Comments on: Fun Holiday Gifts: The Maker Store

by: Frank Townend

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:40:29 +0000

Specific products/projects aside, the Maker Store (and Make Magazine) are great sources for veterans of the soldering iron, or for getting your kids “unhooked” from the disposable marketplace. There is a good chance they may take better care of something it took hours for them to build. I have subscribed to the magazine since issue one and have found far more to like than dislike. As Zathrus said, if I “object” to one of their products; I just don’t buy it.

by: Bill

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 20:47:38 +0000

James B, you have it SOOOO wrong, you said “In America we generally have the right to do what we want unless it violates the rights of somebody else” well, when you’re turning off someone elses TV or cell phone you are violationg THEIR rights by exorcising rights you don’t have. If you’re in a private establishment only the owner of the tv has that right, and someone speaking on a cell phone may be considered rude, but they have the right to free speech wether they are on a cell phone or talking to the person next to them. Now I know you are probably just trolling here, but I cant resist pointing out the failure of your argument, after all, if you could walk up to the tv to turn it off then why not do so? Unless you lack the courage and feel the need to hind behind the “ninja remote” just the fact that you say you can walk up to the tv but you are afraid to do do says that maybe you feel you don’t REALLY have the right to turn it off.

by: Zathrus

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:58:17 +0000

You also have the right to dine elsewhere; there are plenty of restaurants without TVs “blaring advertisements”.

Point of contention — you do not have the right to turn off the restaurants’ televisions (you are not the owner of the TV or of the premises), nor do you have the right to jam cellphones (plenty of FCC regulations explicitly prohibiting that — bollixes are *illegal*).

Don’t like the TV? Dine somewhere else or ask the server/manager/owner to do something about it. Using a TV-be-gone or equivalent is just being an ass.

The one and only time I wished I had one was to turn off the TV in a break room at work. Why? Because idiots would leave it on when there was nobody in the room. It was easy enough to turn off by hand though.

by: James B

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 19:17:36 +0000

Dang Pete. I’ll bet you have a whole house full of televisions that stay running all the time. Don’t ya? I use a Ninja remote (from thinkGeek.com) to turn off TVs in public, but only if I can’t walk up and do it with my hands. And if I could turn off your cell phone legally I would do that to. In America we generally have the right to do what we want unless it violates the rights of somebody else. When I am subject to a barrage of advertisements when I am trying to eat, I’ll turn it off. I have a right to go out in public without being subject to offensive content.

by: PeterP

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 18:46:28 +0000

You know what? I hate the TV-B-Gone. It is, next to personal cell phone jammers, the most pathetic passive aggressive thing I have ever seen.

Using one of these implies that you are a) In a situation with TV’s you don’t control and b) Under the assumption that your personal preferences are more important than everyone else in the room.

If you really don’t like TV that much, stay home and read a book. Or go out in your garage and solder something worthwhile. You might even consider asking the owner of the TV to turn it off, as shocking a suggestion as that it.

Sorry, that thing really gets me upset.