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...been watching AAPL drop another 5 bucks today and all stressed out trying to know when to execute the buy order for more of the stuff.

"Something in the Air" had better be something or I'm going to get it at an even lower price this time next week and, if tha'ts the case, how much lower will it go. Oh, there I go again... got any more of these funnies?

What a bunch of immature jerks. I hope they get their press passes revoked for this. It's not funny, it's just childish and incredibly inconsiderate. What if that guy gets fired for that presentation goof-up?

Gizmodo has crossed the line on this one, and MDN should be ashamed for posting it.

In college, I built small TV jammers. I'd go to the one dorm that had a color TV, sit in the back, in the dark, and tune in my jammer. The screen got messed up, not totally but enough to bother everyone. Without any plan, a friend in the front row, who knew what was going on (I hope he did) whacked the TV. I instantly turned the jammer off and the TV worked fine.

For weeks I would occassionally turn the jammer on. It took more and more students turning more and more dials on the color TV until it would finally work. One time I actually was one of the ones adjusting the fine tuning control and all, operating the jammer in my other hand. I never got caught.

One evening, about three people were whacking and adjusting the TV from all sides. I noticed that one of them had his hand on the screen, so I turned the jammer off. As they breathed a sigh of relief, the hand came off the screen and I turned the jammer back on. One of them said "freeze, where were your bodies" because by this time they all knew that it could sometimes have something to do with where your body was. Eventually the one guy reached out to the screen again and I turned off the jammer. He figured it out and started testing, hand on, hand off, hand on again. I kept pace. Then this guy put his foot down from the chair it was in (he was standing) and I made the TV go bad again. He picked up his foot and it went good. He announced that it was some sort of 'grounding' effect and left his foot in the air (on the chair) and his hand on the middle of the screen for the last 30 minutes of a "Mission Impossible" show.

On another occassion, when the TV went bad, one guy said that the repairman had made a point about it being an antenna problem. To test this, he held up the older style, twin lead, antenna wire and the TV cleared up. He put the wire down and the jamming started. After a while, the TV went bad even as he held the antenna wire off the ground. So he raised it higher with success. Later it went bad again and he climbed up on a chair to get the TV working. Then he had to stand on the chair with the antenna held above his head. For my final feat, I only let the TV work when he stood on his tiptoes on this chair.

I remember my first remote control watch. I could turn off TV's in stores and other places all the time, very discretely. My sons loved these.

Jan 11, 08 - 07:12 pm Comment from: MaLvado

Maybe doing that on dumb displays in the halls, but doing it to someone presenting is a bit too much.

Jan 11, 08 - 07:13 pm Comment from: Metryq

Now if there were a similar device for cell phones...

These guys should be embarrassed by their actions .... not the least bit funny ... very disconcerting that MDN would think this is cute and harmless ... wonder what MDN would say if someone pulled a stunt like this on Mr. Jobs .... love Apple ... like MDN ... but this was just not very nice ...

Jan 11, 08 - 07:16 pm Comment from: Ampar

Just blame it on Vista.

@Woz - that big long story of yours just means you are some kind of mean spirited jerk. Glad to hear your sons liked it too

With macs you can pair the remote with the device, and this gets controlled

@bob:

Why didn't people at a consumer entertainment show just block the IR ports on the TV? that seems like a pretty obvious thing to do considering the number of people going through the event and the potential for this to happen.

Steve,

They will now!

@Steve ... I get that those in control should be far more diligent ... I was only talking about the human spirit ... why did these guys feel the need to be disruptive ... still ... people are working and what they did wasn't very nice ..

It was just announced that CEA has banned Gizmodo for life from CES. Which, considering the lackluster reviews that have been dribbling in, will be about two years.

This will mean that Gizmodo will be devoting more page space to the pre-Macworld rumors next year, while CNet and ZDvorakNet will continue reporting underwhelming Microsoft concept products that will never see the light of day. So everybody wins. (Well, everybody who matters.)

@bob:

Agreed, it's disruptive, and maybe not nice. I, however, appreciate a good prank even when I'm the victim. If the presenters can't laugh at this, they take themselves too seriously. You're presenting to nerds at a tech show, don't make yourself out to be more important than you are

Jacob, MaLvado, bob, jim,

Lighten up, Francis.

