posted by
mattie_p
on Sunday March 09 2014, @11:08AM
from the we're-just-as-not-evil-as-google dept.
from the we're-just-as-not-evil-as-google dept.
fx_68 writes:
Bloomberg Business Week reports that Disney is investing $1 billion (or milliard) in guest tracking. From the article:
Jason McInerney and his wife, Melissa, recently tapped their lunch orders onto a touchscreen at the entrance to the Be Our Guest restaurant at Florida's Walt Disney World Resort and were told to take any open seat. Moments later a food server appeared at their table with their croque-monsieur and carved turkey sandwiches. Asks McInerney, a once-a-year visitor to Disney theme parks: "How did they know where we were sitting?"
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(Score: 1, Interesting) by bucc5062 on Sunday March 09 2014, @11:25AM
What could possibly go wrong?
I remember two stories of theme parks that were created for the ultimate experience. Westworld and the episode in Star trek (Pleasure planet). In the first the company did something wonky, the robot goes on a killing spree and wipes out the park. In Star Trek people weren't aware of the planet's special features and "issues" ensued till all was resolved.
I doubt this would turn into a Westworld, but the sense is that people are just entering a well oiled machine. People are the raw material, money is the final product and once they enter the assembly line, they are well fleeced of their value.
I am not fan of the Rat. I really don't see the joy or value in standing in like for hours for a few moments on thrills. Companies like Disney steal our time and legally fleece our pockets and the sad things is, some say thank you very much. Really did not have thought to go to Disney, but after reading that article, it's a certainly.
The more things change, the more they look the same
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 09 2014, @11:57AM
Disney is guilty of countless crimes against true culture. This is yet another.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by lx on Sunday March 09 2014, @12:24PM
You may hate everything Disney stands for (a sentiment shared by me) but that doesn't exclude their products from being part of culture.
If you care to point me to the Definitive List Of True And Approved Culture then my life will become so much easier.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Barrabas on Sunday March 09 2014, @02:05PM
E.D. Hirsh's book Cultural Literacy [wikipedia.org] has exactly what you're looking for.
The index lists topics that every English speaker needs to be familiar with to be considered culturally literate.
There are also a number of online cultural literacy tests [readfaster.com] to help you determine which areas need work, and Houghton Mifflin's The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy [bartleby.com] for reference.
You're welcome.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Daniel Dvorkin on Sunday March 09 2014, @04:18PM
FTFY.
Pipedot [pipedot.org]:Soylent [soylentnews.org]::BSD:Linux
(Score: 3, Interesting) by lx on Sunday March 09 2014, @05:05PM
To be honest, to me these lists more or less resemble Bluff your Way into Management books. What's the point of cramming in culture so you won't look out of place at a dinner party? Either live it with passion following your own compass or forget about it. Out there in the real world people talk about reality TV and the Oscars. High Culture has devolved into a niche interest for weird people.
(Score: 2) by demonlapin on Sunday March 09 2014, @10:05PM
(Score: -1, Troll) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday March 09 2014, @03:03PM
If written carefully by an attorney, vetted by a title insurance broker, a Covenant on the deed for your new home can actually be quite a good thing.
In my own case, the deed to our place in Owl's Head, Maine stated that while our neighbors owned the land upon which our long (~100 foot) driveway lay, we had an easement to permit us to pass over it so would come enter from the road, pass through our neighbor's property onto our own property.
That is of crucial importance, because the owner just previous to the people we purchased from, was a self-employed autobody specialist who built our oversized two car garage with two separate workshops to one side, so that he would not have to lease a commercial auto shop in Rockland, thereby enabling him to work from home without paying for a lease.
That was quite specifically forbidden by the neighborhood's residential zoning, there were all many of infractions, like tow-trucks dragging in wreck automobiles in the middle of the night, so the town of Owl's Head was eventually successful in forcing that jackass to sell.
However while he was living there, working out of his garage, making all manner of loud noises 24/7 and so keeping the wonderful couple that later became our neighbors from ever getting any sleep, my neighbors were simply not permitted to prevent that jerk from using his driveway that cross their property.
Every Condominium Complex such as the one where I'm staying in my mom's basement as I write this, has a Neighborhood Association, more commonly known as a Condo Association.
I was dismayed when Mom told me she was buying a Condo, but in Mom's case, as well as my Aunt Peggy's case, they all worked out real well.
