Beer Stein Goes Hi Tech 294
Spudley writes "Beer is a subject close to many slashdot-readers' hearts, so you'll be pleased to learn that Mitsubishi has invented a glass that can tell when it's empty, and order a refill from the bar. Of course, it'll still have to be filled the old fashioned way, but at least the bar staff will know which ones need refilling - the... ehm... empty ones." I
like that it's dishwasher safe. Drunk people can't be trusted to hand wash
glass.
If only... (Score:3, Funny)
... and in related news..... (Score:4, Funny)
Says Mrs B Sober:"My boy, Larry (37), was such a nice boy. Sure he couldn't talk to people so never went out. When he drank at home I would switch to serving him warm milk after the third glass and send him off to bed. Then MBG came along and he could sit in the corner of the pub and the beer kept coming. The MBG didn't know when to stop, didn't order milk after the third glass or snuggle him into bed. MBG killed my son. MBG is responsible because they should have a warning label that says it can enhance addictive behaviour and won't order milk or put you to bed."
bah (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:bah (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:bah (Score:2)
Re:bah (Score:2)
Re:bah (Score:2)
I was at the bank, and pulled in the back to use the ATM.
in the back, there are three lanes: 1) a live teller 2) the ATM 3) another teller.
i was using the ATM, and the other two teller lanes were empty.
Tellers can do everything an ATM can, and more, faster.
Not one, but TWO card pulled behind me to WAIT for the ATM when there were two teller lines available?! I was surprised.
Re:bah (Score:2)
>faster.
1: An ATM doesn't make you write out a check to "CASH" when you want money.
2: An ATM doesn't ask for another form of ID to check your balance.
3: An ATM will let me use my friend's card to get cash from his account to pick up some lunch for him without him having to write me a check, which typically involves me going inside the bank and giving them a thumbprint (for 20 bucks? no thanks).
-l
I hope they're not handwashing their glasses... (Score:1)
Next thing on the list (Score:3, Funny)
Strap a keg on it's back, give it a serious collision avoidance and guidance system, and let it roam the bars, filling empties.
Re:Next thing on the list (Score:2)
Re:Next thing on the list (Score:2)
Gotta have it (Score:1)
win (Score:1, Offtopic)
Careful now... (Score:2, Funny)
Or, on the contrary: "I don't know, darling, maybe I forgot to reset the glass when I left the pub..."
Did they forget (Score:1)
Re:Did they forget (Score:2)
Uh, h'yuk, h'yuk. We's don't wanna hafta holla cross a room to tell the perty waitress that I's a need a refill.
How many men does it take to open a beer bottle? (Score:1, Funny)
BOOYAH!
drunk tasks. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:drunk tasks. (Score:2)
I'm just a sick fuck, I guess.
this might be more useful... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:this might be more useful... (Score:5, Funny)
-Ben
Re:this might be more useful... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:this might be more useful... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:this might be more useful... (Score:2, Funny)
Then sign me up! There are way too many wimen in bars these days anyway. The little buggers get everywhere, and they eat all of your pretzels.
but if you have to . . . (Score:2)
:)
hawk
Chicken Soup for the Beer Drinker (Score:3, Funny)
To some it's a six-pack, to me it's a support Group. *Anonymous
Beer - Because one doesn't solve the world's problems over white wine. *Anonymous
When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. * Henny Youngman
Reality is an illusion that occurs due to lack of alcohol. *Anonymous
Drinking provides a beautiful excuse to pursue the one activity that truly gives me pleasure : hooking up with fat, hairy girls. * Ross Levy
Sometimes I reflect back on all the beer I have consumed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their Hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, "It is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver." * Jack Handy
I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day. * Frank Sinatra
The problem with some people is that when they aren't drunk, they're sober. *William Butler Yeats
An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools. * Ernest Hemingway
Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut. * Ernest Hemingway
Time is never wasted when you're wasted all the time. *Catherine Zandonella
A woman drove me to drink and I didn't even have the decency to thank her. *W. C. Fields
What contemptible scoundrel has stolen the cork to my lunch? * Tee Mans
Life is a waste of time, time is a waste of life, so get wasted all of the time and have the time of your life. *Michelle Mastrolacasa
I'd rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy. *Tom Waits
When we drink beer we fall asleep. We fall asleep, we commit no sin. When we commit no sin, we go to heaven. Sooooo, let's all get drunk and go to heaven! * Brian O'Rourke
