Grocery Store "Smart Shelves" Will Identify Customers, Show Targeted Ads 274
cagraham writes "Snack company Mondelez International (maker of Oreos, Trident, Cadbury eggs) will introduce so-called 'smart shelves' into store checkout aisles beginning 2015. The shelves will use Microsoft's Kinect software, in addition to other tech, to identify shoppers age and sex, and will then use that info to deliver demographically tailored advertisements. The shelves will be able to track engagement, monitor how long customer's watch each ad, and offer discounts if a customer is considering a purchase (weight sensors will tell the machine if you pick up a product). Mondelez says the software will only use and collect aggregate data, and will not record any video or photos."
Could be good. (Score:5, Insightful)
Humans are lousy at reading humans, machines programmed by humans and used on the cheap will be relatively easy to fool.
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Especially once we figure out how to 'convince' it to give us the best discount on everything.
What exactly do you think the idea of the discount is?
In this case it isn't to get rid of vegetables before they get old. Nor is it to make you buy what you need in bulk to cut down handling costs.
In this particular case the discount isn't actually a discount but rather the correct value of something that has been intentionally overpriced to make you believe that you are getting a better deal than you actually do.
If you find a way to trick it into giving you the discount and this makes you feel clever and l
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Many jurisdictions actually have laws against such deceptive pricing [ftc.gov] practices, with varying requirements to be met.
The point of a discount is to be the tie-breaking factor in whether or not to buy a product of a particular brand. The seller loses some profit, perhaps even all profit, but gains a sale and may even make his competitor lose one. It can provide an opportunity to prove that one product is as good or better than an alternative, thus winning market share.
It is important to remember your own inten
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While I generally agree, I have to disagree with the blanket statement that it's a bad idea to buy more than you otherwise would have. Sometimes (even perhaps most times) that is true, but there are times when it can be of benefit if it is something that a) won't go bad and b) you will eventually use, c) the cost of storing it for the extra time you need to store it plus the cost of using the funds earlier is cheaper than the discount received and d) you have sufficient liquidity to cover any additional up
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Now you could say "just go to a different store". True, but that's limited. There are only so many stores in any area, and certain products are not carried by all of them.
On top of that the time and fuel spend running from store to store has to be considered. Are you really going to spend 15 minutes, and around $0.20 - $0.80 in fuel to save $0.13 on something?
I don't like bei
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Unless advertising somehow decreases the cost of bringing products to market, it actually increases prices in the aggregate. You may pay less for a particular product on a particular day, just like you may occasionally win at roulette. Overall though, advertising increases expenditures by the companies, just like the odds favor the house. That cost is passed on to you, even though it's probably not that large. The house edge isn't that large either; but you still lose.
They keep telling us that if they
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Targeted advertising however, does decrease the cost to bring to market. With untargeted advertising, you have to spray and pray, when you can spend less and get more effect for the price, that is cheaper for everyone.
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But targeting costs money. You need data about your potential customers and the ability to use it. The data isn't free and depending on what data you have, you might need some really smart people to figure out how to benefit from it. And a lot more advertising is targeted than you might think because people find it invasive, if they find out how much the advertiser knows about them. For instance, a consumer that regularly buys diapers can be assumed to have a kid. However, since that consumer would find it
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Actually, advertising CAN reduce costs, even if it increases the marginal costs for the items being advertised. If you sell widgets and make 100,000 widgets, but have the capacity to make twice that many by doubling your shifts, the marginal costs go down because you're effectively reducing the cost of overhead on the widgets. IF the cost of advertising is less than the increased efficiency, then it is a net win, even though you spent more money in production.
Advertising increases sales, and that is the poi
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Male, 15-19. Trojans, 20% discount!
Male, 20-28. Durex, 20% discount!
Female, 15-28. Pepper spray, 5% discount!
Female, 35-55. T-Shirt, I am a Cougar, 35% discount!
Re:Could be good. (Score:4, Interesting)
Practically only Slahdotters ever think of technologically-targeted ads as a good thing. In polls, nearly 70% of the public oppose such practices:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/12/privacy-do-not-track-ads-internet-gallup-poll.html [latimes.com]
Re:Could be good. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Could be good. (Score:5, Insightful)
There is nothing about this proposed technology designed to make your life easier.
