Slashdot Mirror
McDonald's Denies Prof's Claim Staff Attacked Him For Wearing Digital Glasses
Sparrowvsrevolution writes "In an update to a story posted on Slashdot earlier this week, McDonald's has responded to the claims of Steve Mann, a University of Toronto professor and augmented reality pioneer who says McDonald's staff in Paris assaulted him tried to pull off a computer eyepiece he's worn for decades, then threw him out of the restaurant. McDonald's confirms that Mann was ejected from the premises, but denies that there was a 'physical altercation' with staff or that they destroyed any of his property. That last claim is especially dubious, since Mann has posted photos taken from his eyepiece that show McDonald's staff ripping up a doctor's note that he showed them to explain his need to wear the device. The company still hasn't explained why Mann was removed from the restaurant, but Mann has speculated that it has a policy against recording."
release the security cams!
And looks like someone failed hamburger college!
Ok, McD's... let's see the security footage.
You're in the court of public opinion and it ain't lookin' good.
Terminator or some other evil cyborg from the future.
Well, I guess technically, since Canada is in North America, Professor Mann would be an american. However, usually when people refer to someone as an american, they mean a citizen of the U.S.. Professor Mann is a Canadian.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
It's open season on McDonald's workers since they've got carte-blanche to attack you. Get them first with as much blunt force trauma as possible and see if those cocksuckers at the corporate office stay the fuck quiet. Hint - most close really late. Should be easy to disable their cars and pick them off.
...using organic video and audio sensors, onto a storage medium consisting of neurons and synapses. Does this mean they would throw me out, too?
Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
Do you also stand behind assaulting customers?
I always thought of the McDonalds experience as follow:
1. You know their food is shit before you start.
2. It tastes like shit while you eat.
3. You feel like shit afterwards.
4. (They) Profit
Now they've apparently added steps:
1.5 They treat you like shit while in store
Nice to see they're still working to grow the general shity-ness of the experience.
This is a PR nightmare for McDonald's and they're only making it worse.
Nonsense. I read a number of newspapers and Internet news sites, and this is the first I've heard of it, and like most people, really don't care that much. I frequent Burger King (Home of the Whopper), but I think that realistically, only a very tiny number of McDonald's customers know about this, and of those, few care.
Your first paragraph is entirely hyperbole.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Weigh all the evidence before leaping to judgment. This is the last "restaurant" I would consider for any meal in Paris. Perhaps he had tastebud implants, too?
by keeping him from eating McDonald's.
I stand behind the freedom for someone to claim they've been assaulted, and to concoct an unbelievable story in which they carefully avoid any description of what happened just before the alleged assault.
I stand behind their freedom to show pictures of people ripping up a piece of paper and to claim anything they want about what that paper said or who owned it.
I even stand behind their freedom to claim that, despite a description of a brazen attack and insistence upon the availability of evidence, police and other officials simply ignored their report.
But assault? No, of course I don't stand behind that. But I don't see what assault has to do with this story.
MacDonald's hostility to photography, like that of Starbucks, is ridiculous.
Modern digital cameras easy to conceal. Besides, anyone with genuine interior design talent could visit one of their business, eating a burger while seeming to be doing no more than casually glance around. They could then go away and recreate what they saw almost as precisely as a photograph.
These blunders are probably the result of lawyers getting involved. A lawyer will attempt to deny anything that he thinks the other side can't prove. MacDonald's lawyers apparently aren't aware of just how much got recorded.
One suggestion to Slashdot readers. If you're in a situation like this, do your best to use your phone to record what's happening without being noticed. That'll help the good guy in the dispute. You might even practice what you should do, from starting up a camera app to perhaps slipping it in a shirt pocket with the lens able to see everything that's happening.
--Michael W. Perry, author of Untangling Tolkien
But it's cool for McDonald's (and most retailers) to record you, with their own security cameras?
Why would anyone engrave "Elbereth"?
Not sure if this is true, but the previous story about this said that the device does not normally record (for more than a few seconds anyway, before it's overwritten), but that the damage caused by the altercation made the images stay in its memory.
Apparently, the device only starts recording when it's damaged.
yeah, it's obviously one of the thousands of pieces of paper that McD employees routinely tear up during any normal shift.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
That explains everything!
#DeleteChrome
The company still hasn't explained why Mann was removed from the restaurant
It's pretty obvious - we've all seen the photo of Mann and his headgear. That McDonalds obviously has a "no shirt, no shoes, no service" policy in place.
#DeleteChrome
That's interesting because when I learned Spanish somewhat longer ago, "americano" already usually meant someone from the U.S., and when I visited a Latin American country a little over 20 years ago, the locals all asked if I was "americano", meaning from the U.S. So, the Spanish word "americano" has meant someone from the U.S. for quite some time now (admittedly, the Spanish speaking world is a large and diverse place, and my experience only really encompasses Mexico and Central America).
The main reason for my original post was that I am pretty sure that the poster I replied to thought that professor Mann was a U.S. citizen and used the term "american" in that manner, when in fact, Professor Mann is a Canadian.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
nations.
William of Ockham had no beard. The most likely explanation is that it was chewed off by squirrels every morning.
Why doesn't he do a Data Protection Act (all EU members have one) request on the CCTV footage, he will have to pay a small fee but he can get any footage he appears in.
Didn't McDonald's remove pink slime about 3 months before the story became mainstream?
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
there are signs on every McDonald's across europe (no pictures/no dogs/no smoking)
Yes, restaurants usually hate dogs on premises, but even in France, a restaurant can be fined from 150 to 450 Euros for refusing service to a disabled person because of their service dog (at least, that was the fine in 2003, that fine may have gone up since then). And in the end, it really doesn't matter what the sign supposedly says. A sign at the door can never supersede what the law of the country you're in dictates.
And it doesn't matter if the person at the food counter doesn't believe in someone's disability. Usually, a Medical Doctor is asked to make that call, not some fast food minimum wage worker. This point is important because many people can be considered legally blind even if they're only half blind, or have a form of blindness that doesn't make them appear blind to the casual observer.
The same goes if you don't believe someone's medical documentation. It's not your call to tear it up, even if you believe it's BS. If you have any doubts, just call the police and ask them to investigate it. Do not take the law into your own hands. A McDonald's T-shirt doesn't imbue you with special authority to just tear up other people's medical documentation.
They asked the "perps" individually, and they all said they treated Mr Mann with the utmost respect. No Kidding! What did you expect them to say? "Oh yeah, we beat that customer up."
At least when I was there...
I was in a Paris McDonalds in 2005, and pulled out my camera to take a photo of the menu board. Before I could even focus a man tapped me on the shoulder, point at the camera, and shook his head. He had on a McDonalds uniform but I think was security. He didn't leave my side while in the store. I just wanted my Royale with Cheese photo!
A McDonald's T-shirt doesn't imbue you with special authority to just tear up other people's medical documentation.
But.. But.. what about Mayor McCheese and Officer Big Mac?
Despite pictures of the assault?
Actually you are completely right. The equivalent would be people from, say, the UK, calling themselves "European" in exclusion of everybody else in the same continent. Even more curious since America's name come from an Italian cartographer, Amerigo Vespucci, who only visited South America.
The company still hasn't explained why Mann was removed from the restaurant, but Mann has speculated that it has a policy against recording.
Not sure about the arches (have refused to eat there for the last 36 years - that's my right, don't mod me down because you eat there), but I've seen a sign on company owned Burger King restaurants that forbid customers from using cameras on the premises. This warning is on the same door sticker that advises customers that the store is recording them! I asked the manager and he said, yes, it does apply ever to someone wanting to record a child's birthday party there. When I said "It makes you wonder and worry about what the company is trying to hide" he just laughed and said "Yea.".
