The Universal Off Button 1169
jcr13 writes "Wired news is running a story about TV-B-Gone, a new weapon in the fight against the pervasiveness of television in our society. With this device, which takes the form of a keychain fob with a single button, you can turn off virtually any TV set. How does it work? By rolling through all known IR power-off codes, one by one, trying codes from the most popular brands first. Personally, I am terribly annoyed by TVs in restaurants and airports: they grab my attention over and over, no matter how hard I try to ignore them, and they distract me from the conversations that I should be having with my human companions. Unfortunately, the TV-B-Gone website seems to have already been swamped by the Wired coverage, so we cannot order these just yet. In the mean time, those of you with DIY proclivities may want to think about wiring one of these up yourself using a PIC chip or other micro-controller." An anonymous reader adds links to mentions at CNET, TV station KESQ and Ananova.
I can see it now... (Score:5, Insightful)
Free market, people (Score:4, Insightful)
Then don't eat there. It's not your TV to turn off, and maybe other people want to watch it.
who gave you the right? (Score:4, Insightful)
if you are in a public place, you cannot turn that TV off as it's not solely yours. if you are in a private place not your own, you cannot turn that TV off as the TV is not yours.
if you can't manage to turn off the TV in your own home, then you got other problems.
Boo hoo for you... (Score:3, Insightful)
So because you don't have the ability to focus on a person sitting right in front of you and/or you can't go to a different establishment that meets your needs. Those of us that go to such places because we want to watch the TV there have to suffer. Not to mention that I'm sure it annoyes the owner of the establishment because he obviously wants them there.
one downside... (Score:2, Insightful)
Since TV remotes work on IR, this gadget would require a clean line of sight to the TV IR receiver...
cover the ir hole (Score:3, Insightful)
this could be done here as well to circumvent any tv haters
Wow (Score:4, Insightful)
Almost.
What business is it of yours to tamper with things that don't belong to you? Other people might want to watch, and it sounds like the submitter has a problem with controlling his own actions if he can't talk with his "human companions" in the proximity of a TV. Television is merely a conduit of information; there is nothing inherently evil about it.
And it's the height of arrogance and intellectual elitism to think that it's any of your business to turn off TVs that don't belong to you, in public or private places.
The Wired article talks about "anti-TV activists". For fuck's sake, people...
Now all we need is a ... (Score:4, Insightful)
Whoever creates a small consumer-oriented cell phone signal jammer should win the Nobel Prize.
All of us was ADD and AADD.......ooh, a shiny! (Score:5, Insightful)
It doesn't matter how horrendous the show that's on is either. If it's there, I zone in on it.
Finally, an escape!
Bad idea. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Don't forget TV Turn-Off Week (Score:3, Insightful)
It'd be a much louder message to try to depress the ratings during a sweeps period.
Do you have some sort of neurological disorder? (Score:5, Insightful)
You've got to be kidding me. Whenever I see TVs in places like that, they're always too small, too far away, and too quiet to keep my attention even when I want to watch them.
If you can't pay attention to a real human right in front of you because of a TV somewhere in the distance, maybe the television isn't the real source of the problem.
steve
No, one would hope... (Score:4, Insightful)
If there's a TV playing in someone else's bar, restaurant or whatever, what gives you the right to turn it off? If you don't like the TV being on you're always free to take your business elsewhere.
Some people might politely ask the owner to turn down the volume, switch it off, etc if it really bothered them. This gadget is a cowardly way of avoiding possible disappointment and foisting your opinion on someone else. Score one for mannerless morons.
Re:I can see it now... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:5, Insightful)
Actually, that problem could be corrected by an acoustic sensor/camera combination that would detect these idiots on the road and mail them a ticket.
If they insist on flaunting their stupidity, they should pay dearly for the privilege.
Duct Tape over the receiver.... (Score:5, Insightful)
This is the height of pathetic victim mentality (Score:4, Insightful)
No technology will ever substitute for lack of an internal moral compass (and by moral I include my atheist self - this is not a religious argument). You are in TOTAL control of what you perceive and your reaction to what you perceive. America (I assume the author is a member of the growing American victim class) has become a bunch of spineless victims that can't live in a world unless it caters to their total lack of impulse control. From the drug war, to the growing food war, to all the "for the children" arguments, this type of thinking is scary, and gives cause for more government control of every aspect of our lives. We need to grow some balls and stop playing the victim at EVERY opportunity.