Its not there for you. Its there for the stores.
It won't reduce your prices.
It will not save you money.
Frankly, I'd rather remain an ass then become a koolaid drinking idiot like you.
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I feel the same way about self checkout lines.
Re:Could be good. (Score:5, Insightful)
I have yet to use a self-checkout.
You see, I used to be a grocery checker, and I used to get a paycheck for doing that work. (I quit when I got a "real" job, but it got me through college.) When the stores decide to pay me (a 2% discount on everything I purchase through self-checkout would be nice), then I'll use the self-checkout. Until then, I'll wait in a long line, not buying their stale candy bars, and make their for-pay employees earn their paychecks (and keep their jobs).
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I have yet to use a self-checkout.
You see, I used to be a grocery checker, and I used to get a paycheck for doing that work. (I quit when I got a "real" job, but it got me through college.) When the stores decide to pay me (a 2% discount on everything I purchase through self-checkout would be nice), then I'll use the self-checkout. Until then, I'll wait in a long line, not buying their stale candy bars, and make their for-pay employees earn their paychecks (and keep their jobs).
Grocery checker is a real job, just not one to retire wealthy on. No need to be ashamed of it.
While I rarely use bank tellers instead of ATMs, I absolutely refuse to go near self-checkout.
You're right, though. One of the ways that people delude themselves into thinking they're wealthier than they really are is by doing everything self-service. In short, becoming an unpaid employee sans benefits. If you're really wealthly, people will actually fall over themselves to do things for you. If you're even moderat
Re:Could be good. (Score:5, Informative)
That works for small purchases, but the delays requesting clerk resets just because you re-positioned
a can of beans in the bagging area isn't worth the time saving for big buys.
Pick the middle aged lady as your checkout line, and ignore any minor difference in line length.
Smart shoppers learn that the semi cute checkers are new hires. The haggered looking
middle aged women are long time employees and know every price/number in the book and never
have to look up anything when the bar code sticker falls off the Mellon.
If she calls everyone in line "Hun", chances are you are in the right line.
Re:Could be good. (Score:4, Insightful)
This.
I am so so SICK of being advertised at... I pretty much take unsolicited ads as a "Do Not buy from" list, unless people I actually know and/or trust tell me about a useful product and I decide to actively look into it...
Re:Could be good. (Score:4, Insightful)
It is an incremental step. One of hundreds. That's how we're approaching the point where there is nowhere you can glance and not be exposed to an ad.
Re:Could be good. (Score:5, Insightful)
"Fat person detected. Would you be interested in a 20 cents off coupon for Special K?"
More like "Fat person detected. Have a coupon for 50 cents off 5-gallon Hagen-Daas, 2-for-1 Mega-Bag chips and 3-liter Diet Dr. Pepper".
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What is your comment to that?
Would she like a 20 cent coupon on special K?
Seriously. Who cares if it doesn't correctly detect that you sister has lupus and is on steroid therapy... if the outcome of an incorrect detection is...
"Would she like a 20 cent coupon on special K?"
weight sensors??? (Score:2)
The ones used in mini bars or self check outs don't work that well so how much false positives will there be
just what we need! (Score:2)
They better watch out . . .. (Score:2)
You throw a targeted ad at me and it just might be an offer to contract with me, and you just might be bound by terms you didn't mean to be bound by.
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Oh shit (Score:3, Funny)
Finger cots (Score:2)
They're called finger cots.
Game the system (Score:2)
Try that a few times . . . (Score:2)
. . . and suddenly masks will be deemed a threat to Free Enterprise, and wearing one will put you on a terrorism watch list.
Anyway, you'd better wear gloves too, because shopping cart handles will eventually have DNA sensors and galvanic skin response detectors.
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May I suggest that anyone wearing a Guy Fawkes mask gets bombarded with adverts for t-shirts with "TWAT" written on them?
Great way to lose customers (Score:5, Insightful)
I for one have no interest in such targeted advertising, and until they become ubiquitous I'll avoid any store that has these.
Can you imagine where this will go? Shelf notices that you're overweight and you picked up a candy bar? Screen says, "Are you sure you want to buy that?" This will work great until someone puts a sticker over the sensor bar.
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This will work great until someone puts a sticker over the sensor bar.
