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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.
http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/electronic/9a06/
Given away for free if you buy enough things at ThinkGeek, endless fun for places where the TV just doesn't go off:
(Doctors office, Best Buy, Automotive repair, hospital, etc.).
The real questions are: How did he get caught, and why didn't he do the courtesy of turning them back on?
> Most of those tv have a serial port in the back where you can send commands to the LCD
/. readers? Sure. But how many of us would think that some asshat would come by and pull crap like this? Exactly what was the point? To show how easy it is in this post-9/11 world for terrorists to disrupt our way of life? As a piece of performance art reminding us of our umbilical chord-like ties to the TV set? (I'm being sarcastic with both examples, of courses.) While it may be possible, this wasn't a gray hat trying to expose a critical vulnerability in a piece of software or hardware. This was a jerk ruining presentations that companies - and some of the smaller ones spend a decent chunk of their annual advertising revenue to accomplish - expected to be as hassle-free as possible. Try doing a live presentation at a major expo like CES. I have, and it's nerve wracking. You have four things on your mind: Getting people to the booth; keeping them at the booth; not being distracted by something to the point that you forget your "pitch,"; and not having a tech failure like this jerk caused. He ruined three-out-of-four of those things. Ha Ha. You're very creative. Now go back to your mom's basement you punk and continue to expound on how L337 you are.
Where who can? Some (and don't claim it's all) of
Bark less. Wag more.
Humor is great when it is actually fucking funny. If you are above the age of 13 and you think this passes for humor, you're maladjusted and need to figure out how to live in the grownup world.
If you want to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. -- Carl Sagan
I'm not the GP poster, but... I've got one and I use it.
Yeah, I'm a douchebag. So what. I don't give a shit, I just like my peace and quiet. I like to be able to have a relaxing dinner without The Game flickering in the background, and I'll happily be labeled a douchebag by Random Internet Guy. I'm not sure where you've asked, but I've tried asking. Usually doesn't work "Oh, the manager won't let us turn it off." "Oh, just want to catch the scores, I'll turn it off in a bit [sic]." "I think somebody's watching it.[sic]"...
And yet, for some reason, 90% of the time I turn the TV off no one notices enough to turn it back on. No, I don't go to sports bars (or CES) trying to be a dick with it, but I suppose I am just as bad as someone who would do that. Again, I don't care.
You're at least as self righteous as I am. Re-read your post if you don't believe me. The only difference is I'm calm enough not to use all-caps. I hate TV's, you hate me for hating TV. Cool.
I think all of Gizmodo should be banned for life from CES. Hell, all of Gawker Media. I'm not sure I would have issued Gizmodo a press pass in the first place. I read Giz regularly for a while but their cheap antics and unapologetic bad judgment put me off.
(And if I get banned for life from a restaurant for turning off their TV, that's fine too. That's a win-win situation.)
Did you ever stop to think why people without a TV tell you they don't have one? Have you ever told anyone about a good restaurant, or good movie, or a good website? Not having a TV attached to broadcast TV has been a huge plus in our life. And when I say "our" I mean my wife and our son. Yes, believe it or not, someone who reads Slashdot actually got married to a woman, and they actually had a child together.
In fact, not having a broadcast TV is for his benefit. He isn't constantly asking for all the toys that he sees advertised, (although he does like Legos and Thomas the Tank Engine) and will do other things then being glued to the TV. I mentioned it because if I haven't seen TV in a while I have a very hard time ignoring it.
As for the restaurant, they can't speak English. They make good and cheap soup though. I don't know why they needed to show CNN because before I turned it off, I looked, and NO ONE WAS WATCHING.