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Performing Random Acts Of TV Shutdowns
from the well,-maybe-it's-something dept
This isn't all that innovative. Despite Wired's glowing article about a guy who created a device called TV-B-Gone that will cycle through a large list of TV remote control codes until it finds one that will shut off any TV in the vicinity, there are similar products out there. For a while now, you've been able to buy a cheap remote control watch that lets you do that (and more!). What's, perhaps, more interesting, is whether or not it's a good thing to go around public places and turning off televisions. The guy who created it claims he's giving people their time back by cutting them off from the hypnotic capture of the glowing screens. However, some may feel that this particular guy doesn't have the right to decide when they shouldn't be watching TV. If he and his friends don't like public TVs, maybe they should just choose to go places that don't have them. Of course, maybe if more people had this, that guy's Toshiba TV wouldn't have been calling out for help.
Reader Comments
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Cell-Phone-B-Gone?
Please....?
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cell phones
I would like to now about the no cell phone device. I hate some dip%^&%$ siting in a resturant trying to impress us. He probably isn't talking to anyone.
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Public Places ???
" If he and his friends don't like public TVs, maybe they should just choose to go places that don't have them "
Mike, get your head outta yer $%^.
That's unrealistic and you know it.
I don't like constantly ringing cell phones in public EITHER but that doesn't stop boorish people from using them constantly.
I ordered my TV B gone this morning.
( Invoice # 69 no less ! ... lol )
It will be a joy to surreptitiously shut off Super Bowl games , 24 - 7 TV's that spout advertising in malls & those damned awful " TVs " they have in Amusement Park lines.
I'll be buying my personal space cell phone jammer as soon as I can find one too.
Your right to stare mindlessly @ a screen is no more important to my right to peaceful existance ... even in PUBLIC places.
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Apples & Oranges
Further more, the watch in question STILL must be programmed for EACH TV.
This is not the case for the TV B Gone.
It cycles through all the brands codes UNTIL it finds one that turns the TV off.
Your're comparing apples & oranges.
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Re: Public Places ???
Yeah, stick it to the man, you modern-day Che Guevara.
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Re: Public Places ???
However, there's a big difference between smoking and TVs. Being in a smoking area causes you real harm, while being around a TV doesn't. If you don't own the TV, what gives you the right to think you can turn it off? Yes, it's a fun prank, but if you try it some places (for example, a sports bar during a big game), don't be surprised if you wake up in an ambulance.
Don't hold your breath. A cell phone jammer would quite probably be illegal (with the possible exception of locations you own). Imagine jamming somebody trying to call 911.(reply to this comment) (link to this comment)
Re: Public Places ???
I agree. It's like those people who objected to California's ordinance that prohibited smoking in most bars by saying people should go someplace else if they didn't like smoking. Well, how many non-smoking bars were there before the law was passed?
Man, I apparently go to all the wrong places. I've never had a problem with TVs on in places I go. I seem to be able to find them, why can't other people? Sports bars have TVs, but that's because it's a sports bar. Most other bars I know of don't have TVs. Most restaurants I go to don't have TVs.
Have I just been amazingly lucky in my choice of places to go?
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Re: Public Places ???
"It will be a joy to surreptitiously shut off Super Bowl games , 24 - 7 TV's that spout advertising in malls & those damned awful " TVs " they have in Amusement Park lines. "
So basically you're just taking joy from being a jerk right? I mean chances are the SuperBowl game would be playing in a place that people would go SPECIFICALLY TO WATCH IT.
As for the TVs in Amusement park lines and the advertising in the malls...what's so bad about that? Yeah you could go around and shut them off, but 1) Most of them are behind glass, without sound so there's only the picture...why does this bother you THAT much? and 2) If the park lines are damn long, those tvs can break up the boredom at times...unless they have a loud volume (no parks around here do that...its only picture).
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Re: Public Places ???
Boy everyone sure does like their TV here.
Can't wait to start pissin' ya 'all off.
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Re: Public Places ???
Little things amuse little minds.
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Re: Public Places ???
What like TV ?
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Re: Public Places ???
No, like being an *ssh*le for the sake of being one.
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Re: Public Places ???
I can't wait to demonstrate to you in terms and methods that you'll understand how pissed off you've made me.
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Re: Public Places ???
I can't wait till you attempt to assult me in public so I can capture it with my camera phone & I sue you for everything including your beloved TV.
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Re: Public Places ???
I hate when I go to an amusement park and they have entertainment for me. I paid my $50 to stand in line with nothing to do for an hour, damn it, and don't try to make the time pass quickly.
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TV-B-Gone
Ha ha! I've got one! Mitch sent me some to give to reporters in Chicago, but before I can even get them out the door, the story is already showing up. It's in the Sun Times today!
My 9 year old son had a blast turning off a GIANT MEGASCREEN yesterday in a store in Wicker Park.
Jean Lotus
www.whitedot.org
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TV-B-Gone
I can't wait to get the fob!! I think it's a wonderful invention, although I suspect some will use it mischiveously. I also agree that a few people should not have power to control the voluntary tv-viewing habits of others. Nonetheless, I look forward to turning my teenage step-daughter's tv off when she claims to be doing homework, and when sexist, racist or classist images appear, not to mention the bible-thumpers and infomercials at the airport, hair and nail salons and cafes. Like the abuse cigarettes and alcohol, TV can be a destructive addiction and I am not surprised that people would react adversely to the surrender of it.
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