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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?
Yeah, or presenters sticking electrical tape over the remote sensors on the displays.
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.
Electrical tape over the IR port at shows. Problem solved.
[Insert pithy quote here]
The only reason to put encryption in would be to prevent people shutting these things off at product demos and restaurants. Turning them off at restaurants isn't a widespread problem (unfortunately), and at product demos, duct tape is going to be a lot more popular in the future.
I wish they would stop calling these things "gates", and worry about the future of bloggers. Yes, the CES created two classes: "press" and "blogger", and yes, members of that underclass acted in a juvenile manner, bad enough to cause a stink that will appear in the "press". It will appear in the "press" tomorrow. See, yesterday it was all over the blogs, and now it's hit the aggregators. Sooner or later those with press credentials will catch on to the story.
Well if the blogger's aren't willing to act like professionals, then they won't be treated as professionals.
In the article it stated they weren't being taken as seriously as the Press; and when someone decides it'd be cute to do some practical joking, at the expense of others, it just reaffirms the assumptions they aren't to be taken seriously.
144K people and two of some of the largest halls in this hemisphere, not to mention hotel room suites, and so on were sold.
Last legs? Hardly.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
The guy should be banned for life. At least with IR remotes you can stick a bit of tape over the receive to stop it. I imagine that wireless technologies could be extremely vulnerable to similar pranks (and sabotage). Imagine the trouble someone could cause just by blocking signals, or sending spurious malformed messages designed to kill a device.
All this says is if you want to be treated the same as normal journalists, stop with the damn childish pranks.
Funny, sure, but if PC World did the same their asses would be out the door as well.
I write bullshit
Funny, no; childish, yes.
It's a shame spanking is no longer deemed appropriate.
I'm a Programmer. That's one level above Software Engineer and one level below Engineer.
In a convention open to the general public, sure. This is an event for retailers (and press) to see what they should be stocking their shelves with next Christmas. They should expect a little more professional behavior from the attendees.
That being said, I'm sure that if the purchasing manager from Best Buy did it, he'd just get a laugh and not get tossed out.
"Well, good luck finding a judge that doesn't run a bestiality site."
Any publicity is good publicity for CES, as well as for Gizmodo.
Is there ANY use of TV-B-Gone that is not mischief? I doubt it. But it's no more mischievous than, say, flipping the light switch off as they left the hall.
Paid Q&A/Research
The world could do with a little less gizmodo. If I have to sit through one more stupid reused-4chan-image-with-stupid-red-speach-bubble accompanied by some half thoughtout and entirely unfunny "joke," I might just puke. And then there is the way every article has to be about THEM. "Iphone announced, THIS REMINDS US ABOUT THE TIME WE.."
Sorry, just flaming a bit. I also hate them because they banned me when I commented about their ads, on an article where they commented on someone elses ads.
They needed insight to believe that the invitees wouldn't act like little children? Give me a break - why would you assume someone would be an asshat like that? While this is one of those things that at first seeing of the video you might think, "that's funny" - the second thing you should be thinking is "what an ass" and the third would be "I guess we will need to cover the IR ports next time to stop the next asshat".
There really isn't any excuse though for this kind of behaviour. It is flat out wrong to be interfering with the show. No "security researcher" cred for this; it is just mean.
I seriously do. We don't have a TV at home that is hooked up to an antenna or cable or Directv or whatever is out there. If we go to lunch and a TV is up, I will find myself distracted by the movement, and I hate extra noise. Just Thursday one of my coworkers and also my manager saw me turn off a plasma screen (that no one was watching) at a Vietnamese Pho place and now they both want three.
I have no problem turning off a non-watched CNN at lunch, but I wouldn't turn off a football game at a sports bar. That would be rude. But I don't understand the need to be constantly distracted by TVs. To quote Bill Cosby, "Parents don't want justice, they just want silence."
A ethical line is crossed when a blogger creates the news instead of reporting it.
I just saw the video. I did not know what was this about. At first, I thought it was hilarious. Yes, the prank was nice. But then I thought that such acting is vandalism. I mean, the company (maybe motorlola?) that got their monitors turned off while it was presenting really should be able to sue these guys for vandalism. I know they should grow a sense of humour, but at the very least the guys should apologize publicaly to the companies that they affected.
This kind of stuff is what you do only *ïf* you are prepared to face the consequences, and even though maybe turning off TVs would not have a lot of effect at the doctor's office or at some random public area, in this kind of technology shows it really affects the people.
Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'I can't configure Debian'
About 2 years ago
I am a free slashdotter. I will not be modded, blogged, DRM'd, patented, podcasted or RFID'd. My life is my own.
The video at least shows that the targets were taken on a fairly arbitrary basis. Yes it was childish etc etc but there was no deliberate targeting or discrimination. The comments about 'what would X's customers think of the company if...' are unfounded because all the screens were dying.