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
No sign legalizes physical assault.
Great Intellect...
And if the European Union were a nation, the citizens would be referred to as European -- and while the term would still apply to those of Europe as a whole, it would also apply to those of the nation with the word in its name. Unitedian? Statesian? No, citizens of the United States of America are -- following me camera guy? -- American.
If your usage of the term is ambiguous you use North or South American. Referring to both continents at the same time is about as common as referring to Europe and Asia together.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
Buy a ski mask or walk at night.
The restaurant was already recording you, FYI. It's just a question of who is doing the recording. Much like police: they will happily film you, brutalize you if you attempt to film them, and conveniently lose the tapes if one of their own cameras catches their corruption.
Great Intellect...
i can't stop thinking that yes, his device DOES store images in long term memory.
that IS recording. so he outright lied about not taking pictures with the device.
other than that, i think that their reasons were probably that they have illegal stuff going on at that store. like illegal labor or something.
And people couldn't, you know, have taken a photo of your open window and posted it on 4chan if it was really worth looking at, without the involvement of Google?
You're not as fucking interesting as you tell yourself.
Great Intellect...
From TFA:
"Google-glass like computer eyepiece".
No, you're doing it wrong - it is the other way around :-/
I am skeptical of Steve's side to all of this.
Note the following:
*I see many commentors claiming that Steve's apparatus is screwed to his skull and is necessary. Many of Steve's students have routinely seen him walking around without a computer. I have never seen any evidence that he has any sort of implants, and am pretty certain he doesnt have stuff screwed to the skull. Notice how he doesnt clairify these things.
* As far as I can tell, his single entry blog is the first place I've seen him refer to his HMD as Eyetap Digital glass. This is undoubtadley for him to associate with the Google Glass project.
*Take a look at his wikipedia entries under "gloggee". He has a penchant for making up neologisms an claiming to ha e invented things that he wasnt really involved with.
Suck that corporate cock. Some guy did something that didn't really even violate the policy of a fast food restaurant and got beaten up - obviously it was his fault!
In a civilized society, people would be in jail right now.
Great Intellect...
anyone with genuine interior design talent could visit one of their business, eating a burger while seeming to be doing no more than casually glance around. They could then go away and recreate what they saw almost as precisely as a photograph.
But that couldn't serve as evidence against health code violations (or proof of customer assault). When a company forbids taking pictures at their store (even for a kid's birthday party) but also says that they are recording you, one should wonder what they are trying to hide.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
It would only be the equivalent if UK was called the United Kingdom of Europe.
and live without a word for someone from either the North or South Amercas.
Why would you need a word for that? I mean, how often do you really use, say, "Eurasian"?
av
--
o
...I would boycott them. Really, he ate in MuckDonalds in FRANCE!!!! He deserves to get beaten.
I love stacking my barbecues in the shed at the end of summer - you can't beat a bit of grill on grill action.
But I don't see what assault has to do with this story.
The camera is broken and it retained what it saw because it registered an impact. The camera was attached to this person's head and could not be removed without special tools. So we either have to imagine some quite elaborate deception on the part of the professor or he really did receive an impact to his head. I guess he could have fallen or something like that, but then why would he make up a story like this about something that happened in public so that it would be easy to prove that he was making a false accusation? Something that was probably recorded by McD's own cameras? While also claiming to have video of the act which would make it even easier to disprove once that video gets requested as part of any case. It makes NO SENSE at all for a professor to so publicly tarnish his reputation like this if there was nothing to what he was claiming. It might be what's going on here, but it's not a likely scenario.
Sure, but this is clearly not the case here. The main point is that many people UNDERSTAND "American" to mean "U.S. Citizen", almost exclusively. This is the root of this predominant confusion. When you say "Eurasia" you include both Europe and Asia, not Europe alone.
In fact, the word in Spanish is "Estadounidense" which is pretty much the "Unitedstatian" you seem to be mocking.
Perhaps a recipe has been declared a state secret?
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1079364
his headgear does not regularly record images. no more so than, oh, i don't know. anyfuckingbody who has a cell phone.
the device has the capability, but I don't see people being tossed out for pulling their phone out. they COULD be taking a picture, you never know do you?
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
McDonalds advertises that they have 11,500 (US) restaurants that provide free WiFi. I've often used a netbook to check my email, sometimes while waiting at the counter for the order to be served.
Considering how many webcams there are, the policies seem a bit inconsistent. How would they know? I use Skype, and no doubt have make video calls from there.
Here's the thing: It's a device he had implanted because he wanted it, not because he needed it. If I decide to implant a camera on my feet and then go walking around in sandals in a Catholic school that has a "no cameras aimed up a girl's skirt" policy, they would be in the right to kick me out. The guy has a history of being a jerk in order to promote himself, and this fits that history.
When I learned Spanish, over twenty years ago, "americano" meant anyone from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego. Now it means anyone from the US and no-one else. This change happened in English long ago and I think we're going to have just leave the word to the Yanks and live without a word for someone from either the North or South Amercas.
The rating of -1 is symptomatic of what slashdot has become. A parroquial and narrow-minded anglosaxon forum
full of bigotry.
And then you ask why you are hated?
He hasn't released detailed video because he wants to give McDonalds the chance to respond first. He's only posted some images with the faces edited out and basically made the threat to release the rest.
And I hope he does release the rest now.
Of course I'm mocking that term. It doesn't exist in English, and pissing over the proper term in English is foolish.
The Germans don't call themselves German, in German. It's Deutschlander. That doesn't mean that I get to call the Germans stupid for calling themselves something other than German.
Fun Fact. New Guinea is part of Australia. The continent, not the nation. Australia is also a nation, and its citizens are Australian. There's no confusion there, is there? No? There's no confusion when referring to Americans, either. It's understood that you're speaking of citizens of the United States of America, not Canadians, not Brasilians, not Mexicans, not Cubans.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
But America is the greatest country on Earth! If we keep up this arrogance and ethnocentrism maybe it will come true!
There's an old conversation about the word "Yankee". If you're in Mexico, anybody north of the border is a Yankee. If you're over the border, its someone from above the Mason-Dixon line. If you're above the Mason-Dixon line a Yankee is someone from New England. If you live in New England, you know a Yankee is some one from Maine. You go to Maine looking for a Yankee and they'll tell you its an old hard tack farmer out in the country. Finally, if you go up to Maine, find yourself an old hard-tack farmer, and ask him where you can find a Yankee? He'll tell you "Well, yuh take thet ruhd theh, noth 'bout 12 miles, till yuh come tuh the fok, n'beh right, go 'nother 8 miles till yuh get t'the end. When the ol gent with the shotgun comes out t'meetchuh, why thet's a Yankee. Eyuh."
As someone who is a dual citizen with Colombia and the US, and who has worked all over Latin America. An Americano generally means someone from the US, a gringo is a Canadian, a US citizen, and even in many cases white europeans. Candadians are always considered Gringos, despite what they think.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
McDonald is definitely not alone in having episode whereby their employees roughing out customers
Watch the following youtube vid :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0jdtfksbgc
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
It means both depending on context. A lot of times they will be referred to as 'yanquis' although that could be looked as derogatory. I've given up arguing about this though.
To avoid confusion, I mostly say USA instead of America but there's no simple alternative to Americans (in Spanish that would be 'Estadounidenses').
The thing that would sit nice with non USA Americans is that if, by chance, they refer to themselves as Americans, USA Americans don't come telling them that they're wrong.
We're all right and the meaning depends on context.
