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Theater Chain Bans Google Glass
mpicpp sends this report from Ars: A cinema chain announced Tuesday that it is now barring patrons from wearing Google Glass at its movie houses across the U.S. in a bid to clamp down on piracy. Alamo Drafthouse, which runs theaters in Colorado, Michigan, Missouri, Texas, Virginia, and soon in California, is among the first U.S. chains to ban Google's computerized eyewear. 'Google Glass is officially banned from @drafthouse auditoriums once lights dim for trailers,' the chain's chief executive, Tim League, tweeted. The decision comes as Google has made the eyewear readily available to the general public, and it follows a slew of incidents in which wearers of Google Glass have had brushes with the law.
Hmm, previewing before posting makes sense; " and even better commercials "
But don't pretend it'll help prevent piracy. Does anyone really expect someone to hold their head perfectly still and never look away from the screen to pirate a film? Of course not. Google Glass is invasive for a lot of reasons, but pirating movies in theaters is hardly a concern for them. It's easier to drop your cell phone in a cup holder pointed at the screen, and less obvious to boot. Not that I think many people are doing that, I suspect most decent cams come from theater employees.
Some of us certainly do mind when inconsiderate jerks think they're being clever and "discrtely checking there phone for a few seconds with the light dimmed". That's the thing: the franchise caters to people who actually want to watch the movie without kids/cellphoes/etc. From Wikipedia:
"When we adopted our strict no talking policy back in 1997 we knew we were going to alienate some of our patrons," [founder] Tim League posted on the cinema's website. "That was the plan. If you can't change your behavior and be quiet (or unilluminated) during a movie, then we don't want you at our venue."
Moral of the story - regulate your behavior or go somewhere else.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
How is it common sense to ban an emerging technology before it's even in the marketplace? Someone wearing GG does not impact your movie viewing in any way, unless you're just an intolerant douche. And what about when the technology comes around to let deaf people see subtitles in their HUD while watching the movie? There are all sorts of positive, enabling possibilities for this tech, but because of people like you with their self-absorbed mentalities, some may never see the light of day. Don't be such a reactionary twat.
Besides, wasn't it found that most camcorder recordings of movies was coming from projector operators?
You mean the "projectionists"? They don't have those anymore, I know because I used to be one. These days you get some usher who knows how to load the film into the projector (for those places still using film) and mash the button to start. If you are lucky they focus the film and adjust the volume when the feature starts, but usually they don't come back until it's time to thread the projector again. They don't have time to set up the camera and tape anything.
The only time you will see somebody who can splice film or knows how to clean the projector is on Thursday when the guy who knows how to get the new prints loaded onto the platters during the day and break down the prints you are sending back after the last show. I used to do this and for an eight screen theater it took from about 4PM to well into Friday morning (about 2 AM or later) to do this. It was pretty hard work because I always cleaned the projector when I threaded it, always focused and set sound levels for the start of the trailers, then came back and did it again when the feature started. It was LOTS of running. The rest of the week, some usher did the threading and button mashing and they never cleaned anything by the looks of what I found on Thursday. This was 20 years ago, so I'm betting things have only gotten worse, and based on the dirty prints and out of focus films I've suffered though as a paying customer, I think I'm right.
But the "screeners" you are talking about are usually done after the place closes on Thursday. For big films, we used to sometimes let the staff see it on Thursday night before it opened. Mainly for films that we where expecting would be sold out for days. This was a nice fringe benefit for the staff who where going to have to work pretty hard over the next few days, not to mention it let the projectionist to actually SEE the film from a theater seat an not the office chair in the booth. I'm sure there are some managers who don't mind making screeners, as they are not the brightest bunch of people and don't get paid much for the long hours they work.
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
This kind of technology is obviously going to evolve, and have better battery life, not to mention, increased miniaturization.
It's going to get interesting once people (other than CIA operatives) start wearing camera+audio recorder technology that masquerades as stylish jewelry, or a baseball cap http://www.amazon.com/Baseball....
I suspect that we're going to have to give up on being able to reliably ban such stuff.
That doesn't mean that certain uses of it won't still legitimately be considered douchebaggery.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
Like...? Glass technophobes always remind me of the reaction to Kodak cameras in the 1880's. A few choice quotes:
I really don't get the vitriol. In 120 years people will laugh at the primitives from the early 2000's who reacted with shock and horror to Google glass. My biggest objection is that it's rude to glance at a notification when you're speaking to someone. But that's true of a phone, too.
