lmfao.  The site’s under ‘reconstruction’ because it got flooded with potential buyers.  Well, I guess we’re all safe for the time being. 

Absolutely true, Les.

I’ve just been seeing far too little “common courtesy” and “good etiquette” lately. This device is just another way to allow someone to be an anonymous asshole.

Judging by the way they’re flying off the shelves, there seems to be a huge desire to be an asshole nowadays.

I’m sure my Great-grandparents said exactly the same thing.

I guess it’s a (pretty insignificant) example of “where do you draw the line”. Is it ok to impose my will on the general public to this extent? When does it become inappropriate? Would it be more bothersome if it forced TVs onto religious stations and upped the volume?

Yeah, yeah. Mountain out of mole hill.

Like I said, I can see where this is going to cause all sorts of problems. Genie’s out of the bottle now, though, so we’ll have to figure out how to deal with it.

So, what do I do when I’m showing an educational video in my classroom and some adolescent sphincter with a TV-B-Gone start shutting down the monitor to amuse his little friends?  I can cover the IR port, but then i have to climb up on a chair to turn it on or off myself.  Thanks, Mr. Altman, for making a difficult job even harder.

This thing pisses me off. If you don’t like the TV on, ask the proprietor if you can have it turned off. If you get an answer you don’t like, you’re free to leave.

The first asshole that gets the shit beat out of him because he was being a little fuck with one of these is going to sue and win a pile of cash.

Just as a friendly piece of advice. Such actions can constitute trespass to chattels. Any intermeddling with another’s personal property no matter how small constitutes trespass. Think of this as going up to a museum and touching all their paintings and statues. Usually a warning would suffice but the owners could always start an action. And further more the interference need not be physical, an example would be the eBay case against the bots crawling for information.

Another point to note is that in Asia, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore (at least these are the places that I recall) TV is more common throughout. For example their public bus systems have TV in them to entertain the folks. And of course there is advertisement too!

i ordered one today. i’m looking forward to seeing how well it will work.

I may just order one. Then again, any PDA can probably do the same if you can track down the code sequences.

I’d much rather have people out in a public place watching the game/news/Survivor, then home alone doing so, or with their small coven of cookie-cutter-friends.

I often find myself for lunch at a restaurant outside of my usual stomping grounds, more often than not alone, especialy if i’m on the road for work.  If i’ve never been there before i fist check to see if they have a bar area, if not i usually check out another place entirely.  Bars are a great place to meet people and, better, to hear lotsa interesting conversation from people i’d otherwise never know or run into.  The TV is, contrary to what most might think, a great social lubricator.

Many a time a number of us have been sitting at the bar watching this or that show when someone makes a comment or joke.  I’ve observed that the tv in this environment is a community-maker, rather than a community-inhibitor.

But, i gotta admit, i’m intrigued with the possible hijinks such a device might cause in different circumstances.  With practice such a device could be used quite subtly.

rob@egoz.org