Long Term Effects of Gizmodo CES Prank

theodp noted that someone from Gizmodo brought a TV-B-Gone to CES and used it to turn off a wall of monitors during demos. Funny yes, it earned him a ban for life and may have repercussions to other bloggers struggling to be treated as equals with traditional journalists in the future. But also this might lead to a future with encryption on remotes.

Comments

Encryption in remotes?

[Anonymous Coward]

OK, I can see it now... I'm arrested and thrown in jail because my remote has encryption and I don't know what the passkey is.

Re:Electrical tape

[Rob the Bold]

Electrical tape over the IR port at shows. Problem solved.

Let me guess -- you're not in sales, marketing, or management . . .

Re:Encryption on remotes?

[Bazman]

Wow. Looks like we'll have to go back to chucking bricks at monitors to turn them off...

Oooo, you just gave me an idea

[cvd6262]

What would you give me to go to the MacWorld keynote with an Apple remote. Imagine how pissed Jobs would get if every time he tried to show a new app on an iMac of MacBook, FrontRow started up and then started browsing his shared music.

Re:I love my Spy Remote

[Snorpus]

but I wouldn't turn off a football game at a sports bar. That would be rude.

Not to mention dangerous to one's health.

Re:First Post!

[Anonymous Coward]

Technology advances... almost as fun as years ago buying a raw speaker with a strong unshielded magnet at Radio Shack and swiping the bag across the faces of c.r.t. monitors on the way by.
That magnetizes the aperture mask, causing a rainbow of tie-dye like color shifts.
No harm done, it goes away after a monitor is shut down long enough to cool the thermistor and then restarted doing a warm-up deguass cycle.

Try moving strong magnets across your c.r.t. displays, its fun!

Re:Lifetime ban?

[Anonymous Coward]

..., so how is that likely to effect others?

affect, damn it, affect, you ignorant turd; unless this is some weird creation myth.

Re:Encryption on remotes?

[dpete4552]

ROFL. Yeah no need for all of that complicated electrical tape business. Just hook into the serial port on the back of the screen and send commands to the LCD to lock the IR port. And thank you to the mods who modded the parent "Informative" To think of all the time I would have wasted with electrical tape if this "informative" post wasn't pointed out to me!

noo

[sveard]

omg they can not be allowed to encrypt remotes!!! information wants to be FREE!!!

Re:Encryption on remotes?

[cecil_turtle]

No need for Electrical tape What, is it really expensive where you live?

... a serial port in the back where you can send commands to the LCD ... most LG tvs have a SET ID that you can set, hook them up over serial cable and brodcast a command to all of them and they will only anwser if it's there set ID in it... Yeah, because that's easier than using 1/2" of electrical tape. I'm sure there's a joke about engineers in here somewhere but I'm too tired today.

Re:I love my Spy Remote

[palegray.net]

Turning off TVs showing a football game in progress at a sports bar has been shown to cause beer bottles, shot glasses, and college students to defy gravity. The seem to spontaneously launch into the air, gravitating toward the point of RF emission that induced the sports footage vacuum.

Re:I love my Spy Remote

[illegalcortex]

Wow, you're really not going to like their cellphone jammer...

Looks like...

[rob1980]

The CES's Blogger-B-Gone device is working just fine.

Re:A desperate attempt at relevance

[Trailer Trash]

It's a shame spanking is no longer deemed appropriate.

Do a google search, I'm sure you'll find spanking of adults is alive and well...

CES is so popular...

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why the big story from CES is about Gizmodo...

Have the union toss the guy out

[SteeldrivingJon]

And charge him union rates for the labor.

That'll show him. It'll probably bankrupt him.