Get Ready For the High-tech Beach

coondoggie writes "Ocean City, New Jersey is a nice, family-oriented beach that will apparently soon be the high-tech model for seashore lovers and now perhaps geeks everywhere. The city has on its plate a $3 million plan for myriad public services and Internet access using radio-frequency identification chips (RFID) and Wi-Fi wireless technology. A wireless network will let Ocean City expand economic development and control the cost of local services. Wireless allows the City to save on cell phone usage, T-1 lines, and it adds efficiency. The city is looking to replace its ubiquitous but mostly annoying beach tags — which indicate you paid to get on the beach $5 per day, $10 for a week, or $20 for the whole summer — with wristbands that contain an RFID chip. Yet another cool feature of the high-tech beach will be the ability to track beachgoers — an application that is being touted by parents."

Hmm...

[EmilyColier]

The city is looking to replace its ubiquitous but mostly annoying beach tags -- which indicate you paid to get on the beach $5 per day, $10 for a week, or $20 for the whole summer -- with wristbands that contain an RFID chip. Yet another cool feature of the high-tech beach will be the ability to track beachgoers -- an application that is being touted by parents."

Hello big brother.

Re:Hmm...

[Aladrin]

I was wondering how long that post would take to appear.

Unfortunately, I have to agree... -sigh- While this would be great to find your children, should they be unruly or kidnapped, nobody else has a use for this. And the kids would rip it off if they didn't want to be tracked (they're unruly) and the kidnapper would rip it off, too. It's no better than the slips of paper, and probably quite a bit more expensive to implement -and- maintain.

So who is it better for? People that want to track you. That's it. You can't very well throw anyone out that managed to break theirs (on purpose or not) as they paid their money and can't be held accountable for the technology failing.

Is this article meant to be flamebait?

[Glowing Fish]

Since there is a big crowd of Slashdotters who are reasonable luddite-like, and who rightfully decry the unnecessary adding of technology to everything, I am guessing that an article suggesting that what the majestic natural experience of ocean and land needs is RFID tags was perhaps posted knowing that it would cause scorn and derision.

Which doesn't mean I am not going to fall for the bait.

Man, is this a stupid idea OR WHAT?

Is this a joke?

[Chineseyes]

Why on earth would you need wi-fi and rfid at the beach? Maybe its just me but when I go to the beach I don't bring anything that would allow someone to contact me except an old cellphone which is usually OFF. Why an old cellphone? Theft is a huge problem at beaches these days leave your average device that is wi-fi enabled and you'll probably find it gone by the time you are out of the water.

Re:Hmm...

[CaptainPatent]

Well the solution is obvious.

Instead of putting the tags on a flimsy wristband, why not inject them into the patron's blood stream. It may also worry some of you that a kidnapper may just take the kid off of the beach thereby eliminating the ability to track and monitor. This is why it is necessary to expand the sensing to a full nationwide, or better yet worldwide scale.

I'm big brother, and I'll keep an eye out for you.

Re:Is this a joke?

[dkf]

Theft is a huge problem at beaches these days

I'd have thought that sand would also be a problem; I can't imagine that it would be very good for keyboards and cooling fans...

Wrong Spin

[detain]

Great idea, but they're not focusing on the good parts of it. This shouldnt be about wireless on the beach but more wireless within the city. This is a great technological advancement and something I hope more cities start to do as well.

As far as wifi on the beach little people will use it, but most people will be using it in the city where the wifi also is.

RFID tags: great for your kids, wonderful idea.. but not everyone will want these, should be optional.

One thing beaches do need (and this aint it)

[QuantumG]

I grew up going to the beach. Some of my earliest memories are of fun days at the beach. One thing I've never seen in the last 30 years was public lockers. It just seems like such an obvious thing to me. You go to the beach, you can't swim with your wallet in your pocket. So where do you put it? Under your towel and hope no-one steals it? Pretty much. I asked a friend who is a lifesaver once if he'd ever seen lockers available. He had, but it's pretty rare. Apparently the most common excuse is that the lockers would attract thieves. That's, umm, interesting logic.

Re:I live in the land of the free.

[IndustrialComplex]

Michael Moore's TV Nation where somewhere in the North Eastern US had private (district residents only) beaches, which is even worse. The land of the selfish seems to be a better motto.

So there are private beaches. There is no reason for every stretch of the coastline to be 100% public access, just as there is no reason for every acre of forest to be 100% public access. Is it that hard to imagine that some people would want to find a quiet little area on the ocean to setup a home. A home that doesn't have a flock of people who have no regard for the residents of the area tramping through their backyards to camp out on that little section of beach. Not every piece of coastline has to be the boardwalk.

I suggest you pause for a moment and consider that these people pay a lot extra for those homes. That extra value in the homes becomes tax revenue that goes to pay for the perks you expect on your vacations.

And one final note, you know that if someone ever drowned in a private section of beach made public-access there would be lawsuits before you could say 'Swim at your own risk'.

Re:Hmm...

[FractalZone]

The city is looking to replace its ubiquitous but mostly annoying beach tags -- which indicate you paid to get on the beach $5 per day, $10 for a week, or $20 for the whole summer -- with wristbands that contain an RFID chip. Yet another cool feature of the high-tech beach will be the ability to track beachgoers -- an application that is being touted by parents.

Pardon me for asking, but why are beach tags or RFIDs necessary in the first place? Is the beach in question not a public one? If so, why does anyone need to pay to visit it? Next thing ya know, New Jersey will be implementing a tax on the air people breath and an admission tax to anyone crazy enough to want to enter the state!

What the people of New Jersey should do is impose a stupidity tax on New Jersey legislators...

Re:Hmm...

[Aladrin]

I've already answered this elsewhere, but I'll say it again: Clean beaches aren't free.

They get paid for somehow, and if you don't charge admission, you have to charge taxes. Why should people who never go to the beach have to pay for it? I personally hate it (phobia) and never go. When I used to go, nobody ever complained about the admission fee.

I think maybe you've been spoonfed by the government too much if you think everything 'public' should be 'free'. I feel exactly the opposite and people that wish to use a public service should be the ones supporting it. Emergency services/etc are the obvious exception, of course.

I actually know more than a fair bit about this...

[way2trivial]

20$ is the price for the entire summer
10$ is the price for a week
5$ is the price for a day.

(btw, if you snap them up early, it's 15$% for the season)

This pays for the
1- DAILY sweeping of the beach with a big ol' sand rake machine along the heaviest portion of the beach (directly in front of the 20 block boardwalk) which sifts through the sand

and the intermittent raking of other beaches

2- the lifeguards

3- the trash removal off the beach/emptying the trash cans...

strangely, (and I originally found it shocking too) it works.. much like the toll roads, it's a pay to play system.. the nicer motels in town (see my homepage) include them with your stay.... so do most of the condo rentals.. so for those folks, it's free/subsidised by direct spending at area businesses (in my case, a motel) and day trippers also pay in proportion to the # of dollars they leave in the town (i.e. little) someone enriching my business at a few hundred a night doesn't pay the 'tax' directly, but indirectly... someone who comes into town for 8 hours pays more... beacause their direct benefit to the towns economy is a whole lot less....

Re:I live in the land of the free.

[Anonymous Coward]

"In my country (Venezuela) beaches are free. And by law no one can own a beach."

Also by law in Venezuela the government steals companies and if I said this there I'd be deported.