Off the air.

February 2, 2009 5:17 PM

The internet has concluded its broadcast day. Thank you for tuning in. Please join us again tomorrow when the internet resumes it's regularly scheduled programming. (via)
posted by Meatbomb (46 comments total)

idiot...I had headphones on!
posted by HuronBob at 5:20 PM on February 2

Shit Sandwich.
posted by dbiedny at 5:23 PM on February 2

Its worse than a rickroll.
posted by 5imian at 5:23 PM on February 2

What the hell did you expect? It does exactly what it says on the tin, and I think it is excellent.
posted by Meatbomb at 5:26 PM on February 2 [6 favorites has favorites]

This is about as obnoxious as if i had posted a comment saying "1st!!!!11!!" 5 or 6 comments down. Totally a shit sandwich.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 5:26 PM on February 2

Oh man. That's, like, making me feel old.

It should play the national anthem when you first visit.
posted by Michael Roberts at 5:26 PM on February 2 [5 favorites has favorites]

Go to bed.
posted by longsleeves at 5:27 PM on February 2 [1 favorite has favorites]

Thank you, Noscript.
posted by fleetmouse at 5:28 PM on February 2 [2 favorites has favorites]

Pfft. Where's the indian head?
posted by Hovercraft Eel at 5:30 PM on February 2 [3 favorites has favorites]

They don't use this for "signing off".

Bars and tone are put up before video is sent so the receiver can calibrate their playback equipment. It's usually done in an ENG room before a feed from a reporter in a truck or from a news gathering organization like CNN or APTV.
posted by Zambrano at 5:31 PM on February 2 [1 favorite has favorites]

longsleeves: "Go to bed."

This triggered a Pavlovian response that made my body think it was 3:00 AM.

The kids today wouldn't understand.
posted by Joe Beese at 5:31 PM on February 2

one day we'll be nostalgic about this.
posted by man vs sun at 5:32 PM on February 2

posted by Hovercraft Eel Pfft. Where's the indian head?

Right here!
posted by mattdidthat at 5:44 PM on February 2

Oh dear god I miss this soooo damn much...

"And now we go over to News 24" is just not the same. At all.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 5:47 PM on February 2

Best of the television?
posted by Lemurrhea at 5:51 PM on February 2

they're heeeeeeeerrreeeeeeeeeeeee
posted by Potomac Avenue at 5:52 PM on February 2

As recently as 2006, CBC Newfoundland would ease you out ... before smacking you with The Tone. Think of it as a precursor to this Internet tradition (which still makes me flinch even though I damn well know what's coming up).
posted by maudlin at 5:54 PM on February 2

Right before I clicked it I thought "I hope there's an annoying high-pitched whine!" and I wasn't disappointed.
posted by blue_beetle at 5:56 PM on February 2

Where's the flag for 'hurt my ears?'
posted by rokusan at 5:57 PM on February 2

This really needs to be preceded by the national anthem.
posted by empath at 5:57 PM on February 2 [3 favorites has favorites]

God, I still remember when television stations signed off, when the nights were quiet, dark, and there was peace. I miss that.
posted by 517 at 6:01 PM on February 2

Whoa, plate of shrimp. I was looking up test cards just now.
posted by lekvar at 6:02 PM on February 2

That made me giggle.
posted by Evangeline at 6:03 PM on February 2

A preview of what you can look forward to the next time Metafilter is getting a massage.
posted by gman at 6:05 PM on February 2

Uh, a nosound link..Hmm.....and I need those fricken colorbars in a window all the time to tweak video projection systems...thank you!
so nowthat I'm totally off topic.....I don't get why those look so much better than a hirez jpeg...something about browser pallettes or something?
posted by gigbutt at 6:06 PM on February 2

AETN had a beautiful video of Arkansas footage at 6am that immediately followed this color pattern. I miss it
posted by rubah at 6:07 PM on February 2

On the other hand, the internet pioneered throwing porn at my face while I'm just minding my own business, and Comcast took 10 years to catch up on that.
posted by qvantamon at 6:10 PM on February 2

"God, I still remember when television stations signed off, when the nights were quiet, dark, and there was peace. I miss that."

I agree.

I also remember when the radio station came on every morning at 4:30am. they played
The Star-Spangled Banner as I was wrestling with the cold leather of a 64 Chevrolet named Betsy, as my mother drove me to the babysitters.

On the bright side; those days may come back...
posted by QueerAngel28 at 6:33 PM on February 2

"...when the internet resumes it's regularly scheduled programming..."

Sir, the apostrophe police would like a word with you.
posted by mr_crash_davis mark II: Jazz Odyssey at 6:34 PM on February 2

Pfft. Where's the indian head?

Who needs the Indian head when you had the Indian sign language version of The Lord's Prayer followed by this and THEN the test pattern?

Oh, the days when TV was local, quirky, and random.
posted by dw at 6:45 PM on February 2

Before clicking on your link one should really go here or here. Or for heaven's sake you could even click here or why not here.
posted by brookeb at 6:51 PM on February 2

Rocks.
posted by tranquileye at 7:08 PM on February 2

I like it, but I think it would be better if they played the national anthem over some video of the waving flag, and then cut to the indian head with the tone.

8 hours later, an episode of Howdy Doody. "Say kids, what time is it?"
posted by sambosambo at 7:25 PM on February 2

Animated CBC sign on/off - a super-fast trip across Canada. "baa!"
posted by Zack_Replica at 7:28 PM on February 2

That sucked. Glad I had my speakers up. I almost had a frigging heart attack. Flag this.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 7:32 PM on February 2

Flagged.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 8:08 PM on February 2

It's fucking test-dash-pattern-dot-com-slash-with-dash-sound-dot-aich-tee-emm. If you didn't know exactly what you were getting into before you clicked, your internet license ought to be revoked.
posted by uncleozzy at 8:14 PM on February 2 [2 favorites has favorites]

So like, is it supposed to make your computer completely unresponsive to every command and key but a hard boot? Because that was the coolest part. And by coolest part I mean really annoying.

However, fun fact, my desktop is your classic indian head 'Please Stand By', so that was kind of amusing.
posted by six-or-six-thirty at 8:24 PM on February 2

Can I use this to calibrate something?
posted by chillmost at 12:17 AM on February 3

If you guys think this is bad, you should hear some of the sites on YTMND.com. They are called "ear rape" sites, and for good reason.
posted by wastelands at 1:53 AM on February 3

Around here they nobody goes off the air anymore. They just run 4 hours of infomercials to round out the clock.
posted by Megafly at 10:08 AM on February 3

ROLL TAPES NOW
posted by Servo5678 at 10:20 AM on February 3

Wow thanks for the link! This is a thing I made. Sorry the sound has raped your ear. I intended the sound to be the option rather than the default. That's why the index page has no sound on it.
posted by joelf at 10:42 AM on February 3 [1 favorite has favorites]

ROLL TAPES NOW

WE GET SIGNAL!

MAIN SCREEN TURN ON!
posted by 5imian at 10:46 AM on February 3

I changed it to the quiet one, so people can hear sound if they want.
posted by mathowie at 10:54 AM on February 3

so nowthat I'm totally off topic.....I don't get why those look so much better than a hirez jpeg...something about browser pallettes or something?

There aren't any images used, it's all CSS styling to define the bars and the bars themselves are just empty DIVs. So, it's closer to a vector image, if you want to compare it to an image. That's also why it scales perfectly to your browser window looking perfect the whole time.
posted by drstupid at 1:38 PM on February 3