Apr. 30, 2006 - 16:01 MDT

ALL OVER AGAIN

In the Perspective section of the Sunday Denver Post (the rest of the week it is the Rocky Mountain News) are often items of interest. One of them today made me laugh. Quoted in full here:

HIGH TECH CAN LAND LOW BLOWS

"Most Americans love technology -- the flashier the better. But sometimes you have to wonder if things haven't gotten little out of hand."

## "McDonald's is experimenting with "off-shoring" the jobs of those people who take your order at the drive up window. A recent New York Times article reported on a McDonald's call center in California that handles drive-up orders for restaurants across the country. One order-taker served customers in Honolulu, Mississippi and Gilette, Wyoming, all in the space of two minutes. The orders are sent back to the individual restaurants over the internet."

"Sounds zippy, but we have to side with restaurant trade journalist Sherri Daye Scott, who told The Times, "This is a case of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it.' "

## "The Treasure Island Casino in Las Vegas is testing a new way to control and reprogram slot machines from a central computer -- changing game cost, paybacks and even game themes. No more grumpy slot mechanic turning the machine off, yanking open a panel and changing the settings."

"OK, we all know that the house always wins and the slots are a sucker's game. but somehow the thought of an unseen casino manager changing the odds with a click of the mouse really dents the fantasy that the big jackpot is just one pull away."

## "Meanwhile, in New York, the folks at Sprint Nextel have just unveiled a "Family Locator" service that will allow a parent to view a map that will show the location of their kid, provided junior is carrying an appropriately equipped phone."

"Yes, we know the world can be a dangerous place, and that good parents care about thier kids. But we wonder if there's a certain strain of overprotectiveness that's seeping too deep into the culture. This feature taps right into that -- for $9.99 a month. (Besides, what teenager worth her learner's permit isn't going to figure out a way around it.) "

## "Remember VHS vs/ Betamax ? Now two formats for "improved" DVDs are slugging it out, HD-DVD and Blu-ray. If you take the jump but choose wrong, make room in the basement next to that old Betamax machine."

## "Finally, the Times also reports that the company behind the McDonald's call center is working on radio-equipped shopping carts for big-box stores. Can't find the nails ? Call for help. Now, this is an idea we can get behind."

"You can go back to checking yor e-mail now."

++++++++

Looks like to this old man that the more things are sped up and consolidated, the more time-wasting and complicated life becomes. Bad enough that drive-through restaurants have folks inside that cannot understand a simple order -- but it boggles my mind the thought of trying to get an order through to some one in the country of India of, "medium rare, no mustard, double mayo, extra onions and thin sliced tomato." Sheesh, can't even get counter help to understand my foibles.

And if I were a teenager today and they started out that keeping track of the kids, I would have my fortune made. I would charge to take their units to what ever church or civic event they were supposed to be attending. The kid could tell their parent, "Oh, gee, I had the phone turned off so I could pay attention to the program." The unit would attend but they wouldn't and my pocket would be pelf heavy.

As time goes by it looks like it is Deja vu ALL OVER AGAIN . . . . . . . . . . .

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