You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline. It helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer. * Frank Zappa
Always remember that I have taken more out of alcohol than alcohol has taken out of me. * Winston Churchill
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy. *Benjamin Franklin
If you ever reach total enlightenment while drinking beer, I bet it makes beer shoot out your nose. *Jack Handy
Without question, the greatest invention in the history of mankind is beer. Oh, I grant you that the wheel was also a fine invention, but the wheel does not go nearly as well with pizza. * Dave Barry
The problem with the world is that everyone is a few drinks behind. *Humphrey Bogart
Give me a woman who loves beer and I will conquer the world. * Kaiser Wilhelm
Not all chemicals are bad. Without chemicals such as hydrogen and oxygen, for example, there would be no way to make water, a vital ingredient in beer. *Dave Barry
You know you're drunk when you fall off the floor. *Anonymous
And God said, "Let there be vodka!" And He saw that it was good. Then God said, "Let there be light!" And then He said, "Whoa - too much light." * Anonymous
You're not drunk if you can lie on the floor without holding on. *Dean Martin
Beer: Helping ugly people have sex since 1862! *Anonymous
Re:Chicken Soup for the Beer Drinker (Score:2)
"People who drink light beer don't like beer. They just like to pee a lot." --Capitol Brewery
"Liquor in the front. Poker in the back." --Attribution Lost
*Real* High Tech: Larry Niven's Glass (Score:4, Insightful)
One of the narrator's comments was "A glass like that could destroy a man"
Re: *Real* High Tech: Larry Niven's Glass (Score:5, Funny)
SF author Larry Niven proposed a beer mug that [...] automatically, silently refilled itself from the keg.
Hmm, in that case, the obvious course of action is to eat the mug.
Re:*Real* High Tech: Larry Niven's Glass (Score:2)
The only question left is, where do I want to put those two exit portals? How about BillG's living room?
Why don't you hear people complainging about.... (Score:1)
This is, sorta neat I guess. But, isn't it easier just to flag down the waitress? Maybe the clubs they go to are really crowded or something. its easy to get a drink at the strip clubs I go to.
Interesting, but. (Score:5, Insightful)
Like people that work at bars (or the bars themselves) are organized enough to guarantee that:
a. somebody will keep track of who, at which table, has which glass.
b. waitstaff will actually use this.
Come on. You look at a table. Glass is either full or empty. Or, if you are smart, you sold them a pitcher. That was probably the last technological update that any beer pouring establishment needed.
Fill glasses, fill pitcher, deliver to table. Periodically monitor the pitcher mechanism until you no longer detect an amber, or red, or dark, frothy content. When content is empty, fork a process to your waitress. Have her deliver a new pitcher of frothy goodness.
Electronic beer glasses, heh. Are they going to assign individual addresses to every glass made? Where there is one bar, there are more bars. Talk about miscommunication.
"OH! That must be glass 716 from across the street"
Heh,
-S
Re:Interesting, but. (Score:3, Funny)
And wouldn't these need a GPS beacon so that a waitress would know *where* the empty was? And maybe some sort of means of determining what the person was drinking, either special glasses for each offering or have the glasses be uniquely ID'd and the contents updated by the staff at each refill? Yikes. Too hard to implement, too easy to mess with. The only tech advance the local bar needs is some form of EZ-Pass, so I can just wave my keychain at a sensor and they send me a bill or charge my credit card instead of messing with change. That I could use.
Think high-end buddy (Score:2)
Obviously you've never been in a high-end restaurant in the midst of a dinner rush (or a popular bar at the peak of partytime, like 2 or 3am). It can be murder to get the pretty lady who brings the magic jump juice to come around. If they can make a cocktail and wineglass version (and I don't see why not) they might just have something to contribute to the future of the service industry.
Most establishments in NYC (my base of experience) already run their ordering off a touch-screen system, eliminating errors, waste and such. The next logical step is a bluetooth-enabled waiter PDA that maps the floor, the tables, and shows the frazzles server whos glasses are empty at a strategic level. She/he can then plan her/his serving game plan.
Trust me, keeping track of 5 or more tables eatch with large parties and seperate orders spread out over a large floor plan is a headache even for a seasoned server. Sure, if I'm talking about my sleepy corner bar, this is the most frivilous thing in the world, but for a hectic place like the W or Soho Grand (or some of the more classy clubs) this could be a big sell.