-1 not first post
No If the purchasing manager for Best Buy did this he would be fired and replaced with someone who had better judgment. Also encrypting remotes is laughable. Remotes are purposefully unencrypted so that TV sets will work with universal remotes.
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.
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
I really think that the only reason for such a device to exist is to make a list of all the self centered arrogant people who buy one to purge them from society.
The device is designed to turn off other people's TVs. If you don't like TV, or televised sports, avoid those places that have them on. Be a discerning consumer and create a market for places that will provide and pleasant atmosphere for you. Don't be a petulant child and turn the TVs off. I don't come into your place and turn your computer, or stereo off, or slam shut the book you are reading. If I did you'd take great offense, and would feel violated. Well the world is not all about you. Get over it. Don't do things whose analog you wouldn't like done to yourself.
This might have been a rant. It might be a troll. But I really would love to hear a justification of this device that does not amount to a fascist imposition of one person's will upon others. And these things do not have enough buttons to really validate the rudimentary universal remote argument, and they are targeted at individuals not institutions, so I won't buy that some institutions with large numbers of TVs might find it useful for start/end of day stuff.
If I was in the big TV business I'd be putting little switches (with visible indicator) on the screens to disable remote input.
No sig today...
I really find your post offensive in the sense that it adds nothing to the discussion and seems to be refuting something that was not said. What was the point of your post, really?
No one fucking said trade shows never go under. What the fuck?
COMDEX tubed because of an ill-prepared chairman and the after-effects of 9/11. Many others still remain. CeBIT is still 400k+ attendance.
PCExpo died because of ownership mismanagement in the post-9/11 era, too.
CES is like NAMM-- a huge, trade association-driven show that waxes and wanes.
Will CES get smaller and more sane? We can only hope.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Dugg up for being insightful
How many people install serial cables, etc. at trade shows? Not many...there's enough things to fail without relying on having a working PC with a dozen serial ports installed in it.
No sig today...
affect, damn it, affect, you ignorant turd; unless this is some weird creation myth.
Especially given the recent news about somebody controlling a cities tram system with a remote control unit, leading to derailments and injury.
IR remote control in public places? Just say no.
No sig today...
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/01/11/1719222&tid=222
No sig today...
Yes, and they should have the insight to wear bullet-proof vests, too, right? That's what you'd say if somewhat started shooting, I assume.
Vandalism is a crime, but the presenters are to blame? Yeah, this was clearly entrapment. Who could resist the lure of shutting off TVs with exposed IR ports?
Where are we at as a society that we blame people for being victims, when they haven't done anything to provoke an attack?
G
omg they can not be allowed to encrypt remotes!!! information wants to be FREE!!!
There are types of IR recievers which not only recieve IR as they were designed for, but also demodulate RF. If you cover them with tape they will still work if the remote is close enought.
On the other hand, imagine someone modulating a 10 Watt transmitter the right way, you might be able to turn off all TV sets in your room, without anything looking to suspicious. And you have a good excuse, "There was no way I could have used a TV-B-Gone as I was behind the set.", etc.
I still wonder why TV companies still bother building remote controll recievers into their sets.
What an asshole thing to do. It wasn't funny at all, and their 'apology' was worse.
I would expect Gizmodo's chances of attending future press events are circling the toilet now. A shame, they have always done minute by minute coverage of the "One more thing..." and Macworld keynotes.
If I were a marketing staffer or PR guy I wouldn't want them anywhere near a press conference. People can lose their jobs over press demos not working, so they aren't going to take the chance of inviting four year olds in the future.
To read the comments here and on Digg, you'd be lead to think this man had raped, looted, and plundered. All he did was turn some televisions off and interrupt a few demonstrations.
He.Turned.Off.Televisions. This is now a heinous crime? It's vandalism? It deserves flogging and imprisonment?
Yes he disrupted a couple of demonstrations, how many times had the presenter been through his script? For how many days? What exactly was lost by this disruption? How will the consumer electronics industry survive this loss?
Yes he went beyond the news and created the news. This is a time honored tradition and I'm sure Hunter S. Thompson would approve, particularly in light of what CES truly is. To quote Gizmodo "a disgusting, bloated beast oozing everything that makes this industry horrible. Nay, everything that makes our culture horrible"
I congratulate the inventors of the TV Be-Gone device for coming up with a wonderful gizmo and then Gizmodo for using it to demonstrate how pathetic our society has become.
Gizmodo's assessment of the CES show is particularly interesting: http://gizmodo.com/342495/ten-reasons-were-doomed-ces-edition
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Whats so great about a 4 year humanities degree?
You don't need a degree to know how to not be a dick head.
And to suggest that a journalist needs a degree and several further courses to be called 'a journalist' is a little bit a reach too. A lot of journalists didn't set out to be journalists.
Knowledge of the area in which your writing and a good command of whatever language the publication is in are key. As for ethics and such... well that depends on the publication.
