Comments on: How Bars Can Use Microsoft Surface Tables to Get You Drunk Faster Than Ever

By: anna

anna — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:57:47 +0000

i think the idea is briliant, only it shld be the client deciding if wanting a refill or ordering a different drink on the screen. If i had the $$$ I would open the first bar with this technology here in Barcelona!

By: Microsoft LiveSurface support

Microsoft LiveSurface support — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:05:24 +0000

Hello, pjm?

Please clean the glasses, and give the system a good reboot. If all else fails, buy a new one for the next 256 times.

Thank you, and have a nice day.

Microsoft Live Surface support.

By: saucy

saucy — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 02:17:46 +0000

spoilers: stores exist to make money. otherwise they wouldn’t exist

By: pjm

pjm — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 23:03:45 +0000

“Hello, Microsoft LiveSurface support?

Your stuff is working Ok, but about about every 256 times, something happens: the 255th person’s glass always shows as needing a refill. No matter what we do (including as many refills as we can produce,) the message never stops.

Can you please tell us how to turn off this feature?”

;)

By: mattt

mattt — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 20:15:33 +0000

James – I don’t think it’s about encouraging people to drink when usually they would not. It’s more about providing better service. Whoever is delivering the drink should know if the customer needs to be cut off or not. Besides, it doesn’t apply just to alcohol. This could be very useful in restaurants.

By: Telephoto

Telephoto — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 18:32:10 +0000

@Wide Angle
Yes, because the only possible way to get home from a bar is by single-passenger automobile – designated drivers, taxis, buses, trains, bicycles, or walking are all somehow impossible to use in this situation. (!?)
I completely agree that drunk driving is terribly irresponsible and shouldn’t be encouraged, but then neither, in my view, should your ridiculous obsession with it as the sole effect or goal of alcohol consumption. I’d recommend that you relax with some good friends and a pint, but I’m afraid you would end up stranded in the parking lot of your local pub, waiting for those last two molecules of ethanol to leave your bloodstream. Cheers!

By: Wide Angle

Wide Angle — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:58:31 +0000

Great idea if getting people drunk and raising their chances of getting a DUI, killed or someone you know killed is the objective. Drink responsibly? The ONLY way to do that is to not drink at all or drink only when you’re not getting behind the wheel regardless of your consumption level. Typical commercialism thinking… forget that every DAY people die from drinking whether they consumed or the person that slammed into them did. Bars should be illegal. Drink at home if you must. Leave innocent lives out of the equation.

By: Rick

Rick — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:57:27 +0000

The technology is good, but the focus of this video is wrong.

I would not want a table or a waiter to tell me or even give a slight suggestion that it is “time to refill!”.

However, if this would alert on the background the staff that there might be a new order upcoming from that table through the MS surface ordering system, that could improve response times and increase customer satisfaction.

As the idea is represented in this video, however, the system decreases customer satisfaction.

By: Bob

Bob — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:45:33 +0000

James:

You forget that getting drunk is the primary reason for visiting a bar in the first place. Do you want to drink and socialize, or spend your evening waving your arms trying to get the bartender’s attention?

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:43:12 +0000

We don’t need to make it easier for crumby bartenders and waitstaff to keep their jobs.

It is a mark of good service when the staff is tuned into this sort of thing. Arriving at the table to check how your drinks are doing just before food arrives, paying attention to how your drink is doing so you don’t have to spend your evening trying to get the bartender’s attention… etc.

Would this sort of thing improve service, or just encourage already spaced out staff to pay less attention?

By: tommym

tommym — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 15:17:50 +0000

Yeah, cool babe, nice red shoes, but I don’t want my drink-ordering habits controlled by a freakin table, let alone by a profit-motivated bar owner.

By: Matt Simmons

Matt Simmons — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:34:44 +0000

It’s probably a bad thing that I didn’t object to the blatant attempt to get me drunk, but to the idea that these prisms are taking up space in my glass…