Re:Think high-end buddy (Score:2)
Whoops! s/been/worked
I assume most people have been in a busy place, but not many people know what it's like from the other end of the equation.
Re:Think high-end buddy (Score:2)
Truly, it's not that different from walking the floor, noting who needs drinks, and consolidating everything you need for the return trip. The real problem with most places, in my experience, is that at least 90% of servers don't know how to consolidate their orders very well. It doesn't matter if they know everyone who needs a drink, they're still bringing one table's drinks out at a time.
So instead, why not have touchscreens at every table, where the order can be made, paid for, and the drink delivered by whomever is available?
It just seems to me that the mug idea would only work if you were employing 'top 5%'-type servers in your establishment, and even most high-end clubs don't hire for that kind of brain power. 5'9" and curvy, yes, brainy, uh...no.
Re:Think high-end buddy (Score:2)
Re:Interesting, but. (Score:2)
If only the glass could broadcast location and nightly drinking history. I need the waitress to find me and keep me serving until I've had about ten, then know to tell me to sod off and go home instead of bringing me an eleventh.
(Of course this would be hard to implement across three or four bars/clubs in a night...)
Beer glasses? (Score:2, Insightful)
Quite frankly this project is a waste of time and resources that could be more useful in the attaining of more beer and the consuming of materials thereof.
Why waste money on these glasses when the R&D money would be better suited to get more beer, cheaper for you and me... who's with me?
Re:Interesting, but. (Score:2)
This is what IPv6 is designed to facilitate. We'd have enough IPs to give each beer glass on Earth its own address.
Re:Interesting, but. (Score:2)
well, empty class will explain why your pickup attempts all failed . .
:)
hawk
great idea! (Score:1)
And this helps how? (Score:2, Interesting)
I think a more worthwhile invention would be a mug that electronically disables the drinkers car keys for a certain amount of time when the mug runs dry.
Good idea? Maybe... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Good idea? Maybe... (Score:2)
Then if you want to get real crazy maybe we can put a little device in the stool that sends a signal of how much the person weighs, then we can match his/her weight with the amount of drink he/she has had and have an intelligent idea whether they have had too much to drink or not.
All this talk is making me thirsty...
Re:Good idea? Maybe... (Score:2)
I had that same thought, but then you need to know the person's weight...which means you either ask them (will they tell the truth?), make them step on a scale (maybe as you herd people in through the door?), or guess (are they wearing bulky clothes? Are they fat or muscular?).
So once you get past that, then you realize that some people can really handle their liquor and some cant, regardless of how much they weigh. I wouldnt want to be refused a drink when a computer tells me I'm already too drunk if I'm really not. That's an insult. And if I really am am drunk, well hell, I'd probably be just as mad at that computer for thinking it's so smart and knows so much about me.
Then will pubs have to start formulating privacy policies, given that they are collecting all this personal information from you?
It just sounds like a lot of trouble.
well, no wonder . . (Score:2)
>you and you want to get completely shit faced...
If you can't remember (or tell!) which of these your dating, is it any surprise s/he/it dumped you???
:)
hawk
Restaurants and bars... (Score:2)
"Automating" the re-fill would not be a convenience but a hassle, it would remove a great part of the ritual from the whole bar-thing. It's not like we have a lot of excuses left... going to the bathroom is a perfectly valid but too attractive excuse to use in public. Since the whole point of going to a bar is the ritual, that's probably not a good idea.
In a restaurant, you normally don't interact with other customers. Contacting the waiter/waitress may actually be an excercise in acrobatics and gesticulation, but it's definitely a disposable part of the restaurant ritual: you go there to eat and interact with those at your table, any moment interacting with someone else is usually an interruption and minimizing it makes sense.
stage II: breathalyzer mug (Score:2)
>has drunk enough for the night?
well, to drink, first ya gots to bring the mug to yo mout. Den ya breeds out, and den ya drinks.
And they test on the exhale . .
:)
hawk
Need a new bar (Score:3, Funny)
Either the bars you go to are staffed by drunks.. or they make you clean your own glasses.
Either way I'd find a new bar.
Re:Need a new bar (Score:2)
Either way I'd find a new bar.
Or just remember your wallet the next time you go out. Then maybe they won't make you wash the dishes to pay for your beers
Price per glass? (Score:3, Informative)
It has to be comparable to the price of a regular glass, or bars and restaurants simply won't buy them. Broken dishes happen in these places. There is simply no denying it, and no way around it. Damn near everyone has been in an establishment and heard it happen. I can understand an owner shying away from these if they turn $100 in broken dishes into $1000 in broken dishes.
calm down (Score:2)
Hmmmmm (Score:2)
Some sort of auto-eroticiser... I'll have to think about that. Might be a business plan in there somewhere.