Man that was a terrible thing to do to those exhibitors.

LOVED IT!!!!

Jan 11, 08 - 07:47 pm Comment from: Tired of Retards

Gizmodo wasn't walking around punching cancer kids in the face, they were pranking fat nerds with bad jobs and even worse haircuts.

You fscking people who take offense to Gizmodo's prank are the epitome of what's wrong in this world today.

If the world was full only of people who appreciate this sort of stuff, we'd all be better off.

Lighten up, Francis, indeed!

It's a fscking trade show full of nerds, not anything of goddam importance.

At next year's CES, Gizmodo should set off an EMP.

I'm trying to be outraged...but looking at the video....that was straight up hilarious!!! Will never happen again tho

Jan 11, 08 - 07:54 pm Comment from: Romeodawg

Working these expos is so stressful and there's so much money on the line, I think they definitely went overboard. Once or twice might have been funny, but to just sabotage expensive presentations is pretty lame - especially when these are fellow tech people just trying to make a living. Gizmodo's reputation definitely dropped to adolescent in my book.

If you don't find this at least a bit amusing, if not absolutely hilarious, you're not a real Mac user.

Get lost. Go back to your piece of shit Dell and Windoze, you conformist, Oprah-fied, pussies.

Here’s to the crazy ones.
The misfits.
The rebels.
The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They’re not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
We see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
they can change the world,
Are the ones who do.

There is a similar device for cell phones.

The majority of Americans are uptight assholes, in my experience. I must meet only the types like Jacob, MaLvado, bob, and jim.

When did they hack off your sacks, at birth, or did you just get feminized over time by your insipid, plastic, TV-driven, meaningless non-culture over there in 'Merica?

Funny?

Maybe the first time they did it. After that, it was just plain childish and silly!

No wonder MDN was so easily entertained.

"Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?" - Steve Jobs

I can't take this video, I have not laughed this hard in decades.

Definitely funny, but a bit cruel when they did it during presentations.

I did feel sorry for some of the presenters. But because of the forum (CES) it is also wonderfully ironic.

Note to Macworld displayers: cover all IR ports with electrical tape!

Jan 11, 08 - 08:33 pm Comment from: Spudly

@Jim. ah, lighten up! Life would be dull without a few good natured pranks! Remember, NO ONE GOT HURT here. Some people's drab presentations got ruffled! So what! For all our sake I hope more of the polish comes off this rapidly sterilizing world!

Nothing like an immature, childish person to fit some sort of insult to America/Americans into this thread. Sheesh!

Truth: Are you from the country we saved, or the one we beat? lol

Ok, Ok... That was bad. Seriously, though--Jingoistic humor aside, this TV remote thing is kinda funny I'll be sure to bring one of them to a presentation Truth is giving.

Jan 11, 08 - 08:56 pm Comment from: Brau

Juvenile? Yes! Funny? Yes!

Just wonder if these guys are going to get sued, considering all the money these companies have involved.

From ValleyWag:
Gawker staffer banned from CES, "additional sanctions ... under discussion"

http://valleywag.com/344064/gawker-staffer-banned-from-ces-additional-sanctions--under-discussion

Probably not so funny if you spent many sleepless nights preping for a presentation, and then see that video of your messed up session on gizmodo. Probably even less funny if you got yelled at by your boss. The display wall of TVs is funny since no one's really hurt, but a spoiled press presentation looks bad for the company and the poor presenter.

How would Gizmodo like a DOS attack followed by a "We're sorry." Would that be funny?

Sorry, I didn't find any part of that footage entertaining.

Ok - "this monitor is going, drop o knock o" - by the lady - sort of a smile came about, but ahhhhhhhh lame o.

NOW IF this were Apple - pulling a prank on MS during the conference - LEAVING only their BOOTH live and loud drawing in the crowds... I might have found it more entertaining.

ohies - me

w8nc

@"Tired of Retards"

Just because it doesn't matter to you doesn't mean it doesn't matter, you self-centered jerk. Oh, so it was just some "nerds" so it doesn't matter? What are you, one of those kids who liked to beat up "nerds" in high school and justified it because they somehow deserved it? Your lack of empathy for fellow human beings is endemic of why the world is so screwed up right now. Everyone feels entitled to treat each other like jerks as long as it doesn't negatively affect THEM.