"Science can amuse and fascinate us all, but it is engineering that changes the world. " - Asimov.
This is the 2nd report of physical assault by McDonald's staff at that same location to hit the news:
http://onyoursi.de/2011/08/whats-your-problem-assaulted-for-taking-a-photo-of-le-menu/
McDonald's insists Sheldon wasn't touched during the confrontation. But Sheldon remembers it differently.
"She grabbed me by my arm and jacket and threw my back against the open door, all the while grabbing at different parts of my coat with one hand and pinning me there with another," Sheldon told me.
And McDonald's explanation of what occurred does not match the photo. If lying about the situation seems to work, then of course the employees at that location are never going to feel like assaulting customers has any consequences.
Tough shit. Just like a tourist doesn't have to ask permission of thousands of people on the sidewalk when he takes a photo of a street in Manhattan, no one needs your permission to take a photo of you (or of the much more interesting thing behind you) when you're in public. Don't like it? Stay home. Inside your home is the only place where you have an expectation of privacy, and also perhaps inside restrooms. Anywhere else, you're fair game for photos.
Except that it did violate the policy, and he was warned several times. The smart thing would have been to pick up his ranch wrap and take a hike. Instead he chose to provoke an altercation to raise awareness of his imaginary medical condition.
If you mod me down the terrorists will have won
The Muslim nation probably doesn't care too much about people taking photos of them since they're all unidentifiable in those burqas anyway. But Americans scream and bitch about anyone taking their photo instead of taking steps to avoid the problem.
He got attention for similar stuff in 2002 http://it.slashdot.org/story/02/03/14/2051228/airport-security-vs-cyborg-steve-mann Indications are that he uses this stuff for augmentation of reality, not for regular day-to-day life.
The responses from all the asshole ugly Americans here doesn't surprise me one bit. This country (USA) isn't civilized anyway, it's more like what you'd get if Zimbabwe won the lottery.
What surprises me is that this happened in France. I guess France isn't as civilized as I thought.
These days, whenever someone is in New England and asks about Yankees, we kick their ass and send them back to New York.
Dr. Mann has had this sort of thing happen to him his entire professional career. Here's one from 2002
http://it.slashdot.org/story/02/03/14/2051228/airport-security-vs-cyborg-steve-mann
None of the Colombians (or Mexicans for that matter) I asked said "gringo" would refer to a Canadian - that's reserved strictly for Yanquis from my experience.
Private security in France do NOT have the right to physically assault someone even if they did something like break some anti camera rule in a fucking fast food. The ONLY thing they can do is to call the police. They do not have any other right. And certainly NOT the right to destroy private property.
The only time violence is permitted for any group besides the cops themselves is when someone's in danger and you don't have any choice but make the assailant submit with physical means.
This isn't the Far West. This isn't America. This is civilized France. As a French myself I can guarantee that the McDonald's employees were in the wrong.
Guards in supermarkets and malls don't even have the right to search your bags if they suspect an act of thievery although they CAN make an attempt at stalling/preventing you from fleeing. But only a cop can search your bag. (there are a few exceptions but irrelevant in a day to day context.. those few exceptions being stuff like airports, ports...)
New Guinea is part of Australia the continent? Reference please. Certainly not in common usage and definitely not known to most Australians (incidentally, Tasmania is part of the Australian continent and a State of the Australian Commonweatlh, not a separate country as many foreigners seem to think).
When I was in Ecuador, Yanks were 'Yanquis' and everyone else was a gringo. It's actually slightly different in the different countries of South and Central America as I understand it, but Australians definitely mean citizens of the USA when they say 'Americans'. However, we're much more likely to just say 'Yanks' anyway.
yeah, it's obviously one of the thousands of pieces of paper that McD employees routinely tear up during any normal shift.
you make it sound so bad, but what else would they use as pie filler? sawdust? the ground bones of orphans? The fact that they use human labor just means more jobs for the economy.
So...I asked this in the other story and got modded down to -1. Why the hell does this guy have a doctor's note? What medical condition requires him to wear goggles? Or is it just that he is a "cybernetic organism" and to remove his goggles would be to "kill" him? How about a scan of this document? What are the credentials of the physician that wrote it and what is this guy's relationship to him? Did he just get a buddy to write it so he wouldn't have to take off his precious goggles and become a mere human like the rest of us?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
I commend you on your proper Maine dialect, particularly the spelling of 'fok'.
Funny story: when I was a sixth-grader, I made it all the way to the Maine state spelling bee, which was hosted at UMaine Orono. I was living in Castine at the time, so it was a big deal to go to the "big city" (Bangor... oh the irony). The winner got a college scholarship. Anyway, they made us draw straws to determine the order of the spelling bee lineup. I got #1.
So, we're standing there on stage, before the curtain opens and they decide to throw us a practice round. I get the word 'banana'. Piece of cake. B-A-N-A-N-A. After the practice round, they whisk open the curtains, say some things to the crowd, and then we're off. Again, I get the first word. The judge says "The word... is 'biggert'."
"'Biggert'?" I ask.
"Yes," say the judges.
OK, I've never heard this one before, but... here we go...
B-I-G-G-E-R-T
"Wrong. The correct spelling of 'biggert' is B-I-G-O-T."
I was crushed, and humiliated, because I was out on the first word in the first round. My mistake was twofold:
1. I should have asked for the word in a sentence, and
2. The Law of Conservation of R's means that New Englanders take the R's out of some words, but they always end up putting them back in somewhere. For example, "Law and Order" is pronounced "Lohr and Ohdah".
If you REALLY want to have some fun, try calling any major corporation (Comcast, Sprint, Microsoft, Marriott, whomever) and announcing to the CSR that you're recording the call for training and quality purposes. Assuming they don't hang up on you INSTANTLY, the conversation isn't going to progress beyond "I'm sorry, we can't continue until you stop recording."
Pointing out to them that THEY'RE doing the exact same thing to YOU will get you nowhere. Telling them that you'll discontinue recording when THEY do will get you hung up on. Telling them you'll quit recording when they tell you how to obtain your own copy of their recording later will get you hung up on. Simply put, no corporation will EVER voluntarily or knowingly allow you, a peon, to record your conversation with them, even though they feel perfectly entitled to record their conversation with YOU, and use it against you if it suits them.
There should seriously be a law granting consumers the automatic reciprocal right to silently record any conversation where the other party announces that the call is being recorded & makes it clear that you do NOT have the option of continuing the call unless you agree to let them do it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_(continent)
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
Well, I'm Spanish, and "americano" has always meant "someone from the U.S.A.".
My site
Admit it, you hate New Englandahs! You biggert.
The company still hasn't explained why Mann was removed from the restaurant, but Mann has speculated that it has a policy against recording.
Now that's where his credibility falls off a cliff. Let me reinact his version that would reach that end result: "Sir, we're asking you to leave but we're not telling you specifically why. Try to speculate on why it may be while you're in the parking lot."
Here's my version: "So...this paper says it can take pictures? GTFO, perv! You can't covertly snap photos of people with a camera hidden in your glasses, it's making our customers uncomfortable."
Which sounds more reasonable to you?
how often do you really use, say, "Eurasian"?
Maine biggerts use it a lot when they see the mail ohdah brides they wah shipped.
"Our goal is to provide a welcoming environment and stellar service to McDonald’s customers around the world."
No shit! =]
Mr. Mann saw stars for hours after visiting a McDonald's ! =P
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
Great story! Loved it.
Also, new englanders (when outside of natural habitat) turn on the heavy new england sauce when they wanna flirt with girls. It's hilarious.