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:4, Insightful)
Just another example of someone who knows what's good for me better than I do and feels the need to impose his beliefs on me.
Re:Now all we need is a ... (Score:3, Insightful)
DMCA (Score:5, Insightful)
.. And thus begins the demise of the universal remote.
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:3, Insightful)
h
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:2, Insightful)
"omg, they're gonna put a blackbox in my car? i have a god given right to drive however i want."
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Bad idea. (Score:3, Insightful)
I actually agree with you. Keep the laws and govt. out of the issue. Let the free market decide about smoking. If a restaurant/bar makes more money allowing smokers in...they'll keep doing it. You as a non-smoker, have the right to go somewhere else. If this hurts the business they will have no smoking policies.
I'm a former smoker...if I go to a bar, I expect there'll be someone smoking in there. If it starts to bother me, I'll leave. Plain and simple. So, yes...use the power of your dollar to change things like this. Leave legislation out of it...
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Wow (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:who gave you the right? (Score:5, Insightful)
Many times in a former life, I was the only one at a remote gate at O'Hare airport, minimal staff, no other passengers, TV blaring away on "CNN Airport" or whatever. In this situation, it would be nice to be able to turn the thing off without distracting the staff from their real jobs.
If there are other people, my posession of this device does not automatically oblige me to discourteously deprive them of their TV. It's a tool. It can be abused. Boo hoo. If that happens, punish the abusers.
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Target Market (Score:4, Insightful)
This smacks of a novelty item / gag gift, I mean you won't take it to your bar, because if you really wanted that TV off, you'd ask the manager or leave. Only the most die hard axxholes would consider acting out the scenario presented, and few of those would have the stomach to do it twice, or make a regular occurance out of it.
Let's face it, we already know who would abuse this device, they're the same ones that are yelling at the manager / barkeep all the time, but don't have the common sense to stop coming to their "favorite resturant / bar".
A piece of tape will solve the TV problems, and then they'll be back to ridiculous statements of infringement of their personal space / hearing when visiting a public place.
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It isn't yours (Score:3, Insightful)
I don't agree that someone should go out and turn off TV's willy-nilly, but I can understand the poster when he says it's distracting.
And honestly, does anybody REALLY watch TV when they go to a restaurant? Is the volume ever loud enough to hear anything anyway? Doesn't watching TV as you eat with friends/family reach the same level of rudeness as talking on a cellphone rather than talking with your dining companions?
Sports bars don't count, people go there specifically to watch games and be around other sports nuts.
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:3, Insightful)
With all of the modding stories I see on
It always amuses me to watch one sub-culture make fun of another.
Re:who gave you the right? (Score:1, Insightful)
Noise pollution is as bad as air pollution. People putting TVs up in every possible place are as bad as smokers. Some people like quiet; some people like to breathe.
There are many places I go where I don't have a reasonable choice to avoid this. (I won't count restaurants in this, because there are so usually many choices available.)
For example, my current dentist and the three I have had previously over the years all have TVs in their waiting rooms. I always make my appointments as early in the morning as possible and usually arrive to an empty waiting room, usually with the TV off. Inevitably, the next person to arrive just HAS to turn it on and crank up the volume without even checking to see if anyone cared. There is no place to get away from that noise in there.
For another example, one shopping mall that I avoid whenever possible has large TVs every 50 feet or so hanging from the ceiling in the hallways. The noise from those is so loud, I can't hear my wife shouting right next to me. Well, I can hear her, I just can't understand what she is saying because of all the interference that she cannot overcome. I have never seen anyone showing any indication of paying attention to either the TVs or the noise from them.
Finally, airports are the most annoying offenders I can think of. If you want to hear the boarding call for your flight, there is NO place you can go to get away from the overhead TVs blaring away at you. And, where the noise from the overhead TVs is weakest, that's wheere they place the group of loud pay-per-use individual TV seats. Trying to use a pay phone or cell phone in all that racket is about as bad as trying to use one on the side of a busy highway.
A gas station I used to use almost exclusively recently lost my business when they installed ad-spewing TVs on each pump. I never go there anymore.
I was recently called for jury duty. We were required to stay in one specific large room. Mounted near the ceiling at each corner of the room was a TV, just out of reach; all were on loud and all were on different channels. When I asked if ONE could be turned off, the response was that someone might want to watch it. Not that anyone WAS watching it, that someone MIGHT want to watch it.
