Inventor Open Sources "TV-B-Gone," and Why 340
ptorrone writes "Inventor Mitch Altman explains why he open-sourced his TV-B-Gone kit, the original stealth keychain fob for defeating TVs in public places. The title of the article is 'Patent-B-Gone' and perhaps the most interesting fact is that Mitch's brother is a patent attorney, but he still decided to release an open source hardware version of the TV-B-Gone, with pretty impressive results."
I for one (Score:2, Funny)
Would be most happy to be owning an election-B-gone. Also, frist past the post!
Re:I for one (Score:5, Funny)
I am officially open sourcing my firstpost-B-gone
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Remember, remember, the 5th of November...
Scarier than ever.
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Ah, you'll be wanting the twat-B-Gone. Otherwise known as a spiked mace.
A Necessary Addition (Score:5, Funny)
So many offensive television sets in inappropriate places...so little time.
Re:A Necessary Addition (Score:5, Insightful)
Me, I carry my Customer-B-Gone, a pair of legs that allow me to absent myself from bars and other public places for a variety of reasons, without imposing my will upon others. Oh sure, it's not nearly as obnoxious as deciding for everybody, but we can't all be petty dictators.
Re:A Necessary Addition (Score:5, Informative)
I don't mind if a bar owner wants to put on a TV in his bar. That doesn't bother me. However, where I live (Orange County, Florida), there are television sets (with sound) in the following places that need not have them, and they are there for no other purpose than to show an announcement that could be served with a poster and no sound:
There is NO REASON for this.
Re:A Necessary Addition (Score:5, Funny)
The Deaf.
You can go now.
Re:A Necessary Addition (Score:5, Funny)
UGH! Coffee not working yet.
That should have been THE BLIND!
I'll go now...
Re:A Necessary Addition (Score:5, Funny)
bwa ha ha.... my Coffee-B-Gone works!
Re:A Necessary Addition (Score:5, Funny)
bwa ha ha.... my Coffee-B-Gone works!
OK, now THAT little device is definately going to lead to bloodshed. :)
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LOL My PCs I can replace easily and I'm VERY anal about my backups so I won't lose a shard of data even if they were to all explode right now. Hell, actually, I'd lose my browser's history (and that's it) if the entire place burned to the ground. Not to mention - I still would have my cell which *will do* until they are replaced.
Coffee or beer I'd have to actually DO something to replace it and those need immediate replacement. The dog? Oh don't touch the dog or it is on. (Actually he'd love it if you would
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Deaf people don't need sound. I think it's the sound that's most annoying. You can avoid looking at something, but you can't avoid hearing.
Re:A Necessary Addition (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally I find it to be the other way around- I don't like the slack-jawed, dazed fool I become when there's a TV in the room anywhere I can see it, which is why I try to avoid patronizing businesses that have them. Only hearing it is (usually) no worse than listening to any other inane conversation.
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This is something I have NEVER been able to understand. I have always been able to filter out or ignore just about anything I feel like. I can pick out an individual conversation from several feet away in a crowded bar, TVs or radios don't bother me, I just tune them out.
I just don't quite get how seemingly everyone else CAN'T do this.
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Oh wait, you really don't function at all without coffee, do you?
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Yeah, I will look at it, assess that it doesn't need my attention, and proceed to disregard its visual and audio squawking.
Its a box with noise and motion, nothing more.
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Re:A Necessary Addition (Score:4, Funny)
OK, enlighten me. Are you bombarded by TV in public libraries and during funerals, or are you simply irked when a bar-owner decides to show a football game on his TV in his bar?
Me, I carry my Customer-B-Gone, a pair of legs that allow me to absent myself from bars and other public places for a variety of reasons, without imposing my will upon others. Oh sure, it's not nearly as obnoxious as deciding for everybody, but we can't all be petty dictators.
We can't all spot sarcasm, either.
(This is sarcasm, what that guy posted was deadly serious).
(Hey, no wait!, don't listen to that sentence, that was the real sarcasm).
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I once went to a very small bar in America that had ten TVs! Not only that, but one entire side of the bar (it was one of those long thin ones) was a mirror! Twenty TVs in a room that could fit maybe 40 people...
Pretty insane; I can see why people would want this.
Re:A Necessary Addition (Score:4, Insightful)
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Insane, yes! But think of it as a distinctive mark, a way to sort business into two categories: Infidels, and Non-Infidels.
