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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.
Yeah, or presenters sticking electrical tape over the remote sensors on the displays.
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.
How did he get caught? Are you kidding me? He posted a video of himself doing it, proudly stating his first and last name in the intro to give himself credit.
http://www.archive.org/details/ThePowerOfNightmares
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.
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.
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'
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.
Not to mention dangerous to one's health.
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.
You, sir, are a douchebag. Same goes for your coworker and manager.
Try to comprehend this: IT'S NOT YOUR FUCKING TV.
Instead of being polite and asking the proprietor, "Excuse me, would it be possible to turn the TV off?", you impose your will on them and anybody else that comes into that establishment.
Do I like TVs in these places? Usually not. If there is no one around, I'll ask the owner or staff member to turn it off or to let me do it. NEVER has such a request been refused. If I was refused for what appears to be no good reason, I'll remember that for next time and not give them my money.
>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
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.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
It is normally not a PC though, there are dedicated AV control systems out there (AMX, Crestron et al).
Being a control systems programmer, I happen to know many of the sets at trade shows, especially AV trade shows, are under RS232 control!
Often this is because of the impracticality of the remote - many only have a single on/off button on the IR remote.
You press it, half of the displays turn off.
You press it again, some of the display toggle from on to off, some toggle from off to on.
You end up using a rolled up sheet of paper to go around each one to set it on / off.
Unfortunately not many of the models have the ability to lock the IR out via the serial port!
>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?
Ever presented anything to an important client? Now as you are doing your presentation and right in the middle of it, take out your visual portion of it. Now pretend that the visual portion of it is what you are selling.
Not exactly so small.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
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
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
The CES's Blogger-B-Gone device is working just fine.
What you did was vandalism. Pure and simple. If your manager was smart, he would be looking for an excuse to fire you. After all, if you are willing to screw with one business because there is a little bit of movement in the corner of the room, then just imagine what you would be willing to do to a business that you are on the inside of when there is a bunch of movement.
Seriously, the "I don't have a TV" crowd don't even realize how ignorant they are. I can assume by your wording that you do have a TV, you just watch movies instead of broadcast television. Here is a secret. Movies are not inherently better than TV. Heck, even books are not inherently better than TV.
And the Cosby joke you reference isn't saying the parents are right. It is saying that parents are self serving pieces of crap that will be unjust to get what they want. By using that quote, you are openly admitting that you don't care about right or wrong as long as you get your way. Do your children know that you are a bad person, and are willing to screw them for your convenience?
vandalism - Willful or malicious destruction of public or private property.
Pray tell, what did I destroy? The TV still functioned. They turned it back on just before we left. NOBODY noticed that it was off except my table for around 30 minutes. The place was packed and the 50 inch plasma was 15 feet directly in front of me. The workers can't speak English and were too busy to serve meals to turn off the TV.
Actually my current manager is the best manager that I have ever had. He gets technology and he gets people. He stands up for me, and is very understanding of personal situations. The coworker that wanted three of them is one of the most ethical people I know. It is a huge stretch of the imagination to say, "turn off tv" to "sabotage databases". I would never, ever mess with the data at my job. I work with the transmission of medical records. It is not an exaggeration to say people could die if I do that. Why kill someone's mom or son because I hate my job?
Yes, I have a projector hooked up to a DVD. It is on for two hours once maybe every three days. I do this because it would be way too easy for me to sit down and watch TV and waste my evening. My six year old would be watching ALL THE TIME. So I cut down on the amount he watches, and I have much more control over content. Instead of "American Idol" he and I build Legos, and he learned to read at a very early age and do math at a very early age. Not having broadcast TV in our home has been one of the best decisions that my wife and I have made. I don't know about you, but I like quiet. Quiet allows me to think. Quiet allows me to work. Quiet allows me to have conversations and relationships with people I care about. Why do you crave distractions?
It is saying that parents are self serving pieces of crap that will be unjust to get what they want.
Wow, are you 19 years old? Do you have kids? In the same comedy bit, Cosby said, "My wife and I used to be intellectuals." And then they had kids. I am not the world's best husband or father, but I do try my best.