Amusing (Score:5, Insightful)
Vandalism (Score:5, Insightful)
If the TV in a restaurant bothers you, DON'T GO TO THAT DAMNED RESTAURANT.. problem solved. The world doesn't revolve around your sorry ass.
Re:Now all we need is a ... (Score:5, Insightful)
If you are really so incapable of using words to get people to turn their cellphone off, then I think there are more serious problems. And please don't assume I'm talking about jammers and such in theaters and the like, thats a whole nother can of worms.
People do things that annoy other people, it does NOT give you the right to enforce your view on them.
You're missing an important distinction: (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:No, one would hope... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:This is the height of pathetic victim mentality (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I can see it now... (Score:5, Insightful)
What about the TVs in Cafe's or airports or other random places? Maybe you have a friend to chat to, but what about that lonely person behind you sitting all alone? Maybe she would like to be distracted while she eats her lunch. Maybe the employee at the local video store would like to watch the TV since its slow that night and they don't have much else to do.
The bottem line is, your not walking around the park and having MTV blaring at you. When you run into these tv's its because the owner of that establishment has decided that for one reason or another they want it there. Sure, you don't have to be subjected to the TV, but your recourse is to leave the establishment, not turn off the TV. Or talk to the manager about it. But you are not the only person that lives in the world, you will not find everything convienent.
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:5, Insightful)
What we (me at least) are annoyed about is that the vast majority of the folks who do the modding think that somehow by putting a rear spoiler on a front wheel drive car, adding a 6 billion watt stereo system, thin wheels, a tweaked engine chip and metallic paint makes them think that now they can go out and drive like the idiots we know them to be.
As far as the whumping is concerned, you want to play your stereo as loud as you want, be my guest. Just don't do down a neighborhood street at 10 at night on weeknight. Go to some abandoned warehouse or drive to some out of the way place and crank it up.
Don't think that by playing that crappy no rhythm 'music' that somehow you're 1337. You're not. You're just the typical wannabe who has no clue of what you're doing because 99.9% of the time you didn't even do the mods yourself. You paid someone to do it for you.
As far as making fun of those type, yes I do. Especially in parking lots with speed bumps. While they have to creep over the bumps so they don't crumple their air dams on the front I'm driving around them and over the bump so the traffic jam they are creating doesn't get any larger. And no, I'm not the only one who drives around them.
If they feel that whumping makes them important then I'm sure they won't mind me driving by their neighborhood at 7 in the morning with my death metal playing at similar levels.
Re:This is the height of pathetic victim mentality (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I can see it now... (Score:4, Insightful)
Not a good analogy: you own your computer that you use to view the spam and where you install the anti-spam software. You do not own the TV, the property that the TV is on and you share the TV with others that like the 'spam'
The anti-spam for TV would be blinders and ear plugs. The TV-B-Gone for spam would be a device that let anyone shutdown any SMTP server that was sending them mail they didn't want to receive, regardless of what it is and who else was using the server. Still, a TV-B-Gone would be fun, if not quite ethical.
Unfortunately... (Score:3, Insightful)
It does seem to be a manifestation of the typical geek "we have the technological power, so we don't have to explain ourselves to you plebians" arrogance, though.
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only that, but, as awesome as the music may sound inside the car, those of us on the outside only hear low-frequency rumble combined with the sound of the car frame shaking. I'm a musician and I love good, loud music. When I want to hear it, I go to a club or crank the stereo in my own home. But, waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of a car stereo system overloaded and distorted is just annoying.
It's basically just an easy way for a muscle-neck jackass to proclaim "look how rude and annoying I am!" It's a power-trip because they have the ability to go around and create a big scene.
Re:I'll push your buttons. (Score:5, Insightful)
What gives you the idea that you have a right to peace and quiet when you're in a place of public accomodation? That's simply ludicrous.
Don't like going to restaurants that have TVs blaring in the corner? Try going somewhere classier than a sports bar for once. You don't have the right to decide what everyone else is or isn't allowed to watch while they eat.
Re:I'll push your buttons. (Score:3, Insightful)
WTH? Are you that stupid, or are you trolling? The airport certainly DOES have the right to bombard you with ads, if they so choose. Don't like it? DON'T GO TO THE AIRPORT. You have NO right to turn off TV's that don't belong to you. Don't believe me? Come over to my house and try to turn off the TV and I'll beat your ass with a baseball bat, all the while laughing like a pirate at your incredible lack of hubris and blatant stupdity.