I'm thinking million-TV-mirror-tardbox goes into the "Infidels" column. I mean come on, the american way is to buy a ginormous plasma, or a projector at the very least.
Now am I suggesting we blow up the infidels ? /sarcasm?
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When it appeared? Email has been around for more than twenty years, and I'm still getting stupid jokes and chain letters forwarded to me.
Re:A Necessary Addition (Score:5, Insightful)
So, you basically went to a sports bar.
There are also bars that have NO televisions in them.
It's called freedom of choice and expression. Two of the things the American settlers left the old world for.
We like having freedom of choice here. And our freedom of expression.
The cool thing was, you could have gone to another bar, one you liked, instead of being in the "sports bar" style place.
That's one of the things that makes our country a great place to live. We can actually make choices, and people with the drive to prosper can keep making (and I agree with you, I HATE the sports bar mentality, the TVs, etc) places the people want to go to.
Just because you didn't like it doesn't mean it doesn't have it's place.
--Toll_Free
Re:A Necessary Addition (Score:4, Interesting)
> It's called freedom of choice and expression. Two of the things the American settlers left the old world for.
I was under the impression those settlers left the Netherlands because the Dutchies were too liberal?
Having stopped watching tv for a while (Score:5, Insightful)
what I find is that they are mesmerizing. When I walk into a room with a tv on I feel the pull to look at it, as well as notice that everyone is looking at the tv like it had hyptonized them. It is much like a drug. Turning the tv off is more about breaking it's inevitable grasp on everyone's attention for at least a short time, so people look up and look around once in a while. It's not like you break the tv, it can be turned back on, and probably will be in short order.
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This focus-on-movement could be evolutionary be explained because a) you might eat what moves; b) it might eat you; c) it might be an interesting sex partner (in which case you might eat it and/or it might
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What annoys me more in public places are TVs and tobacco. That's why I don't get out much, I'm fed up going to bars where music is too loud to talk, people are staring at multiple TV sets spread around the place showing junk-TV shows and I get home with my clothes stinking like smoke so bad that I feel like puking.
Nothing against football games. It's fun to get together with friends and watch the game at the local café. But having multiple TVs on all the time is annoying. And they're everywhere.
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As a cigar smoker (the worst type, I know) I have two words to say to you:
Ha ha!
Oh - and I do hope you're happy with having pushed the smokers outside so that you can no longer enjoy it. Okay okay... Really... I'm one of the *good* smokers who doesn't typically smoke around anyone other than other smokers, leaves the room to smoke, has a single smoking area in the house, and long before there were laws chose to not smoke cigarettes or cigars in front of children. However...
1) Outlaw smoking in bars.
2) Smoke
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The issue is that some of us have an extreme reaction to TVs placed where they shouldn't be. One TV placed in a reasonable place for watching TV at home isn't an issue. But TVs that are placed in the way that they are in public seriously affect my tinnitus. For years I couldn't go into the portions of electronics stores with the TV displays because the TVs were emitting something that caused a serious reaction in me.
If they would properly shield the TVs or use ones that didn't do that sort of thing it would
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It's impossible, but wouldn't it be cool to be able to jam those video feeds and insert good old anti-Wal-Mart propaganda ?
"Welcome to the American Dream, now give us your first born!"
Re:A Necessary Addition (Score:5, Informative)
Something the tvbgone users need to realize... those are IR lights. When you press the button and look at the front you don't see anything, or will see a VERY faint dim red flicker, and think oh no one will see that!
But then take it into someplace like walmart with 200 security cameras all over the place. Think back, look at the youtube video, how bright the lights show up on the recording. It's like the white strobe on a fire alarm. Digital cameras are VERY sensitive to IR light, and it shows up bright white. As if that's not bad enough, it's strobing.
Same thing at wal-mart. Nobody on the floor will know you are doing it, but EVERY person in the security room will immediately see the TVBG light up like a white beacon on any camera pointed your way, of which at a wal mart is a good dozen or more at any given time. You'll have about 20 seconds before one of their security personnel to get a call on their radio from the security room and is standing beside you and in a bad mood. The guard may not know what to look for and won't see the light, so the people in the room will tell them to get rid of you. If the guard sees a camera in your hand, there's his excuse.
The field tester that ran into walmart problems was lucky that they didn't realize what he was doing, and kicked him out for filming. (the ppl in the room probably thought the camera was causing the flashing on their monitors) That won't last. They'll be a good deal more unfriendly if they realize there's actual malice intended rather than possibly innocent filming.
