Stealth TV-B-Gone in a jacket

Becky Stern models her clever TV-B-Gone automated TV-switcher-offer sewn into a jacket: "Whenever I bring my TV-B-Gone out to restaurants, I look suspicious pointing it around. So I embedded the device into a jacket and turned it into a wearable TV silencer. For the switch, I sewed paths of conductive thread that become bridged by the metal zipper pull when it passes by. At the restaurant or bar, all I have to do is unzip my jacket to turn off the TV(s)."

TV-B-Gone Jacket

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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The Snowden Principle

BethNOLA

I, too, have a clever trick for when I walk into a bar or restaurant with televisions playing that I don’t want to watch.

I walk out and find a bar or restaurant without televisions, and leave the people enjoying the game or the news or whatever it is they’ve chosen to get together and enjoy.
- Anonymous
  
  My, what a lot of self-righteousness here.
  
  It’s a wonder there’s room for you all on that pedestal.
Nettdata

m th nly n thnkng, “wht btch”?
- emmdeeaych
  
  yep, nettdata you are the only one thinking that. I’m going “what a ninja”
- GrymRpr
  
  No you are not.
  Least now we know what she look’s like.
nixiebunny

This will go together well with the wearable TV set that I’m building.
pinehead

Now all we need are cheap IR goggles, so bar & restaurant managers can easily spot the passive-aggressive human garbage using TV-B-Gone devices in their establishments.
brbrbrad

My smartphone (Nokia N900) has an IR port and a TVBGone app. Nobody thinks twice when I pull it out, point it straight at the TV, and activate the app. They just think I’m texting someone.
Bubba

My jacket has a built-in Entitleometer which buzzes whenever I’m being a complete prick and dictating how others must behave.
shonnarchy

Phew! I didn’t want to be the lone dissenter thinking to myself “if you don’t want to watch tv when you go to a restaurant, choose a restaurant that doesn’t have a television on”. TV-B-Gone is a prank gadget. It’s funny and amusing in certain situations. But using it to dominate environments (or feeling the need to dominate an environment) is fucking stupid.
jenjen

When my Pacemaker-B-Gone arrives from Amazon, I will look at sewing it into a sweater. Now that Kevorkian’s gone, someone’s gotta step up.
von Bobo

but what if your outfit doesn’t work with the coat?
millie fink

Want! But only for the row of TVs in our campus exercise center. And only for one of them, actually, the one with Faux News on it. It’s the only “news” station playing.

I’ve left several requests for MSNBC on another TV to balance things out a bit, but alas. The center’s manager must be a True Believer.
Anonymous

brbrbrad gets the points, so far.

But once the TV is off, it will be quiet enough for the patrons to hear you snickering about turning off the TV.
Jenn2D2

While her ingenuity and DIY spirit are great, why exactly would I want to celebrate someone going into a private place of business and screwing with their electronics? If anything, she’s demonstrating a lack of respect for other people’s preferences and space (both the owners and the other customers). She has many options if she doesn’t like the televisions on at a restaurant, including requesting for them to be turned off, moving to a different table, or just leaving.
oxrs

Yeah, like others, I don’t enjoy watching tv while out and about, but this idea and course of action just proves how much of a self entitled control freak you are. If you don’t like it, go find something else that you do like. What makes you think it’s ok to dictate how others enjoy themselves, just so you can be comfortable in that exact place and time?
mordicai

It is awesome because I’m selfish & passive aggressive! Ha ha ha lol, so counter culture. Nothing says iconoclast like wrecking things for other people out of a misplaced sense of entitlement!
gwit

Low tech way to defeat it is just cover the IR receiver with tape. The fun way to defeat it is deploy an IR jamming device. Something like this: http://www.redferret.net/?p=26706