“CES has no shortage of displays. And when MAKE offered us some TV-B-Gone clickers to bring to the show, we pretty much couldn’t help ourselves. We shut off a TV. And then another. And then a wall of TVs. And we just couldn’t stop,” Brian Lam reports for Gizmodo.
Full article with video, “Confessions: The Meanest Thing Gizmodo Did at CES,” here.
Maybe because it’s Friday evening and we’re getting silly, but we can’t stop laughing when watching this video! (We’ve probably been to far too many trade shows; anything to break the monotony – especially at the pointless, overkill CES – is always welcome.) Plus, this is just so Woz-like, it’s like a tribute to the Apple co-founder!
Gizmodo is going straight to tech hell.
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!
@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
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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.
@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?!
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
“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.