Re:A Necessary Addition (Score:5, Insightful)
But then take it into someplace like walmart with 200 security cameras all over the place.
I see an emerging market for security-camera-begone.
Re:A Necessary Addition (Score:5, Informative)
I'm an electrician and I've wired a Walmart when it was being built. I can assure you that only ~10% of those black domes contain cameras. It is true that the electronics department has cameras, but the one I worked on only had 2 covering the whole section.
Posted AC because I'm probably not supposed to tell people that.
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So a few people might get kicked out of Walmart. Turning off their TVs doesn't cause any actual damage, and as long as you leave when asked, you haven't broken any laws.
How does this differ from simply turning them off (which I used to love doing as a young kid - On entering any department store, I'd make a bee-line for the AV department to start gleefully pulling plugs), except
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Re:A Necessary Addition (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't even know how many places this will work? Are there alot of places that do not have Professional grade TV's installed in their places??
I just recently left a commercial installer and all the professional TV's we were installing had no IR/RF it was all RS232 control. If they did the IR was on the back, and we would cover up the sensor with a backup IR control eye with a patch so nothing else could controll it.
Most places I've gone to have done it right and installed TV's that you can't mess with.
There are a few bars that have normal TV's. But if you're in a bar why would you be shutting of someone else's TV's in the first place?? what gives you the right?
I just don't get why you don't just move/leave/go to another establishment...
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Hey, the customer is always right. But then the other ten guys in there who are wathching the darn thing are also customers.
So it's down to democracy in the end; let Diebold decide.
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So it's down to democracy in the end; let Diebold decide.
Every time I see "Diebold" I still think ATMs, and oddly, that seems to make your comment even more insightful.
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My bank recently replaced their Diebold ATMs with NCR ATMs. I have to give the devil his due -- the Diebold ATMs were easier to use and faster. The NCR ATMs have a combination touch-screen and keypad interface with a horrible-feeling keypad and odd points in which you have to switch from screen to keypad and back.
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Most of the places with these sets in them though are not installed by professionals, and most of them wouldn't know where to find the IR sensor on the unit anyway.
Lets test you on something you are not familiar with, to level the playing field. Where would you put the tape to stop someone malicious from say, tampering with the IR remote on a 24" iMac doing a powerpoint presentation loop to a crowd or in front of the storefront window?
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Nowhere.
I'd disable IR, or key it to just one remote. I think doing either of these actions is 4 clicks from the desktop or less.
Well done, sir. (Score:2, Insightful)
Thanks, Mr Altman.
So glad this was posted (Score:5, Funny)
Brilliant! (Score:5, Interesting)
Now here's the brilliant part. On one hand, this guy can market his TV-b-Gone, and on the other hand, he can market to big box stores a special security device. A discrete little box that you stick on the IR sensor and block malicious signals. The box contains a couple of IR LEDs, and a descrambler chip. The chip decodes signals from the special remote control (which he also will sell) so that the stores still have control over their TVs.
Re:Brilliant! (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:Brilliant! (Score:5, Interesting)
sorry but that little black box will not work.
my 1W IR led version will turn off a set with black tape over the IR receiver sensor. the plastic around the sensor area carries the ir signal in to the sensor for me. SO unless you encase the entire set in a black box it will not work.
and yes, it's good to be annoying when it comes to frivolities like TV. I wish more people were annoying in regards to frivolities.
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and yes, it's good to be annoying when it comes to frivolities like TV. I wish more people were annoying in regards to frivolities.
You're an elitist ass. I'm not going to get in a pissing match about which of us is smarter, but statistically speaking there's a high probability you'd come out on the low end of that one. Still, sometimes I pry my attention away from fine arts and subtle discourse to watch "Bones" or "The Office". You say "frivolity" and I say "needed pressure release".
Get off your high horse and accept that some people relax using other methods than yours. The ability to enjoy the occasional sitcom or sports event is
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Or they could use a small piece of electrical tape, but you know, keep on smoking that crack...
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he can market to big box stores a special security device.
Here's a sci-fi idea: connect TV to internets. Connect cell phone to internets. Point cell phone at TV, display says "Now controlling TV model $foo", push the off button.
Behind the scenes, all devices have crypto key pairs. The TV signs its IP address and identifier, broadcasts via something short-range [bluetooth, IR]. The phone does the power-down RPC to the broadcast IP address, signed by its key; the TV verifies the signature, shuts down.