But I agree with you with respect to the statement that anybody who just feels like mouthing off about a subject shouldn't suddenly be entitled to press credentials.
an entertaining prank to be sure, and a surprise that no one's tried it before on this scale. There's no excuse for there not to be black electrical tape over every IR receiver on that set of displays.
If you leave something THAT open to pranking at a public or semi-public event, it's going to happen. That's like leaving LAN jacks open all over the place at the conference and having an unsecured credit card processing machine on the same network. You deserve what you get for that level of carelessness.
On a completely different take, this is not possible with every remote. For example, all Apple remotes have the ability to "pair" with a computer, to prevent a computer from responding to any remote besides its own This is not rocket science, and it's not new. Pairing of remotes to equipment has been going on for years and won't cost them a nickel more to add to the chip. It involves each remote having and transmitting its serial number along with the command, and the computer can simply be told to only listen to commands from one (or a small group of) serial numbers. The only thing they will have to deal with is the occasional tech call from a customer that's managed to pair a different remote to their unit.
I for one would like to see this happen several more times until the manufactures get their heads out of the sand. This is unfortunately what it takes to motivate them. They won't lift a finger until it starts to cost them.
Additionally, it's sometimes hard to find where on a set the IR receiver is at. On the Apple's it's behind the big apple on the front of the unit or the black dot near the latch on the laptops. On some sets, where they have a large black border, it can be hard to locate. Also, the prankster should have been very easy to spot for anyone educated in such things. Most digital cameras are VERY senstitive to IR light, and to anyone with a digital camera looking at the LCD preview screen, or to anyone with a web cam pointed into the audience, that remote would go off like a strobe. It should have taken them less than 20 seconds to find this joker.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
The cat's out of the bag. Closing the stable door is pointless.
I'm only surprised nobody's done it before. TV-B-Gone isn't anything new.
No sig today...
>someone who graduated from DeVry isn't "really" a programmer since he didn't get an MS in CompSci or Maths or whatever.
If he can write good code, it doesn't matter if he has a degree or a diploma or nothing. You will find very few people here on slashdot who disagree with that. So I don't see why a McDonald's burger flipper blogging on politics cannot have better commentary than a graduate of Harvard Journalism. Journalists have to earn the public's respect, something they have been failing at the last 20 years. I get a sense that journalists have some warped sense of entitlement towards their degree and profession.
My (glass) windows are not secure against big hurled rocks, and it's a fairly obvious "security hole". I'd be happy to prosecute anyone doing that for vandalism, not conclude that I need to change windows or board them up. Stop trying to defend an asshat, it's perfectly reasonable for someone to bring a TV to a presentation without someone turning it off or yanking the power cable or unscrewing the fuse, even though it's not permanent like breaking a window. This is simply malice and he deserves to be banned.
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
You guys are kind of optimistic. I expect the TV-B-Gone to be banned as somehow violating someone's "intellectual property" or some such.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
An editor from Gizmodo also posted Tubgirl prominently on the main page of Kotaku. (No, that's not a link to the tubgirl posting, obviously - it was deleted quickly afterward anyway.)
Let's just say I don't read Gizmodo anymore.
putting electrical tape over the TV's IR sensor...
this is my sig, there are many like it, but this one is mine.
1 - i never said the people causing the mischief was faultless.
2 - its an electronic convention, you should *expect* a prank like that. If you don't take reasonable precautions, then yes you are also at fault.
Comparing a prank like that to a mass murder is ludicrous.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
...on the hour, every hour, for the duration of the show.
No sig today...
... thanked or even awarded him for doing so! Here it was a prank - funny for some, annoying for the others but rising the awareness about basic security aspects and ways (even as obscure as covering IR ports) to prevent the abuse is priceless! This may only do good in the long term. If this little prank becomes well-known around the globe. It may happen that in the future someone with really mean intentions won't put down some truly critical systems with such primitive technique, because the admin recalls what Gizmodo did and "just to be on the safe side" puts a (symbolic) piece of tape over this IR/BlueTooth/whatever port that is not needed for normal operations and nobody would care otherwise!
Now, mod me down freely. My karma can't get any worse...
...and plain and simple is the way I like it. Have you noticed more of this terror since Hillary Pelosi and the Democrats usurped control of the Congress from The Fondling Fathers? It's clearly time for the Larry Craig / Mark Foley ticket. Motto: 'A log cabin to protect us all.' Plan: 1) tax cuts for large American campaign contributors 2) Punks with TV-B-Gone summarily sent to Guadalupe and waterboarded. Imagine the greatest nation ever created without TV... That's the terrorist's goal.
When even at your local gym they know how to put a little piece of tape over the IR receivers' port, how comes this is not accomplished by high-tech show operators?
You could also use non transparent IR blasters to control and block unwanted nerd attacks out.
