posted by
CoolHand
on Friday September 30 2016, @10:23PM
from the starting-the-weekend-with-a-good-drinking-related-story dept.
from the starting-the-weekend-with-a-good-drinking-related-story dept.
A cocktail bar owner has installed a Faraday cage in his walls to prevent mobile phone signals entering the building.
Steve Tyler of the Gin Tub, in Hove, East Sussex, is hoping customers will be encouraged to talk to each other rather than looking at their screens.
He has installed metal mesh in the walls and ceiling of the bar which absorbs and redistributes the electromagnetic signals from phones and wireless devices to prevents them entering the interior of the building.
Why you hating on millennials, Bro?
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Landlord Installs Faraday Cage to Block Phone Signals Because Social Media is Ruining British Pubs
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(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2016, @10:28PM
n/t
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Appalbarry on Friday September 30 2016, @10:38PM
I would kill to find a bar or restaurant anywhere near us that would allow a conversation with my dinner partner.
Between room design by acoustical idiots, and the ubiquitous overly loud bad eighties music, it seems to be a fruitless search.
Don't get me wrong, I don't mind music, and loud music, in the right setting - like a concert or rock bar.
It's just that I don't want it all of the time, everywhere.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday September 30 2016, @11:33PM
The music thing really pisses me off as well, especially in restaurants. It's a lot like a laugh track in the sense that it's an organization trying to dictate to you how you should feel using an utterly misguided approach -- such as painting an operating room in cheery colors which only makes the dying more aggravated. If I'm out with somebody I'd rather hear them without all that bullshit noise in my ears.
No, that music doesn't make me associate a positive mood with your store and all others with its playlist so that I feel an overwhelming urge to buy more of your shit.
Yes, it makes me want to rip out your PA system with my bare hands, punch your manager, choke the living shit out of the whiny effeminate crypto-Christian artists who produce that crap and their marketers who get it everywhere.
Makes me yearn for the good ol' days of elevator Muzak. It was cheesy, but at least it was real honest background music, and not annoying.
Now the latest trend in bars is to allow people to download apps where they can play their own songs on the jukebox. This leads to such idiocy as morons putting on their theme song seconds before they walk in the bar (which loses its novelty after the first fifty-fucking-thousand times they do it, a hamhanded pseudo-leitmotif as cringy as WWE character intros) or using it to strategically cut off a conversation others were enjoying. I'd go for the geezer bars, but it's too easy to startle them. You have to be reeeeaalllll slooooowwwww with them or else they get jumpy and start stuttering.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @12:57AM
You don't really sound like a person that should be drinking much, if at all. You seem to be carrying a lot of misdirected rage. Did you have an unhappy childhood? Can you remember being dropped on the head when you were a kid?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @10:17AM
Ethanol-fueled may be an asshole, but his rage is anything but "misdirected". In fact he directs it at a lot of things ... and often.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @12:52PM
And every village needs one.
(Score: 4, Informative) by GungnirSniper on Saturday October 01 2016, @01:22AM
The Engineering department of about 500 people at my company threw a party recently, and the DJ was pointless and loud (and pointlessly loud) to the point that everyone sat as far from his speakers as possible. Nice going there, extroverted party planners. It's hard enough being the new guy, and it's even harder to talk and make those new connections if you can't hear half of what's said. #epicfail
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Saturday October 01 2016, @03:41AM
And why don't they play Chinese music in Chinese restaurants anymore?
Everything but!
Like driving a sports car while playing "the wheels on the bus". Sort of.....errm .... car analogy, mumble mumble
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Saturday October 01 2016, @04:05AM
That jukebox thing seems interesting and could have potential.. imagine if someone set it so that everyone could enter their preferred jukebox volume category* (silent, hushed, normal, loud+, deaf+) and have the thing sample the preferences every five minutes for a new volume-target to aim for with a slow (5min) ramping.
Just have it poll for wifi/bluetooth to see which devices' requests to consider.
Then again - I would love too see such a system everywhere.
