The Real store at Leopoldplatz has a pneumatic tube system that reaches every cash register. You can see the tubes go up and along the ceiling. I believe that it's one of the failed Walmart stores from their disastrous attempts to conquer the German market.
Isn’t this pretty common in hypermarkets? I’ve seen systems of pneumatic tubes running from the registers at Auchans or Carrefours in multiple European countries. I imagine that people don’t notice them just because pneumatic tubes are now so little a part of everyday life that one doesn’t even expect to see them.
Most stores will have a lockbox at cash registers where any cash amount over a certain amount is stored in. I'm not sure if these lockboxes have a plain lock or a time lock and are only moved to the safe after closing time though. But most stores also discourage the use of cash, because it puts them at risk of robberies and counterfeits.
Paying with cash is still attractive though, because cash is tax free. That is, no paper trail if you pay for a job by cash and the person doing it doesn't log anything. Very popular with tradespeople.
I recall seeing such systems in supermarkets and bottle shops, fairly certain the closest supermarket still has a system.
Also the largest German electronics store (think German version of Radio Shack) had such a system in their main store in Hirschau. I was endlessly fascinated about this as kid when the containers with my BC547s, 1N4001s and NE555s where popping out of the tubes.
27 miles of tubes.
This tour: https://www.berliner-unterwelten.de/en/guided-tours/public-t...
But both stores have been rebuilt, so I guess they got rid of it.
You build your own tube capsule that first needs to be “certified” by running through a test track.
Lots of detail for example in https://events.ccc.de/congress/2014/wiki/Projects:Seidenstra...
runs, during the conference (and surely just for fun)
their own "silk road" (a clandestine marketplace, named after the namesake "dark web" online marketplace, where people bought drugs and other illegal services)
on top of a pneumatic tube network - a network of connected physical pipes used to send messages pushing them using air (e.g. some paper note inside a container). Pneumatic tubes were a physical "instant messaging" system used in early 20th century offices and large organizational buildings.
This "for fun" pneumatic tube network is powered via regular vacuum cleaner motors (as opposed to the air pressure being produced by some dedicated motor).
In this network, inside the conference area, people send lots of BS spam messages for fun, and sometimes even vodca shots (inside some container) from one point to another.
People attending the conference can build their own tube capsule (their own message/small item container to be transmitted through the tubes), but they first have to show that they can run through a test track (a smaller test pneumatic pipe line), so that they don't stuck/create issues when they put them into the main network.
They'd run corrugated pipe from each seat in the theater to the waiting hall.
Which meant that while you were waiting for the next show, you could talk to someone who was watching the current show.
Was pretty neat.
PS: Also walked out of the show with a nice black eye, after my pre-teen self went down in the final toilet paper wave and caught the heel of the guy in front of me. Still worth it!
Google that on your own risk.
there was a short-lived clone of same in Las Vegas in the early/mid 1980s as well.
That probably applies even more to Lovecraft, who's one of my favorite writers, but I know plenty of people who don't like his writing but are really into Call of Cthulhu and other Mythos stuff.
We should do a better job of remembering that, because the reason none of that survives is "the Nazis murdered everyone". Particularly given the direct adoption of Nazi-era phraseology in modern political movements.
I suspect weimar berlin is just pretty difficult setting to utilize; in particular you would be trying to draw inspiration from and evoke art/media of the time, which in this case would be stuff like German expressionist cinema and modernist literature which do not have exactly mass-market appral, compared to e.g. victorian era works.
If you saw someone you liked, you could make a note of their seat number and buy them a drink from your seatback display.
If they accepted the drink, you could start texting with them.
I never got lucky, but it was a fun concept!
https://www.usatoday.com/story/todayinthesky/2013/04/25/virg...
https://idlewords.com/2007/04/the_alameda_weehawken_burrito_...
There are two fatal flaws to the system that’s described in the article and the more recent examples mentioned the comments, though: (1) first call takes all, you wouldn’t know how many people would be interested in you; and (2) denial of date, where your first caller can keep you on the call indefinitely, ruining your chances with others.
And what if you receive no calls in a reasonable amount of time, e.g., 10 minutes? In a modern implementation one of these call-less people can be chosen at random and displayed on a big screen, to increase their chances.
I would totally go to a club like this, both the 20s Charleston version or a 80s version.
If others see that a person is engaged in conversation, they might not be so quick to interrupt (that could come off as rude, and lessen your chances of success).
On the other hand, perhaps you are daring, and when you notice the person who is being DoS'ed frown when they answer the phone, you decide to stand up and actually say hello (effectively rescuing them from their attacker).
Oh boy, can't wait for the jumbo-tron to project my failure to attract dates to everyone. Seems like a great idea.
I was less enthusiastic about it, and told her so. Ultimately, no tube system was installed.
In Tokyo, there are bars specifically tailored for people who are seeking dates. The bar even has displays outside showing the number of men and women currently in the venue. When you get inside, you get to chat to cohorts of the opposite gender for a given amount of time (e.g. 15 min) before you move to the next round.
How do these bars get women to come? The men have to pay for all their drinks. In my only experience (dragged by my friends), the women kept ordering more drinks while chatting amongst themselves. I saw the tab and never went back in again.
Anyone remember the Remote Lounge?
https://docpop.org/2013/10/way-ahead-of-its-time-the-remote-...
Remote Lounge could have been cooler, but it played up more of the voyeur angle instead of the communication angle, I felt. (Or maybe that was just me, I dunno.)
Every booth had a cam and a TV, and you used controls to select other booths' cams, pan them around, and watch other people.
Always makes me think of cannon or ballistic missile based burito delivery. Because even with that the estimate is probably overly optimistic.
I bet it will be cheaper and easier to maintain than installing pneumatic tubes to every table too.
The unreliability of captive portals across devices aside, they'll make you download some app you'll never use again, or they'll take your email and spam you later.
