Squelching the babble of TV in public places

The International Herald Tribune | www.iht.com: "Hundreds of orders for Altman's $14.99 TV-B-Gone gadget poured in Tuesday after the tiny remote control was announced in online media outlets. At times, the unexpected attention overloaded and crashed the Web site of Altman's company, Cornfield Electronics.

The keychain fob works like a universal remote control but one that only turns televisions on or off. With a zap of a button, the gizmo goes through a string of about 200 infrared codes that are used to control the power button on about 1,000 television models. Altman said the majority of televisions should react within 17 seconds.

He has tested the TV-B-Gone remote discreetly in many places, including in other countries, and - with the exception of Hong Kong - says he usually gets little to no reaction after the background television noise disappears."