* more options would cause excessive spoofing of preferences
+ what seems to be what is used today.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Dunbal on Friday September 30 2016, @11:59PM
Perhaps you need to move up-market a little. I have no trouble talking with my wife at the restaurants I go to. Of course dinner is usually over $150.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @10:19AM
Dinner for $150?!? That costs more than my date charges.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Dunbal on Saturday October 01 2016, @11:47AM
I rest my case.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @10:12PM
If you're taking a hooker out to dinner you're doing it wrong...
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday October 01 2016, @02:56PM
If you've got that kind of money, great. But it's beyond fucked up that you have to spend that kind of money to get some peace and quiet while eating out.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Saturday October 01 2016, @05:55PM
Depends on where you live. NYC has an extremely competitive restaurant scene. You can get quiet, excellent places for a couple dollars more than McDonald's. Many travellers opt for fast food chains when visiting a new city, thinking it's the cheapest option, but if Soylentils happen to visit NYC I'd urge them to go for real restaurants. They will have a vastly better experience than TGIFriday's and wind up spending about the same. If you're really on a budget, check out Yelp for the food carts. There are some in Midtown and other neighborhoods that regularly form lines.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @01:21AM
I would kill to find a bar or restaurant anywhere near us that would allow a conversation with my dinner partner.
You can. It's called going out on Tuesday night instead.
My fellow misanthropes have gotten use to slinking in the shadows when most spots are dead. Everything is still available, it's just turned down a few degrees. A few dates have been uneasy at the lack of cacophony, which is okay; we probably wouldn't get along that well.
Others have settled in to intimacy such a setting provides, even if it takes a bit to get use to.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @03:45AM
> You can. It's called going out on Tuesday night instead.
We found a quiet restaurant for Friday night (not a bar). Mid-days it's an independent coffee shop in a strip mall with a grill, also homemade soup, salads and sandwiches -- very busy. But on Friday evening the fancy coffee crowd must go elsewhere. Fancier restaurants in the same plaza look jammed. We are often the only customers and we know the staff well enough that they often turn the music off when we come in. Or, they don't mind if I walk around behind the register and turn it down myself.
Our local friends know that we can be found there for Friday dinner, and they drop in sometimes -- no planning required.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Saturday October 01 2016, @03:42AM
You get loud music because the same acoustical idiots have every conversation echoing around the room's bare walls and hard ceilings.
Its a desperate attempt to make it so everybody else isn't listening you and your date.
With enough business the din of voices will keep most conversations publicly privately, but in an empty house they can be heard everywhere.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Saturday October 01 2016, @03:49AM
Indeed. I can usually here the people a few tables over more clearly than those at my table. Usually because the people I'm with aren't yelling.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Saturday October 01 2016, @09:33AM
Dude you think THAT is bad? All the bars and restaurants around here either play 1.- Easy listening crap that makes you feel like you are trapped in an elevator, or worse 2.- 80s and 90s shit kicker music, Achey Breaky Heart kinda shit.
I would KILL for bad 80s pop music, at least that can be enjoyed for the cheese factor,80s country? Is just painful.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Valkor on Friday September 30 2016, @10:41PM
He's in the wrong place, we need one of these where I live.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2016, @10:49PM
A phone can be a crutch for people in a situation where they are alone and being "checked out" by strangers. Holding a phone, there's always something for women to do before Mr. Right taps them on the shoulder and makes some witty opening line.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday September 30 2016, @11:07PM
Crutches are for the disabled. Healthy people can stand on their own.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @02:03AM
But unfortunately people are far from healthy. Most people are far from healthy.
Pulling away a crutch just leads them to fall in far more devious ways. Frittering away the moments of your life on a phone is probably one of the least destructive, and getting them to a point of being comfortable in their own skin is a large undertaking. Most people won't accomplish it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @10:08AM
Frittering away the moments of your life on a phone is probably one of the least destructive, and getting them to a point of being comfortable in their own skin is a large undertaking.
