TV-B-Gone

Several of the restaurants we patronize regularly have televisions going - our favorite diner, the burrito place, one of the Chinese places, the Japanese restaurant (that one's at the far end of the sushi bar and more difficult to see). I often find myself watching (especially the one at the diner). I don't want to... not really. But I get sucked in by the colors and motion.

You're staring at a piece of furniture!

People on TV are not your friends. They're not in the room with you. You are alone in the dark, staring at a plastic box. Think about it. This is like a science fiction horror story; but it's really happening. People have stopped living as humans and connected themselves to machines instead.

Does this happen to you? Do you wish you could just turn it off?

Now you can :-)

Mitch Altman, founder of Silicon Valley data-storage maker 3ware, has a new device, the TV-B-Gone, a universal remote that turns off almost any television. [from an article in Wired News, "Inventor Rejoices as TVs Go Dark"].

The device, which looks like an automobile remote, has just one button. When activated, it spends over a minute flashing out 209 different codes to turn off televisions, the most popular brands first.

For Altman, ..., the TV-B-Gone is all about freeing people from the attention-sapping hold of omnipresent television programming. The device is also providing hours of entertainment for its inventor.

The entertainment value comes as Altman wanders the city, zapping television sets in restaurants, malls, and laundromats.

Improved conversation was the motivation behind TV-B-Gone, and it's why Altman calls it the most helpful tool he's worked on. He said it compares well to the Apple video game he wrote in 1977 (which became a military training module), virtual-reality systems he helped build at VPL in 1986 (used for military research despite his and the company's explicit pacifist policies), and the hard-drive controllers he patented after starting up 3ware.

Since he left 3ware, he has spent most of his time finishing up TV-B-Gone. His equity from that firm provided the capital for the first run of 20,000 remotes.

Rich and I talked about taking one to the diner. The problem, as Rich put it, is ... if the TV kept going off soon after we enter the restaurant, how long would it take for the staff and other patrons to make the connection? Still... it's tempting.

TV-B-Gone ( in category In The News , SciTech ) - posted at Wed, 20 Oct, 17:44 Pacific | «e»