A buddy of mine from base decided that he didn't like the loud volume setting of some of his shipmates' TV shows in the smoke room of our bar on base. He went over to the NEX and bought a universal remote, and proceeded to arbitrarily mute and change the channel on TVs in the bar. Hilarity ensued, especially after several rather drunken sailors realized who the culprit was.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
That is what I was thinking, since it seems like some one higher up in Gizmodo sanctioned this "prank" and why the site itself should be banned at least for a year or two at minimum.
People just like to see their words in writing whether they have any clue what they're talking about or not. What else is new?
One thing I noticed (and was thankful for, though I'm sure the security measures aren't exactly what we'd consider strong - most likely an embedded device id) as I started getting Macs with bundled remote controls: by default, any Apple remote can control any remote-equipped Mac, but you can "Pair" one remote to one computer. http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302545 I don't know if other manufacturers are doing this, but it makes sense.
geek. lawyer.
Earlier this year Gizmodo pulled a prank on supposed sister-site Kotaku, putting the infamous and inappropriate tubgirl image to the Kotaku front page. After that I pretty much stopped reading, and lost all respect for, Gizmodo and it's writers and editors. Apparently that was justified. Maybe they should think about exactly why Engadget is kicking their asses.
The GeekNights podcast is going strong. Listen!
Try moving strong magnets across your c.r.t. displays, its fun!
This is only safe with weak magnets.
Neodymium magnets, such as those you can salvage from hard drives, can not only magnetize the shadow mask, they can permanently distort it. Degauss cycles will not fix that - the only way to repair a monitor damaged in that way is to replace the picture tube.
Do this in a retail environment and you may find yourself talking with the police.
Putting moderation advice in your
Creative Solution: Two Wiimotes looking into the crowd to triangulate the location of any remotes, and display the location and picture of the guy on the displays he is trying to shut off. Mob justice ensues. Lessons learned, a good time was had by all.
This is somewhat like an asshole with an airhorn coming in and blasting off during a demo.
These companies come and spend thousands of dollars to set up and display their product.
A lot of these products have some sort of video content. Usually necessitating a television or computer monitor.
This sort of thing is disruptive to the display and detracts from the message these people are trying to deliver. That they've payed for the the right to deliver.
Additionally, it detracts from the experience the attendees are expecting (and in some cases, have paid) to get.
Yeah, it's funny and cool until you calm down and think about the ramifications. And if the guys who make the TV-B-Gone actually DID send these to the guys at Gizmodo for this express purpuse, I think the CEA may have a few things to say to them...in court.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
To save people a few seconds of having to google stuff or whatnot, here's a link to the video in question on Youtube.
Planet Zebeth - Metroid with a twist
Hey! This is an opportunity for COMPLEX ENGINEERED SOLUTIONS! DON'T GET IN THE WAY OF OUR FUN! Actually, I don't see why the presenters couldn't have just said "ha ha ok *turns monitor back on* Now, as I was saying..." or the pranksters could have just turned the monitor off for 5 seconds, turned it on, laughed and waved their TV-B-Gones to the presenters and walked off. Is turning a monitor back on that big of a deal?
Withdrawal before climax is very ineffective and those who try this are usually called "parents."
The CES's Blogger-B-Gone device is working just fine.
From TFA:
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
We ended up not going for completely different reasons, but I suspect that everyone in my (admittedly small) company would agree that this was funny.
Might not be funny if they cut off a larger speech, but if it was just a bunch of booths with demos running, we can always restart the demos. And understand, it's a whole wall of TVs going off -- it seems incredibly unlikely that prospective customers or partners would assume it's our fault, when all of our neighbors had TVs go off, too.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
I think the Gizmodo guy was actually using this. The one you linked to requires you to hold mute first, wait for it to mute the TV so it's 'programmed' for it, and THEN you can turn it off. With this one, all you do hold down the button until every TV around you turns off.
Which actually in itself responds to everyone who's asking why he didn't have the coertesy of turning it back on. I don't believe it has that ability to begin with.
Planet Zebeth - Metroid with a twist
Why would you want to cover a show which can't recover from as simple a prank as turning TVs off?
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
Encryption is not needed. Replacing the original factory IR receiver with a coax link to the head end (program source cabinet) is the simple solution. Make up cables and route them with the video lines for complete secure control. This is a simple job for a good TV shop to remove the original IR diode and replace it with an optocoupler. This makes monitors and TV's immune to stray IR signals in a room.
The seem to spontaneously launch into the air, gravitating toward the point of RF emission that induced the sports footage vacuum.
If I was a geek (I am), up to no good (I am not) and intent on being discreet in that type of hack, it's easy to remove the IR diode from the remote and with a length of wire, remote it to your MP3 player headphones. Nobody needs to know you did it.
I have modified remotes in the past for another purpose. In a head end in a hotel, a rack of satellite receivers can easily be messed up buy using a full power remote to change the program on one receiver in a rack. I have changed the LED current limiting resistor from a low resistance to several K ohm to make a remote with less than a 6 inch range. It was perfect for changing the channel on just one receiver instead of the entire rack.