You do indeed have a choice not to use sidewalks. Sidewalks are public space. They are not private space.
Look up 'expectation of privacy.
- Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
In some states you can go ahead and record all of the calls that you want and you do not have to tell anyone.
Increasing intolerance to public cameras. No violence even has been documented plenty of times before. However, the contraption on this guys face looks more like a prosthesis rather then a camera. I bet that before the presentation of Google Glass that this guy was seen as an invalid of some sort and given the respect of not mentioning that device on his face.
But now people have all seen a similar device the penny drops and suddenly this guy is no longer an invalid but a peeping tom. Never mind that cameras are the size of a pin head and can be concealed absolutely everywhere.
Shopping in an electronics store I took a picture of a price tag so I could looking the model number online for reviews. I mean this is 2012. Why write the number down when you can take a picture. A sales rep reprimanded me for taking the picture. After I explained why I took it, he cooled down a lot. But there certainly was an over reaction as if I was walking out with the stores trade secrets.
Unless you invented a way to transcribe what your synapse saved onto an electronic emdium sharable and viewable by anybody youa re using a weird version of recording used by nobody else.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
his headgears sole purpose is to record images and to process them, and he wears them 24/7
just being there he recorded every moment of the transaction, its not like he said stop a moment let me whip out my celphone, fumble with a few buttons, get out of the sunlight so we can see whats going on
the dude has a HD camera affixed to his head dumbass
I don't know the specifics about why this guy has a camera attached to his head, but it's a part of his day to day life and has medical documentation confirming that the device is attached to his head. I don't know what else the documentation says, but this is enough. Now, if the store in question didn't like it they should have asked him to leave, not tried to physical remove said item. Personally, I'd call the damage an assault and would press criminal charges.
Now, granted he may have wanted this device implanted for nothing more than his own amusement, no reason for physical assault by employees. Let's change the specs a bit based on a report I saw posted the other day on slashdot. What if the person assaulted was blind and the camera was used to generate a visual image that was sent directly to the optic nerve? What would it look like? Who's to say it wouldn't look just like this? So a blind guy goes into McDonald's using his augmented visual device where the employees destroy his device and throw him out of the resteraunt. No being this guy is from a foreign country and doesn't have a cell phone hooked into the local grid he's blind and on the side of the road asking for someone to locate some help for him. Next, since his glasses are now broken and are expensive 60K I believe to replace he no will spend months without vision while he files insurance paperwork to have the glasses replaced.
So your opinion is/would be, well he shouldn't have gone on private property knowing that someone might attack him? Maybe he shouldn't leave his house? Obviously this guy traveling to a foreign country is just a big loser, he should have stayed at home in order to protect himself. Yep, if that rape victim wasn't at the bar she wouldn't have been raped, it's all her fault.
Thanks for playing.
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */
They do not have the right to physically assault him(forcibly trying to take off his glasses) or to damage his personal property(tearing off documentation). If you have problems grasping that, it seems to me that you are the jerk here.
Or perhaps people just did not like your juvenile defense of illegal physical assault? What is wrong with just politely asking the guy to leave, instead of tearing off his documents and trying to grab his glasses forcibly?
So what will they do if a massive crowd of Borg-goggled pant-less customers show up? And mumble, "We have come for your pants!" And then quickly disappear, before the cops show up? A few "plants" among the customers might even surrender their pants to the Borgy folks.
Witness descriptions would be useless: "Well, ma'am, can you describe the, um, Borg man?" "Yes, he was wearing Jar-Jar undies."
Geek catalogs are full of hidden pen-cams, sunglasses-cams, dorky-hat-cams, etc. Expect to see some videos of wacky things happening in McDonald's. The good 'ole Mentos in your soda, a jumping frog burger or feathered fried chicken parts . . . with beaks.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
there are signs on every McDonald's across europe (no pictures/no dogs/no smoking)
Yes, restaurants usually hate dogs on premises, but even in France, a restaurant can be fined from 150 to 450 Euros for refusing service to a disabled person because of their service dog
Pretty much all over the world guide dogs are exempted from being "dog" so to say. They're allowed on public transport, in public buildings, in restaurants - anywhere regular pet dogs are not allowed.
And besides being very useful for the person they guide, these dogs are also always highly trained so not likely to cause any problems, this in contrast to your regular pet dog...
The Germans don't call themselves German, in German. It's Deutschlander.
1) That's "Deutschländer". The umlaut is in no case optional.
2) No they don't.
That is also the case in the US. Private security, AKA "rent-a-cops" have no rights beyond any other private citizen.
Your knowledge of the US appears to be about as good as your knowledge of deodorant.
Except, of course, a police sign or badge.
Carbon based humanoid in training.
+1 Insightful.
The guy has a reputation to look for. He would not make a public statement without being sure to do not being exposed as a liar.
Not to mention a huge bill on lawyers, as McDonald's would sue him his pants off (I would, if innocent!).
Lisias@Earth.SolarSystem.OrionArm.MilkyWay.Local.Virgo.Universe.org
The "McLibel" case. McDonalds won on a number of points but not all of them. This was also under UK law which is universally agreed to be too strongly biased in favour of the plaintiff. Specifically, that the defendants would have to prove all of their allegations were true not to be found liable. there were 11 allegations made, including one that McDonalds promotes starvation in the third world, and exploits children in its advertising.
I dare say McDonalds will shy away from another expensive libel case. While they may have prevailed in court, it's not true that they won. They spent tens of thousands, possibly millions, suing people who had no money, and won £40,000 which they were never going to collect. More importantly, this was a PR disaster.
What do you think the piece of paper was?
This isn't a criminal trial. Casting doubt is not enough. We don't need the protection of "beyond reasonable doubt" because we don't get to punish anyone. We're trying to work out what we think happens. Even if we were, we'd assume that witness statements are true unless someone finds reason to suggest otherwise.
So what's your hypothesis? What do you think happened?
i can't stop thinking that yes, his device DOES store images in long term memory.
that IS recording. so he outright lied about not taking pictures with the device.
other than that, i think that their reasons were probably that they have illegal stuff going on at that store. like illegal labor or something.
Except you are thinking wrong. It does not have a long term memory. The device was damaged and froze up, leaving the buffer (which is overwritten every few minutes) intact due to the device having been bashed by a worker trying to remove it, then the motherboard having been damaged when he had a bladder failure from their assault on his person.
Don't fall for the trolls. If you have been reading the replies en mass, you'll note there's an AC with this "Writing style" replying over and over with very similar, inflammatory points, trying to rile people up. It's just some luddite kid trying to piss off the "nerds," don't give him attention.
it's optional on an American keyboard, because I can't be bothered to type one out. it's not on my keyboard = not worth my time for a /. post
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
In regards to their policies against video recording, I suspect they don't want a recurrence of the movie "Supersize Me" which did great damage to their image around the world. It was about a film-maker who spend an entire month (or more?) eating only McDonalds food. Whenever they asked him if he wanted supersize, he had to agree. The health results were predictably grim for the film-maker.
This and no other is the root from which a tyrant springs; when first he appears as a protector - Plato (423 to 327 BC)
The most common wording I've heard is "[Calls] may be recorded [for quality and training purposes]". Which then unintentionally gives you consent to record them.
The sign doesn't legalize the assault; the law that allows the sign to be posted and followed through without legal repercussions legalizes the assault.
Central America is just the narrow southern region of North America.
None of the Colombians (or Mexicans for that matter) I asked said "gringo" would refer to a Canadian - that's reserved strictly for Yanquis from my experience.