Everyone in Mom's complex pays monthly dues to the Condo Association, which uses most of that money for the hourly pay of a handyman who is always on-site for minor repairs. The condo association also takes care of mowing mom's lawn, tending to her flowerbed, repainting the exterior of her home. If she ever needed a new roof, the Condo Association would figure that out with Mom having to point it out to them, then hire a roofing contractor to replace it.
Unfortunately it is quite common for Neighborhood Associations to pull such jackass stunts as forbidding some guy to erect a flagpole then fly an American flag in the front yard of his own. To be clear, on his own property, but that's not his private property as it would be were he not a member of a Condo Association.
Not to be deterred, he painted his entire house with red and white strips, big blue arrays with huge white stars!
It is unlawful to forbid anyone at all to dry their laundry outside on a clothesline. From time to time a city will pass an ordinance to forbid clotheslines, but there have been many civil lawsuits, pressed by the Federal EPA or DOE or what have you. Always the laws are overturned, so that that city's residents are then free to dry their clothes outside.
However, it is also quite common for Neighborhood Associations to forbid clothelines. I don't actually know but I do suspect it's that with with my Mom's Condo Association. She has a well-designed laundry room, top quality washer and dryer, and no one in her complex or the other one right next to it dries their clothes outside.
In my understanding, while a Condo Association rule that forbids clotheslines is just as unlawful, the only ones who have standing to sue in Civil Court are members of the Condo Association who are actually "Injured Parties". That is, they are Condo owners who attempted to dry their clothes in the Sun, but were forced not to by their condo association.
GET THIS:
Quite a long time ago - like thirty or forty years ago, Disney got the idea in its head to invest in Florida Real Estate.
So it bought up a big chunk of land, then designed, built then sold to many new homeowners, a substantially large town called "Celebration".
I expect that if you were to rebuild the engine of your Ford pickup in the driveway of your own home, which is completely cool just about everywhere, would you to do that in Celebration, The Rat would come through your phone then give you a Telewedgie.
I don't recall much about it, but quite a long time ago, the cover of I think Mother Jones or some manner of Commie-Pinko publication, depicted and aerial view cartoon-like picture of Celebration. It's head and shoulders just out of view above the top edge of the illustration, the giant black body, block arms, white gloves and white shorts of The Rat had its arms all the way around Celebration, The Rat's hands clenched tightly together.
IIRC, many Celebration residents tried to do quite reasonable things that any homeowner could do on their own property, but the Celebration Neighborhood Association would send Disney Staff Legal Counsel to their doors to give them boots to their heads.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Daniel Dvorkin on Sunday March 09 2014, @04:16PM
Last year, at the age of 44, I visited a Disney park (Epcot) for the first time in my life. It was interesting, and all in all I'd say I had fun. No doubt, it was slickly packaged and planned entertainment, and kind of soulless--but it was very slickly packaged and planned entertainment. Disney's had a lot of practice at that, and they're very good at it. So while it's certainly not something I'd want to do all the time, I can see why adults would want to do it at least occasionally.
KIds, of course, are a different story. I remember from when my daughter was very young the drug-like effect Disney movies had on her, and I imagine if we'd had the money to take her to one of the more kid-oriented parks in those days she'd have gone nuts over it. And let's face it, part of being a parent is wearing a tolerant smile through childhood manias.
Pipedot [pipedot.org]:Soylent [soylentnews.org]::BSD:Linux
(Score: 0) by lajos on Sunday March 09 2014, @12:22PM
that's magic!
(Score: -1, Troll) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday March 09 2014, @01:57PM
My employer, a consulting firm, would have covered my relocation. I expect I would have gotten a raise as well as a private office with a door I could shut.
However I regard not so much gambling as immoral, as I do regard as immoral those who profit from the misfortune of others.
In my particular case, my employer had been retained by a Casino to ensure that the Casino kept adding value to the vacation enjoyment of The Whales, so they would keep betting their entire life savings on a single spin of the wheel.
It wasn't just that my code would send free beer when someone swiped a Whale's credit card.
I don't really know what our deliverable really did as I flatly refused to have anything to do with it. But I do know that it was a multi-year contract, and that it required so many coders as well as close-up-and-personal meetings with our Casino client, that we went to all the expense and trouble to open a second office about one thousand miles from what previously had been our only office.
I have absolutely no idea if the Casino's provided love than one can rent but not purchase to The Whales, but Kuro5hin's procrasti is a professional equities trader. He has made quite clear that he can beat the market, and consistenly so. I know how that's done myself - I was once employed by a "Quaunt", that is, a "Quantitative Investment" firm, but again I came to regard what is now called "Sub-Millisecond Precision High-Speed Trading" not only as immoral, but the reason we really DO need to Occupy Wall Street
procrasti takes pride in his work, he is quite clearly the consummate professional.