The truth shall set you free!
I agree with that statement - however, it is often the truth that those with a MS in CompSci can make for a better programmer. But it's more of a probability, not a certainty.
There's a possibility that an untrained blogger can report the news better than a trained journalist
There's a possibility that a self-trained mathematician can produce better proofs than a PhD.
It's just a question of how big the possibility is - there are genius, untrained programmers out there. However, they might be 1 in 1000 instead of 1 in 10 for folks with a MS (making up numbers).
I agree, but I think its an open question whether a Harvard journalist has a higher probability of actually being better than a blogger. At a superficial level that may be (simply because a blogger is anyone that posts on the internet - and there's a lot of crap out there). But generally looking at the state of the mainstream news media, I would say "no". Its usually bloggers who take the time to do an in depth objective analysis of topics, something that should have been taught to Harvard journalists. Take the Dan Rather debacle with the forged papers. I can't see any journalist take the time to speak to a typographical expert to verify the authenticity of these papers. Had this happened fifteen years ago, it would have been months or years before these documents would have been shown to be false, and by then it wouldn't have mattered anyway. The damage had already been done.
If being a blogger makes you a journalist, does giving away pills make you a pharmacist?
- A concerned Slashdotter^H^H^H^H industry pundit
You just got troll'd!
If they (or you) want a giggle at other peoples expense go and unplug the power cable for a couple of days from their web server and laugh your arses off.
"But also this might lead to a future with encryption on remotes."
uh...yea, right. I think they'll also require fire extinguishers on all porches by law so people can easily put out flaming bags of poo. I think you are absolutely right...because there is nothing worse than having to turn TV's back on or cover their LED's with a piece of black tape. That surely justifies increasing the cost of all TV's and making all previous universal remotes useless by adding encryption. I'm certain your right...so don't worry about making such silly statements.
I wouldn't at all be surprised if the main fallout from this stupid, purile prank, is that the manufacturer of TV-B-GONE gets in trouble over it.
I work as an applications engineer for a startup chip maker that sees many of its products end up in consumer electronics gear. My company exhibits at CES every year, and I've been involved in the preparations for the event for the last three years. I could talk about the tens of thousands of dollars that we spend, or the thousands of man-hours spent preparing for the show, but that's not particularly interesting or relevant here...many companies spend far more. No, where this cuts to the bone is that I could be (and have been) that guy up there on the stage. I could be (and have been) the guy who pulled all-nighters getting the demo ready for the show. For many companies, image *does* matter, and never more so than when you're a startup trying to articulate to your customers why exactly they should care about your stuff. CES is critically important for this purpose. I'm glad that these guys got some chuckles out of their stunt, but in the end it was an incredibly immature thing to do and bannination from the show is far too lenient a punishment in my opinion.
after mitch [1] held a lecture about "making cool things with microcontrollers" [2], he started a workshop, where you could build your own tv-b-gone.
well, on the other side of the street there was a Media Markt (big, sells tech stuff) and some people had real fun [3]. soon, people got banned from Media Markt [4]. when one person shut off an 80.000 plasma screen, the employees even called the police.
[1] http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&um=1&hl=en&safe=off&q=mitch+altman
[2] http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3953188/24c3-2214-en-make_cool_things_with_microcontrollers.mkv
[3] http://www.flickr.com/photos/kap4001/2147812954/
[4] http://flickr.com/photos/yarnivore/2167068196/
I don't see why a small number of IR sensors placed around the site couldn't instantly detect and locate the TV-B-Gone signal (which is just a sequence of TV shut-off codes for a number of different manufacturers). At that point, it shouldn't take more than a few milliseconds to aim and fire a pair of high powered lasers, thus incapacitating either the device or its owner.
Call it the TV-B-Gone-B-Gone.
if you didnt expect that in this day and age, then you are a fool.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
There's alot of people bemoaning this act as something akin to throwing bricks through windows or invading someone's home and shutting the book they're reading. To that I really have to ask the question: when did your soul die and how long were you the 'industry' before it happened? This was a hilarious prank. Unfortunately the prankers never finished Urban Mischief 101 and forgot how to divulge the info publicly. The goal is to maintain anonymity and still get others to enjoy the prank. The fact that they got caught reeks of epic fail. This was no act of vandalism or even corporate sabotage. Its a funny. Its meant to show us how easy it can be to throw a wrench in the gears of the corporate world. Why has Apple's remote 'pairing' technology not spread to the industry? Because something like this hadn't happened and because even though the industry knew it could, they were simply too lazy.
No, I expect school kids going into Best Buy doing this, not from people who want to be treated as professionals at a trade show. I guess my estimations of peoples thoughtfulness are too high. But on reflection you're right, I guess all companies should now expect to have to lock down every God damn piece of bloody equipment, physically and technologically because, you know, we should be expecting the worst in people.
