Friday, October 20, 2006
The barbarians have entered the city and they're in the men's room
I am not a Luddite. I make my living helping people peddle high-tech products. And technology has produced some things that genuinely make life better, like high-speed dental drills (anybody old enough to remember the old belt-driven ones?) and clumping kitty litter.
But the people at Wizmark have crossed the line.
Their "Interactive Urinal Communicator" sits in the bottom of the urinal looking like one of those plastic thingys with the blue or pink deodorant puck inside, but it's not. Oh, no. There's a discrete interval after you walk up and unzip - that is, when you have become a captive audience - and then it starts talking to you, reading you an advertising message or displaying it on a waterproof screen surrounded by flashing lights. What are you going to do at that point - leave in disgust? I don't think so.
I retain some small hope that the whole thing is a joke.
But the people at Wizmark have crossed the line.
Their "Interactive Urinal Communicator" sits in the bottom of the urinal looking like one of those plastic thingys with the blue or pink deodorant puck inside, but it's not. Oh, no. There's a discrete interval after you walk up and unzip - that is, when you have become a captive audience - and then it starts talking to you, reading you an advertising message or displaying it on a waterproof screen surrounded by flashing lights. What are you going to do at that point - leave in disgust? I don't think so.
I retain some small hope that the whole thing is a joke.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Good on ya, cherry tree
Thanks for another great season. We'll be admiring the bark through the winter.
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Bus Stop
The other day, due to a combination of events involving auto repair and Eric Clapton, I wound up taking public transportation home from work. Our office, out there as it is in wild turkey country , is not well served, to say the least: there is precisely one bus line in walking distance, and it only runs once an hour from 4:00 PM to 7:00 PM, and not at all after that. It connects to another bus about a mile from my house. On paper, the whole trip would be maybe an hour and a bit door to door.
Well, that was on paper. It was about twice that in real life, since the 6:00 bus never showed, and I waited for the 7:00 with three other people at a bus stop out in the woods in the growing twilight. It could have been worse: it was fairly warm and not raining.
We chatted after a while. It wasn’t a grand Chaucerian moment, with great stories and enlightenment all around, but it was pleasant enough. Marie, who works for a company a couple of buildings down from us, lives in Dorchester and normally takes two trains and this lame-o bus to get to work. She wants to get a car, for obvious reasons.
And if we can’t do better than the public transportation we have in this country, she will as soon as she can, and who would blame her. And there’s another few pounds of carbon dioxide into the air every day.
Along with mine, I hasten to add.
Well, that was on paper. It was about twice that in real life, since the 6:00 bus never showed, and I waited for the 7:00 with three other people at a bus stop out in the woods in the growing twilight. It could have been worse: it was fairly warm and not raining.
We chatted after a while. It wasn’t a grand Chaucerian moment, with great stories and enlightenment all around, but it was pleasant enough. Marie, who works for a company a couple of buildings down from us, lives in Dorchester and normally takes two trains and this lame-o bus to get to work. She wants to get a car, for obvious reasons.
And if we can’t do better than the public transportation we have in this country, she will as soon as she can, and who would blame her. And there’s another few pounds of carbon dioxide into the air every day.
Along with mine, I hasten to add.
