Tag: technology

What’s The Real Reason Why Disney Parks Take Your Fingerprint? And What Do They Do With It?

Disneyland and Walt Disney World have been using biometrics as part of their entry system into the parks since 2013. Biometrics is defined as, “…the technical term for body measurements and calculations. It refers to metrics related to human characteristics. Biometrics authentication is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control.” (thank-you, Wikipedia). In Disney’s case, to enter a park, all guests from age 3+ are requested to scan their ticket media (or your Magic Band) and then place their finger onto a scanner to confirm your ID.

But why do they use this form of identification? Isn’t it a little, well, “invasion of privacy-esque” to have your fingerprint on file? And what do they do with the info?

Well, there’s someone who found out…

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Funny Tweets From People Who Hate To Fly

Some people just hate to fly. I don’t mean the people who are afraid to and just don’t (although there are things you can do to help alleviate that). I mean the ones who fly, sometimes on a regular basis, but don’t like it, either because of fear, the uncomfortableness of the whole process, or a myriad of other possible reasons.

Some people who obviously don’t like to fly have tweeted their apprehension, anger or just “shaking their head at people,” which allows people like you and me to have a smile, chuckle or a, “Yup, I totally get what you’re saying” moment. Enjoy…

Note: Some of these tweets have very adult language that’s NSFW

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How My Packing List Has Changed In 15 Years

I was just digging around in the darker corners of my hard drive and found copies of my packing lists from 2003 and 2005. I still use a version of this list to help me pack for trips even today, but it’s been updated significantly in the last 12-15 years.

I thought it would be enlightening to look back and see what items we felt were “travel necessities” back in the early 2000s. All that I ask is that you don’t judge me too harshly on this list (Note from Sharon…TOO LATE! I’m judging the fact that you travel a minimum of 6 times per year and STILL USE A FLIPPIN’ PACKING LIST….)

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Not Having To Remove Liquids & Laptops From Your Bag At The TSA Checkpoint? It Might Soon Be A Reality

We all know that during certain times of the day, standing on line at the TSA checkpoint can be a long, arduous process. A good portion of the long queue is because of people having to remove things from their bags; they obviously didn’t read my article about how to prepare for going through X-ray and don’t remember to pack things like their bag o’ liquids and their laptop computer so they’re easy to access. Rummaging through bags at X-ray just slows down the process. But some of that might soon come to an end.

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The Technology Behind Disney’s Haunted Mansion = FASCINATING!

The Haunted Mansion is one of the most popular attractions at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom. The original concept for the attraction was developed in the early 1950s and after multiple changes and updates, handbills announcing a 1963 opening at Disneyland were given out at the park in 1961. The attraction’s exterior, in the theme of a New Orleans style manor house to fit in with the newly constructed New Orleans Square area of the park, was built by 1963 but due to various delays including work on the 4 Disney attractions for the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair, the attraction didn’t actually open until 1969. When it finally did, the attraction was so popular that when Walt Disney World opened in 1971, their own version of the Haunted Mansion was included in the Liberty Square area.

The first room you enter in the Haunted Mansion is the stretching room – a room that appears to get taller and taller as you’re in it. The ceiling of the stretching room in the WDW version goes up, whereas the DL version is actually a working elevator. The reason for that, as well as some other not-well-known facts about the technology of the stretching room of the Haunted Mansion, are covered in this video:

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