I'm going to take a wild stab and guess that Yanquis are New Yorkers who move to Quebec?
his headgears sole purpose is to record images and to process them, and he wears them 24/7
just being there he recorded every moment of the transaction, its not like he said stop a moment let me whip out my celphone, fumble with a few buttons, get out of the sunlight so we can see whats going on
the dude has a HD camera affixed to his head dumbass
Actually, it doesn't record them at all. It would be like someone being thrown out of a business because he was wearing glasses, and as we all know, lenses made out of glass are the devil's work.
DeutschlÃnder is a sausage brand. You mean Deutsche.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
A couple of years ago, I tried photographing the menu board in a McDonald's in Beijing, because so many items on the menu were so incredibly bizarre. A store manager came over and was very unfriendly to me about it, asked me to delete pictures from my camera, and basically told me he would throw me out of the restaurant if I kept trying to take pictures. I wonder if there is some corporate policy that inspires this sort of behavior?
Medical documentation? For what condition? What is the malady that requires he wear goggles? Something wrong with his eyes? I've been asking this all over the place and nobody can tell me. What is the condition he suffers from that requires a medical appliance to cure?
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Tell them you're recording the call at the same point their pre-recorded voice tells you "calls may be recorded...". Just say it back to the recorded voice.
Excuse me? I would hope everyone would be just as outraged if a person tried to grab their regular glasses, assuming they wear them. It would be an assault.
[citation needed]
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
It sucks, but that's just the world today. In a related way. notice how employment contracts mention that you're liable for any damage you cause to company property, but they're not liable if they damage your property? Or how they expect you to consistently work unpaid overtime; expect you to be available on call when you're at home/on leave; and generally expect it to be no big deal to impose on your own time outside work. But if you have to spend some work time to deal with even an minor personal issue then suddenly there's a huge stink made about the impact it's having on business continuity; costing the company time etc. I'm talking about small things like phoning the doctor to make an appointment (using your own mobile!), personal conversations with other staff (they want team bonding, but you can only talk about things immediately relating to work?), being ten minutes late become of unexpected roadworks, etc.
It seems we're just here to be used by companies (either as customers or employers), we exist only to make other people wealthy.
Couldn't you just record it without telling them? Both parties are aware the conversation is being recorded already anyways, so I doubt that legally they have a leg to stand on if it goes to court and they claim they didn't know you were also recording. Besides, you could just claim your recording is a copy of theirs sent to you by a disgruntled employee.
Oh, great, here we go again.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
And their normal (at least in the UK) notification to you that "calls may be recorded..." is giving you permission to record. If they did not want you to record then they should announce "WE may record calls..."
In that case, you can replace ä by ae, ö by oe, ü by ue and ß by ss.
(+1, Disagree)
Deutschländer is a brand of sausages. A German calls himself "Deutscher", as in "Ich bin ein Deutscher." = "I am a German."
The responses from all the asshole ugly Americans here doesn't surprise me one bit.
Yes, the comments to this and the first post are somewhat lacking in empathy. A disabled person gets humiliated and beaten up by restaurant staff - in front of his family no less- and the responses range from "attention whore", "the elitist jerk had it coming" to "they must have been blacks or arabs". Way to go..
What surprises me is that this happened in France. I guess France isn't as civilized as I thought.
It didn't surprise me in the least. I've been there a dozen times, worked there for a few months, and imho it just isn't a very civilized place. Of course I've met plenty of friendly, polite people, but antisocial behaviour, mysogeny, verbal abuse, threats and even physical violence just seem part of daily life there - and not just in Paris either.
I'll spare you my stories, but this should give you an idea: I know a french woman who came back after a few years abroad, and only now does she realize just how bad it is. She witnessed an assault on a shop owner, an old woman, already in the first week, and that was just the start. I guess people accept such things as normal if they see them every day and have never experienced different ways of life.
My experience in Germany is that the announcement is along the lines of "We listen in to or record selected calls for quality control and training purposes. If you do not wish this, please say so at the beginning."
Now, this could be because German companies care more about your privacy (or about the PR effects), so they make this explicitly opt-out. Or it could be legislation.
Perhaps you could try influencing legislation where you live to demand an opt-out approach to call recording?
Esli epei etot cumprenan, shris soa Sfaha.
In some states you can go ahead and record all of the calls that you want and you do not have to tell anyone.
That's what I heard, too -- that in those places, there has to be the consent of at least one party for the call to be recorded.
So you can't just wiretap random strangers speaking to each other... but if you're calling a company, and you (as one of the participants to the call) give consent to recording the call, then record away!
Esli epei etot cumprenan, shris soa Sfaha.
You could always restate dully what they say. "This call is being recorded" If it sounds to them like you're confirming their statement instead of making one of your own, that's their fault. You notified them...
The guy went to a restaurant that had a policy against recording.
He was told to leave, but he chose to stay and record.
He is angry that they tried to make him go.
His glasses may or may not be damaged.
Why didn't he just leave?
I wonder what will happen in a few years time when more and more people have wearable devices capable of recording.
... a bunch of cops immobilise a drunk former armed robber who was trying to flee from them at over 100mph.
And I'm supposed to have sympathy ... why exactly? Because of the colour of his skin?
Hehe, EXACT thing happened to me in the 1985 San Diego County spelling bee. I got up there and (I have rather good hearing - though poor eyesight) the guy said clear as day "suet" and I thought to myself - "no way, that's a baby word" so I asked him to repeat it and he said it exactly the same way so I simply spelled "SUET, S-U-E-T, SUET" and he said "That is incorrect" and then spelled the word SUINT and then the son of a bitch (lol) even pronounced it properly by saying "Soo-int" insted of "Soo-it." A friend on the El Cajon all-star baseball team with me who was also in the bee told me everyone off stage freaked out thinking this guy was trying to trick people.
(I would have gotten my a** handed to me by later words anyhow, but that was embarrassing for me - the press picture they take of each kid on their first word shows me looking at him after being told what the actual word was and I have this "what you talkin' 'bout Willis?" look on my face.)
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Inside your home is the only place where you have an expectation of privacy
Complete and utter bullshit. European Convention on Human Rights.
Which allows you to call the police and get him arrested for trespassing. It still does not however allow you to assault someone.
Like I said, I don't know the specifics, but as far as glasses go, you take my glasses you are coming in contact with me. Even if I don't start spouting blood out of numerous wounds, it's assault, perhaps even theft. Since the glasses he was/is wearing are probably worth over a grand, I believe that is also a felony.
Seriously, I've worn glasses since I was 9 years old and I can't remember one incident where it's ever been acceptable for someone to take the glasses off my face without my authorization. Perhaps they just didn't do it when I was overseas because I was in the military and they didn't want me shooting a cruise missile at them? Or perhaps, it's not acceptable anywhere to grab someone's glasses from off there face, except of course in McDonald's at a certain location in Paris.
As posted in another message here, this isn't the first incident at this particular McDonald's either.
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */
Or perhaps he just wrote that comment because he was trolling since his original message wasn't moded down as far as I can tell. He appears to be just trying to stir up controversy.
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */
Your knowledge of the US appears to be about as good as your knowledge of deodorant.
+1 got a chuckle out of me.
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */
Perhaps the thing has a button marked 'save picture', that he can press to save pictures that can then be posted on his microblog.
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
Not cool. I already DESPISE your restaurant for any number of other reasons, must you pile on the woe?
And you claim to sell "Happy" food.... pssh.
Dude did piss his pants apparently.
http://blog.laptopmag.com/exclusive-cyborg-steve-mann-on-alleged-mcdonalds-assault
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
ß by ss.
I thought they were gradually phasing out the ß out in favor for ss even in Germany.
