[Apheared]

Welcome my son... welcome... to... the machine.

I saw the future today, staring in disbelief... was at K-Mart in Astor Place... there's SELF SERVE CHECKOUTS.

I kid you not; a very small station with a LCD, a barcode scanner, and a credit card swiper. You scan your stuff, you bag your stuff, you pay for your stuff.

You'd think it'd be easy to steal stuff; but nope... there's already security guards at the anti-theft scanners checking bags and receipts, so what difference does it make who packed the bag?

Prices better drop a ****LOAD if this is the future.... instead of 12 checkout people, there's 3 (cause some people can't/won't check themselves out)

I'm quite scared. First tollbooths. Then gas pumps. NOW, it's gonna be everything retail.

Where have you been? It's alright... we know where you've been.

 

[ai0tron]

They have these things at the local grocery stores here in Savannah. I am cool with it as long as the people who lose their jobs are finding something usefull to do... Typically the wait is much shorter for them and I also like the fact that I determine how fast I go through the thing. I do see it as a semi-invasion of the machines but it's more like I am just walking behind the regular register and checking myself out. Which like I said is something I enjoy because I determine how fast I go through it. If im in a hurry I can hurry, if I want to relax a bit I can relax a bit.

Now that you got me thinking about it. I am starting to wonder. First they will have these machines. Then they will add others, and more, and more until there everywhere. They will probably add machines that x-ray us next and then infrared. AND my god have you been in Wal-Mart lately?? Talk about AMAZING security, they must have a team of people running the 500 different cameras they have monitoring the isles in those places. I would never even THINK of stealing form Wal-Mart

**** You Sam walton! And then finally we won't be allowed to leave our homes we will just put money in a slot in front of our mini-ICU that keeps us alive because we aren't allowed to get up and move and all the physical labor is done by machines anyway. And then one day I find out that the machines took over and they didn't even tell anyone they just keep us around so they can worship us as their creators because all beings must have a sense of origin and thusly purpose... Oh well life WAS good. The robots will probably meet their end by some parsitic computer virus that transmits itself via RF from the center of black holes. And the virus will perish with the end of the universe.... So obviously the point of life is a good stereo system! It's the whimsical pointless things that "waste time" and are "unproductive" that are essentially what make life worth living for IMHO. LONG LIVE HEADPHONE FORUMS!!!

 

[rickcr42]

we know WHERE you are and WHO you are talking to (the new cell phone chips that track individuals)

we are WATCHING YOU via all these cameras at traffic stops.bridges,lightposts,stores,parking lots.ATM machines "look into the camera please , and DO smile"

we know where you go and what you buy online,old news

we know what you watch and when (SATV phone connection)

and NOW we know what you EAT

MUHAHAHAHA

BTW-those 500 secuity guards were checkout clerks at one time , same IQ level so no re-training is in order

1984 ,1984,1984

the future is now

 

[skippy]

next thing you know they're gonna replace tokenbooth guys with metrocard machines... wait, they are going to.

 

[dhwilkin]

Eh, I'm not a big fan of self-serve checkouts at grocery stores. Mainly because I'm too lazy to actually bag all the stuff up myself.

On a semi-related note...
// rant mode on
You know what really pisses me off? People (usually old people) that insist on writing checks in the freakin Express Lane! I mean, WTH? That completely negates the benefits of using the Express Lane in the first place! I could deal w/ it if they at least had most of it filled out beforehand, but NNNOOOOO...

// rant mode off

 

[rickcr42]

hey skippy , about a year agosome poor person lost his divorce because his wife came up with the records for EZ pass with time and date of eveytime he went through

seems he was supposed to be elsewhere

 

[jude]

......had a hilarious experience my first time through the self-checkout (she was a veteran already at this point).

I was the one scanning items through, and I got to our bunch of bananas, and it wouldn't scan. The computer went "beep beep" and a message popped up on the monitor asking me to place the item underneath the camera, so I did. A few seconds later, the monitor indicated "Bananas" and the unit price. I looked at my wife with an expression of absolute astonishment on my face and said, "Holy crap! Did you see that?" I had my neck bent and craning severely, trying to get a look at the camera on this marvel of technology. "This computer must be able to discern shapes and colors to come to a determination on what is placed under the camera! That's remarkable! I wonder..."

"Umm, dear..." my wife interrupted me, laughing. She was also pointing -- pointing at a lady sitting behind a podium. The camera was at the self-checkout to show her, on a monitor at her podium, what I was putting under there so she could determine what it was. Not so remarkable after all.

We were all laughing pretty hard about that until we left.

Duh.

 

[jerikl]

Hey now... Sam Walton was a cool guy

Heh, that's pretty funny Jude... I've never used one before, but I wonder if I would have been thinking the same thing.

 

[Rotareneg]

They've had 'em at Dillons (a grocery store) for quite a while, they're pretty handy if you're not buying a bunch of stuff.

 

[mbriant]

I had a Coke machine talk to me after I'd deposited my money in it at a gas station.....nearly gave me a heart attack. It thanked me for depositing my money and reminded me to collect my change.

That was several years ago and it was the only one I ever came across. Perhaps someone did have a heart attack from it.

 

[dhwilkin]

Most Coke machines are indifferent. A few, like the one mbriant stumbled across, are actually friendly.

But mbriant was one of the lucky ones. He didn't come across one of the "killer Coke machines" (AKA "natural selection at work")...

http://www.oxfordstudent.com/01tt04/news/4/

 

[jerikl]

Haha I think the guy that sued because of the good deals story is a bit sad... stupid people lookin for money in the wrong way in my opinion.

 

[Voyager]

Hey Mbriant, we had a coke machine like that at the supermarket I work in. Then a car crashed through the front window and killed the machine but no one got hurt. Now we have a non talking coke machine.

Rickcr42, just because I'm a checkout clerk it doesn't mean I am as dumb as a security guard. Most are but not me

 

[rickcr42]

sorry man , foot in mouth disease

any security guards out there I pissed off too ?

Talking coke machines reminds me the first time I got near a car with a talking alarm system

"STEP AWAY FROM THE VEHICLE < YOU ARE TOO CLOSE < IF YOU DO NOT ...................."

I thought about the failures in ROBOCOP and almost peed myself laughing,got some strange looks but I would not step away

I wanted to see what happened next

ALL HELL BROKE LOOSE MAN !!!

horns going,lights flashing,windshield wipers clacking

TOO DAMN FUNNY

My wife pretended she was not with me

 

[dhwilkin]

LOL, rick man you're too much...