Sharpie, liquid paper, spraypaint, RTV. Something difficult and expensive to undo without damaging the lens.
You'll need a hoodie and a mask, though.
Re:Great way to lose customers (Score:5, Funny)
You'll need a hoodie and a mask, though.
Likely not. Just wear a baseball cap with a bunch of IR emitting diodes on the brim. That will likely swamp any visual input and will look 'normal' to the unaided human eye.
Come on guys, techno up here. This is a challange. Rise to it.
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Come on guys, techno up here. This is a challange. Rise to it.
I thought what I'd do was I'd pretend I was one of those deaf-mutes.
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Can you imagine where this will go? Shelf notices that you're overweight and you picked up a candy bar? Screen says, "Are you sure you want to buy that?" This will work great until someone puts a sticker over the sensor bar.
I can't see the stores limiting their profits sales by trying to dissuade customers from purchasing.
More likely, if the sensor sees you're overweight, when you pick up a candy bar a voice will say " Go on, take five! Take ten! Take them all! You know you want to!"
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Better approach: Put a box of saltines where the Oreo's are supposed to be. Hold a bag of potatoes while standing on the weight sensor. Take stuff off the shelf, walk around the store and then put it back.
Bad data is worse than no data.
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I love that approach... Yea, Move the cereal from the shelf below to the one hawking their wares electronically.
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Shelf notices that you're overweight and you picked up a candy bar? Screen says, "Are you sure you want to buy that?"
Nah, advertisers would never miss an opportunity to make you feel shitty about yourself and spend money trying to fix it. I imagine the screen would become one of those funny mirrors that makes you look fat, while a loud voice shouts "hit the gym, fat ass!" at you, followed by a little printer dispensing a coupon for the local sweatshop. Obviously the voucher will have a photoshopped barbie doll standing next to her photoshopped he-man on it too, just in case you had some dignity or feelings of self-worth l
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Shelf notices that you're overweight and you picked up a candy bar?
The interesting part will be when the system notifies your health insurance provider, in realtime, about the candy bar and adjusts your premium" accordingly".
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More likely the shelf will urge you to get the king size instead of the regular. What makes you think the advertisers will take your interests to heart?
Mondelez says (Score:2)
Yet.
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Kinnect hardware (Score:2)
So, this technology could be used in the xbox it self?
Is it already? I'm not sure if it shows adds at all as I don't own any.
How long will it last (Score:2)
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OT: I'd love to see grocer cards banned (Score:5, Insightful)
It'll never happen, but I'm sure they've been used as an end-around credit card privacy laws. I remember when my local grocer first introduced them. The prices of everything went up overnight, then you needed their card to get the same old prices. The thought that they might make advertising to me even more interactive isn't at all appealing.
And, as for just switching grocery stores, I don't know where most of you live but here in KC I only have 2 practical choices (without a long drive).
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When they ask for your phone number instead of the card use (321) 123-4567. There are several hundred (if not more) people around the country using that number. Works almost everywhere, if it doesn't work at some chain fill out a card. I've noticed QFC and Radio Shack will occasionally remove it, so I just fill out another form with the same number and a different name and it starts working again for another year or two.
As an added benefit, it's amusing as all hell to see how many cashiers think that's m
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I always use Jenny's Number at chain stores.
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I do too. Whatever area code I'm in plus 867-5309 and I've only seen it not work once.
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The best part is seeing what "targeted" advertising coupons get spit out when using that number.
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I approach it with the view that a government TLA doesn't care what excuse you have for disturbing them with your marketing bullshit, only that you disturbed them with your marketing bullshit.
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Grocer cards: Ask the person behind you if they want the extra purchase credit on their card. You get the "discount", they get entered into the database. Everyone's happy!
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Lemme guess, Pricecutter and/or Dillons/Kroger?
Yea, screw them. I was glad when they built a Hy-Vee down the road from my house - no 'grocer card' to speak of, but they have a "fuel saver" program by which you can get X cents/gallon off your next fuel purchase if you buy certain things.
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Um. How is that different from a grocer card? The bribe is different—fuel discounts rather than food discounts—but the effect is the same: they track your purchases.
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They only offer fuel points on a very limited number of products (basically, whatever is on 'special' that week); if I'm not buying anything that gets fuel points, there's no purpose in swiping the card.