So imagine procrasti's great joy, at being tasked with chauffering Australia's very finest Ladies of the Evening to his own employers Whales, not gamblers but large, active investors.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 09 2014, @02:07PM
Do you actually have a point?
(Score: 4, Informative) by ticho on Sunday March 09 2014, @02:15PM
No, that guy just likes to type. His posts are lengthy, sometimes start on-topic, but then he just goes on in a random direction. Best just to ignore him.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday March 09 2014, @02:38PM
In the case of TFA, Disney is spending a billion so that not it's Amusement Park Whales, but all of its, uh, "Guests" will want to return next year, purchase more tickets for this trip, dine in all the park's restaurants rather than eating at a restaurant that Disney does not own, somewhere else in Orlando. (Orlando?)
I expect Disney will never admit to it, but I am dead certain that Disney has its own Whales too. I know Damn well that my mother goes totally over-the-edge with great joy whenever she rides "It's a Small World" at Disneyland in Southern California, but she's only been there a very few times, only goes on any chosen ride just once, and only goes at all when we drive down there to visit one of our relatives.
Not because my mother is of modest means, but because my mother is quite thrifty as a result of her childhood poverty.
Now imagine someone like my mother, who was an executive of a successful company, whose options paid off in an IPO, who could fly round trip first class to anywhere she damn well pleased. My dear friend Regan F. Gill, also a Process Architect like myself, has that kind of wherewithal.
Now Regan doesn't get into Disneyland, but imagine someone like my mom, but with Regan's cash.
That Regan-Mom would then by a Disney Whale:
"Mrs. Crawford? Hi! It's me, Johnny Doe. We met last month at Disneyworld in Orlando."
"Oh hi Johnny! I had such a wonderful time in It's a Small World!"
"I just wanted to let you know that just for next weekend, we have a two-for-one special on admission, complementary room service at the Disneyworld Hotel, as well as a ten-percent discount on your travel if you should choose to fly on United Airlines."
"Really? Surely you're pulling my leg!"
"No, it's right here on the poster that I found in the employee lounge during my coffee break this morning."
I know all about sales and marketing; I don't have the cash to pay United Airlines to cut ten percent off someone's airline tickets, but anyone who requires in-person or telephone direct sales for their livelihood knows how to pull such stunts.
In reality, there is no two-for one special and there is no complementary room service.
Disney's "Whale Watchers" are just making Regan-Mom and their other Whales believe that's the case. In return for one free ticket and a hundred bucks worth of room service, maybe two hundred for mom's airline ticket discount, maybe a grand to grease the right palm at the airline, Regan-Mom blows five grand at Disneyland, its restaurants and the Disneyworld Hotel.
You don't even have to gamble to obtain free liquor in Nevada.
Just hang out where someone else is gambling intently. Watch them carefully. Study their methods intently. Celebrate their jackpots with them. Console them when the lose.
Eventually some manner of Cute Young Thang will gyrate her hips up to you, present her Mounds of Pleasure for your inspection, then ask for your drink order.
She appreciates it a great deal if you tip, but she does not complain if you fail to and she does not charge you for your drinks.
If you're a heavy drinker - I'm not, I really do prefer coffee - you could get blitzed out of your mind in a gambling hall, because the Casino hopes to lubricate your financial sensibilities away.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 4, Funny) by mrider on Sunday March 09 2014, @02:54PM
...it's way too crowded. :)
Doctor: "Do you hear voices?"
Me: "Only when my bluetooth is charged."
(Score: 3, Informative) by TheloniousToady on Sunday March 09 2014, @08:20PM
Good one. It rang a bell, and I thought at first that it was a Goldwynism [quotationspage.com] but it turned out actually to be a Berraism [wikiquote.org]
(Score: 1) by mrider on Monday March 10 2014, @03:27AM
Darn, I was hoping to use that link if I got a troll mod... :)
Doctor: "Do you hear voices?"
Me: "Only when my bluetooth is charged."
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 09 2014, @11:35PM
Sort of like how sites get slashdotted (or soyled) even though nobody reads the articles.
(Score: 1) by Rivenaleem on Monday March 10 2014, @10:13AM
soyled, soyled ... yes, I think I can use this. I like how that sounds in my mouth.
