McDonalds staff 'rough up' prof with home-made techno-spectacles
A man wearing computer-assisted spectacles was assaulted by staff in a Parisian McDonalds, who tried to pull the glasses off his head then threw him out of the restaurant, according to a blog post written by the victim. The staff seemed angered by the high-tech vision-ware worn by Dr Steve Mann who is an academic at the …
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A laser? Seriously?
I, for one, am sorely disappointed that no-one has recommended installation of a skull-gun yet.
He's lucky he didn't take two rounds, one in flesh one in augs, before he could get that dam assalt gun up.
Well...
As an expert in wearable computing, he should be aware that wearing headgear like that may result in unpredictable reactions from the general public. The headgear looks deliberately designed to be in your face, not exactly subtle like the Google glasses are attempting to be. He looks like he's dressed up as something from an obscure sci fi film.
I am in no way condoning what happened, but I know how I feel if I encounter Police with head mounted cameras and I've (usually) not done anything wrong.
Re: Well...
People with robotic limbs and hearing aids look weird to those who have never seen them before.
But you don't go attempting to rip them off.
Re: Well...
Like I said, I don't condone what happened, but:
These are not a normal prosthetic, they're an experiment in wearable computing, they stand out in a provocative way in which a normal prosthetic (Oscar Pistorius not included) just does not. Normal prosthetics are designed to replicate function of what's missing, and be as unobtrusive as possible.
Add to that the McDonalds in question having had problems with TV companies, and apparently having no cameras signes on the door, you can see how the situation may come about.
Re: Well...
Thebn yiu ask him to leave. If he does not you call the cops. No it is no understandable that you would assault some cause you think they have a camera. He showed them the letter and they ripped it up, If you have that lack of control you do not belong in society.
Re: Well...
You don't condone what happens, you just excuse twats acting like twats?
The glasses in question are not that provocative. Provocative would be a massive cyclopean middle-of-the-forehead HAL-9000 LED, or a tattoo on his face saying "I'M RECORDING YOUR EVERY WORD" or something. He's wearing some custom, unusual, glasses. If you're going to freak out over them, you should be freaking out about everyone with a phone manufactured in the last 5-8 years because HOLY SHIT CAMERAS ZOMG!
Even if the gear were in breach of some bollocks "no recording equipment" policy, the correct response is to ask him politely to leave, not to physically assault him. I'm really not sure where that part is somehow a predictable and avoidable risk in your world. Are we really having to specifically tell people that violent assault isn't a valid reaction when you work in customer service? o_O
Re: Well...
Well, we ARE talking about Paris here... 'customer service' there does usually approach the level of violent assault...
Re: Well...
There is a difference between trying to work out how things got to the stage they did and condoning, or excusing what happened.
Re: Well... (@ Captain Underpants )
"Are we really having to specifically tell people that violent assault isn't a valid reaction when you work in customer service? o_O"
Yes. This crap started with the security notices in microwave ovens. It's snowballing now.
Re: Well...
Well, you say that, but I was at this Ceilidh once .......
I see the staff at McDonalds are fully unionized
Violence towards the customer? Sure. Then they get fired, get on government dripfeed and are back at the next "manifestation" throwing stones randomly into shops to "show the rich actionnaires what's what". Then they complain that shops are closing and demand government intervention to put a stop to this unpatriotic exploitation of the proletarian masses.
big effort by McD's
"As part of that process, the McDonald's France team has made several attempts to reach Dr. Mann directly."
If they cant even find the victim , how are they going to find the culprit ??
"Made several attempts to contact him directly"
That's a nice way of putting 'We sent the guys around to bang on his hotel room but he's not answering the door."
Publicity?
All seems a little odd, if he's posted the pics to find these people, why obscure their faces/names?
If the assault happened then clearly it's wrong, but something just doesn't feel right about this.
Paris Culture
How is this different from anyone else's trip to Paris?
Re: Paris Culture
You've answered that yourself: Miss Hilton's trip to Paris was a lot different, at least from what we can see in her "One Night in Paris" movie.
Re: One Night In Paris Culture
Great movie, terrible lighting! At least. so I was told ;)
Re: Paris Culture
Well, at least he can be glad he wasn't treated the same way she was...
I can't help thinking
That the other side to this story would be very interesting. I've rarely seen fast food staff suddenly decide to assault customers and rip their sunglasses off, although I'm prepared to believe that working at McMornons and dealing with the French public is enough to send anyone temporarly insane.
Why was he attacked again?
Would they also attack anybody with an unfamiliar prosthesis? What gives?
Re: Why was he attacked again?
I can only assume they thought he was filming for some documentary or something. Perhaps some of the staff members are illegal immigrants?
Re: Why was he attacked again?
Maybe he can try it next time with some other kind of strap-on ;)
Re: Why was he attacked again?