Just play this everywhere to remind these people that they're just: [youtube.com]
If nothing else, the alarm clock sounds might jolt them out of their handheld device induced haze.
Besides, those millenials listen to crappy, crappy music.
Warning: The following links are NSFE*!
Have you ever heard Fallout Boy [youtube.com], Justin Bieber [youtube.com], The Kings of Leon [youtube.com] or Britney Spears [youtube.com]? Yuck.
*NSFE = Not Safe For Ears
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday October 01 2016, @11:45AM
Oh please, Pink Floyd lyrics?
Why that's nothing compared to the artistic styling Nicki Minaj:
If you cute then the crew can roll
If you sexy eat my coo-coo raw
Put ya cape on, you a super hoe
2012, I'm at the superbowl
Stupid hoes is my enemy
Stupid hoes is so whack
Stupid hoe shoulda befriended me
Then she coulda probably came back
Stupid hoes is my enemy
Stupid hoes is so whack
Stupid hoe shoulda befriended me
Then she coulda probably came back
You're a stupid hoe
You're a stupid hoe
You're a stupid hoe
And I ain't hit that note,
But, fuck you stupid hoe
Yeah, fuck you stupid hoe
I said fuck a stupid hoe,
Yeah, fuck a stupid hoe
I said fuck a stupid hoe,
Yeah, fuck a stupid hoe
I said fuck a stupid hoe
Yeah, fuck a stupid hoe
Seriously though, I nearly flubbed typing the 'artistic styling' line due to laughing so hard I couldn't type.
If you truly want NSFE....this should be near the top. It make BS* totally listenable in comparison!!!
I miss lyrics with meaning.......
*Britney Spears
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Saturday October 01 2016, @03:43PM
-1, ghetto language. UGH! Listening to rap is bad emough, I don't want to READ that uneducated, ignorant, aliterate bullshit.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @04:32PM
-1, ghetto language. UGH!
You buggin', nigga!
It ain't rap, it hip-hop, homes.
We just be chillin' like a villain, mothafucka!
Why you hatin'?
just take yo skinny ass up outa here!*
* Translator is available [youtube.com].
(Score: 1) by Francis on Saturday October 01 2016, @02:59PM
Interesting that you say that. I once went on a date with a deaf woman and having cell phones to text back and forth made things a lot easier.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday October 02 2016, @10:33AM
ASL would have been easier but yeah that's a nifty life hack.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Sunday October 02 2016, @04:39PM
I would have learned ASL if things had worked out for that very reason. But, it takes a fair amount of time to learn any form of sign language and the dictionaries aren't as accessible as they are for other languages. So much of the meaning of the signs comes from rather subtle movements that don't show up very well in the few dictionaries that exist.
She really revealed, just how little I use my eyes for these days.
(Score: 2) by jasassin on Tuesday October 04 2016, @07:31AM
Roesetta stone and Spanish. Make more money, and meet lots more women. Four years as a relay operator, and miho.
jasassin@gmail.com GPG Key ID: 0xE6462C68A9A3DB5A
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday September 30 2016, @11:11PM
Or a way for wimpy dudes to look more important and less desperate than staring at the hot blonde's tits, kind of like Linus' security blanket -- with the added potential for discrete creepshots.
On another note, perhaps we should let them have their connectivity -- have you ever heard millennials actually converse? They start every sentence by actually saying, "Hashtag..." and were raised with a whole generation of shit uncontroversial humor and political correctness, so they're incapable of being controversial or funny. The best conversation you're gonna get out of them is hearing them bash Donald Trump, and even that's a pretty low bar.
My generation(technically the ass-end of millennial but gen-X is spirit) interprets having one's phone out while sitting at the bar as, "Don't fucking talk to me."
(Score: 5, Funny) by NotSanguine on Friday September 30 2016, @11:13PM
I think you may be losing your edge, Eth.
I just modded you 'insightful'
Or is it still too early out in your neck of the woods to be half in the bag yet?