"cams" are straight-up, sitting-in-the-theater bootlegs.
"telesyncs" are shot from the projectionist booth, with a telephoto lens and generally use the equipment's audio out synced with the video.
"screeners" are are discs sent out, usually before awards season (but before the home video market), for people to screen.
The more you know....
...
"no one minds someone discrtely checking there phone"
I do. I mind very much. Guess what? A bright light in a dark theater is NEVER not distracting. And a phone at any dimmed level that is readable is bright in a theater.
A cinema is where we go to quietly enjoy immersion into a film.
You are being a distraction, you need to grow up.
The fact that you are telling people who want other people to be polite to 'grow up' must require a huge ego to muster that much cognitive dissonance
" and enjoy the movie."
That's the problem, douche bags like you make it so we can't enjoy the movie.
Watch it at home if your damn phone is so important.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
No, this is about Alamo Drafthouse pleasing their customers. They get a big boost in attendance when they publicly crack down on stuff that people complain about. Such as when they kick out people for using phones during the movie. They know that banning Google Glass will make a lot of people happy, and will gain them some new customers, whether or not that ban actually improves the quality of the movie going experience.
This is probably not anything new anyway, they already ban using mobile devices after the movie starts. So this is just a reiteration of the policy, with emphasis that it does indeed apply to new technology and no special dispensation is given to Glass.
for pretty good reason. unlike a cell phone there isn't a brightly backlit screen but I can still get texts/updates/emails that may signal I should quietly excuse myself from the theater to take care of some personal business. It's even less invasive than a pager.
There are huge ways this can (and probably will at some point) be used to make technology less invasive to those around you and your life. I'd love to not interrupt a conversation to check if my wife just went into labor or needs me home ASAP while out having a beer with a friend. Or my friends who are doctors can get a low profile pop up that they are needed at the hospital rather than having to have their phone out.
So, the glasses don't seem to be generating lights or noise that are annoying other people, and they were not being used to record anything, though if they were, the batteries would have run down so fast you'd have to have a whole bag of them to make it through the movie.
One of those listed in the article was OFF and also the wearers PRESCRIPTION GLASSES HE NEEDED TO SEE WITH!!!
Yeah, your torch wield mobs of conformity police are really doing of good job of proving yourself worse than that douche that talks on his phone everywhere.
It's amazing how pissed so many people are getting over somebody else having a new and expensive accessory. What's even more amazing is the massive and undeserved overreactions that people are having that far out weigh anything that I've seen reported for actual "glassholes" doing. So far, most of the reports boil down to "somebody dared to actually wear googleglass, so people immediately started doing awful assholish things to them, all of which were unfair and several were illegal, isn't it awsome". I'm embarrassed that you technophobic luddites even found out how to get to the internet.
Yeah, I know, now you're going to go screaming about how I'm an evil monster and threaten to burn me at the stake. You should really look at yourselves first, you've turned into a mindless mob screaming for blood and attacking the innocent. Metaphorically that is. Nobody has been killed yet, though there are reports of theft and assault, so I doubt it'll be much longer before your kind kills someone over a tech accessory. Maybe next you'll go after kids with tablet computers.
I expect that in a few years, you will be able to get something equivalent to the googleglasses, but with much better battery life and a price more in the range of $150-$250. I'll want to get that, and load up a variety of apps to help deal with some issues of mine.
My meds screw with my memory, so an intelligent scheduler and notes app is on the list. Popping up reminders in my vision works much better than me trying to remember to check my phone all the time, or the 10 million alarms that often aren't even heard over the noise.
Another app will help with my face blindness. Yes, that's right, the dreaded facial recognition software. I want pics of the people I meet stored with their names and reminder notes so when someone starts talking to me, I can figure out who they are in a few seconds instead of agonizing over it for hours. Even if people know you have that issue, they tend to get upset when you can't remember who they are.
Besides, it won't be that much of a change for me to wear them, as I need glasses to see pretty much anything in the first place. You know that big E at the top of the eye chart. Let's put it this way, the last time I saw that without glasses was in grade school. I've been banned from having glass lenses since I was in high school. Fortunately they have these fantastic optical polymers that are so much lighter and thinner than glass for lenses. Even so, a little bit of extra weight could be tolerated for the benefit.
So again, you want to ignore something what it can be used for and instead be an even bigger pain than someone you suspect might act like an entitled douche?
Well go get some rabies shots fido, because you're foaming at the mouth again.