all that the stupid exterior things are stupid, they are at least an honest display, an attempt to "look cool". The *really* stupid stuff is so often under the hood.
So I secretly laugh hardest when people want to "lift their hood and show me their engine." It's like a line in bad gay porn... 8-)
[ASIDE: I actually do undestand this sort of thing. I personally over-buy my computer stuff. But I am man enough to keep it to myself as a "secret shame." I don't feel the need to invite guys over to my house and "show them my tool." 8-)]
Innocent people shouldn't be forced to pay for inferior software development.
--"Code Complete" Microsoft Press