youneverknow Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 I don't know how many of you out there know about the new coca-cola contest. They are using GPS technology to win a prize. As I understand the rules...there will be 100 special cans with GPS locating technology distributed randomly in the next millions or so "frige packs" sold in the US. If you get one of these lucky (and rare) cans... you are suppose to push the locate button on the can and you may win upto some new vehicle of some sort (maybe worth upto $40,000). or so My questions to you is do you think that maybe an un-activated can may be worth in say 10 years to a coca-cola collector more than the current top prize is? There are lots of collectors out there who would pay 6 figures to have one of these babies in their collection. In a virgin conditon (I am assuming that to collect the prize, you must forefit the can to collect the prize) Don't you think that such a rare can could be worth thousands more by holding onto it than playing their contest? youneverknow link to the contest: http://www.unexpectedsummer.com/index_flash.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaJill Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Possibly, but many people - possibly most that might take part in this - would only know about/be interested in the immediate outcome ... and may need it more than a gamble on some large reward in the future.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
greatfolios sysop Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Kewell!!! Mr. Bill :Nerd: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deverill Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Scary! Their slogan says it all "You can win but you can't hide!" I'm beginning to thing that George Orwell was a prophet instead of a writer. Big brother can do so many things right now it's scary. Now they are making it commonplace and socially acceptable to track people. Devices like lojack and personal gps locators for families built into cell phones are everyday things now. How long before we get a national id card, number and a tracking chip? "But I don't have anything to hide, so what?" you say? Then why do we all use envelopes instead of postcards for our correspondence? I don't think we will have thought police or anything but it would be very upsetting to get a phone call saying "Hey, we noticed that you usually buy 3 6-packs of Coke every week but you have been buying Pepsi lately. Let us give you 2 $1.00 off coupons to get you back." Can it be done? Yes! Especially if you pay with debit or credit cards. There was a store in England that would have their security cameras take a snapshot of everyone leaving the store that had Gillette Mach3 razor blades. Why? They say it was an attempt to stop shoplifting of one of the most-stolen products. How? RFID tags inside the product, which are originally for inventory and warehouse management purposes, triggered the cameras. I'm not paranoid (ok, well sorta) but I am really interested in seeing where this kind of thing ends up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellringr Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 I just think it's a creative promotion, not some conspiracy to invade our private drinking lives. If you want to pinpoint where I am to give me a valuable new vehicle, go for it! And why do I use envelopes? Because I can't return a bill on a postcard, or include a check, or write a whole letter on a postcard. Heck - I put postcards IN envelopes so they'll get there faster. Out of the 12 postcards I sent from St. Lucia, only the two I put in envelopes ever arrived. Mad!!! I don't really care if companies use technology like grocery cards, compiling purchase information, etc. for marketing research. It's unobtrusive and cheaper for them. I just hate it that they make you carry a card to get the "discounted" prices. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Thomas Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 As i hear it (read, dont know if its true) we will get ip numbers even for the lamps at home. My isp will think "Ok Thomas, time to go to bed" and he switch of my lamp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deverill Posted May 31, 2004 Share Posted May 31, 2004 Or he will say "Hey, we are below budget - let's turn on Thomas' light to get more of his money!" True, this is just a promotion, but if we become familiar with everyone knowing everything about us then where would it stop? Imagine, you're on your way to dinner and your boss stops as you leave your car and gives you a new rush project... sometimes it's nice to get lost. Even if you're doing nothing wrong, do you want to have to answer to the police why you drive past a known crack house 3 times a day? I don't want them asking even if it is because they let a crack house operate between my home and my favorite chinese restaurant. It's a needless hassle. There are a billion scenarios where this could be used badly. Many of which have been on TV or at the movies. Is it going to happen this year? No. Next decade? Who knows. Besides, as a Bible believing Christian it concerns me that we are moving toward a cashless economy and a unified government (the EU)... but let's limit any debate to the big brother effect rather than arguing religious outlooks. Obligatory web hosting angle: What if every email you got was related to your habitual spending patterns. Example - (totally made up) imagine I'm an alcoholic and Budweiser sees that I've enrolled in AA and quit buying beer. Do I really NEED a bazillion "cheap beer" coupons in my email, popups for a nice cold Miller Light with less carbs or whatever? (I'm not a beer drinker so I don't know if that's the right company.) Then when I'm driving down the road, just before the