As opposed to the typical grocer card, that you have to use on every purchase to avoid rip-off pricing.
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It'll never happen, but I'm sure they've been used as an end-around credit card privacy laws. I remember when my local grocer first introduced them. The prices of everything went up overnight, then you needed their card to get the same old prices. The thought that they might make advertising to me even more interactive isn't at all appealing.
And, as for just switching grocery stores, I don't know where most of you live but here in KC I only have 2 practical choices (without a long drive).
As far as I can tell, the Publix stores around me do not use loyalty cards (but they are also as a rule more expensive, even looking at prices that haven't been adjusted for loyalty discounts). But, if being tracked on a card bothers you so much, then simply get some people together and use the same card. Give one person's address, one person's phone number, another person's name, etc when they ask for information. Generally you don't need the physical card on you, you can simply use the associated phone
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I don't know if Trader Joe's is national (I know that they're in both CA and AZ), but they don't do that shit either.
For a while, I shopped at Albertsons, specifically because they *DIDN'T* have a "loyalty card". Of course, that went away quickly.
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Because over time, especially if enough people do it, - and everyone should - they will make it harder, and harder, and even eventually illegal for you to do this.
And by shopping at places like this you are still saying it is OK for them to tack you and others, even if you have quietly fudged your data a bit.
Also don't be so sure that they will never have the techniques to see through your obf
Re: OT: I'd love to see grocer cards banned (Score:2)
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How could they make it illegal?
Lobbying. The usual way.
Require a card to shop there? With the thin profit margin of grocert stores, they cant afford to pay someone to just check cards when people enter.
You obviously haven't shopped at a Sam's Club. Hell, you haven't shopped at Wal-Mart... your friendly "Welcom to Wal-Mart" oldster could easily be repurposed as a card-check monkey, at precisely zero operating cost increase.
TRACKING cards (Score:2)
"Grocer cards"? "Loyalty cards"? "Discount cards"? Let's call them what they are. TRACKING cards.
Sure, they may not turn the information over to your health insurance provider... yet. But they do use the cards to track purchases in aggregate. That is the entire reason for their existence.
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I take it you pay cash for everything too? lighten up or this "i"m being watch" thing might get you a long jacket with long sleeves that buttons up the back
Honest, it won't record a thing! (Score:2)
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"..and will not record any video or photos." (Score:2)
I don't know of a single person that wouldn't enjoy being constantly bombarded by directed ads while shopping; it just adds to the total "experience?".
Advertising Bubble (Score:5, Insightful)
If the advertising becomes really bubbled I can see an issue where attractive people are shown healthy products and ugly people are shown unhealthy products because that's what their respective profiles are probably going to indicate that they want... It's like the Search Engine Bubble (http://dontbubble.us/ [dontbubble.us]) - except for advertising.
This trend is obviously unhealthy...
It's burka time! (Score:2)
Time to start wearing burkas [wikipedia.org]?
High Tech Solution (Score:2)
Yeah! (Score:2)
Like ads showing in whatever fashion trying to catch attention and the saturation with ads is to high that any impulse intended to be created by ads is suppressed and blocked out.
Maybe it's just me if one tries to influence, I resist and the more they try, the more I get turned off. It's just no fun getting "guided" all the time by some folks trying hard to manipulate.
What happened to monitors on shopping carts? (Score:2)
I seem to remember that was coming to a store near you several years ago. Sensors embedded in the aisles would trigger ads to be played on the monitor as the cart came into range. At the time, I remember thinking what a shame it would be if the monitor got cracked as I throwing a can of beans into the cart. In any case, I've never seen these actually in use.
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A bar I used to go to put little monitors above the urinals, displaying advertising. They didn't even last a full night.
By 2015 ... (Score:4, Funny)
Just like google... (Score:3)
"Oh, hell no!", part 5645 (Score:2)
#IDontWannaBeTracked
Riiiiight... (Score:3)
Mondelez says the software will only use and collect aggregate data, and will not record any video or photos.
...at first. Later on we make no promises.
Seriously, if this can be abused it will be.
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You are from the TSA riiiight????
Laugh (Score:2)
I have the dubious pleasure of being exposed to some of this tech, what's amusing is it does know who I am, but insist that I am also married.
In fact every record I search on the Inet (pipl, spokeo, etc) all say I am married.