@"Truth"

I'm Canadian, so I'm not quite sure where you're going with this.

MDN MW: "Children" as in, "Only children like Gizmodo would find this amusing, along with other childish minds whose ethical understanding hasn't progressed beyond pre-conventional."

I am a 25 year MAC faithful.
10 machines, never touched a Windows machine ever.

Sorry - I wasn't amused. I thought it was sort of fun. But lame.

Basically, I wish Gizmodo did a lot more DAMAGE!


RON

In college, this would have been a hoot! For your random geek, it would have been a blast. For one of the two leading tech blogs around, ones who want to be taken seriously, ones who want to be considered journalists, ones who expect free press passes, this behavior is unacceptable.

Jan 11, 08 - 10:51 pm Comment from: coolfactor

@Woz,

Reading your story, I haven't laugh so hard in a long time. The imagery in my head was too much to take! Thanks.

@@Pirate,

You've been using Macs for 25 years, and you call them MACs? Right.

hey diversion,
come down... look at the past how AAPL trades pre/post MacWorld then go from there... weʻre in a bear(ish) market... alot of bad stuff ahead.

I Loved it when the lady kept saying "we lost video... This screen is freaking out" right in stride.. Pretty funny stuff. Some of these presenters need to chill out a bit.

Maybe there shouldn't be tech companies at all. This was CES, not the Homebrew Computer Club.

Some people have kids to feed at home and the boss is ranking them on how well they generate sales leads at the tradeshows.

Geeks are immature (let's face it) and sometimes that immaturity hurts people without the geeks realizing what they did.

"Honey, sorry I am going to have to miss the kid's birthday party. Yeah, the boss told me to work overtime. Yeah, something with the TVs. I just need to be here to make sure it is working OK. The boss is very serious that all the demos work non-stop."

This sort of reminds me of virus writers. They think it's SO COOL to create new viruses that go out and destroy stuff.

Usually the ones that are hurt are the people at home who lose their work, the book they are working on, etc. and get fired. And the big companies don't care because they have expensive back up systems and IT teams to fix the problems.

There's a story about a woman who lost the book she was writing. She was crying at the computer store when the guy said he really couldn't help her recover her work.

Someone should bring some TV-B-Gones to MacWorld. It'll be a riot!

This will be the last tech trade show where TVs are used without a hunk of gaffer's tape over the IR sensor.

I'll take a TV-B-Gone, and a spare, whenever I'm forced to spend time in lay-over lounges with CNN spewing at me from every direction.

@ha
"Are you from the country we saved, or the one we beat? "
Aren't those countries one and the same?!

Jan 12, 08 - 02:41 am Comment from: LorD1776

Truth,

"The majority of Americans are uptight assholes, in my experience."

Do your experiences include a "penchant for buggery"?

And what country, pray tell, has the joy of claiming you as one of it's citizens? Lucky them!

That was great!

To those of You who are complaining-- grow up. A good prank is a good prank. Someone has to be "it"... It's been me, and I've done it to others. It's still funny!

Way to go Gizmodo! Great idea!!!

2¢ from Alaska

Jan 12, 08 - 03:26 am Comment from: LorD1776

"To those of You who are complaining-- grow up"

Apparently you don't understand what the term "grow up" actually means. This is just another example of a lack of propriety and discipline in this country. I'm sure you are a big fan of 'Beavis and Butthead', along with 'Jackass'. Those are more examples of mature, grown-up behavior.

The thing is, you don't have to be rude, crude and utterly stupid to have fun. Granted, that does go on here, but we know what we are in for. Those people at CES were not in on the joke. They were victimized by immature twits. Maybe if you ever do grow up you will understand this.

Speaking as someone who has, on occassions, meticulously worked on AV demos that were crucially important when it came to impressing customers, I can't say I laughed my ass off at this.

The truth is, with this kind of prank, for some it'll always be funny. Until it happens to you.

karma is a bitch. i would watch the ceiling if i were those at gizmodo.

That was great Giz. Just been to your site, is this a new universal remote or something? I want one but I can't find reference to it on your site. I can see a use for this in malls.