Hmmmmm - Beer....
April 4, 2002 12:02 AM   Subscribe

Hmmmmm - Beer.... Genuine need or Science gone mad?
posted by Spoon (14 comments total)
 
... Or yet another million dollar alternative to using your eyes.
posted by Spoon at 12:10 AM on April 4, 2002


the whole "Hmmmmm - Beer" thing is misleading a bit, Spoon, but the potential is there. I'm torn between good and bad.

At a restaurant, where i usually drink water, and up to 6 or 7 glasses per meal per hour, i would totally be hip to this, hating when i have to go dry while eating something spicy, which i usually do.

Yet, at a bar, when i have to pay per drink/beer/shot/whatever, I'd be much better off, financially, without this tech. I wish i could count the times that i was ready to tab out when a waiter offered me a refill at an opportune (unopportune?) time and i got suckered into spending more cash.

Summary: good for me when i drink water/tea/ misc. free refill beverage. Good for waiter/bartender when i drinky drink.
posted by Ufez Jones at 12:22 AM on April 4, 2002


You still have to have a waitstaff who cares enough to refill the glass though. As a waiter, I would resent this advent visiting my restaurant. As a stickler of keeping my customer's glasses topped off, I say, 'Don't tell me my own business boy.' I suppose service is a problem in the dime-a-dozen corporate chains. I notice it myself. Gawd, do I notice. The problem with your Olive Garden, Applebee's, Outback Steakhouse et al, is that there is by and large posolutely no morale and no reason for management to instill it in its employees. All parties are burned the hell out and or inexperienced, which in and of itself wends its way to a vicious cycle. Adding to the mix an obnoxious blathering microchip, even the most even-keeled waiter/bartender will break. Some people come in to go for a swim in the iced tea, now we'd have to contend with a buzzer that lets us know they've completed a lap?
posted by crasspastor at 12:32 AM on April 4, 2002


Good waiters are still better. But OK, as long as it doesn't interfere with one's drinking schedule...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 12:34 AM on April 4, 2002


I think it would be amazing if scientists around the globe could pool their resources and invent a device which actually gets through the thick ignorant skulls of UK beverage vendors and makes them realise (and act upon) the fact that beer (lager) is best served ice f*ckin' cold.

If there is anything to make me move to france it is cheese and small cold glasses of beer.
posted by Frasermoo at 1:11 AM on April 4, 2002


..and some of the women, as long as they aint too moody.
posted by Frasermoo at 1:12 AM on April 4, 2002


The iGlassware system transmits its data on frequencies similar to those used by cellphones. This means that, unlike the security tag readers used in shop doorways, it cannot interfere with heart pacemakers. On the other hand, if you do not learn to say no to the instant refills, you might end up in the cardiac ward anyway.


hehehehe
posted by bjgeiger at 1:35 AM on April 4, 2002


3 comments: This is pretty wretched exess. I assume there is some better application, like drip I.V. bottles (if they still use bottles in addition to bags.

As soon as this system is introduced somewhere, local hackers are going to rewire a cellphone to send "Empty Glass" signals from every glass in the joint simultaneously.

That a Japanese company was behind this makes me chuckle, seeing as most bars are so tiny. My first night in Japan, I was taken to a bar in Okayama called "Womb de Tomb" that was about 8X10 feet, no lie. I'm sure the bartender could see every glass . But when we came in there was reggae music booming, and three young lovelies were doing a sexy grind with a couple of guys on the "dance floor."
posted by planetkyoto at 2:04 AM on April 4, 2002


That a Japanese company was behind this makes me chuckle

Which makes my "Olive Garden, Applebee's, Outback Steakhouse et al" example moot. I've got a bad case of the ethnocentrism.
posted by crasspastor at 2:44 AM on April 4, 2002


Here are more stunning innovations in the world of glassware. (Well, you try typing "novelty beer mugs" into Google and see if you can find anything classy).

And yes, as a matter of fact, I do have insomnia...
posted by gutenberg at 2:46 AM on April 4, 2002


> My first night in Japan, I was taken to a bar in Okayama
> called "Womb de Tomb" that was about 8X10 feet, no lie.

Maybe you misunderstood and that was the guy's house.

Anyway, I don't know about these smart glasses. I might want them to do some more work, like analyzing the alcohol content of the drink and displaying it on the side, but what if the glasses start checking your fingerprints and reporting you to the authorities, or ratting on you to bouncers who don't like your face anymore, or disabling your car and calling your wife because you've had too many?
posted by pracowity at 5:19 AM on April 4, 2002


"Science gone mad"?

It's not like they've resurrected the dead to serve beverages (although that would be a better theme restaurant than TGIF's).
posted by byort at 6:27 AM on April 4, 2002


> It's not like they've resurrected the dead to serve beverages

You haven't been to the place around the corner from here. Chuck E. Headcheese.
posted by pracowity at 6:43 AM on April 4, 2002


Sounds like stage 2 of Olive Garden's H2NO plan.
posted by riffola at 6:51 AM on April 4, 2002


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