Not saying EVERYONE is that way of course, but yes you have to always plan for the worst as much as you can or its just a matter of time before you get burnt.
It only takes one mistake to ruin your day.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Oh, you mean presentations where the presenter simply reads off a Powerpoint slide?
So, encryption is cool. It's obviously possible, as it is used in garage remotes and car lock remotes. But, those are also RF and nobody expects to have a universal version. I have several mac products, all in one room, so I've become really familiar with remote "pairing" but, I'm sure that wouldn't completely stop this kind of prank. But, somehow there must be a good in-between solution that will allow us Harmony remote users (it works with pairing on my apple tv) and the implementors of these techs to get along.
It would be nice to get everyone on the bluetooth remote line, with the security that offers. Let someone crack my 8 digit PIN to shut off my tv... what a colossal waste of time!
I read the script, and I think it would help my character's motivation if he was on fire. -Bender
Lousy analogy. The "tv-b-gone" doesn't *destroy* TVs like a rock destroys a window. It turns it off.
The analogy would be if someone had a remote that closed your shades. OH NO! Call the cops! Arrest that man!
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
I don't see why CES should use this as an excuse to make life harder for bloggers in general. Anybody who attended CES could have pulled that prank and posted the video. It was a coincidence that it was a blogger for an electronics blog. Actually, all things being equal, I suspect that professional bloggers are still less likely to do this than others, since they have more to lose (individually).
Still, maybe it's time to switch TV remotes to Bluetooth... that would have a whole lot of other advantages besides security anyway.
why thankyou sir. I do like to produce a decent -1 flamebait from time to time, since my karma seems never to change. That you got a funny rating for responding warms the cockles.
I've long felt that "Generation Me" has some serious mental problems, like being narcissists in almost every clinical sense of the word up to even being sociopaths.
What really gets me is the sheer number of people I've heard that blame CES or vendors for the "prank" by leaving themselves exposed and not covering the receivers with electrical tape or some other method of blocking tampering. I hesitate to use the word prank because disrupting people's live demonstrations and presentations is a prank in the same way shooting a tennis player with a pellet gun during Wimbledon would be a prank. (Which, of course, would be the player's fault for not donning battle armor).
I'm sure it was hilarious and I just lack a decent sense of humor. I bet those people who stayed up late into the night practicing their delivery, timing, and preparing for questions thought it was hilarious too. The people who flew over seas to attend CES and make a presentation probably had their sides spitting.
It's too bad the "reporter" was banned and not Gizmodo for supporting him. A prank is either something you do to a friend who's going to understand your joke, or if done to strangers, is insignificant. Controlling a mostly unused TV to baffle people as they wander by would have been funny. Interrupting live presentations goes into a whole class of its own.
In my mind, no matter how obvious an exploit is doesn't make it the fault of the victim. If someone leaves their keys in their car ignition, it's not too smart, but if a person takes the car they're still a thief, not an unsung hero.
Okay, that's all of my ranting for now. I'm gonna go pull a prank on this guy I saw walking by, once he hits the ER he'll remember that hockey masks prevent busted noses.
Its usually bloggers who take the time to do an in depth objective analysis of topics, something that should have been taught to Harvard journalists.
Oh, I'm certain it's taught, and professors everywhere cringe when their alumni are all but forced to reduce the quality of their work for corporate priorities.
"We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
I'm sure you wouldn't want someone to come into your office and unplug your computer while you're working. Or, to bring it closer to the CES scenario, repeatedly turn your monitor off. You'd be pissed, annoyed, and you would probably come to blows with the offender, because he was interfering with your job.
"We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
Ohh Ooooh! But he linked to wikipedia, unlike your citation free posts. That sort of authority is just too appealing, I'm gonna haveta side with the loudmouthed moron on this one.
I would like to introduce you to two new products:
Credentials-B-Gone
Revenue-B-Gone
Consider just how dated IR remote control technology is, combined with the repeated need for line-of-sight with you devices, why do we still bother? Have you ever paged through a universal remote manual? There's thousands of configuration codes involved with trying to set one up... and it's all a method of trial and error just to get your devices configured just right.
I think the more obvious issue here is why we haven't made a push for Bluetooth-based controllers for our fancy new digital, high-definition devices... especially at a show that's supposed to demonstrate what our future holds.
While this guy from Gizmodo is an asshat for screwing up an event like this for a cheap laugh, the companies involved should be embarassed for leaving their cutting edge technology so unprotected that anyone off the street could mess up their multi-million dollar presentations.
What the Gizmodo guy demonstrated was the future of technology failing catastrophically right at the very point it was most needed.
This whole thing could have been avoided by either a bluetooth-like remote system, where only a single controller can be paired to a particular system... or even having the foresight to obscure or disable the IR ports on these devices prior to the show.