The attacker can still put a radio/light jammer nearby, or cut
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Yah, I see big-box stores that hire people at near minimum wage putting devices in front of every display on the remote off chance that someone would (horrors!) turn off a tv with a remote. I guarantee you if they tried that half of them would be broken and the other half would be misplaced, not used properly, or have dead batteries.
My biggest problem with the tv-b-gone is that the receivers on tvs doesn't have a very wide angle of reception. Makes it hard to get the tv over your shoulder to shut off.
Stupid. Just plain stupid. (Score:3, Insightful)
Let's see. A device with no purpose other than to be malicious. Just because someone has the technical skills to create and sell a device, doesn't mean they should. If you don't like TVs in public places, don't be an ass. Just say something politely and maybe if they get enough feedback, they'll start shutting them off...or better yet, stop going.
There are reasons why there are TVs in public places. Some people value them. Just because you don't, doesn't give you the right to start powering them down.
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Land of the free, right?
Hacker ethos. (Score:2)
Let's see. A device with no purpose other than to be malicious.
It just turns off a tv, it doesn't break it.
I think that the bgone appeals to the mischevious part of our nature. Certainly shutting
down a video wall during someone's presentation IS malicious (I remember
a youtube of someone doing this not too long ago), but there are plenty
of instances that you could use this device that would not be.
OTOH this is a great example of hacker thinking, doing things with
a technology that were not intended.
To be re
What is there to patent here? (Score:3, Insightful)
Maybe TV-B_Gone is not patented for its TV remote abilities, but as a fight provocation device. I can see some novelty in a device which increases the chances of the user being punched in the face.
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So if I am understanding this new "face punching device" it's a little black key fob thingy that I carry around and when I press the button people punch each other in the face?
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The keychain remote is quite handy. Though what I'd love to have is a device that shuts off those damned annoying yapping advertisements they're putting in gas pumps. It's basically a PC hooked up to a 15" monitor, and speakers turned up bloody loud shouting about car insurance and diet pills. And to make matters worse (though maybe it was coincidence) a couple of the stations turned down the pressure on the pumps, so it took over 5 minutes to half-fill the tank of a Honda Civic. 5 minutes of non stop comm
TVs? (Score:2)
Reason it went open source... (Score:2)
People won't be bothered to make one themselves but will be interested in it after reading how he's been so generous releasing his design that they buy premade ones from him.
I'm guessing all it is, is LEDs hooked up to a chip with all the common codes for power buttons and it just cycles through them when the button is pressed. Shouldn't imagine it's something that would have a patent granted.
Television... (Score:3, Funny)
Great (Score:2)
I'm just waiting for a time I'm watching a football match in a pub and some arsehole switches off the TVs because he wants to drink 'in peace'.
Not the TV's so much as the music being too loud. (Score:5, Insightful)
Okay, yes, I know, I used to own the t-shirt too. ("If it's too loud, then you're too old.")
But goddamn it, when I'm in a bar chatting with friends, everywhere around is also buzzing with laughs and good times, why does the barman decide to pump his crappy music up to 110 decibels?
Because people don't drink as much if they're talking. It's to increase his bottom dollar, not to make your night out better.
I would love to be able to remotely reduce the volume or kill the music all together. Somehow, I doubt there'd be a massive outcry from people who were talking to their friends and can now hear them without shouting.
Re:Not the TV's so much as the music being too lou (Score:4, Interesting)
"But goddamn it, when I'm in a bar chatting with friends, everywhere around is also buzzing with laughs and good times, why does the barman decide to pump his crappy music up to 110 decibels?"
Because you're in the wrong bar. Bars do exist that provide a good atmosphere for conversation. I always make it a point to seek those bars out. In the US, most places that claim to be an English pub have reasonable volume levels but that's far from universal. I also look for bars that focus on drinks like wine or cocktails. I'm a beer drinker myself but the atmosphere is usually better in those places and they do usually have some sort of decent beer handy.
Re:Not the TV's so much as the music being too lou (Score:2)
Any decent bar or restaurant (i.e. one that doesn't cater strictly to college students or rabid sports fans) uses closed captioning on its TVs and doesn't even attempt to turn up the volume. Every place I frequent is a place where everyone can have a conversation without yelling over the TV.
If you find that your desire
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You're in somebody else's place. If you don't like how that place is, you can get up and LEAVE.
Enforcing your will on other people by turning off or down the TV is worse than what anybody else in that entire bar is doing, you self-righteous prick. Get off your ass and make an adult decision to go to a bar that caters to you and your kind instead.
