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The Oddball Side of CES (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the there-are-real-fakes-and-there-are-fake-fakes-and-it-can-be-hard-to-tell-the-difference dept.

In between nodding earnestly as hopeful exhibitors told him how wonderful their products were, Slashdot's Timothy Lord took a look at some of the less-serious displays and goings-on at CES. Some of these people and companies no doubt take themselves 100% seriously, but after grueling days patrolling the endless exhibits at this giant show, Timothy was looking at them through tired (and cynical) eyes. This short video shows some of what he saw.

35 comments

  1. Fark TV, with sweat and dead man's balls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Video articles suck.

    1. Re:Fark TV, with sweat and dead man's balls by gweilo8888 · · Score: 1

      They're also hopelessly out of date. CES 2015 ended on January 9th, or FIVE WEEKS ago. This content might have been relevant then; now it's ancient history.

    2. Re:Fark TV, with sweat and dead man's balls by Penguinisto · · Score: 1

      Damn thing sat there, then autoplayed right over a KMFDM song I had playing... took me nearly a minute before I realized the voiceover wasn't part of the song...

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    3. Re:Fark TV, with sweat and dead man's balls by lucm · · Score: 1

      Damn thing sat there, then autoplayed right over a KMFDM song I had playing... took me nearly a minute before I realized the voiceover wasn't part of the song...

      The exact opposite happens to me all the time with my Kitaro playlist (there's also an Air Sculpture song in there to mix things up).

      --
      lucm, indeed.
  2. confused? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    So its a product placement add?

    I will admit, I haven't watched much of /. video stories, and to be honest I guess I was expecting more than just one "oddball" item in the vid.

    But i suppose if i call the spade a spade, then the product placement add was well implemented click bait.

  3. It works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Add me to the list of believers. When I travel (which isn't that often) I set one of these up on a random timer - it's on during prime time hours and on/off different times through the night. A couple of times a neighbor has texted me asking why I wasn't answering my door... I'd just reply I forgot to turn the TV off or a family member is at my house, but not answering the door. After about a year of use he still has no idea. This thing is awesome, especially for $20. When used with other timers and lights, it's very difficult to tell when someone is/isn't home. Of course all the home automation we're seeing may soon make it obsolete.

    1. Re:It works by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      I also have one of these fake TVs. It works well. But it is nothing new. I bought it from Amazon about five years ago. Mine has a built in timer. Go to Amazon, and type "fake tv" into the search box, and you will see about a dozen to choose from.

      Unlike you, I don't have a problem with neighbors thinking I am home. My neighbors haven't talked to me in a long time, ever since that little incident when the pig manure digester caught on fire.

    2. Re:It works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How did your dog catch on fire?!

    3. Re:It works by Whiteox · · Score: 1

      Yeah my neighbours don't talk to me either or even look at my house, probably because I go out on my balcony and pee off it. Now there's a large patch of burnt grass below. Also the wood floor and balustrade had started to rot at the pee point from dribble so I had to change my preferred spot.

      --
      Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
    4. Re:It works by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 2

      I go out on my balcony and pee off it. Now there's a large patch of burnt grass below.

      The problem may be excessive salt in your diet. Cut back on sodium, and increase your water intake, and the grass should green right up.

  4. Very detailed video... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

     

    So the "oddball side" of CES was one guy selling fake TVs.

    Thanks for that Timothy...now can I have those minutes of my life back please?

    -- Pete.

    1. Re:Very detailed video... by edibobb · · Score: 1

      I have to agree, This is the lamest /. submission I've seen lately.

  5. For the love of god, turn off autoplay by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    I clicked the link for the comments, not to play the video...and it starts autoplaying an ad, with sound, with NO volume control, and NO pause button.

    I don't often use this word for stupid internet stuff, because it's a pretty strong word, but this design is unconscionable.

    Also it says I'm posting as AC even though the upper right says I'm logged in, so go figure.

