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How to deal with those annoying TVs blaring Fox News all day (sopuli.xyz)
submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by BoycottPro@lemm.ee to c/chaoticgood@sopuli.xyz
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Source: https://bsky.app/profile/funnysnarkyjoke.bsky.social/post/3lmkfwebeuc27

In fact you can use your smartphone to change the channel on nearly any TV. In the comments on that post some people talk about how to do it. Basically you need a smartphone with either builtin IR or use a USB-C IR blaster or if your phone has a 3.5mm headphone jack you can also try one of those but I'm not sure if the 3.5mm ones are as commonly supported.

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[-] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 65 points 1 month ago

The middle school that I went to had a ~14" crt tv hanging from a sturdy ceiling mount in every classroom.

Displayed things like school bulletins and daily morning announcements, there was a couple educational channels, and a vcr input. Every now and again there'd be some sort of presentation instead of hauling everyone into the gym for a school assembly.

Anyway; it didn't take me very long to figure out the universal remote that came with the satellite receiver at home could be programmed to the school TVs. I'd mess with the one in class, or skip classes and mess with the ones in my friends classrooms through the windows; cranking up the volume and blasting Bill Nye or the announcement channels awful elevator music. Weekends, I'd do a lap of the school turning on all the TVs I could reach from outside and maxing the volume for whoever opens on Monday, or just turning them off again so it blares at whoever turns it on next.

[-] DoGeeseSeeGod 29 points 1 month ago

You fucking menace. I love the chaotic energy lol. You pull any more stunts like that one?

[-] Scubus@sh.itjust.works 12 points 1 month ago

Stick a piece of tape on the bottom of laser mice. It stops them from being able to detect motion.

Screenshot your buddies desktop, then save that image to the desktop. Set it as the desktop background. Now right click, select "view" i think, and click "show desktop icons". In theory, nothing should noticably change. But now you can no longer actually click on the icons on the desktop. To take it further, open task manager. Find "explorer.exe" and kill it. Now, you cant even right click to reshow desktop icons.

Easy fix to that is to reboot the computer, but you can also just reopen task manager, start a new process "explorer.exe", and then reshow desktop icons.

You can find a website that has fake versions of windows update screens. Load one of those, hit f11 to fullscreen your page, and enjoy as your friend waits for three hours at a bar that has only gone up 2%.

Open task scheduler. Add a new task. Set it to run every day at like 2 pm. Have it set volume to 3/4, then open firefox with the extra command "https://www.youtube.com/watch/dQw...." and you will have a great time.

For a more malicious prank, get a syringe. Fill it with raw egg. Inject this into the seats of some assholes car. Within two days, their car is not able to be sat in without the windows down, and even then it is horrible. They cannot figure out where the smell is coming from, and even if they do, they have to replace the seat. Optionally you can just throw a dead fish into their gutter, they wont find it for a couple days at least, and it will permanantly make their entire yard smell.

[-] DoGeeseSeeGod 8 points 1 month ago

The egg one... My god.. Remind me not to piss you off

[-] Oaksey@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Now rotate the screenshot of the desktop 180 degrees before setting as thd desktop, then rotate the display output 180 degrees. Now the mouse also appears to go backwards. If they step away after having a go, add a screenshot of display settings to the background image so they click all over that when they get back.

[-] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 8 points 1 month ago

Pull the tab off of a pop can. Turn off the switch on the power bar that the teachers computer is plugged into. Unplug the computer, slip the pop can tab over the live+neutral prongs, plug it back into the still off power bar and wait.

The teacher goes to use their computer, finds it's not turning on and looks at the power bar.

Switch flips, 'BANG', scream, lights go out (breaker popped).

[-] Sterile_Technique@lemmy.world 30 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

...isn't there a 3.5mm jack silencer you can buy? Searching now and I can't find it, but I could have sworn when I was in highschool (y'know, like 25 thousand years ago) you could order a bag of like 50 of them for like $10.

It was just a 3.5mm audio plug with matte black plastic cap on the end, so you'd plug it into a TV's headphone jack and some models of TVs would be permanently silenced until someone unplugged the cap, because it was sending its audio to the 'speakers' that were just plugged in. And once plugged in, it just looked like a screw cover cap - nothing protruding. But also didn't damage anything, so you couldn't get in any real trouble for doing it.

...am I just imagining shit? If anyone knows what I'm talking about and figure out the magic search terms to actually pull it up, please drop a link to a product that can be ordered.

Edit - for visibility, I posted this comment as its own thread over on Ask.

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[-] mriswith@lemmy.world 28 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

In fact you can use your smartphone to change the channel on nearly any TV. In the comments on that post some people talk about how to do it. Basically you need a smartphone with either builtin IR or use a USB

I don't think have seen phone with built in IR in a decade.

