For those who haven't experienced it, picture it... You're sitting at home watching television with your friends. Without warning, the TV begins to flicker energetically, rendering it unwatchable. Everyone is crestfallen.
"Oh, it does this from time", you say leaning forward confidently.
BANG ! BANG !! You hit the thing a smack on the top, and then deliver a confident lash on the side. Hey presto, everything's back to normal. You are the hero. You're friends worship you as some kind of luddite gandalf and you all turn back into the warm electron glow.

I propose a device, the Flicker Bang, which you attach to the back of your TV or CRT Monitor. The Flicker Bang will cause the screen to flicker at random intervals. It is inertia sensitive (like a seatbelt) so that a solid slap to the display device will result in transmission as usual.
Interference pattern and time randomisation are fully configurable.
-- fergdeff, Dec 23 2004

this old trick doesn't work anymore. How about a banger that you install at the cable company, and it smacks THEM one, when the reception stinks.
-- dentworth, Dec 23 2004


I was recently relieved of a vcr that was receptive to this. It had about five different "themes" that it would cycle through when you smacked it sideways.
-- tiromancer, Dec 23 2004


Physical violence against delicate electronics, while always satisfying and often warranted, is more likely to do harm than good. If you need something to take your computer-related aggressions out upon, computer effigies and voodoo dolls are already commercially available.
-- nick_n_uit, Dec 23 2004



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