    (CAPTCHA: disgusts)

  6. Correction to headline by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Oddball Side of CES (Fucking Auto-Fucking-Playing Video Treating Your Readers Like Idiots)

    FTFY

    --
    systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    1. Re:Correction to headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why the fuck can't these videos or SlashdotTV or whatever be put in their own category so I can remove them from my page? Oh yes, that's exactly why...

    2. Re:Correction to headline by oodaloop · · Score: 1

      Nice to know what would have happened if I didn't have NoScript running. Thanks for the info.

      --
      Tic-Tac-Toe, Global Thermonuclear War, and relationships all have the same winning move.
    3. Re:Correction to headline by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      If you really want to know, what happens in detail is this:

      You load the page. You see the massive black box which fills the entire width of the parent element. You see the still image and a play button, and you think "oh, this story has video." You might then think "I'm not interested in the video - at least it's not autoplaying! I'll scroll down and look at some of the comments."

      And then, some 7-10 seconds after the page appears to have completely loaded, the video - which, by the way, has no volume control - starts to play. Or, as in my experience, the audio plays and the video remains blank, making for an even more frustrating experience as you struggle to work out where the sound is coming from.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    4. Re:Correction to headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks for the summary, now I know I don't need to watch this video through alternative means. The only video I got was:

      DOMException
      SecurityError: "The operation is insecure."

    5. Re:Correction to headline by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      All I got was:

      "This video isn't encoded for your device"

      What? A Windows 7 PC? Okay...

  7. hey there by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Don't hold back now; let it all out...

  8. MY EARS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Jesus why the fuck does this autoplay and immediately go loud? That 10 second wait before autoplaying is mighty misleading. I'd already scrolled down to read the comments. It's also at max volume and there are no volume controls.

    What the hell guys?

    1. Re:MY EARS! by farble1670 · · Score: 1

      thank god we phased out flash so things like this wouldn't happen ... oh wait.

    2. Re:MY EARS! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jesus why the fuck does this autoplay and immediately go loud? That 10 second wait before autoplaying is mighty misleading. I'd already scrolled down to read the comments. It's also at max volume and there are no volume controls.

      What the hell guys?

      Because Dice hates you.

  9. pleas choke on a bag of dicks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    man, slashdot sucks.

  10. Volume Control by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why is there no volume control in this video player? Am I blind? Am I missing something? I can't remember the last time I came across a media player of any kind that did not have a volume control.

    The "go back 30 seconds" button is useless and right where the control for volume should be.

    This is supposed to be T. V. right? In my simple little mind a T. V. needs working volume control to be considered usable.

    Also, the auto play. This isn't LiveLeak.

  11. YAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYY! HTML5 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'M SO GLAD /. TEAM NOW SUPPORTS HTML5 VIDEOS! AUTOPLAY OR NOT, ITS JUST AWESOME!

    Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

    Filter error: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.

  12. Completely Worthless!!!!!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why not just leave on the real TV?

  13. no video? interesting summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Where is the video

  14. I cant see the video? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Has it been taken away?

  15. Did Timothy get laid? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm guessing no.

  16. I thought it was a good idea initially, but... by Howitzer86 · · Score: 1

    I left my TV on one day and burglars came and stole it. It being a real TV, it also had sound, but it's plainly no deterrent. A muted fake television wouldn't work any better.

    Later I would mount a cheap motion sensing alarm, and that seemed to work for one of the next break-ins.... but the real solution was moving.

  17. Mapping *.ooyala.com to 127.0.0.1 still works by WoodstockJeff · · Score: 1

    I don't even get a black box... There is a white hole allocated for the video, but no noise or other annoyances.

    I wonder if the other companies that use ooyala.com for useful purposes appreciate the damage /. does to their reputation by setting autoplay=yes, as those offended geeks with the power to do so modify their DNS servers to be authoritative for ooyala.com and protect their user base from abuse?

  18. Real TV? by hucker75 · · Score: 1

    Why not just leave your real TV on?

  19. LoL by Demena · · Score: 1

    Well, this IS /. By now, Windows people should be using Linux, Linux people should be using BSD and BSD users should have moved on to Plan 9,,,

    Its a joke Joyce...