Philips patents an 'anti commercial zapper'

Read all about it here .

Can you image not being able to change the channel when a commercial comes on? The next thing we will lose is the ability to mute the damn annoying things. Or turn the TV off while it is commercial time. Perhaps our TVs will remain on constantly like in Orwell's book, "1984." It is not propaganda, its adverts, so it is OK.

Here is a brief quote:

"The advert enforcer

If a new idea from Philips catches on, the company may not be very popular with TV viewers. The company's labs in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, has been cooking up a way to stop people changing channels to avoid adverts or fast forwarding through ads they have recorded along with their target programme."

Just when we thought DRM was bad enough.

I am using SuSE 10.0 Linux and KDE. The multiple windows is a great feature. Perhaps I will start using my computer as a TV and avoid this crap.