Yep, triple-deckers count. The third slice is part of the filling, basically. And I'm ok with quesadillas being sandwiches, too. It's a grilled cheese variant, right? I don't know about pop tarts--the bread is connected, so it's technically an encasement rather than a sandwich. I'll have to think about it. Anything rolled rather than sandwiched doesn't count for me, either, so burritos and wraps are out.
I'm pretty generous in my own definition in that I'll accept just about anything on a bun, in a wrap, or between two pieces of the same thing (be it bread or lettuce or *eulk* fried chicken patties) as a sandwich. What I don't like is the open-faced allowance. If there's no sandwiching, there's no sandwich.
@Vmax: This article is an opinion brief--that is, it's a round-up of what people think about a given topic, based on the information available to everyone. There are official news reports linked 3 separate times in the story (two local news, one video) from sources who were in contact with school officials. The remainder of the commentary are the reactions to that information, with author and publication credits for each. This was never presented as a piece of investigative journalism, and I won't pretend that it even resembles one. Any bias in the piece comes from the reaction of the reporters who offered opinions in their own reports about this story. This was never intended to be a criticism of your technology or your company and certainly not of you, but rather a collection of reactions to the measures taken by one school to curb class-cutting.
That said, there's a reason people find this topic scary, and it has nothing to do with your technology, its efficiency, and especially not you personally. It's a matter of public perception regarding fingerprinting or finger scans (whether or not an actual print is taken--as most people assume it is, though we're aware that your system only uses a few specific points of reference): The only time a person is ever required to submit a fingerprint for identification is if they've been arrested/incarcerated or have to file certain (generally unpleasant and/or highly confidential) legal documents. There's an inherent negative reaction to being fingerprinted or scanned in any capacity and it has everything to do with prior experience (whether first-hand or on TV or what-have-you), which is largely doupleplusungood, to continue the Orwell theme.
Unless a person is in a profession where he or she is frequently exposed to high-level security locks, then this sort of identification is out of sync with daily life; it can be jarring and offensive. Submitting to a finger scan feels like being booked-in, and this tends to freak people out.
So it's not you, it's not your company, it's not personal. It's 235 years of being a country that doesn't finger-scan its children. This is what you're working against, and I don't envy your position. I do, however, commend you for being patient and thank you for answering questions, because clearly there's a lot of information that's not evident even in the sources who spoke directly to school officials about this.
@Vmax: I think you misunderstood the tone of Alex's questions, which were presented with genuine interest. As you mentioned before, information about exactly how the system works (or, at least, how it's implemented here) is a bit limited. I can assure you that Alex wasn't being provocative, but sincerely curious.
That said, I'd like to ask (in seriousness) his question again: What is the metric for success with a system like this? Is it simply improved attendance?
@Vmax, re: text - It's not necessarily true that you can't text your kids at school. My daughter is 6 and her elementary school has a "carry silent" policy for cell phones. She doesn't have one (I mean, she's *six*), but if I were to send her to school with a phone , I could text her while she was there.
Personally, the only positive thing I see about this system is that a kid will never misplace a fingerprint and is therefore not capable of showing up unprepared. They sent us home to get our ID card or made us purchase a new one if it was lost.
Alex, I think the school's concern is that kids are just coming and going during the day. The price breakdown suggests there are around 730 kids on campus--I don't know how that figures per class or grade, but in high school where kids aren't all in the same room all day, there's probably a lot of opportunity to sneak out. That said, I find this a bit ridiculous. We had student ID cards we swiped when we left for lunch and entered school functions. A check-in and check-out process might have worked as well without requiring a fingerprint.
That said, there's a reason people find this topic scary, and it has nothing to do with your technology, its efficiency, and especially not you personally. It's a matter of public perception regarding fingerprinting or finger scans (whether or not an actual print is taken--as most people assume it is, though we're aware that your system only uses a few specific points of reference): The only time a person is ever required to submit a fingerprint for identification is if they've been arrested/incarcerated or have to file certain (generally unpleasant and/or highly confidential) legal documents. There's an inherent negative reaction to being fingerprinted or scanned in any capacity and it has everything to do with prior experience (whether first-hand or on TV or what-have-you), which is largely doupleplusungood, to continue the Orwell theme.
Unless a person is in a profession where he or she is frequently exposed to high-level security locks, then this sort of identification is out of sync with daily life; it can be jarring and offensive. Submitting to a finger scan feels like being booked-in, and this tends to freak people out.
So it's not you, it's not your company, it's not personal. It's 235 years of being a country that doesn't finger-scan its children. This is what you're working against, and I don't envy your position. I do, however, commend you for being patient and thank you for answering questions, because clearly there's a lot of information that's not evident even in the sources who spoke directly to school officials about this.
That said, I'd like to ask (in seriousness) his question again: What is the metric for success with a system like this? Is it simply improved attendance?