Whats next? (Score:3, Insightful)
Some of the bars I've been in (Score:2)
Not quite... (Score:4, Insightful)
This might be kinda interesting for Oktoberfest, but the cost for more than 1M of the 1-liter mugs would be incredible. Speaking of Oktoberfest, I'll let you all in on how it all works here:
What I need is not a beer mug that tells the staff I need another. I need one that tells me I don't!
Re:Not quite... (Score:2)
Maybe Taco should carry more money with him the next time he goes to the bar so he doesn't have to wash glasses to work his tab off.
Japanese "to do" list (Score:4, Interesting)
Japanese "done" list: high tech sushi plates ... (Score:2)
Anyway I was in this one conveyor belt sushi bar where the plates had different patterns, but instead of counting them the waitress came over with something that looked like a bar code scanner, but no laser, she waved it vaguely at the pile of plates from several feet away, and the thing printed out an itemised list of everything we had eaten ... (and yes I did check there were no obvious marks on the rims of the stack of plates). Just had to give her the cc and we were off. Often wondered exactly how that was done, guess it's embedded stuff again ...
Re:Japanese "done" list: high tech sushi plates .. (Score:2)
Actually, that is pretty cool. I always liked the BASF or 3M commercial where it talked about inventions of the future, and then said "DONE" to Typhoon-proof glass. I guess I would rather have more genius people working on things other than automated sushi calculators.
typhoon proof glass (Score:2)
Help, anyone? I cannot remember the commercial. Basically shows a series of neat thinks a company is working on; dent-resistant car doors, etc. It then shows a high-rise apartment building with a family peering through the floor to ceiling window into the storm, and it says "typhoon-proof glass: done". I think it was BASF or 3M or Du Pont. Anyone remember?
Re:typhoon proof glass (Score:2)
Re:Japanese "done" list: high tech sushi plates .. (Score:2)
But you've reminded me of a joke:
Q: What's the difference between bogeys and broccoli?
...
A: Children won't eat broccoli
Re:Japanese "to do" list (Score:2)
There's a fine line between that and Sharper Image products.
Bars are too chaotic (Score:3, Interesting)
A better use of this would be at a restaurant where there's assigned seating and people stay in the same place.
Re:Bars are too chaotic (Score:2)
Re:Bars are too chaotic (Score:2)
This is the third post I've seen suggesting that these glasses should have GPS embedded in them so the waitress can locate them.
GPS is a GLOBAL Positioning System. Do we really need to be able to locate a glass in another hemisphere? And besides, if GPS's resolution is only granular down to the square-meter level, what good will that do in a bar that has a dozen glasses per square meter?
A simple RF "marco-polo" kind of system, where the wait staff has a receiver that beeps quicker the closer they get to the glass, would be more than sufficient.
And annoying, too.
Re:Bars are too chaotic (Score:2)
If the server can't figure out which glass in a square meter needs refilling then he/she has problems.
Re:Bars are too chaotic (Score:2)
So what we need here isn't a GPS, but a BPS (Beer Positioning System). Instead of having the glass figure out where it is, just have it figure out when the glass needs to be refilled. It broadcasts a basic "fill me" signal containing not much more than an id #. Located at various points around the bar you have a half dozen or more receivers that all listen for the signal of glasses asking for refills. Some or all of the receivers hear the signal at different times and different strengths, transmit the info to a central computer, and the central computer calculates the beer's position.
Re:Bars are too chaotic (Score:3, Funny)
GPS. Rule. I can snitch mine and take it on a mountain hike.
"We need a refill at table 2, two at table 11, and one at ... glacier national park? dispatch a chopper..."
Pessimistic technology? (Score:2)
Or see the recent 9 Chickweed Lane [comics.com] takes on the question (starting around the beginning of March).
Hmmm. (Score:2)
Costs more, but works just as well (Score:5, Funny)
"Keep this Guinness full"
Then leave a nice tip.
Works every time.
Re:Costs more, but works just as well (Score:2)
it takes a sample (Score:2)
THe packet it sends looks something like:
:)
hawk, coauthor of "IP over drunken mug" protocol
Re:Costs more, but works just as well (Score:3, Insightful)
Personally I drink Murphy's which is nicer.