Didn't stop them in Lesbian Nuns II .... oh, you mean attack the person THAT HAS the prosthesis ....
He got off lightly
Had his Mrs been wearing a headscarf they would've knocked her teeth out. The French these days are like Daily Mail readers...on steroids
Re: He got off lightly
Who just voted out Sarkozy. Nice try...... ;)
Re: He got off lightly
Except the staff who assaulted him were of the north african persuasion, so probably not.
Re: He got off lightly
Thumbs down because you wanted him still in his job? He's the first for ages of any party that didn't get a second go ;)
The logical explanation for all this was that staff told him to put down the camera and stop recording, he said he couldn't and they - not believing it - decided to give it a try themselves, hence the assault.
I've had my share of angry reactions when taking photos of people too, even when it wasn't on purpose. This will no doubt be a problem if wearable cameras start becoming common.
I don't see what he is complaining about, McDonalds' finest Special Tools were used to remove the gadget from his skull ;)
By Special Tools, I mean Special Needs Tools of course ;)
It's not all black/white (as usual)..
There's more details on /. - apparently the McD's in question has had trouble with media harassing them recently and the staff may have been under the impression Dr. Mann may have been working for them. Add on top the language barrier, and, well, shit happens. There's supposed to be a 'no cameras' sign on the entrance door too, so he can't claim complete ignorance.
Still does not excuse the rough treatment, but apparently it wasn't a case of ignoramuses hitting on a "cyborg".
More shocking...
Whilst I'm shocked by the behaviour of the staff, it's the handling of the incident by the authorities which really worries me.
He was physically assaulted! The police cannot just do a Sarkozy shrug and ignore a reported assault.
The Englishman side of me mutters "Well what do you expect from the French?", but then the US embassy completely ignores the complaint too.
Write letters, kick up a stink and lets have heads roll for this.
Re: More shocking...
He was born and lives in Canada. I know it's fun to pile on the USA, but isn't it reasonable to think he contacted the Canadian embassy?
Re: More shocking...
Why can't they just shrug and ignore it? "It's nearly the end of my shift and this looks like it might take a while" is a standard part of police procedure the world over.
If you think no-one ever gets roughed up in London without the Met conducting a full and exhaustive investigation then you are deluded.
Re: More shocking...
Ah, sorry, I missed that he was Canadian.
Why on earth did he go to the US embassy?
Re: More shocking...
Maybe he read the nameplate on the door wrong ;) Or maybe his eye crashed when he was looking for it :P
Re: More shocking...
I think it's EL Reg making assumptions. He says on his blog that he went to "the Embassy." He might well be a citizen of the USA, but being born and living in Canada and working hard so his kids are bilingual in French and English leads me to believe otherwise.
Re: Re: More shocking...
It was an error, sorry. The article has been changed.
C.
MMmmhh I'm Luvin
A Playmobil reconstruction of this.......
Re: MMmmhh I'm Luvin
'A Playmobil reconstruction of this.......'
One with HappyMeal toys surely?
There seems to be a part of the conversation missing from the blog post.
Did they ask him to turn it off after he explained what it was? Did he refuse to turn it off? What did HE say to them?
It all seems a bit one-sided for my liking. Come on, people just don't assault others in a MacDonald's for nothing.
Motives?
I'm going to bet that the owner and staff had concluded that he was engaged in creating a clandestine video of goings on at their restaurant. This suggests that that they actually had something to hide, and that they were worried. So rather than just address the attack, either McDonalds, or as likely, the French tax office, might like to give the place's operations a thorough audit.
Re: Motives?
Yup, tend to agree with that, they seem a little overly nervous of cameras ;)
Re: Motives?
"...he was engaged in creating a clandestine video of goings on at their restaurant."
If he was, you wouldn't even see the camera. Mobile phone in a shirt pocket can film through the cloth quite easily as a low tech solution to covert filming.
Re: Motives?
"... This suggests that that they actually had something to hide,..."
Of course, as we all know, if they have nothing to hide, they have nothing to fear.
Re: Motives?
But then again, it was public-ish place, and to my knowledge he wasn't trying to enter any restricted areas. So it begs the question, why go through all the trouble of kicking him off, ramifications and all?
Its all very odd
Definitely only getting one side of the story here. I also reckon Mann is running some kind of sociological experiment with all this cyborg crap on his face; if you go to his website you'll see he's been wearing various iterations of camera for decades now, but in the past he's used sunglasses to cover it up, obviously not the case with his little Paris showdown.
Re: Its all very odd
Sure, it's like he was trying to make it as ugly and intrusive as possible... after many years when he could have been making it look better
Re: Its all very odd
Its probably the development machine, probably the latest prototype. Hard to get that in a standard, smooth looking cover.
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