No, no, you're not thinking; you're just being logical. --Niels Bohr
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 30 2016, @11:38PM
#DrunkenLawnEnthusiast #KillAnyoneOverThirty
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Saturday October 01 2016, @06:40AM
87 is the new 30, or something like that. Smart phones don't kill pubs, douchebags using them in lieu of interacting in a real social environment do.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday October 01 2016, @11:31AM
Sure smart phones killed pubs. They're reading instead of drinking.
At least they're reading.....sorta...
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by archfeld on Saturday October 01 2016, @05:43PM
When they develop an App that can 3D print me a good stout I might concede that the pubs are dead, but until then all I can say is that smart phones have shut up the retards that used to yell into their cell phones and made my darts league a little more interesting. More idiots walk in front of the dart boards during 501 games now then ever before.
For the NSA : Explosives, guns, assassination, conspiracy, primers, detonators, initiators, main charge, nuclear charge
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @03:03PM
have you ever heard millennials actually converse?
No and apparently thank God for that.
They start every sentence by actually saying, "Hashtag..."
Uuugggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh there was a nub on IRC that tried to insert hashtags as part of their text. I had to explain they were spouting off channel names as IRC doesn't know what a hashtag is. I can't believe Twithole made it this far - I want my Internet back.
(Score: 2) by rigrig on Saturday October 01 2016, @02:47AM
Holding a phone, there's always something for women to do before Mr. Right taps them on the shoulder and makes some witty opening line.
I couldn't make up my mind, please pick one response to read, and ignore the other one:
a) Appearing engaged, discouraging uninvited people from bothering you anyway since...uhm, never!
b) I too fondly remember those good old days when women going out with a friend were never bothered by complete strangers.
No one remembers the singer.
(Score: 3, Funny) by mcgrew on Saturday October 01 2016, @01:12AM
Proof [wearelovely.com]
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @02:38AM
Fuck gen-xy/millenials/hipsters and generally everyone under the age of 45. Life has existed for millenia before the fucking. god. damned. intarwebzorz. It still does. It will continue to do so. Thank you God for providing.
(Score: 4, Touché) by hemocyanin on Saturday October 01 2016, @03:51AM
I think you're in the wrong place. Why don't you try the print version.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by butthurt on Saturday October 01 2016, @02:51AM
In Saudi Arabia, people were using Bluetooth to communicate inconspicuously. People in this pub could do the same.
http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/cell-phones-bluetooth-and-islamic-dating-in-saudi-arabia-among-youth.123918815/ [ign.com]
In Saudi Arabia, a fatwa was just issued against the practice.
http://www1.adnkronos.com/AKI/English/Religion/?id=1.0.1355799787 [adnkronos.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @03:32AM
Watched a recent interview with Dr. Turkle -- well known as the MIT shrink who studies life online. She quotes recent research indicating that the simple act of putting a smart phone on the table immediately lowers the quality of the conversation. Just the possibility that a conversation might be interrupted by an incoming text is enough to steer people toward simple topics and away from deeper conversation.
She would love this bar with Faraday cage!
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Saturday October 01 2016, @04:13AM
I'm curious if that effect still applies when everyone plays the "place the phone face-down, first one to check takes the tab"-game (not that rare in buisnessluches)
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @04:49AM
Um, as soon as you are playing a simple game of chicken like you describe, aren't you at a low level of conversation by definition? I can't reproduce Sherry's comments from her video, but she's talking about deep/meaningful conversation between good friends.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Aiwendil on Saturday October 01 2016, @06:23AM
If you set it up wrong it is. But the normal way to set it up is that everyone agrees on the rules in advance (as in - when you set a date and place for the meeting) in order to give them a chance to tell people not to call - and the idea behind it is to reach a compromise between turning off your phone and being able to take emergency call..
On a personal note - I tend to find conversations to be deeper and more meaningful when augmented by smartphones (ie - stay away from messaging and social media, but use it as a pure information device [it is handy to be able to bring up a photo of the person you are discussing to remind the other who it is, or being able to take notes]).
