I have this love/hate thing with Gawker. They bring some really interesting content but the writing is sometimes...well, remember your friend that came back from their first year of college and would lecture you on the system and morality and how you're all pawns? That's what it often sounds like to me.
With the Sandy Hook Elementary murders, Gizmodo stepped over the editorial line for me. I don't go to a site about new tech to be lectured about gun control. Especially so when it uses the same pedantic and half-baked reasoning that comes up every election cycle and keeps people voting Republican.
What really brought my dislike home was an article in Jezebel on the new Disney World MyMagic+ system. For those that missed the announcement, this is an RFID bracelet that would essentially carry your park ticket and room information. Then follows a full page of snark and a mess of snarky comments from a bunch of people who are just entirely too cool and too independent and too very serious to be ever caught dead at Disney...but now they REALLY won't be going since they will be tracking your every move.
To beat an overused meme: Do you know how I know you people have never even been to a Disney property? This is such a good thing. The first time you realize this is when you enter the parks. With the magstripe tickets, the problem starts there. To keep you from passing a single ticket from person to person, Disney requires you to put your finger on a reader after you insert the card. It takes some rough biometrics and you are on your way: Insert card, put your finger on the scanner, wait for the blinking light, collect your ticket and move on through the turnstile. Simple! Unless you are 70...or 7 or don't read English or aren't too bright or you are too excited to think straight or you are distracted talking to your friends. Then the line comes to a screaming halt as the cast member helps the person use the turnstile. If you happen upon the park sometime in the mid-morning on a busy day, the change to an RFID ticket will save you at least 15 minutes.
This scene repeats at the fastpass machines while people stand befuddled before the machine and the line moves slower than you think it should. The whole of being a savvy visitor at Disney is all about avoiding the omnipresent line. That boys and girls is why it's good to have Disney tracking people at attractions. Want to know how long it takes to get to the head of the line at Haunted Mansion? Yes I know there is a number on top of the entrance but having seen behind the curtain, the current process is woefully analog and that's why those numbers are almost never right. What about attractions that get backed up simply due to movements of a crowd? How much better would it be if they could see that mob of 200 Brazilian students heading to Pecos Bill and could quickly mobilize some staff to open more checkout lanes?
Bottom line, managing the ebb and flow of people is what Disney parks do. It's part of the experience that you don't get in other parks, they do everything in their power to give you a compelling and personal experience, along with the half a million people who also want that personal experience. This tool will help them do that.
As for the soul-less, entirely too cool crowd at Jezebel... I keep reminding myself that it's just a phase and just a pose. As John Tartaglia observed "See those fireworks climb for a mile; I don't care how butch you are; that shit'll make you smile."
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