I'm sick of people like you, who think their way is the right way. I leave people like you alone to do whatever they wish to do, so long as it doesn't affect me. Why the hell can't you provide the same courtsey?
Re:I can see it now... (Score:5, Insightful)
Obtrusive TV can come in one of 3 forms: A private TV in a private venue (a TV in a bar for example); A private TV in a public venue (a TV inside a store but pointed out the store window.) A public TV in a public venue (a bit more rare... an example would be TV monitors in subway stations/trains that show train schedule information and news.)
In the following I will assume that in none of the cases you are the person that owns the TV, venue or is otherwise responsible for the TV or venue.
1) Private/private: I am sorry, as much as you may not like it, it is no more your right to turn off the TV a bar or restaurant owner has chosen to play than it is to decide who he or she is allowed to have as customers or what items they should have on their menus. It is your right to choose to eat/drink/seek entertainment someplace else though. Just because you do not like it does not mean the proprietor of an establishment must choose to accommodate you. You can ask for it to be turned off and they will choose between your business and the business of the people that enjoy having the TV on.
2) The Private/Public case is a little more consensus... but in my opinion should be considered in the same light as bills, billboards and placards. Taking it upon yourself to turn of any TV that bothers you is an unfair abridgment of the owners first amendment right. Just because you do not agree with the message or the media it is presented on does not give you the right to suppress it. Part of living in a free society is living with others that wish to enjoy their freedom as well and I am sorry but your "freedom from distracting television" is not as important as others freedom of expression.
3) The Public/Public case (assuming that it truly is a public/public case): Being a public TV in a public place I would assume that some body acting on behalf of the public interest choose to operate a TV running specific programming. Now, just how is it your right as an individual to override this decision on behalf of everyone else because you do not agree with the message or the media? It is your right to complain to the public body responsible for the set and it's programming so they can weigh the requests for with the complaints against and reach a compromise.
I just can not see how it can be your right to turn off a TV that you do not own, on property you do not own with out the owners/operators consent. I applaud the motivation, but the execution is flawed. People if it really bothers you make it known, let the manager of the bar or restaurant you are at know that you find TV a distraction and you will choose to go some place else if they insist on playing it... if there is a public TV in a public place you find objectionable submit a complaint to the governing body. Part of living in a society that cherishes freedom though is accepting that there are other views that must be considered and you just may have to live with a public TV in a public space because the majority wants it and unless we throw the right to freely express one's self out the window you will always have to live with the private TV projecting into a public space, live with it, it's part of being free.
Look at me! I can make noise! (Score:3, Insightful)
There really is no excuse for massive car stereos on the road anyway. They obviously are there to be inflicted on bystanders since they are far louder than anyone could possibly need in the car. I've had my stomach thudded in closed concrete buildings from passing cars with these stereos. If most of the owners can't use them responsibly then they need to be taken off the road.
You don't have to watch (Score:3, Insightful)
I know that the effect of a TV screen may seem hypnothic to you, but other people are actually able to ignore it.
And you could ask the staff to turn it off.
If I happen to sit in a waiting room at the DMV, you know where I have no alternative but to go to get my driver's license, and take particular offence at your misproportioned face, am I then allowed to put a big brown paper bag over your head? By your standard, I am. (Not touching your nose.)
On the flipside, I wouldn't agree to a ban to paper bags, since they have a legitimate use besides hiding your CRT-tanned face. There could be a use for them for an airport that wants to save electrcity and have several different makes of TV. Give the security guard one of these and let him shut down those advertising-emmitting heaters on his first night round.
what gives them the right to overrule the vast majority of people there, other than some stupid social standard that TV is GOD?
Right of ownership, common law, US code, perhaps the FCC, any sane ethical standard.
Duct tapes ready.
Flawed argument (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes they do. It's their damned airport. Don't like it? Try another airport. Can't find one to accomodate your needs? Don't fly.
I'm familiar with the classical "rights of man" argument you're making, but you're twisting it. You seem to believe that everyone, everywhere, in any place you could possibly go, is required to accomodate you to prevent you from being annoyed. Hate to tell you, but that is not the way the world works - nor should it. I'd certainly hate to live my life in a way that could never simply annoy anyone.
