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Many customers at a small town grocery store in Alberta had trouble unlocking their cars, while others had their car alarms going off mysteriously, since early January. According to the CBC, after trial-and-error of turning off electricity to nearby buildings and calling in the federal government for assistance, the source of the interference has been traced back to "faulty consumer electronic equipment stuck in transmit mode".
The story of the original mystery can be found here.
Key fobs that suddenly won't unlock vehicles. Cars that won't start. Alarms that go off for no reason and can't be quieted. Something mysterious is thwarting drivers outside a grocery store in the small Alberta town of Carstairs — and it's sparking all kinds of theories.
The problems have been happening for weeks in the parking lot outside the Westview Co-op grocery store in Carstairs, a town of about 4,000 about 60 kilometres north of Calgary.
[Ed. note: key fob: A passive wireless electronic device that usually uses RFID technology to control access to buildings, containers, computers, etc. by being placed near a detector.
Remote keyless system (RKS):
Widely used in automobiles, an RKS performs the functions of a standard car key without physical contact. When within a few yards of the car, pressing a button on the remote can lock or unlock the doors, and may perform other functions. A remote keyless system can include both a remote keyless entry system (RKE), which unlocks the doors, and a remote keyless ignition system (RKI), which starts the engine.
Updated: 20190202_131403 UTC]
(Score: 3, Informative) by dwilson on Sunday February 03 2019, @04:47PM
Let's be clear here, and clarify that there are varying levels of 'all that stuff'. I would hope Everyone is immune to one sort or another. No one is immune to all of it. I wouldn't be terribly surprised if some people are not immune to any of it. Poor sods.
When I see a movie where main.character has $flashynewphone, and then notice a friend has $flashynewphone, and then a family member starts rabbiting on about the wonders of their $flashynewphone... yeah, I don't 'think' I'm immune to that. I am. So are most of the people on this site.
-However-
When I see a movie where a character happens to purchase a jar of, oh I don't know, pickled cauliflower? Of course I'm going to look for pickled cauliflower next time I'm at the grocery store. I like pickles. And cauliflower. They are tasty. That advertising worked on me, I had no idea pickled cauliflower was even a thing before that.
Or a friend/family member tells me about the new all-on-one laser printer they bought or used and how nice it was, and I think to myself, "I should really look in to that, my fifteen year old laserjet is on it's last legs", and then I look up the specs and features, and a week later Google shows me an ad for it and oh, it's on sale locally at whatever-store? Of course I'm going to buy one. If I don't need it now, I will soon, and it'd be handy to have a duplexer and scanner. That advertising worked on me. It reminded me I needed a newer printer, and steered me towards a particular one, helped along by the fact it had features I considered required or desirable.
But the $flashynewphone? That didn't work on me, largely because I don't need or want one.
I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that advertising does not work unless there is something there to work with in the first place.
mmmmno. I don't buy that. It would take a lot of supporting data to convince me. Preferably served with pickled eggs.
- D