8==8 Bones 8==8
Remote controls are but an extension of the on/off button on TV sets. You don't go round physically pressing the on/off button but somehow many are of the opinion that it's alright to use TV be gone to off other people's TV sets. Is it because of the veil of anonymity it offers or some flawed logic that it's alright to use a lightsaber to go round killing people because "hey, it's only light and light's a wave, not a matter" (ok, can we ignore the wave-particle duality here please.)
If somebody could do that, I would first yell at him and if he did not immediately and forever desist, I would call the cops. If he could *open* my shades, I might well want him to be arrested as it violates my privacy. If he climbs through an open window into my house and rearranges the things on the table (or, just flicks the TV on or off), then he's a goddamn trespasser even if nothing is destroyed, and though that's not by itself arrest-worthy, it's cops worthy (also I wouldn't trust such a man's claim that he, say, didn't steal some jewelry or something, so I would kind of want him frisked). Get off my lawn. And so forth.
Anyway, you missed the analogy. The TV-B-gone was damaging a presentation and ultimately trying to be aggravating. Turning the TV off was the method for doing that. The window shattering was damaging property. The parallel here to turning off a TV is throwing a rock. And generally you can throw rocks around without hurting anybody or damaging anything. Much like turning off TVs.
Nobody here thinks he's a dick for turning off a TV. That would be absurd. He's a dick for messing with other people's property at a time when it's very important for said other people.
I admit, I did laugh at first. I laugh at assholish things. But I don't support their actually happening.
A better analogy would be if he had a remote that turned off your car engine when it's not moving. If it turned off your car when it's moving then it could cause mortal danger, and admittedly that's an entirely different level of uncool. But in the morning if you can't start your parked car, or if you're stuck in traffic and can't go once it clears, or you get permanently stopped at a red light, you will be rightly pissed because somebody fucked with your property at a time when it was important for you that this property work.
Or maybe it would hit closer to home by saying it's like your next door neighbour had a remote to turn off your computer. Just whenever. When you're playing a game, or reading slashdot or gizmodo, or looking at porn, or whatever it is you do.
Actually, even better, it's if somebody had that computer-b-gone [i]at your job[/i] when you're doing important work, assuming your job uses computers.
Chill dude. Ain't nothing wrong with turning off a TV. If someone wants it they'll turn it back on. Your an ass if you repeat the action. It's like wikipedia, just make your edit, but don't be an ass by reverting reverts.
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
Yeah, it's hard not to watch the TV if your not accustomed to it. I'd say your never being rude if you just turn off a TV. Your only rude if you try to secretly keep it off after someone else turns it back on.
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
Why high powered lasers? Just have each one fire a low power laser or even a fairly bright non-coherent light in the direction from which the IR signal originated. For best results, have them fire a spotlight with 'idiot' stencilled over it and have security escort any idiots out of the room as soon as the become properly labelled.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I think tortious interference may cover it though I'm not a lawyer and, from what I read, it's probably a stretch as the acts didn't seem to have malicious intent though there could definitely have been a financial impact to the companies.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Bloggers will command respect at exactly at the same time they become popular enough to demand a sizable ad revenue. If a blogger draws readership, advertisers will respond to that. As a vendor, whether or not you consider the blogger an asshat, you run the risk of alienating a sizable chunk of your consumers if you summarily ignore them.
If you want to inspire favorable mentions with a group of people that might influence your consumers, you will start to give bloggers the same benefits that the mainstream media have access to. What, you think that pressrooms are altruistic endeavors, set up out of respect for the profession of journalism? Of course not. They're set up to make it easier for your event to have relevance to the public at large, via the media. If the public starts responding or trusting bloggers more than the traditional media, convention organizers will have to start responding to that or their events will become irrelevant.
And the reverse is true for print and mainstream media, btw. They can talk about the noble sanctity of their profession as much as they want, but if no one reads them no one will care. And they'll find that they no longer will get the benefits, like pressrooms, that they currently enjoy.
--
$tar -xvf
Or you could use duct or electrical tape to cover up the ir sensor.
I applaud Brian Lam of Gizmodo for pulling the prank. I like how it rattled a few pretentious snobs there at the CES convention. Nice work Brian!
Long live tech!
"If somebody could do that, I would first yell at him and if he did not immediately and forever desist, I would call the cops. If he could *open* my shades, I might well want him to be arrested as it violates my privacy. If he climbs through an open window into my house and rearranges the things on the table (or, just flicks the TV on or off), then he's a goddamn trespasser even if nothing is destroyed, and though that's not by itself arrest-worthy, it's cops worthy (also I wouldn't trust such a man's claim that he, say, didn't steal some jewelry or something, so I would kind of want him frisked)."
At best you can get him arrested for being a public nuisance. That is, if the cops even bother to show up. And you're also expanding the scenario waaay beyond what I said. Breaking and entering? That's ridiculous. He's blocking your view to the outside remotely. You can fix it by just opening the curtains again.