In this specific instance, more people are entertained - or at least have their boredom reduced - by the TVs than people are annoyed by them, or else they wouldn't be there. Contrary to what you seem to believe, you *aren't* more important than other people.
People in TV induced comas are known for their lack of situational awareness.
Ah, the classic condescending "you watch TV so I'm smarter than you argument." Hate to burst your bubble, but lots of extremely intelligent people watch TV. And a lot of people of meager intelligence avoid TV because they think it makes them appear smarter. To paraphrase "A Fish Called Wanda" - a movie, no less - an monkey can read Plato, he just won't understand it. Self-affected intellectual elitism shouldn't be confused for intelligence.
Re:I'll push your buttons. (Score:3, Insightful)
Your opinions are vastly idiotic, but I'm pretty sure you're just making them up as you go anyway.
Whoever modded you insightful should be shot.
Re:No, one would hope... (Score:3, Insightful)
Their little blurb repeated over and over again their self-righteous reason for this little device: Providing a more meaningful life for those that are watching TV. They seem to believe that people watching TV are wasting their lives away in front of the TV when they could be out walking in the park or chatting in a coffee bar or some other "real" activity. I would say, if you like to do these things to occupy your time; great, i won't get in your way, but don't try to fix my life because i would rather play a video game or watch a DVD or watch the news or whatever. I'm glad you found something meaningful in your life, but don't think that your sense of meaning is universal, and don't force me to repent about my personal choices that i find fulfilling and I wouldn't want to give up.
This is more of the same "I know what is best for you" mentality that i think is the biggest problem with my country. I'm sick to death of people telling me that my escapist pleasure of playing a video game is less valid then their escapist pleasure of watching a sports game, or going to get drunk, or getting high, or whatever. My choices make me happy, otherwise, I wouldn't be doing them.
*Exhale*
TV isn't a right (Score:3, Insightful)
Funny, I don't remember anyone asking me in the airport, where I'm forced to wait, if I wanted to listen to the TV blasting. There are so many ways to get the news that having it force fed to me isn't necessary. The last thing I need to hear about after standing in line for security for an hour and having risked my life in the drive to get there is, for example, how some kids got horribly killed somewhere.
They should do what I saw in a gym once, broadcast the sound portion over a radio frequency so people with radios could listen to it and those who didn't want to hear it weren't forced to. I assume if you can afford a plane ticket you can afford a cheap pocket radio and headphones.
Re:I can see it now... (Score:3, Insightful)
When I'm in the airport, sometimes I *like* to watch CNN to catch up on what's been happening while I sit for 6 hours between connections. I was stranded overnight in Atlanta, and let me tell you, I would have absolutely *gone off* on some sanctimonious jackass turning off the tv I was blearily watching to pass the time after sleeping on the floor the night before. I hope people like you carry around big signs to illustrate your pomposity, so I can clear out before being subjected to what you think I should be doing with my time.
Where the hell did these "rights" come from? (Score:5, Insightful)
TVs in the airport? Maybe people want to know what the weather's going to be like at thier destination. Maybe that guy who just spent 4 hours staring at the back of a seat would like to watch a game for an hour before spending another 6 viewing the threadcount of a headrest.
TV at your local restraunt? Noone forced you to be there, if you don't like it, ask to be moved away from it or go somewhere else.
TVs in stores? It helps to actually see a fully warmed up picture when viewing a TV. Besides, doesn't a TV turned on seem much more appealing than one turned off? If you wanted to view a TV turned off wouldn't you just get a cabinet?
Just as I don't have the right to take that cell phone and shove it up your arse, you don't have the right to turn off someone elses TVs.
Oh, and malls, airports, and restraunts are NOT public property. If you want public property to dispense your own brand of vigelante justice, the BLM land is usually well marked on topo maps. Go there and tell the crickets to shut the hell up. They might care.
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Re:Unfortunately... (Score:3, Insightful)
And so what if TV's are in every bar? Does that give you the right to demand a TV-less bar? How about if we're talking about men with tattoos instead of TVs? Do you have a right to walk into a bar and it not have anyone with a tattoo in it?
Or what if the only bar that has no TV is on the other side of town? Does not wanting to make the trip there and back give you an excuse to be an asshole and turn off the TV in the bar down your street even when the owner and the majority of the patrons want it on?
