TV off or on!

[brownie]

From AP:

Kill those televisions: Keychain remote control turns off most TVs anywhere

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Ticked off by the TV? Turn it off - anywhere.

A new keychain gadget that lets people turn off most TVs - anywhere from airports to restaurants - is selling at a faster clip than expected.

"I thought there would just be a trickle, but we are swamped," the inventor, Mitch Altman of San Francisco, said. "I didn't know there were so many people who were into turning TV off."

Hundreds of orders for Altman's $14.99 TV-B-Gone gadget poured in Monday after the tiny remote control was announced in Wired magazine and other online media outlets. At times, the unexpected attention overloaded and crashed the Web site of his company, Cornfield Electronics.

The keychain fob works like a universal remote control - but one that only turns TVs on or off. With a zap of a button, the gizmo goes through a string of about 200 infrared codes that controls the power of about 1,000 television models. Altman said the majority of TVs should react within 17 seconds, though it takes a little more than a minute for the gizmo to emit all the trigger codes.

Altman, 47, first got the idea for TV-B-Gone a decade ago when he was out with friends at a restaurant and they found themselves all glued to the perched TV instead of talking to each other. No one was around to turn the TV off.

The self-described geek with a masters in electrical engineering started tinkering full-time on the project a few years ago with help from money he had earned from a company he co-founded, data-storage maker 3ware Inc.

Altman remembers spending most of his childhood unwittingly captivated by TV, watching shows like "Gilligan's Island" and others, regardless of whether they were entertaining.

He quit as an adult and hasn't owned a television in 24 years.

He has tested the TV-B-Gone remote discreetly in many places, including in other countries, and says he usually gets little to no reaction from others after the background TV noise and glare disappears.

But he said he would never dare silently kill the machines in places like sports bars, where patrons expect TVs to be on.

"I can be mischievous, but I'm not going to do anything malicious, and I don't want to make anyone's life more difficult," Altman said. "I just don't like TV, and I'd like people to think more about this powerful medium in their lives."

[Shrdlu]

This isn't news to me.

A 14-year-old friend of my son's has had a similar one - part of his watch - for a long time. He used it in the classroom at the Catholic School that he attends. The story goes that the nun who was teaching was trying to show a video, and he either stopped the VCR or turned the TV off (repeatedly). She had no idea what was happening!

I didn't put him up to it, and told him that he shouldn't have done it, But .

[Claude]

This also works with PDAs.

Edited October 20, 2004 by Claude

[alankin]

Invent a device that will turn off cell phones and I'll be a happy man!

[LAL]

Need a similar device that turns off cheapo stereos that give out heavy bass sounds...and car stereos too.

[alankin]

I long for the good old days when people walking down the street talking to themselves were schizophrenic.

Now they're probably just talking to someone on a cell phone.

Edited October 21, 2004 by alankin

[Shrdlu]

Re those cellphones: Agreed!

[BruceH]

I heard about this on NPR and think it's the best invention since the long-playing record. Now for three more inventions: A remote that will shut off and disable nearby loud car stereos, one that will turn off cell-phones, and a small gizmo that will generate a protective force field in case anyone discovers who is turning off their cell-phones, car stereos, and TV's.

[Tim McG]

[ahem]

Here's the real issue, Guys.

Parents just need to be parents and actually step up and tell their kids enough TV is just plain enough. [duh]

I mean, these are their kids, OK? Where are the parents on this issue, eh?

We are raising a Nation of vidiots, I tell you.