tvs acting weirdly? might be the tv-b-gone invention
Posted by Douglas Sorocco, October 19, 2004 at 9:49 am
File this in the "hope my wife doesn't get one" category: Wired News has an article today on Mitch Altman's "TV-B-Gone" invention.
What is this nefarious device? Nothing other than a universal remote with one button -- one looming button -- an off button.
Other than the horror of the device, it is a good story of the tribulations of an inventor and the process of developing, marketing and commercializing an invention. Everyone gets into the act:
The idea for TV-B-Gone was born at a restaurant in the early 1990s, when Altman and his friends kept paying attention to a TV in the corner, not to one another. They chatted about how to turn off all televisions, and he wondered if it would be possible to string together a series of "power" commands.
After that, the project would have disappeared, but Altman's friends wanted the tools. He said about 50 people volunteered to help design, package and even name the TV-B-Gone. Cartoonist Nina Paley, he said, has begged for over a decade to work on the packaging.
Shhhhhh...... don't tell my wife.