Jeez, the sheer gall of expecting to get things your way all the time is just incredible. Either learn to accept that living in a democracy means that sometimes things don't go your own way or go start a dictatorship.
Re:I'll push your buttons. (Score:4, Insightful)
The TV doesn't belong to you. Others may be watching it; what gives you the right to disturb that? If you're annoyed by it, try to find a place to sit such that it isn't a problem, or do the right thing and complain to someone at the information desk about it. Will it cause change? Well, probably not, because a random person complaining every now and again shouldn't cause change. If the vast majority of people are fine with the TVs on (in most of the airports i've been in, they usually have news broadcasts on, which I don't mind, and often like to watch), then they should stay on. Period. You have no right to impose your will on others in a public place, or a private place owned and operated by someone else.
In my experience, I have no problem tuning out airport TVs in order to sit and read a book. If you can't handle that, perhaps that's your problem?
Having said all that, I do agree that we in the U.S. watch way too much mindless TV. But pissing people off isn't the way to solve that problem. It's only a way to show how childish and immature you are.
Airports and TVs (Score:1, Insightful)
Maybe I'm crazy but I don't think that after driving through Mad Max like traffic to get there, standing in line for the boarding pass for an hour, standing in line for security for an hour, and then having to listen to a newscast describing a plane crash is that relaxing (yes, this actually happened to me in Logan airport). I felt like I was in that scene in "Airplane" where the inflight movie was a plane being test crashed.
Flying is stressful enough without having a litany of the day's murders, war casualties, layoffs, etc being crammed into my ears.
Well, I know what I want for Christmas now (and what I'll be giving a few people).
Speaking of Airports... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I'll push your buttons. (Score:2, Insightful)
Oh wait, it doesn't. Therefor, by your rules, it's a zero sum result, and thus the Airport is the decided factor on whether it's on or off. In either case, it's not YOU who has the "right" to decide whether it's on or off.
Like it or not, the airport is private property, and thus you have NO rights to do what you please at the airport. Don't like it? Tough, you should have gotten out and voted against building the airport then.
You say you did? But others didn't? Looks like the majority rules, and their collective rights to have the airport supercede your increasingly vanishing "rights" to do what you please. Thus, again, your individual "right" to turn the TV off is superceded by the collective right of everyone else to have it on. You lose again.
Just give it up, there's no possible arguement you can bring forward that will making turning off a TV that doesn't belong to you morally and legally justifiable. You can spin it anyway you want, but you still look like an idiot for even trying to postulate such a ridiculous position.
The TV OWNS the room (Score:5, Insightful)
Unfortunately, in our society, the rule is that The TV owns the room.
If I read the paper, I don't bother anyone. If I listen to my iPod, I don't bother anyone. Conversation, eating, etc.. But TV is different. If just ONE person in a crowded room wants to see the TV, then they can have it on. Loud. And you're a jerk if you turn it down/off. Doesn't matter if someone was sitting right in front of the "off" TV prior.
And marketers exploit this, e.g. in airports, where you can't hide from the things.
The rule needs to change.
The "Me" Button (Score:3, Insightful)
Sooooo... That's the menatility that says it's use ok? Personally, I'm getting tired of this movement that insists it's OK to deprive people and business operating in public places to electronic convinences just because it annoys you. Keep in mind this is the mentality that gives somebodyelse the right to kick your ass because you're annoying them just for looking funny, let alone turning off the convinece they're paying for. I'll give you the fact that there are some places that those convinences shouldn't be used, but TVs? Everyplace there's a TV is at the discretion of the owners who most likely have them there because people appreciate them to some degree or another.
Honestly, if you can't pay attention to your friends in competition with a TV, that's a problem an off button won't solve.
Something you can do right now... (Score:3, Insightful)
Thus, I'll admit a certain appeal to such a device.
But I have to be honest, it's the wrong solution. The restaurant in question wants the television to be there. The real solution is to let the restaurant know that you like the restaurant, you like the food, but you don't like the televisions. Ask to have the ones in your line of sight turned off (especially if the screens in question are obviously unused. Do you really need 5 TVs on when there are only two tables of guests?). Suggest that you'd like the number of televisions reduced. Suggest having seating out of the line of sight of the screens.