Honestly, you're just looking for reasons to be angry. There's enough real stuff out there for that.
"You'd be pissed, annoyed, and you would probably come to blows with the offender, because he was interfering with your job."
Er, it's just a job man. I'd be just as inconvenienced if the monitor died on me. In your scenario I'd go "Huh?" and then try to talk to Mr. Crazy about unplugging my monitor. If he's completely unreasonable about it, it's time to go on break.
People are just too uptight these days.
Democrats or Republicans. They are both taking us to the same place and they are not afraid of us anymore.
And charge him union rates for the labor.
That'll show him. It'll probably bankrupt him.
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
That's only useful if you don't need control. While many displays will be located in arm's reach, a substantial portion are placed higher then most humans can reach, in which case some form of remote control is needed.
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to phish...
I must say I think that it is your position of speaking from (apparent) authority regarding 'manners' which is getting you modded up, rather than the correctness of your arguments.
You are being somewhat trite in your analysis of the situation in a restaurant or other 'public' private spaces. Yes, you are there at the invitation of the proprietor(s). No, you don't own the TV, the chair, whatever. However, there is clearly an implied social agreement that you are there to enjoy the space (enjoy in the more legal sense, rather than necessarily giving it a wholly positive connotation). You are there to use the facility, including its furnishings, toilets, decor - all of it. You are paying for this use.
Does this mean you can start renovating it as if you own it? No. You can't pull out a paintbrush and a can of paint and go crazy because you think it would look better in pastel pink. But it does imply a certain degree of latitude to do some things that you wouldn't do in a friend's house to adjust the environment to your liking.
For example, I can't believe that you honestly think it is "very rude" in a restaurant or cafe to take a chair from another unused table and add it to your own table. It's a RESTAURANT. They HAVE spare chairs. If they don't, and they really, really need that chair, they will tell you and you will have to give it back. But this is not "rude" under any variation of manners that I am familiar with - it is "practical" and "proactive". It does not "invalidate" anybody if the restaurant is already in the process of getting you a chair. They can put THAT chair in the space where you just removed the OTHER chair, restoring balance to the force. I also like the implication that you would rather be "very rude" to your companion, who is voluntarily accompanying you on a social basis, than to be "very rude" (as you see it) to a goddam commercial establishment which you are paying money to.
Similarly, it is not bad manners to take a glass, a piece of cutlery, the salt and pepper or anything else from an unused table, particularly if you advise your waiter after the fact. What do you think is worse for them, the minor inconvenience of having to get another fork for an empty table, or the major inconvenience of you being unable to eat the food they have carefully prepared for you because your fork is missing/dirty? And once again, which is worse, inconveniencing the restaurant, or inconveniencing a companion?
Another example - it is not rude to slightly adjust a curtain or blind in a cafe or restaurant if the sun in shining directly into your face, or alternatively if you would like to see the view. It is only rude if it directly affects someone else.
So, to the TV thing. Well, I have worked in a cafe where the proprietor insisted on having a TV or radio blaring at all times. Most of the patrons hated it, but none of them ever spoke up or turned it off out of "politeness". Instead, it just drove business away. I used to surreptitiously turn it down, much to everyone's relief. But he was convinced that he was providing a service to his customers.
All of what you have said really smacks of the silliest type of "free market" philosophy, i.e., "if you don't like it go somewhere else". To me, that is a silly, dehumanising way to treat your relationship with the particular place you are unhappy with. Surely there is more give and take than that? Surely your choices are not "eat on our terms exactly or get out"? Very few (sane) proprietors would wish to give that impression to their customers. Yes, ideally you should talk to your waiter or the proprietor - but I am willing to bet that most proprietors who really care about their business would rather their customers took minor, non-permanent steps to improve their own experience than simply left and didn't come back.
Now if someone is watching the TV in question, of course it is rude to turn it off. If no-one is paying any attention to it, then there is definitely scope for the discrimina
Read Pynchon.
Those of you decrying TV-B-Gone users as all being arrogant selfish jerks obviously haven't ever been stuck at airport gate for hours on end with TVs that nobody is watching blaring at high volume. Ask someone to turn them down/off? A good part of the time you can't even find someone who can tell you whether your flight has been cancelled, let alone someone with the authority and knowledge to turn off a TV. And you can't go elsewhere to avoid the noise because you may miss your flight (or a critical announcement about your flight, which, come to think of it, is often very hard to hear because of said TVs) entirely if you do.
Sometimes there is a real need for a gadget like TV-B-Gone.
I really think that the only reason for such a device to exist is to make a list of all the self centered arrogant people who buy one to purge them from society.
;)
The device is designed to turn off other people's TVs. If you don't like TV, or televised sports, avoid those places that have them on. Be a discerning consumer and create a market for places that will provide and pleasant atmosphere for you.
Hey, no need to make a redundant list. And quit this carrying on about free markets.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)