I haven't taken German lessons for a long, long time though.
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
Medical documentation? For what condition? What is the malady that requires he wear goggles? Something wrong with his eyes? I've been asking this all over the place and nobody can tell me. What is the condition he suffers from that requires a medical appliance to cure?
This, I want to know this too.
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
Look, I hate McDonald's and other big companies as much as anyone, but there's not much point in having libel laws if you can just say any defamatory thing you like about someone and not have to show it's true.
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
there are signs on every McDonald's across europe (no pictures/no dogs/no smoking)
Yes, restaurants usually hate dogs on premises, but even in France, a restaurant can be fined from 150 to 450 Euros for refusing service to a disabled person because of their service dog
Pretty much all over the world guide dogs are exempted from being "dog" so to say. They're allowed on public transport, in public buildings, in restaurants - anywhere regular pet dogs are not allowed.
And besides being very useful for the person they guide, these dogs are also always highly trained so not likely to cause any problems, this in contrast to your regular pet dog...
They are also (at least here in Denmark) required to be clearly marked and documented, here it is usually done by having the dog wear a bright yellow vest with a little pictogram on it an the Danish words for "working dog", and the owner will usually carry around the dog's documents as well.
Now there is no law saying that the dogs have to wear that yellow vest or that the owner has to carry around the documents, they just can't be assured the same privileges if they don't.
Admit nothing. Deny Everything. Make Counter-accusations.
I have the choice of doing business with these places or not. They're walking on us because we're lying down.
If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
then the motherboard having been damaged when he had a bladder failure from their assault on his person.
He keeps the motherboard in his underpants?
To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
This is a prosthetic sight and memory augmentation device he wears due to a medical condition !
What medical condition?
The general impression I have of Steve Mann is that is he is capable of spectacular self promotion.
Steve Mann can sound strange."For two years, I had 30,000 people inside my head, watching what I did every day, altering my reality, offering suggestions on what I should do next," recalls the University of Toronto professor. "I finally had to shut it down, though. My head space got a little too crowded."No, Mann's not crazy. From 1994 to 1996, while a grad student at MIT in Boston, he streamed live video directly. 2000-03-26.
EyeTap
Mann, a 41-year-old engineering professor at the University of Toronto, spends hours every day viewing the world through that little monitor in front of his eye -- so much so that going without the apparatus often leaves him feeling nauseous, unsteady, naked.
Mann has created performance art by shooting video in stores that prohibit it, using handheld cameras more noticeable than the "EyeTap" ocular computing system he normally wears. When employees tell him filming isn't allowed, Mann points to the stores' own surveillance cameras behind darkened domes in the ceiling.
Then he tells the employees that "HIS manager" makes him film public places for HIS security -- how does he know, he tells them, that the fire exits aren't chained shut? -- and that they'll have to talk to HIS manager.
His behavior in such showdowns generally provokes hostility, confusion or resigned shrugs.
Computer's eye view
I don't know the specifics about why this guy has a camera attached to his head, but it's a part of his day to day life and has medical documentation confirming that the device is attached to his head.
He has never worn these glasses all the time.
They are not attached to his head. Computer's eye view
Currently the EyeTap consists of the eyepiece used to display the images, the keypad with which the user can interface with the EyeTap getting it to perform the desired tasks, a CPU which can be attached to most articles of clothing and in some cases even a WiFi device so the user can access the internet and online data.
EyeTap
.. The equivalent would be people from, say, the UK, calling themselves "European" in exclusion of everybody else in the same continent. ...
The sentence should read: The equivalent would be people from, say, France, calling themselves "European" in exclusion of everybody else in the same continent and it would fit reality especially as people in UK have such deep feeling for Europe that they digged a bloody moat between them and the rest of continent. I think they use term 'english channel' for it and silly enough they built a tunnel underneath - not sure what for - I mean they do not know much about trains anyway as the history of the eurostar proves every other winter....
He probably just forgot to approach the counter on his knees, humbly begging messieurs' permission for disturbing them.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
It is legal for you to record such calls in every state because every party to the conversation is aware that it is recorded. No need to make an announcement because they have already announced that they are recording.
I have no direct knowledge, but I was a grad student at U of T when Professor Mann first arrived in the department, and attended a talk or two about his research (also had friends who worked in his group). As I understood it, part of his research involves using himself as a test subject for his wearable computing devices. At that time, he was living most of the hours of the day with these devices on, and I recall from one of his talks that the visual input had become such a part of his daily experience that it was extremely disorienting to remove his glasses (and by disorienting, I don't mean just psychologically disorienting, but extreme physical disorientation etc.). Again, I have no direct knowledge, but I would suspect that his medical documentation says that he essentially needs his glasses in order to function normally.
One suggestion to Slashdot readers. If you're in a situation like this, do your best to use your phone to record what's happening without being noticed.
As I'm in Toronto, I have the 1.4 (early) release of the "Crimestoppers" app on Android. It gives me the option to record a video, a picture or find the nearest police station, etc. The tips are submitted semi-anonymously to the "crimestoppers" organization, who can pass them on to the police or courts.
--dave
davecb@spamcop.net
Am I the only one that read the statement? It seems to me that they are collecting information. In fact McDonald's doesn't deny they attacked him, they only state that their employees denied it. It's an important distinction. Their employees are quite naturally saying, "We're innocent!" while Mann's saying "They're guilty." Mann provided proof that one of their statements - namely that they didn't damage any of his property - is incorrect. But it doesn't seem McDonalds, as a whole, is calling Mann a liar. Here's the statement:
It is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do.
- Jerome Klapka Jerome
what has making up that he was an armed robber has to do with "not playing the race card"?
And why do you think I care what some random, anonymous fuck has sympathy for? Prove you're not a sociopathic shit first, please. Like, do a little dance or something, anything.
What's really bad about this is that a fast-food restaurant like McDonald's should, in theory, be the last place you might get food poisoning.
The reddit people must be here. this post is so far off topic it got modded insightful.
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
In the one-party states, only one party to the conversation needs to be informed that the call is being recorded. In these states you could record any conversation you wanted. In the other, two-party states, both parties to the conversation need to be informed that the call is being recorded. My question is this: if they announce to you that the call is being recorded, then both parties are already informed that the call is being recorded so there is no need for you to inform them of your own recording. Now I must state that IANAL and this is just my thoughts on how to twist the situation to suit my own needs.
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
Point is that is just one device. Once the technology is established who knows what new products would be available and what they would look like.
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */
Actually, under UK law you don't just have to prove all of your allegations are true - you also have to prove that the worst possible misinterpretations of your allegations that the person suing can convince the judge are plausible are also true.
That's really interesting. I wonder if the same goes for telemarketers?
I've lived in New England all my life, and I've never heard that someone from Maine is a 'Yankee'. Heard them called plenty of other things (more than occasionally derogatory), but not 'Yankee'. 'Yankee' is a derogatory term for an American, from the colonial days; or a derogatory term for a northerner, said by a southerner; or a member of the ball club.
You sound like you've been around to a fair number of countries. In your opinion, what are the most civilized ones? How do the other western European nations fare?
Do you have a particular section you'd like to point out to us? I'm not going to read through the whole thing.
Plus, surveillance in public (mostly by private entities, not the government) is ubiquitous in the UK, so it's not just the US where you have no expectation of privacy in public. You can't walk anywhere in London without being on someone's camera.
it's optional on an American keyboard, because I can't be bothered to type one out. it's not on my keyboard = not worth my time for a /. post
That sure is a weird keyboard.
Which of the characters in "ä" don't you have?
