Posted
10/19/2004 05:32:00 PM
by Douglas
Here's an idea whose time has come. Now, you can turn off
any TV with a single
button.Altman's key-chain fob was a TV-B-Gone, a new universal remote that turns off almost any television. 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, founder of Silicon Valley data-storage maker 3ware, 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.
Just as I would, if I had one. The web site for the
device is dead now, no doubt due to the response of the Wired article. But I'm still gonna have to buy two.