"Spring is here, I'm so happy I soyled my plants" - stolen from a pic on imgur
(Score: 5, Interesting) by cmn32480 on Sunday March 09 2014, @04:52PM
It is likely that they are using the RFID chips that are in the wristbands that they now use as tickets. All the Disney parks now tie your tickets, hotel reservations, meal plan, and a glut of other services that you can purchase to that chip. And it all comes with the explicit warning "DON'T LOSE YOUR WRISTBAND".
RFID locator systems aren't that hard to deploy, nor are they really that expensive anymore. I work on the VAR side of this technology and have some good experience in the deployment of them. If you can get down to a 6 to 10 foot radius (which in NOT hard with triangulation and the right software and equipment, in this instance, they probably get down to a 3ft radius), finding the people who look like they are waiting for food shouldn't be that hard for the servers.
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday March 09 2014, @07:07PM
So people get RDID chips on their wrists and then are surprised that they are tracked?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Aiwendil on Sunday March 09 2014, @05:10PM
1) Print a QR-code or similar (with information that allows the Skynet to identify the corresponding rfid-chip) on the receipt and on the _inside_ of then band.
2) Create an app that can photograph and parse said QR-code
3) Have that app notify the Skynet of the id-number acquired from the QR.
4) Give that app a lightweight map (zoom-able) of the enclosure/park
5) Have the app periodically (and on startup/manual refresh) poll the Skynet for the latest locations of the bands registered
6) Allow groups of friends and families to finally find each other easily
7) Also implement a mode that show the queue-lenght of different attractions, restaurants and toilets to allow people to pick places with shorter queues.
8) Make sure the app is available from google play, apple store, microsoft store, etc..
(Score: 2, Interesting) by cmn32480 on Sunday March 09 2014, @08:58PM
All of this already exists for Disney. Totally creepy, but exceptionally useful in the event you lose a child, or, God-forbid, of a kidnapping.
This is why the customer/audience experience at the Disney Theme parks is as good as it is for the people that go. The wife and I are taking the kids later this year, and the privacy implications trouble me a little, but it is a part of the cost for seeing my kids go bat shit over the experience.
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Rivenaleem on Monday March 10 2014, @10:29AM
This might be an unpopular view on this and similar sites, but I can see no issue with this. Disneyland Themeparks are private property, and when you go there you are effectively opting in to tracking while on their premises.
If you came to my home and I asked you to wear a tracking device while there, you can simply refuse and not enter my house.
I'm all for privacy, but just like you have no expectation of privacy in a public park, or out on the street, why should you expect a home-level of privacy while at Disneyland?
Now I don't want to build a strawman or some other logical fallacy (like saying that since a school is public, you should have no privacy and thus we should be able to track kids), but I feel that in this specific case, when you go to somebody's private property, and they want you to follow certain rules, and most importantly, you are not FORCED to be there, then I don't see why we should consider it creepy that they, in a place where having a child go missing is a very real and terrifying threat, use a simple thing like a tracking device, which only works while in the park.
(Score: 1) by cmn32480 on Monday March 10 2014, @11:31AM
I 100% agree with what you are saying. As a "guest", you volunteer for the tracking.
The creepy factor comes in when the customer/audience doesn't understand the tech behind it. I (and probably many others on this site) have a pretty good knowledge of how it works. Hell, I have the ability to set up a similar (though MUCH smaller scale) setup in my office for demo purposes. The tech aspect to this is pretty neat. and is a lot more common than most people realize.
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 1) by Aiwendil on Monday March 10 2014, @03:42PM
Care to throw me a keyword or five for "readers" or similar to implement such tracking? I'm actually looking into doing something like this for the next place I move to (mainly since my girlfriend and I have _very_ different preferences on aircondition, airtemperature and light, so I plan on automating the living daylight out the place) but due to not knowing the proper phrases to search for I find very little* (and I would prefer not to having to reinvent the wheel)
* = other than setups that require contact, for my plans I require a distance for reading of at least 2ft)
(Score: 1) by cmn32480 on Monday March 10 2014, @06:24PM
Look at Motorola Solutions readers. LLRP is the language that they need to be programmed in. Alien Readers makes good gear too.
"It's a dog eat dog world, and I'm wearing Milkbone underwear" - Norm Peterson
(Score: 2) by TheloniousToady on Sunday March 09 2014, @08:26PM
Gosh, that's almost a creepy as when you order food at Sonic through your car window and they bring the food directly to your car. ;-)