package store comes into sight the commercial comes on the radio for "that party feeling - buy beer". I'm about to skip the beer aisle at the grocery store and the speaker on the grocery cart says "Hey! Don't forget your nice hot cheesy pizza!" which just happens to be on the aisle with the beer. It could get absurd but why not? It's just good old American Capitalism at work, isn't it? I mean, we can't deny the beer company the right to market their product can we? It's like the article I read recently where the Gambler's Anonymous website had ads for online SPAMMER-BEWARE's. Not illegal, but darned wicked nonetheless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Venusian31 Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 I hear you, Jim. It may seem harmless now, but it's creepy to think what it may eventually lead to, especially in a society where greed is slowly starting to override ethics or morality for some people. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 Green Day; Paranoia! paranoia! Everybody's coming to get me Just say you never met me I'm running underground with the moles...digging holes Hear the voices in my head I swear to god it sounds like their snoring But if your poor and your boring The agony and the irony They're killing me well... I'm, I'm not sick but I'm not well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TangentIdea Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 There are a billion scenarios where this could be used badly. Many of which have been on TV or at the movies. Is it going to happen this year? No. Next decade? Who knows. Besides, as a Bible believing Christian it concerns me that we are moving toward a cashless economy and a unified government (the EU)... but let's limit any debate to the big brother effect rather than arguing religious outlooks. I think the whole tracking scenario is inevitable. People will fuss about it for a while, but then they'll get used to it... and life moves on. On the end-times point: If it's not time, then God's not gonna let it happen. If it's time, it's gonna happen and there's nothing we can do about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Thomas Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 Isnt there countries that already keep track of their people in various ways? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Thomas Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 Green Day; Paranoia! paranoia! Everybody's coming to get me Just say you never met me I'm running underground with the moles...digging holes Hear the voices in my head I swear to god it sounds like their snoring But if your poor and your boring The agony and the irony They're killing me well... I'm, I'm not sick but I'm not well I have a song for you, its called They´re coming to take me away, by Napoleoon XIV. J/K Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 I think the whole tracking scenario is inevitable. People will fuss about it for a while, but then they'll get used to it... and life moves on. Exactly and it happens a little at a time. Somebody jumps the gun and it gets blown out of proportion and privacy groups get in a huff. In time it goes away and the tracking keeps expanding. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 They´re coming to take me away To the happy home where life is beautiful all the time? Love it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boojum Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 Excellent, Jim. You've zeroed in quite nicely on the pervasive invasiveness of interminable corporate promotion and "marketing studies" based on information on each and all of us that we would often be amazed and furious to find in their possession. As for the Green Day song: lovely lyrics, but not particularly applicable here. Albert Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." I think each begets the other. (In this case, the more you know, the more horrific scenarios you can imagine ... and the more easily.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarqFlare Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 Let's explore a few more ideas that could come from this privacy invasion: * I'm at CNN.com. I just read an article about how some Islamic website was promoting terrorism. In my state of curiosity, I found the Islamic website. Less than five minutes later, some SWAT members bust into my house and arrest me for supporting terrorism. * (Ignore that Chevron owns Texaco for a moment) I visit Texaco because the closest Chevron is too far away for me: I'll run out of gas. I fill up and head home. Soon, I get a call from a Chevron representative asking me why I don't like their gas anymore... But I do, I say. Then they mention something about how they tracked my gas tank filling up with non-Chevron gas, and I run out of the house screaming. * I visit Fry's Electronics and buy a new computer monitor. Then I swing by Best Buy and get a new video cable (Strange, I know.. Bear with me). The video cable won't work because it detected the monitor was sold at a store other than Best Buy (Or some non-compatibility issue of the sort). I don't even want to begin to think of what may happen with the government if this stuff keeps up. We're already to the point that if you disagree with our republican-run government, that you're labeled anti-Patriotic and a terrorism supporter (Don't represent views of TCH...). Bleh. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boojum Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 Robert, You should come visit my new site (coming soon). Everything that's now in my Nation & World subdomain, along with many new items created especially for the latter, will appear in SolidarityAlliance.com. From some of your observations touching on the growing (and irrefragably Orwellian if not Huxleyesque) tendency in today's America to quell dissent with conditioned apathy and dismissal if not outright malevolence, I think you will find the material of interest. Much has been written of "the banality of evil." To that charge I would add lack of imagination: Much of this administration really does seem to have gotten all of its ideas straight from Josef Goebbels, Hermann Goring and George Orwell. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Rob Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 As for the Green Day song: lovely lyrics, but not particularly applicable here Maybe I should have kept to the first two lines then. Paranoia is running rampant here, even if it is based in a small amount of fact. I guess that when I check out at the supermarket and the cashier says "You saved $6 today Mr. Mcilroy" my data could be sent to a database that the manufacturers could data mine and determine my specific spending habits and market material to me based on that. You can fight that, pay in cash. If we become cashless, move to Borneo and live off the land. These changes might be on the horizon but your best defense right now will be a ballot in November. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boojum Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 Paranoia is running rampant here, even if it is based in a small amount of fact. ... These changes might be on the horizon but your best defense right now will be a ballot in November. You can call it paranoia. I call it a healthy skepticism about the uses and potential abuses of technology whose development has outpaced our species' moral growth. Observe, if you will, the efforts in the Pentagon. The controversial Adm. John Poindexter may no longer be in charge, and the name may have been slightly changed, but the Total Information Awareness program is alive and well. Observe the lobbying in Congress, where industry has blocked attempt after attempt at protecting consumers' privacy. As for Rob's second point: It is well taken. Let's all remember to vote in November for candidates who will fight for us and not allow themselves to succumb to the blandishments of big business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boxturt Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 .....sure....why not? PARANOIA BLUES (Words & music by Paul Simon 1972) I got some so-called friends They'll smile right to my face Oh, when my back is turned They'd like to stick it to me Yes they would Oh no no, oh no no There's only one thing I need to know Whose side are you on? I fly into J.F.K. My heart goes boom boom boom I know that customs man He's going to take me To that little room Oh no no. Oh no, no There's only one thing I need to know Whose side are you on, whose side are you on? I got the paranoia blues Fnom knockin' around in New York City Where they roll you for a nickel And they stick you for the extra dime Anyway you choose You're bound to lose in New York City Oh, I just got out in the nick of time Well, I just got out in the nick of time Once I was down in Chinatown I was eating some Lin's Chow Fon I happened to turn around And when I looked I see My Chow Fon's gone Oh no, no, Oh no, no There's only one thing I need to know Whose side are you on, whose side are you on? Well, there's only one thing I need to know Whose side, whose side, whose side? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TCH-Bruce Posted June 1, 2004 Share Posted June 1, 2004 As for Rob's second point: It is well taken. Let's all remember to vote in November for candidates who will fight for us and not allow themselves to succumb to the blandishments of big business. I agree and I do vote but it seems anytime anyone gets to Washington they are soon changed to go with the flow. Thus things hardly ever change. We must keep trying. If we get enough new blood in Washington maybe things will change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Deverill Posted June 2, 2004 Share Posted June 2, 2004 These changes might be on the horizon but your best defense right now will be a ballot in November. Paranoia or realization of the possibilities presented? Isn't it the same sometimes? Unfortunately, I am not sure that government is the driving force in what I see as a "possible future". They are indeed participants but the ones I see making this happen are the corporations. They are the ones that have access to the information that can make the world a scary place to live. Regarding new blood in DC? I think instead of new blood we need to get cooperative blood. As much as it pains me to say it, I think a government that's all Democrats would be better than what it is now - the government for the most part is paralyzed by partisan motivations rather than the good of the nation. When folks do get off their butts and do something, like President Bush did (right, wrong or indifferent), the rest of the political house of cards rushes to reestablish the tethers so that they can maintain their little empires. The point I originally made was that this collection of information sounds way-cool but it can be used in an extremely vile manner as well. Perhaps we should be thinking about it now and making sure that never happens instead of waking up one day with the thought-police knocking on the door or the firemen searching for our secret book stash. (Apologies to the Politically Correct group but fire-fighter doesn't work in this sentence. ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Boojum Posted June 2, 2004 Share Posted June 2, 2004 (Apologies to the Politically Correct group but fire-fighter doesn't work in this sentence. ) Apologies to Ray Bradbury might be more apropos. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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