I used to drink my share, but I don't recall ever getting that drunk so where is this marriage coming from?
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
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"those loyalty cards. dont think for a minute your information isnt getting added from the advert to the card, or isnt somehow related, because it absolutely is. The card seriously knows more about who you are as a person than your closest loved ones, and is used to routinely provide a pavlovian treat to bad customers in order to get them to become good ones."
Stores I have loyalty cards with might know a lot about the person who owns the card, but here's a fun fact: they have no idea *who* owns the card. Yo
Track this... (Score:4, Funny)
Will they also track the frequency at which people "accidentally" smash these things?
Awful (Score:2)
I'm glad that I buy my food online with Adblock+.
Without an adblocker invisibiliy cloak, I won't set a foot in there
Re:I wonder... (Score:4, Insightful)
It would assist in a vandalism charge, just like it would if you used it on the cash registers, in-store speaker system, or vending machines. With the closed-circuit surveillance the stores already have for shoplifting, the trial would be speedy, and you'd likely be found liable for the replacement cost of the device, plus penalties.
But hey, at least you'd have given a clear message to the store manager: You're a psychopath who carries a taser to intentionally damage someone else's property at the slightest provocation. That was the message you wanted to send, right?
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Property exists because the concept benefits society, not to give business owners free reign to act like dickheads.
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So let me get this straight... anyone you think is acting like a dickhead no longer has the right to own property? Well gee, with such defined morality as that, I guess we can dispense with the whole "rule of law" thing outright.
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Yeah, you're right, tasering is OTT. Spray-painting, OTOH, would be reasonable.
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Psychopath is a pretty strong word to describe a minor act of rebellion. I'd say it's "normal" if not rational to rebel in some way against the ever encroaching attempts at manipulation and control.
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Leela: Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?
Fry: Well, sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio. And in magazines and movies and at ball games, on buses and milk cartons and T-shirts and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams. No, sir-ee!
See? TV doesn't lie. We're on the way to the future!
Re:Good Lord... (Score:4)
No, but you can learn the joy that comes from playing "make it stop talking".
Try this as an experiment - Wait for a reasonably busy day at Target (a particularly egregious offender for this experiment). Go up to one of their many end-cap monitors screaming ads at you.
And... Turn it off (some of them have no off switch, in which case, just unplug it). Simple as that.
At first people will look shocked, then guiltily relieved, as realization slowly dawns on them - You've done nothing wrong, and the screeching has stopped! A few will even take up the "cause", and on a good day, you can get a wave of ad-lessness to spread out from your starting point that keeps the store basically ad-free until the end of the day, when sadly, everyone will have forgotten that they don't need to put up with it.
Call me petty if you like, but little pleasures make life enjoyable. And I, for one, look forward to sensors that can weigh the product on the shelves, just to see how much fun we can have screwing with their error handling - How do they react to someone taking "half" of a can of tuna fish? How about adding one? Replacing one with two gallons of water? Fun fun fun!
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Before someone flames me for "Won't someone think of teh jobz", full disclaimer: I'm occasionally employed by ad agencies. Can't stand it... til I get the paycheck.
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Re:This will be annoying (Score:5, Funny)
Stereotypes are a crude biologically-formed statistical analysis, stored in cultural memory and transmitted through oral and theatrical tradition.
These systems will use a highly-refined statistical analysis, stored in The Cloud and transmitted through wired and wireless networks.
Both will ultimately determine that people who have spent time in Australia are more likely to buy iocaine powder than a Sicilian. The latter system will just be able to tell you exactly how much more likely.
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Yes, it does. I think it was Rob Malda that requested that feature from the captcha vendor.
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Obama need not know when I buy a router bit for my portable drill.
Sure he does! After all, buying stuff at hardware stores means you might be a turrorist! [publicintelligence.net] ...Especially if you pay cash.
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Obama need not know when I buy a router bit for my portable drill.
A *router bit* for a portable *drill* ? Um, I'm not sure what you are trying to do with a router bit chucked into your drill, but I'm pretty sure you are doing something wrong here....
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Oh no, it won't say that.. It will go something like this...
"Mr. Jones! You need to buy this month's issue of "insert title here" or I'm going to tell Mrs. Jones on Isle 3 about you... "