Duh. And when you have the "Hershey squirts" there isn't actually molten chocolate coming out of your ass. It's just a common figure of speech, big deal.
And actually, norovirus (as a previous poster pointed out) is the most common cause, *not* bacteria. And it's contagious enough that you don't have to ingest food to get it, touching objects/surfaces an infected person has touched, etc, will spread it just fine.
When one person acts violent by himself (on the street somewhere), that can be assumed to be an oddball. When three people act violent in concert, it's cause for mild concern. When three people, on the job in a position that requires dealing with the general public every day, act violent in concert, and then the police have no interest in investigating, it's indicative of a society with a serious problem.
Notice also that another poster here, who's lived in France, testifies that this behavior is actually quite normal there.
Listen to the pre-call announcement which usually says 'this call may be recorded for '.
It usually doesn't say 'by us, not by you'
I take that as permission for myself to record also. No need to tell them.
Do you have a particular section you'd like to point out to us
Article 8 establishes privacy as a fundamental human right. One consequence of this is the Data Protection Directive.
Plus, surveillance in public (mostly by private entities, not the government) is ubiquitous in the UK
That's one of the reasons I found it important to point out the right to privacy in the EU: it is under constant attack.
You can't walk anywhere in London without being on someone's camera.
Do you agree that this is not desirable?
Do you agree that this is not desirable?
No, I don't. If you ban surveillance, then you also have to ban all photography in public, which is utterly ridiculous. Are you saying tourists shouldn't be able to walk around London and take photos of Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, or any random street, unless there's precisely zero people present? I certainly wouldn't want to live in a world where I'm not allowed to take a photo when I'm walking around some city streets, or anywhere else in public for that matter.
If you don't want your face seen in public, don't go out in public. It's that simple.
Note that this is not the same as government surveillance. I'm NOT ok with the government surveilling citizens constantly. However, I don't have a problem with random private individuals taking pictures wherever they want in public (except obvious exceptions, like public restrooms, or following a certain person wherever they go, which is stalking).
So if I put a sign somewhere on my house (that visitors may or may not see) I am then legally and morally allowed to physically assault anyone on my premises who happens to have a camera? I don't think so.
Secondly, nearly every cellphone these days is a camera. Why aren't they manhandling and throwing out every customer with a cellphone? They 'de facto' don't apply that policy.
There is a pretty obvious gap between constant surveillance and tourists taking pictures.
If you ban surveillance, then you also have to ban all photography in public.
No, of course not.
If you don't want your face seen in public, don't go out in public. It's that simple.
I'm sorry but "simplicity" is just an incredibly stupid argument. If you wan't to go out in public, don't take any pictures. It's that simple. See how retarded that argumentation is?
You're an idiot if you think that people should tolerate being "treated badly" for violating somebody's "policy."
Grow up and learn some history, if you don't have an expectation not to be treated "badly" then you will be treated badly, and that treatment will expand constantly to new conditions.
Having civilized society requires civilized society to continually identify and end violent and oppressive measures, especially when they are adopted as policies.
Perhaps your anonymous dismissal of his complaint, even using abusing language, is a sign of an entitled anti-social adolescent.
French civilization still exists thanks to us, perhaps France hit the lottery that civilized countries band together to protect it.
Sounds like you are speaking from experience.
his headgears sole purpose is to record images and to process them
Are you really sure it is just a camera with image post-processing? You either don't know and claim to, or...
dumbass
See above.
The ONLY thing they can do is to call the police. They do not have any other right
That is also the case in the US. Private security, AKA "rent-a-cops" have no rights beyond any other private citizen.
You are incorrect. While not the case for ALL private security companies, there are many that have been granted police powers. There are privately run prisons that are staffed by employees of that Security Company. Even internationally, we use private "security" companies with significantly more "police power" than your average citizen (i.e. Blackwater/Xe). I'm not saying I agree with this, just that it is indeed the case.
Sorry, but I don't see the difference. How exactly are you going to define the threshold between "surveillance" and someone taking a video with their cellphone, or with a video camera? Are you going to set some time limit on it or something? How are you going to get cops to enforce that? Have them watch people taking videos and use a stopwatch to make sure they're not recording for too long at a time? That's insane.
And proposing a law banning people from taking photos in public is just plain stupid.
Here's another way to look at it: imagine that you, owner of a business, establish a no-photography policy in accordance with the laws of your country. You clearly post signs explaining this policy to inform customers in the official language of your country. A person enters your business and uses an unusual device that appears to be a camera, pointing it at employees, customers and all around your business. You explain to him the policy, ask him to stop using the device. He confirms that it's a camera, then hands you a piece of paper written in a foreign language and refuses to stop using it, in fact filming you while you talk to him. I am no expert in the laws of France, but, having worked as a bouncer, I would be surprised if there is not legal justification for attempting to stop him from filming. Almost certainly the business owner has the right to refuse further service, at which point he is trespassing and can be physically removed. That being said, not a positive step for customer relations.
I'm afraid the fact you won't even reveal simple details like your name, never mind being able to locate other published citations on this person being obnoxious makes it hard to just accept at face^H^H^H^Hno-face value.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
Perhaps I've watched too much Monty Python, I would have gone for "bight".
(It's a loop in a rope, or a similarly curved body of water).
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Do you watch Newsnight and The Review Show, hosted by Kirrasty Worreck?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
You gave a couple of examples in your post above; I'm sure you could come up with others if you tried. This is essentially a black list. You could also do white listing or mix the two. I'm not arguing that finding good criteria is going to be easy but it is definitely not impossible and in my opinion it is worth trying. Your approach seems to be to just give up because it looks difficult.
Mann's a fucking attention whore. Period.
This isn't evidence of some rampant campaign against the disabled, it's one guy getting hassled at one store out of over thirty three thousand, the majority of which are fucking franchises. Even from his own incredibly slanted report, he did nothing to deescalate the situation when some ignorant dumbfucks took issue with his gear. Yeah, what happened to him was bullshit, but to try calling out the entire corporation because a few minimum wage monkeys at a single store fucked up is ridiculous.
my sig's at the bottom of the page.
that came across oddly so i'll assume the ä was supposed to be a character not supported by slashcode. 26 letters, that's all there is in English. no unlauts, no accent marks, none of that stuff. we just have letters. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz -- that's all the letters on an american keyboard. there's a tilde key, but it's sort of a legacy thing -- it doesn't actually put a tilde over a letter, it's really only used to open a console in video games really. i never use it otherwise.
... still waiting for this free-as-in-beer free beer I keep hearing about.
I don't hate McD. In fact, I don't blame McD for this incident at all. I would only blame the people who actually did something wrong. And I'll happily eat at McD in the future.
And with that out of the way, let me tell you that you are an idiot. You're going bananas over people pointing out that they tore up a piece of paper, and trying to convince people that it probably wasn't a doctor's note.
Take a break. You are going insane.
Clever signature text goes here.
glasses bolted to ones head as it records and processes images, people seem to think that computer imaging is passive, like the computer just does things without storing it in memory first
If I need to take my glasses off I can no problem, and I actually need them
In your opinion, what are the most civilized ones? How do the other western European nations fare?
Ok, these are personal opinions, completely subjective and highly biased of course, and excuse the cliches:
I've been to Germany about a dozen times as well and despite one or two incidents I always enjoyed it. I like Berlin, open and relaxed atmosphere (except on Walpurgis Night). Older people may not understand English, but nobody expects foreigners to speak German. It is very much appreciated if you do, though.