Best Buy Adventure (Score:2, Troll)
I picked one of these up a few months ago and used to carry it every where I went. Here is some fun you can have with the bitch.
I was in the local best buy near the dvds across from the Wall of TV's and waited for the sales droid to turn every one of them on. I pulled this little toy out, pointed it, and all the tv magically went off. The look on the sales monkey's face was worth the price of admission. The real joy is seeing how many times the dumb ass will turn them back on before he catches on.
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Well done, a pat on the back for you.
I'm glad you found such merriment in making someone else's day that much shitter.
Go you.
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If I were the clerk, I would have clued in right away and immediately started looking for the dorky looking guy with "cat who ate the bird" look on his face rapidly retreating from the area. Then I would have called-in security, and let them give him a hard time.
48 Hours [In intensive care] (Score:2)
and discovers that he is not Eddie Murphy:
Well the men they took to fightin
And when they pulled him from the floor
This geek he looked like a jigsaw puzzle
With a couple of pieces gone
[with apologies to Jim Croce]
TV remote watch (Score:2)
In high school my friend had a watch that he could program to control TVs (had to know the code though, etc.) and he would use it during class to turn on the TV, fast forward videos, generally be a jerk to these poor 70 year old teachers. He did get caught though and all the teachers stacked a ton of punishment on him. It was really hilarious when he would use it during class and even better after he got caught.
What a bullshit device (Score:2)
So, basically, asshole number one decides he doesn't want the TV in a public place, and turns on his jamming device.
What a great way to enforce your want and will upon others.
Also, what a great way to get fined. Jamming devices are illegal in this country.
I HATE people that come up with this shit.. Although maybe if he did just a channel 5 one, I'd be OK with that... Just something to jam the channels that show Maury, Montel and Jerry Springer. :)
But seriously, this is a device causing other people to not
The real reason (Score:4, Insightful)
.. because it's just a goofy novelty, with a minuscule market, and isn't worth the $10-$20k it costs to patent the stupid thing?
He needs to get over himself.
Oblig: How is this news? (Score:2, Insightful)
No patent? Could he be out sold? (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm curious how avoiding patents, and open sourcing his product would protect this guy from a big company, that say... has a good partnership with Best Buy, making a copy of this product and due to it's bigger marketing power and retailer deal, taking all the potential profits away from the guy? Would his open source license protect against this? I'm not being rhetorical- I really don't know.
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It's also hilarious in schools when they are forcing you to watch Channel 1 News. I know we always got a laugh when someone brought in a remote that could control the tvs in the classrooms. They do still show that, right?
Re:purpose? (Score:5, Insightful)
So, other than creating a public nuisance almost certain to result in getting your face punched, what EXACTLY is the point of this device?
It's for sanctimonious, condescending assholes who think TV is beneath them, and who need to force their choice upon others.
In other words, it's for getting your face punched. ;)
Re:purpose? (Score:5, Funny)
In other words, it's for getting your face punched. ;)
Hah. I've been managing that for years without the aid of technology.
Re:purpose? (Score:5, Funny)
In other words, it's for getting your face punched. ;)
Hah. I've been managing that for years without the aid of technology.
Luddite.
Re:purpose? (Score:5, Insightful)
it's an electronics kit, i've seens thousands of kids make these and later their parents tell me that their kids want to be engineers. it's hard to know what will "spark" a kid's mind to get excited about doing things like engineering, but this is one of them.
(phil from MAKE magazine)
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(This means you completely missed the point)
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Don't get out much, do you? More TV's are popping up everywhere and they are getting turned up louder. The more people talk the louder the TV gets. Then people talk even louder to be heard over the TV, which in turn means the TV gets turned up. go to any bar and I will almost guarantee that the sound is way too loud and NO ONE is watching/listening.
Or goto the air
Re:purpose? (Score:5, Interesting)
"go to any bar and I will almost guarantee that the sound is way too loud and NO ONE is watching/listening."
I'm not a big bar patron but I do go to watch the occasional sporting event. I can guarantee you that the vast majority of the bar is watching and listening during that time.
"I like TV, but not all the time. Don't *I* have a right to some f*cking peace and quiet?"
In someone else's bar or airport? No, you don't.
Re:purpose? (Score:5, Insightful)
I like TV, but not all the time. Don't *I* have a right to some f*cking peace and quiet?