[-] Tilgare@lemmy.world 8 points 1 month ago

I saw a video on a new budget phone recently that had IR. I think only the Chinese brands like Xiaomi, Vivo, and OnePlus are the ones carrying the torch at this point... But not even on all phones they release.

I carried around my old HTC One M7 in my laptop bag for YEARS after I had upgraded explicitly for the IR blaster. It's probably in there still right now in fact.

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[-] bitwolf@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 month ago

Oppo is still including them

[-] JamesBoeing737MAX@sopuli.xyz 3 points 1 month ago

And Xiaomi, Oneplus R series.

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[-] y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 22 points 1 month ago

Flipper Zero ftw

[-] VitoRobles@lemmy.today 6 points 1 month ago

Really expensive for the use case.

I considered it recently but then the flipper zero community was like "Spend $15 bucks for a universal remote man."

[-] y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

haha im in the middle of switching careers into IT/CS and I figured it would be a good investment for the future or at least to tinker with. I've just had to focus on other things for certs I need, so no time to really dive into it.

[-] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

I have one, for a year now or so. But haven't use dit much really. And now the flipper one is announced. So I wished I waited and bought that one instead.

[-] muusemuuse@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago

I really need to get one.

[-] y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 month ago

And I need to learn to use mine better. All I got is a couple of neat magic tricks like turning off TVs or scanning people's cats lol

Just been too busy learning other things lately I guess

[-] Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 month ago

scanning people's cats

... Pardon?

[-] y0kai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 month ago

haha some people have their pets microchipped so they can be scanned and returned to the owner if lost. If you run the flipper over the right spot (and in the right mode), generally between the shoulder blades, it'll tell you if they're chipped and read out some of the data.

[-] Biscuit@ani.social 7 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) 
if chip == True:
    print("is cat")
else:
    print("might not be cat")
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[-] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

I'd wait a bit. The flipper one is announced.

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[-] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 18 points 1 month ago

This is the second best thing I do with my Flipper Zero after reading pet RFID chips

[-] BoycottPro@lemm.ee 6 points 1 month ago

I read about the Flipper Zero and it seems really awesome! I even saw some high power LEDs for it that could in theory change the channel from a long distance.

[-] mx_smith@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Yep I keep it in my pocket with just the IR sensor sticking out and use the app on your phone to control it and it keeps people from ever suspecting me as the one who just turned off that annoying noise.

[-] muusemuuse@lemm.ee 16 points 1 month ago

I was at a hospital waiting room one night for an ex’s mother’s injury. I’m not family so I had to wait in the waiting room, which had Fox News blaring. They wouldn’t change it. I couldn’t change it. But I could unplug all the TVs.

Nurse ratchet did not like that one bit.

[-] BoycottPro@lemm.ee 7 points 1 month ago

I sometimes (jokingly) wonder if Hospitals show Fox News to try to get repeat business, and I don't mean repeat business due to people who enjoy Fox coming back, I mean due to health complications caused by the stress of watching it.

[-] Bytemeister@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago

Watching fox news does not cause you stress. It causes stress for all the people around you.

My grandpa got a dose of fox news for a while, and it took a long conversation to convince him that there is not a county in Michigan that is more that 50% Somali immigrants.

[-] JoMiran@lemmy.ml 15 points 1 month ago

Samsung Android phones use to include an IR blaster. I use to install a universal remote app on my phone and change the channels anywhere Fox News was on and nobody could tell because nobody suspected the smart phone.

[-] gabereal@sopuli.xyz 12 points 1 month ago

Instead of the TV-B-Gone, there should be a TV-1-Channel-Up device that just changes the channel. If the TV in the doctor's office turns off, it will get noticed by the reception desk and probably be turned back on in a few minutes. If the TV is on a different channel, the desk is much less likely to notice any time soon (at least not before you've been called back into the exam room).

[-] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 month ago

TVs at my local doctors office took the prescription commercials to a new level and now just run an ad feed all day.

[-] Anomalocaris@lemm.ee 7 points 1 month ago

my universal remote ✂️

[-] reddig33@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

Easier to just unplug the TV.

[-] BoycottPro@lemm.ee 17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

There are pros and cons to that.

Advantage is of course you get peace and quiet like that. No TV might feel more relaxing.

Downside is someone might plug the TV in again which will turn it back on to Fox. Changing the channel means you can show unbiased news and maybe if for example you change the station to PBS, people will get educated. People might leave it on the channel you changed it to due to apathy. A TV that's off is more noticeable.

I'd recommend if it's possible especially if you're the only one in the room at the time consider going into the channel editor and removing Fox News and other propaganda stations from the channel list.

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this post was submitted on 28 May 2025
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