I've lived in the UK (London). Obviously there's a formal culture where people stick to social norms and are polite, on the other hand it's (still) a hierarchical, class-based society, so you get inequality and the class warfare that goes with it (London riots anyone?). But overall a positive experience, you can go to the pub on the corner and have a quiet drink or chat with complete strangers. People there are quite sociable.
I've lived in Belgium (Flanders), and it's doable. The surreal national politics don't affect everyday life at all, but I have to say the mentality tends to be a bit parochial. Also, people learn to accept authority and stick to the rules from an early age, so they're not used to assertive behaviour and may mistake it for arrogance. People don't always speak their mind, so you have to decode non-verbal cues.
I don't mind the Netherlands, but that may be home bias. The mindset is very individualistic though, and something like UK pub culture is almost non-existent, so it may be hard for an outsider to make friends. I have only limited experience with Scandinavia, but I have a positive impression.
Visited Italy half a dozen times and worked there a few months. It really depends on where you go and who you meet, but my impression is that foreigners may get more respect there than the Italians, who compete among themselves for basically everything. Getting through life can be a bit like being in an opera buffa, and may require some moral flexibility (cliche, I know). Especially the politics are surreal, the Italians themselves are very much aware of this and tend to dislike their country. There's a reason so many go abroad (where they only hang out with other italians).
Been to Portugal a dozen times, imho it's a bit like France (arrogant waiters, speeding, nepotism and the other cliches) but even more conservative, not as regulated, and without most of the neurosis/paranoia/aggression. The locals have little contact with foreigners outside the tourist hotspots, it's not the most dynamic or cosmopolitan country. They dislike Germans for some reason, and regard the British as snooty and arrogant.
An assault by McDonalds staff seems unthinkable in any of these places. Maybe in a very dodgy UK restaurant staffed by hooligans, but it would be shut down in the blink of an eye. Paris on the other hand.. years ago, a friend of mine was dragged out of the Virgin Megastore by the hair for sitting on the stairs, for example. French security guards are easily provoked.
Btw, the roughest place I've been to is possibly St Petersburg, but that city is in a league of its own.
Here's the thing: It's a device he had implanted because he wanted it, not because he needed it.
How do you know? It wouldn't be the first time a disabled person also happened to be the foremost expert (and self-experimenting guinea pig) in his own field.
Are you even a Medical Doctor? Must his Medical records be publicly posted somewhere on the Internet for everyone to see? The last I checked, Medical records were private, and if you have a disability/disease of some kind that's not immediately obvious, it's probably not a very good idea career-wise to let the entire World know about it.
In any case, coming back to my previous comparison. In France, service animals accompanied by a disabled customer are allowed in restaurants. In the US, it's even better. Service animals are also allowed to accompany their able-bodied keepers/trainers in restaurants to get them accustomed to the environment. If you ask me, that law in the US is actually much more complete than the French law. After all, what use is the legal protection of service animals to let them perform their duties if you don't even protect them enough to train them to perform those duties in the first place.
If I decide to implant a camera on my feet and then go walking around in sandals in a Catholic school that has a "no cameras aimed up a girl's skirt" policy, they would be in the right to kick me out.
Why suddenly the Chewbacca defense? Clearly, that's not what happened. If the intents of both parties are obviously completely different, then yes, the conclusion drawn may be obviously completely different as well.
The guy has a history of being a jerk in order to promote himself, and this fits that history.
The guy has a history of getting harassed for being different. That at least is clear. Is he outspoken? A complainer? And perhaps even militant? Yes, that's likely, but that doesn't make him wrong.
If it weren't for people like him opening up the way in this area, then what chance does an even more disabled and helpless person with newly created (most likely very ugly and very cyborg looking) eye prosthetics have against a bunch of young people with a power complex working at a fast food joint?
Wow, thanks for the informative post. What's your impression of Spain? Or how about the Basque area, that seems like it might be different? Or some places in eastern Europe like Czech Republic or Croatia? Can you elaborate on St. Petersburg? How about Ireland?
Just in case I ever decide to move to Europe, I'd like to know which places are good and which places to avoid, so this is actually very helpful, so thanks again.
doesn't care about photos? i thought they cared a great deal about images made of their likeness.
GFA/M/S d-- s: a--- C++++ UBL++$ P+ L+++ !E- W++ N+ !o K- w--- !O !M !V PS++ PE Y+ PGP+ t+++ 5- X+ R tv@ b++ DI++++ D+ G
Dude, NO ONE cares. At least, no one that counts to Micky D's. In other words, GET A LIFE.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
I think you're confused. They don't like images in the likeness of Mohammed (never mind that no one knows that the heck he looks like anyway, probably partly because of this same prohibition). I don't think they care much about images of themselves, especially not while wearing burqas. I do remember a ridiculous case a while ago of some muslim woman in Florida who tried to make a court case out of driver's license photos, because she refused to have her photo taken without a burqa, and the DMV refused to issue her a driver's license without actually seeing her face (after all, what's the point of a photo ID if the person is wearing a mask that covers their whole head?).
Eurasian is used to describe somebody half European, half Asian. It's quite commonly used here in Singapore.
Even in the US, that is quickly becoming attempted murder. Try it. Have fun.
Great Intellect...
We already know what will come of this: people will learn, who haven't already, that the French are assholes. They would do this to a person with prescription eyeglasses in a veteran's uniform if they felt like it.
I don't know what the fuss is all about, that's just the way waiters treat customers in Paris...
Nothing to see here, move along!
(And before anyone attacks me for my "anti-french" comment, please note that I am French and I do leave in Paris. Or close enough for my taste, at least...)
I've always just called myself a USer.
... wait for it ...
Flash mob flashing on flash with flash.
Bob Stein, http://bobste.in
Maccy Ds has had to pay out multiple $large_sums to customers with food poisoning over the years and in at least one case a customer died. The culprit? Franchising McD cooking times are precisely calculated to ensure the food is safe. Franchisees in several of busy London branches during the 1980/90s were cutting corners to speed things up and one of the corners cut was cooking times (others included improper freezer temps, selling cooked food past its drop dead time and taking things out of the freezer then letting them sit around too long before cooking.) Unsurprisingly, most of the branches in question are now directly owned by McDonalds UK.
Never forget that McDonalds employees did tear up a note and Mann said this note was from a doctor. Unless McDonalds answers to this action, they are guilty in my book. Please sue McDonalds Mr.Mann!!
glasses bolted to ones head as it records and processes images, people seem to think that computer imaging is passive, like the computer just does things without storing it in memory first
If I need to take my glasses off I can no problem, and I actually need them
I know you're just trying to make a luddite point ("the nerd is just being a spoiled creep" style thing) but he's worn these Augmented Reality systems for over 20 years, he now literally needs them to be able to function, per the old articles on when the TSA harassed him, if he takes it off he has vision problems and becomes disoriented.
If you read this article (see page 2), it's clear that his medical condition is nothing more than the removal of his wearable computer:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/14/technology/at-airport-gate-a-cyborg-unplugged.html
I bet his doctor is even the same guy named in the article.
" if he takes it off he has vision problems and becomes disoriented."
so do many people that require glasses, they dont bolt them to their skulls like a retard. the guy has been doing this for 20 years for only one reason, attention, and whenever he gets some he acts like a bitch
let me just cry my little heart out so he can so "jhonny look at me" feels better
My finger remembers hitting the key, so I'm going to go with "autocorrect" over typo.
The point, though, is that I'm very suspicious of McDonald's hiring a PR firm to let them do some marketing scumbaggery. Especially as many articles specifically went out of their way to mention both McDonald's and the fact that they banned it from their restaurants.
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Pardon me, but like I said, I would give a shit.
/* TODO: Spawn child process, interest child in technology, have child write a new sig */