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.
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...
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
in a crowded bar. You'll make some new friends with this gizmo.
Vote for Pedro
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).
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.
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.
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.
...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
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.
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
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?
And their cell phones. And not as noisy as a machine gun.
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.
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.
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!
(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.
Hit a button, and the TV's suddenly ramp up their volume to the max. THAT'S a hack.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Several people have said this, but the reality is one of the uses for human vision is self-preservation. Our vision is very good at detecting movement (say, from a predator), even in peripheral vision. A TV with flashing images is distracting no matter how you try to ignore it - it's simply an adaptation.
I don't agree that someone should go out and turn off TV's willy-nilly, but I can understand the poster when he says it's distracting.
And honestly, does anybody REALLY watch TV when they go to a restaurant? Is the volume ever loud enough to hear anything anyway? Doesn't watching TV as you eat with friends/family reach the same level of rudeness as talking on a cellphone rather than talking with your dining companions?
Sports bars don't count, people go there specifically to watch games and be around other sports nuts.
Self awareness - try it!
Steal his iPod. Tell him it's for his own good.
If guns kill people, then CmdrTaco's keyboard misspells words.
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!
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 ----
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!
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...
My $500 Sony Wega has discrete codes...and it's definitely not high end. My wife's college $75 Daewoo TV had discrete codes, and it's definitely not high end. My satellite receiver has discrete codes...
"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.
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'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..
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?
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!
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
Stops TVs, Thumpmobiles, Watches, Pacemakers...
I somehow doubt there's many pacemaker-users who'd be the "target audience" of this item...
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.
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.
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).
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.
I know some waitresses and bartenders and *NOT ONE* of them has ever complained about smoke in bars.
Here's one in my own city. Heather Cross, a waitress in Ottawa for 40 years, never smoked a day in her life, was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer due to second-hand smoke from her workplace.
It's 2004, for crying out loud! We know tobacco smoke causes cancer. Why are we still making excuses for it? Why are we still permitting it to be forced on people just trying to do their job? In 1000 years, society will look back on this point in history and ask, "What in the hell were they thinking? They knew it was bad, why did everyone still tolerate it? Why did people still smoke?"
Like woodworking? Build your own picture frames.
"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
[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
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.
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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.
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 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.
We are well and truly fucked folks.
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.
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."
is a universal OFF button for car stereos. They are FAR more annoying, and entail FAR more of an encroachment on the rights of others. The icing on the cake would be a universal Self-Destruct button- because that's probably what it would take for the little queens that drive these cars to get the message.
As far as the TV goes, I remember working out at the local gym - there was this gaggle of women that would often show up at the same time. If the TV was off, one of them would make sure to turn it on. If it was on, one of them would make sure to turn up the volume. If that wasn't enough, they'd spend their workout practically yelling back and forth across the room above the noise from the TV. Oh how I would have loved something like this.
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
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