Yes. Plant your sanctimonious, entitled ass in your own living room with the TV turned off, you self-righteous prick.
Re:purpose? (Score:4, Insightful)
So when I don't want to be distrubed by blaring noise 24/7, I am an prick. When you want to impose your noise on others, that's OK.
If it's MY house, MY bar, MY store, then yes. Anyone who comes to my place and complains about my TV, music, decor, whatever is going to reminded of the location of the door.
Let's see, since it's election day, let me take a stab in the dark and predict that you are going to vote conservative with McCain/Palin because like you, they want to impose their will on others.
Actually, you fail. (see here [slashdot.org])
And how is forcing the TVs off because YOU don't like it not "imposing your will on others", hypocrite?
Ever notice most liberal want to let others do what they want and most conservatives want others to do as they do?
Then you must be conservative, by your own definition. I hope the cognitive dissonance gives you a stroke, you waste of oxygen.
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go to any bar and I will almost guarantee that the sound is way too loud and NO ONE is watching/listening.
There already exists a device for this situation, and it is called "asking the staff of the bar if they wouldn't mind turning the TVs down/off".
Or, alternately, "leaving".
I like TV, but not all the time. Don't *I* have a right to some f*cking peace and quiet?
At home, absolutely. In public places, yes to a certain extent. In private establishments, no, very little.
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I always thought the idea was: ...
1) Turn the TV/music up so loud that people give up trying to talk to each other.
2) Without their mouths being used for otehr purposes, people drink more.
3)
4) Profit!!!
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I wonder if these could turn off those annoying TVs they have at supermarket checkout lines.
I tried this. Unfortunately, they all just jumped back on automatically.
In the same supermarket, I also turned off those infomercial TVs they had scattered about the store, attached to the ceilings. The TVBGone turned off the video, but left the audio running, so I assume the audio system was separately connected to their DVD player. Darn it.
Re:I would love to take this to a sports bar. (Score:5, Funny)
Someone did this during the World Cup (Video [vincentchow.net]). He's lucky he didn't get caught and lynched.
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and I hope he got smarter than the first shots of him testing it, craning his arm up in the air and pointing in a window. Couldn't be much more obvious about what he was doing.
Looks like he was just using a universal remote and having to program it for each TV.
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If they're that easily distracted by a TV, then they have bigger problems than a TV in a restaurant.
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My personal (and I can't speak for Mitch)
take is that tv-b-gone is supposed to be an equalizer,
yes it annoys other people but then your annoyed by TV.
I'm more annoyed that people constantly spout stupidity just about 24/7 but I have no right to forcibly shut them up.
Its NOT your TV. Its NOT your PROPERTY. Leave if you don't like it. Or maybe here's a thought, ASK the propriator if they'll turn it off, down, etc.
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Mr. Altman prefers to spend his time on art
"I'm not an elitist," Altman said. "It's just that I'd much rather sculpt or write in my journal or read Proust than sit there passively staring at some phosphorescent screen."
"If I need a fix of passive audio-visual stimulation, I'll go to catch a Bergman or Truffaut film down at the university," Altman said. "I certainly wouldn't waste my time watching the so-called Learning Channel or, God forbid, any of the mind sewage the major networks pump out."
Continued Altman: "People don't realize just how
Re: (Score:2)
How would making your product open-source versus going the traditional patent route increase your sales? I understand that it helps to improve the product, but wouldn't this also allow other companies to sell the improved product as well?
A) He's not looking to increase sales. As has been noted here and elsewhere, Mitch doesn't do what he does to get rich. He works to support his activism pursuits, of which making people question their dependence on television is one.
2) He's using Creative Commons, which offers distinct licenses for free non-commercial use, hacking, and improvement vs. commercial use. I imagine he'll go that route in order to keep things free yet avoid commercial knockoffs.
Re:TV addiction is biological (Score:4, Interesting)
TV is actually an adition like alcohol. Try taking away the bottle from an alcoholic watch his reaction. irst he becomes combative "who the hell, give my that back". Hell do anything to get more. Same happens with TV. Try turning it off and the TV watchers first reaxtive is to be combative, then they try to turn the TV back on. TV adicts will pay anything, even $100+ a month just to watch
What the fuck is wrong with you? Is this a troll? Or is your sarcasm implementation device just broken?
If you take *anything* away from me I'll get pissed at you for TAKING MY SHIT. I pay for TV because I value the programming I get at slightly more than the amount I spend on it. Same for anything else.