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Macworld Exhibitor tip: disable the IR port on your Macs

by Scott McNulty Jan 13th 2008 at 4:00PM



As you may or may not know there has been something of a dust up across the tech blogosphere regarding a prank that a certain tech blog performed during CES. The prank involved a little gizmo that turned off a number of televisions at once, which one could use to turn off displays during presentations (which is just what the people in question did).

This childish prank got me to thinking about the havoc that someone could cause with one of those tiny Apple remotes during Macworld. Therefore, I am hoping to help exhibitors avoid this sort of mischief by advocating they either:
  • Disable their Mac's IR ports
  • Pair their Mac to a specific remote
Both are very easy to do, and well worth it for any Mac that you might use in public. Simply launch System Preferences and click on Security. You'll see an option in the General tab to disable the remote control receiver (which means no remotes will work with that Mac) or a button labeled 'Pair...' This will allow you to bind the Mac in question to one remote. You can use Front Row, or whatever you need to do with the paired remote but some random blogger won't be able to hijack your Mac.

Trust me, either of these steps will take you a couple of minutes but save you lots of headaches.


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As you may or may not know there has been something of a dust up across the tech blogosphere regarding a prank that a certain tech blog...
 

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Photar

I went around at MacWorld with my remote bringing up front row at booths and random people with their MacBooks. Good times.

January 14 2008 at 2:29 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
aricept

Actually, I remember seeing video of someone doing just this thing, at least a year ago. Who, and where.... I don't remember. But the Giz CES thing reminded me of that.

January 13 2008 at 11:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
steve mcfarland

CAN NOT NOT TYPE:

*all of them
*email or what...

January 13 2008 at 9:15 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
steve mcfarland

In my former life as a Mac Specialist in Apple Retail, a few of used to grab spare remotes from the back of house, and when closing time came, we'd stand on the other side of the store from a given bay of iMacs/Macbook Pros and invoke Front Row on all of that at once, much to the dismay of whatever stragglers were checking their email of what-have-you.

Just as they were about to give up, we'd hit 'Menu' to go back to the desktop, and as they got their bearings in Gmail again, whammo...

In retail, it's all about the little things.

January 13 2008 at 9:13 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
oshawapilot

Being rather judgmental with the "Childish" claim, no?

I found it rather funny, personally, and it was mostly harmless. It will make most exhibitors think hard about next year, and hell, it makes people think about securing their own systems against IR based intrusion.

January 13 2008 at 7:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
2 replies to oshawapilot's comment
Taylor

Much of it was okay, but turning off the TVs in a press conference? They made the whole thing look unprofessional, which put Motorola under a bad light. Forget about them selling any of the products they announced there, all that will go down in is "that's the press conference were Gizmodo turned off the TVs lol".

January 13 2008 at 10:34 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kalessin

"...it makes people think about securing their own systems..."

So does burglary. Still think it's reasonable?

Childish is a kind adjective for interfering with these businesses by sabotage. If I had been affected, I would be looking to Gizmodo for recompense, or at least disciplinary action against the blogger concerned. I would certainly not attend a future show to which they were invited.

The individual concerned certainly did not behave like a professional, and should not be allowed to attend future events.

By all means have a laugh, turning some screens off was quite funny, but interfering with a live presentation, on which several thousand dollars had been spent is extremely questionable behaviour.

January 14 2008 at 10:30 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Ryan Worrell

As far as TV's go. I would suggest a roll of electrical tape. Just a lil piece over the IR receiver and presto. No more "childish prank"

January 13 2008 at 6:08 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
James Hannah

You can also log on as an admin user, and hold down the menu and fast-forward buttons while pointing the remote at the mac to pair, without having to enter System Preferences.

January 13 2008 at 5:38 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
slackpacker

Scott you are a good man... after the Gizmondo fiasco.

January 13 2008 at 4:23 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to slackpacker's comment
lifix

@Majormauser: while a fiasco, the Gizmondo incident has nothing to do with what Scott is talking about. Scott is referring to the Gizmodo incident, although I'm not sure "childish prank" is the right description for what went down.

January 13 2008 at 4:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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