Regrettably much like smoking this is a situation where restaurants have incentive to cater to a sub-market. The larger market is willing to suffer something they dislike but the smaller market demands it. You can legislate smoking (especially given the health impacts on employees), but you'd be hard pressed to do so for televisions. Do what you can to encourage your local restaurants to reduce or remove the screens and patronise those that try to serve you.
So even if it becomes available I resist buying such a device. Much like my dreamed of car-audio-disabler to turn off steroes in cars that go BOOM-BOOM-BOOM down my residential neighborhood at 3AM, vigilante justice is the wrong answer.
Re:I'll push your buttons. (Score:5, Insightful)
There was a time when the lowest common denominator of social behaviour was to be unimposing on the people around you. You would be polite and courteous to those around you.
Now the lowest common denominator of social behaviour is to be tolerant, no matter how horrible the people around you are. We all must tolerate them and not interfere with the activities of those around us. From screaming children, screaming adults, overwhelming perfumes, body odour, aggressive dogs, swearing, public harassment of hapless victims around them, loud stereos, late night parties, we must tolerate them.
The result is that the greatest asshole reaps the greatest bennefit. The people who do not value peace and quiet are never for want. Those who do not like it, have to distance themselves from the greatest assholes, leaving public spaces full of the most horrible people immaginable.
If somebody asked me to turn off a T.V. in a public place, I would be embarassed that I was disturbing them and I would turn it down or off right away. It's a public space after all, not my living room.
Re:Flawed argument (Score:3, Insightful)
Airports are not completely private businesses; usually, they have received and continue to receive lots of public support, both in money and in kind. They have received that with the understanding that they provide everybody with good service. They can't just decide to do things that keep away a significant fraction of their customers.
Even if they were completely private businesses, there are still lots of things they cannot do. For example, even if you are the owner of a restaurant, you still may not be permitted to smoke on your premises during business hours.
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:4, Insightful)
"thump, thump, thu-bzzt"
No messy shrapnel or bits of bloody pulp, just electronics turned paperweight.
how so? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I'll push your buttons. (Score:3, Insightful)
First of all, you are correct. No one has "the right" to turn off someone else's T.V. set. Just like no one has "the right" to bring their dog to the park to take a shit and leave the mess, along with 50 other pet owners. But it happens all the same.
No one gives inconsiderate cell-phone users "the right" to yap on it in the library where I'm reading a book. But it happens all the same.
No one gives people "the right" to break bottles and leave shards of glass strewn all over the beach. But it happens all the same.
Need I go on? This talk of "rights" is pointless. It's all about whose ox is being gored. I also am frustrated with the growing level of rudeness, noise, and inconsideration I encounter from hour to hour. If I can use some type of hidden device to, how shall I say it, "get even", then so be it. Sure I don't have "the right" --- but so what? If everyone else can have their "entertainment", then so can I.
Incidentally, as regards your comment about what the vast majority are fine with --- the vast majority are probably fine with smoking marijuana and driving 90 m.p.h. on the highway. But just let the cops catch you doing it.
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:2, Insightful)
I think they are doing it as a sort of courtship display. Like Bower birds (http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/bowerbird/amorous. html [pbs.org]) They are displaying to the opposite sex that they have so much disposable income that they can spend it on frivolous things.
It's like a giant rack of antlers. I mean, what fricking good does that do anyone? Well, basically, it looks cool, at least to the people that you are trying to impress.
Obviously, these ricer dudes are not doing this for us.
Re:I'll push your buttons. (Score:2, Insightful)
Somehow their right to turn the TV off trumps my right to watch. Not on your life.
Now, their right to "not watch"? That's different. They can exercise that right to their heart's content - as long as it doesn't interfere with mine. They can leave. They can close their eyes. They can turn their head. Any number of things
The mind boggles at the logic.
Re:Now all we need... (Score:4, Insightful)
is a universal OFF button for car stereos. They are FAR more annoying, and entail FAR more of an encroachment on the rights of others. The icing on the cake would be a universal Self-Destruct button- because that's probably what it would take for the little queens that drive these cars to get the message.
As far as the TV goes, I remember working out at the local gym - there was this gaggle of women that would often show up at the same time. If the TV was off, one of them would make sure to turn it on. If it was on, one of them would make sure to turn up the volume. If that wasn't enough, they'd spend their workout practically yelling back and forth across the room above the noise from the TV. Oh how I would have loved something like this.
Re:Don't stop at just a power button (Score:2, Insightful)
There are very few examples of super loud stereos in cars that are: