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.

Encryption on remotes?

Yeah, or presenters sticking electrical tape over the remote sensors on the displays.

 

Re:Encryption on remotes?

Wow. Looks like we'll have to go back to chucking bricks at monitors to turn them off...

Re:Encryption on remotes?

ROFL. Yeah no need for all of that complicated electrical tape business. Just hook into the serial port on the back of the screen and send commands to the LCD to lock the IR port. And thank you to the mods who modded the parent "Informative" To think of all the time I would have wasted with electrical tape if this "informative" post wasn't pointed out to me!

Re:Encryption on remotes?

No need for Electrical tape

What, is it really expensive where you live?

... a serial port in the back where you can send commands to the LCD ... most LG tvs have a SET ID that you can set, hook them up over serial cable and brodcast a command to all of them and they will only anwser if it's there set ID in it...

Yeah, because that's easier than using 1/2" of electrical tape. I'm sure there's a joke about engineers in here somewhere but I'm too tired today.

Encryption's going a little too far

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.

Re:Encryption's going a little too far

According to the story, Gizmodo was there under actual press credentials, not the second-class blogger pass. And I haven't heard of any other pranks, so don't go blaming a whole "underclass."

This was no big deal. They should ban the guy who did it and move on.

Well if the blogger's aren't willing to act...

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.

Re:Well if the blogger's aren't willing to act...

Didn't they learn this lesson as a child? "If you want to sit at the adult table, you have to behave like a big kid."

For a short-term chuckle, they've managed to damage the long-term credibility of bloggers who were actually trying to earn proper press credentials. The trade show guys all know each other; the news will get around. The event organizers have a choice:
. (a) inconvenience the paying customer by recommending that they cover their IR ports on displays
. (b) inconvenience the non-revenue-generating bloggers by showing them the door

The smart ones will do both, though they'll play the good-guy with their customers and issue an article in a newsletter that provides helpful tips to "Make your booth time a better experience!" Bloggers will be downgraded to the status of the great unwashed masses ...

Re:Well if the blogger's aren't willing to act...

The event organizers have a choice:

1. inconvenience the paying customer by recommending that they cover their IR ports on displays
   
2. inconvenience the non-revenue-generating bloggers by showing them the door

What a poor set of choices you've picked. Did you do that to try to mislead people? Are you a politician?

What does being a blogger have to do with playing a prank? Anyone on the floor can play a prank. Having a press credential doesn't make an iota of difference. Kicking out bloggers won't reduce the risk of interference any more than kicking out the white males or the booth babes would.

Re:Well if the blogger's aren't willing to act...

While I don't agree very much with treating an entire group the same, there is a point to it. The trade shows are by professionals, for professionals. If you're working for a competitor, you risk getting fired because you exposed your employer to legal liability, because you represent a company when you're at the show. If you're a pro journalist, then you're NOT going to risk your career over a prank. In comparison, most bloggers have nothing at stake.

Re:Well if the blogger's aren't willing to act...

It's not clear to me why all bloggers should be lumped together or treated as a "community". A blog is just a medium, like a blank piece of paper. If one painter behaves unprofessionally, nobody assumes it somehow reflects on the "entire community of painters as a whole". Likewise for cartoonists, or movie actors or directors, or radio DJs, or stand-up comedians, or writers, or "real" journalists for that matter. Treat professional individuals like professional individuals, and unprofessional ones like unprofessional ones, and scrap this silly obsession with regarding all bloggers like one single borg-like entity.

Vandalism.

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.

Seems like a pretty immature prank

Imagine you're a company presenting your new lineup of TVs and some dickhead in the audience decides to shut them down during your presentation. How do you even begin to calculate the damage that might have caused to prospective customers or partners?

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.

Oooo, you just gave me an idea

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.

Re:Oooo, you just gave me an idea

to be fair, apples allow you to pair the standard apple remote with the computer, so only that one remote will control it, precisely to avoid that issue...

dave

Not funny...

Immature, unethical, and unprofessional.

A ethical line is crossed when a blogger creates the news instead of reporting it.

I hate 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. 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.

Dead Gizmodo - don't expect a Macworld invite

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.

Re:First Post!

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.

Re:I love my Spy Remote

but I wouldn't turn off a football game at a sports bar. That would be rude.

Not to mention dangerous to one's health.

Re:I love my Spy Remote

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.

Re:I love my Spy Remote

We don't have a TV at home that is hooked up to an antenna or cable or Directv or whatever is out there.

By "we", I assume you me you and your cat? BTW, congratulations on the article [theonion.com].

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.

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.

Re:The difference between a blogger and a journali

>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.

Re:Tv-B-Gone: Guranteed for next year CES

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.

Re:A complete over reaction

>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.