Re:Costs more, but works just as well (Score:2)
Where the beer really is (Score:4, Funny)
Prolly closer to their guts.
At last! (Score:2)
Future Upgrades (Score:5, Funny)
Application: karaoke bars. (Score:4, Informative)
Now many of these places offer bottled beer because there isn't a good way to offer draft beer when you don't have a bartender in the room. And putting a tap in the room would be an invitation to massive floods when a drunken salaryman (or woman) accidentally forgets that he needs a glass for all that beer he's drinking.
But with this solution, problem solved! The manager simply looks at the beer status display, and when enough glasses show up as empty on the display, he sends a waiter back to the room with freshly poured Super Dry. [asahibeer.co.jp] Happy customers, more revenue, perfect!
Half empty? (Score:5, Funny)
Beer? Whisky glasses are more important. (Score:3, Interesting)
This is the type of glass that needs to have a loud "I'm not empty, leave me alone" sensor. Bar staff are just blind when it comes to whisky tumblers!
More big brother? (Score:2)
How annoying to have the waitress zoom over the very second you sip the last of your beer every time. "Would you like another?". Uh, no... I'll ask for another if I want one thank you
what you really need (Score:2, Funny)
Privacy Alert! (Score:3, Funny)
Won't someone think of the children?!?! er...
Re:Privacy Alert! (Score:2)
Yeah, just wait until amazon.com [amazon.com] starts opening bars using this technology.. You'll see things like this printed on your receipt:
Customers who consumed 8 drafts also purchased:
o Trojan Brand PreLubricated Latex Condoms
o Freezer King Microwave Buritos
o Certs Wintergreen Breath Mints
o Pepto-Bismal (economy size)
o Medic Ibuprofen (economy size)
o Female Escort (1 hour minimum)
Please visit our gift shop on the way out
Shayne
Beer and Stupidity (Score:2)
Frankly, I think drinking alcohol as a beverage is downright stupid--and no, I'm not trying to make some moral point. It's just not the slightest bit practical. C'mon now, think about it:
- it's expensive
- it really doesn't taste very good by itself
- it doesn't quench your thirst
- it damages your brain and liver
- it has a high fat content (10g/std. serving)
- it wastes your time if you get tipsy or a hangover
- it dulls your wit, judgment, and intelligence
- it creates all sorts of societal problems when used irresponsibly
- used as an escape, it is highly unhealthy psychologically
..and if you think it'll help you get guys/girls, you've got a bigger problem than lack of a mate. (ie. it should not be a requisite for acting sociable)
Why on earth would any self-respecting geek want to poison themselves with this crap? Stop listening to the big beer companies. Drink water. Live healthfully. Enjoy life.
Re:Beer and Stupidity (Score:2)
Too expensize!
Does nothing by itself!
Does not satisfy your thirst for knowledge!
It damages your wrists!
It causes you to not excersize and you get fat!
It wastes ALL your time!
Sites like
It creates all sorts of societal problems when used irresponsively!
Used as an escape, it is highly unhealthy psychologically!
I could also go on about cars, or fire or any other possible subject that I was personally aganst! Oh NO!
You know there have been several studies that beer is actually good for you in moderation
(1-2 drinks a day!)
But thanks for your uninformed FUD,
what? (Score:2)
I think this is a left-over April Fool's joke, you know it's late because of the time-difference and all... :)
Stud Finder 3 (Score:2)
Drinking beer and annoying waiters (Score:2)
I've travelled most of the world and I've never found a bar that beats an English/Irish pub. Other nationalities simply don't get it.
Re:Beer sucks (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Beer sucks (Score:2)
Sam Adams is known as the independent beer the same way that Anheuser-Busch Budweiser is known as the American beer[2] the same way that Heineken is still the US import beer.
woof.
[1] Don't give me a hard time about not mentioning Oldenburg, which only started brewing in 1990 or 1991.
[2]Of course, it doesn't hurt that reputation when you consider that about 20% of all beer brewed in the US is Budweiser (regular, not including Bud Light), and that Budweiser alone accounts for more barrelage than the next largest brewery (Miller brands).
Re:Beer sucks (Score:2, Funny)
Maybe if you sucked the beer, rather than letting it suck you, you would appreciate it more.
Re:Now to add support for... (Score:2)
Re:Bars won't go for this (Score:2)
Re:At what level does it activate? (Score:2)