But then again, some of the best conversations I've had has been when both of us was reading books and used the talking as intermissions (it slows down the pace of the talking to the point where you can think everything over mid-conversation)
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @11:32AM
. But the normal way to set it up is that everyone agrees on the rules in advance (as in - when you set a date and place for the meeting) in order to give them a chance to tell people not to call - and the idea behind it is to reach a compromise between turning off your phone and being able to take emergency call..
What? what the fuck is wrong with you if you can't do without your phone for a fucking hour or two?
I get it, if you have kids or a sick parent or some other thing that is a responsibility that's on you. However, 99% of the time it's just stupid bullshit. If there's a real emergency, someone will (or should) know where you are and either come get your unfortunate ass or just call the fucking bar/restaurant/whatever stupid ass place you're at.
If, for example, your ill parent dies. Yes, it's important that you know about it, but there's not a god damn thing you can do, so what difference does it make if you find out an hour or two later?
If your child(ren) is injured or something similar, you should have left it (them) with someone competent to take care of them, if not your children should be removed from your custody because you're completely irresponsible. Of course you want to to know about something like that as soon as possible, which is why they should know where you are.
tl;dr: Listen you moronic fucking special snowflakes, you don't *need* that hunk of silicon and plastic! It's just a tool and everyone got along just fine without them until 40 years ago, and 99.995% of people got along just fine without them until 20 years ago. So turn that fucking thing off, you whiny pieces of whale shit!
(Score: 2) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday October 01 2016, @11:58AM
40 years ago we still used payphones. The very few cellphones that existed were large, heavy, extremely expensive and worked almost nowhere.
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @01:30PM
I still use payphones if I can find one--but it's been awhile! Short of that I manage somehow without a cell/mobile. Usually it's as simple as a little planning ahead.
Yesterday I realized I could stop at Trader Joe's after another errand (Trader's is far enough away that we don't go there often). Didn't have a shopping list so once I got in the store I asked to use their phone at customer service. Called home and figured out what to get.
(Score: 1) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Saturday October 01 2016, @06:39PM
At this point, I think cell towers outnumber payphones.
(Score: 2) by Aiwendil on Sunday October 02 2016, @09:22AM
I've had friends commiting suicide when I've had my phone turned off (my voicemail could give people nightmares)...
But more than that - pretty much anyone on-call/on-jour needs to be reachable even when they are technically not working (also - there are people working with things where some modes are fail-lethal [I work in such a field where both exists])
Oh, and ~"someone should know where you are", that is why we have the cellphones ffs.. and don't give me any of that "just tell them ahead of time", since it would assume you are expecting a failure (at which point you shouldn't have left) or tell people where you are at all time (might as well wear an ankle-monitor then), especially if things normally run for decades without intervention.. and as stated - suicide in friends are kinda hard to plan for.
Oh, btw, 40 years ago my field used radio-communication (handed out walkie-talkies to people on-call), heck, I've had cellphones around me since the late 80s (so, nearing 30 years [NMT]).
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday October 01 2016, @03:50AM
One of my top 5 things to do, is to read while I eat. I used to buy a newspaper or bring a book or magazine with me to lunch -- now I just use my phone. I'm not unfriendly or anti-social, but when I'm on my lunch break, the last thing I want is to run into a friend or acquaintance and then have to talk to him or her rather than read whatever I was enjoying.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @07:07AM
I like bars for the atmosphere, not the socializing. I don't like to be drunk and high and bored at the crib when I can be drunk and high in a fun atmosphere full of people who look like they're enjoying themselves, especially when I can't hear the inane conversation and can zone out and read on my phone. But then again, I'm pretty anti-social and don't like talking to people and prefer the simplicity of masturbation to sex, so I'm probably not anywhere near typical.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @08:26AM
You sound spot-on for the Soylent demographic.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @09:33AM
No, if he was spot-on for the Soylent demographic, he would stay home instead of going to bars.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @10:27AM
You sound spot-on for the Soylent ingredients
FTFY
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 01 2016, @04:41PM
A Farage cage can bring a fun atmosphere to a pub.