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I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

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Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#181

Post by ndespres »

Nition wrote: post #115
postalcoder wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Creative Writer is one of the best pieces of software I've ever used. What's the state of kids software nowadays?

Pretty terrible in my experience. The good stuff for kids mostly moved to tablets and phones, but no keyboard and mouse is a limiting format, and you have to sift through a hundred bad apps to find the good one. Not much that runs easily on modern PCs comes close to the old magic. Though Tux Paint is actually very good, retaining the sense of whimsy that most modern software lacks. It's hard to describe but it almost…

>>It's hard to describe but it almost feels to me like media today - this applies to games and films and everything - is often created at a meta level, a simulacrum of the real thing.

Miyazaki had a line in a documentary I watched a couple years ago which is now only a vague echo in my mind and I am struggling to search for it, but the gist of it was that early animators had an appreciation and an eye for people, the world, real movement of real bodies, whether reflected in cinema or just in everyday life, while later, he said, were raised on animation, so the product is a second-order imitation.

The same must be true with software. Early painting/desktop publishing/presentation software retains a link to how those things were done with your hands and scissors and paint brushes, trying to fit them into the screen for the first time, to be used by someone who might not have used a computer before. Now it’s a foregone conclusion that you’ll be working on the computer, and nobody involved had ever flipped through a literal book of clip art or made a slideshow on transparent paper.

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#182

Post by veltas »

Nition wrote: post #104
nogridbag wrote: post #15

These letters matter a lot to kids. I sent my video game idea to Nintendo as a little kid and I had the same reaction seeing that envelope from Nintendo in the mailbox addressed to me. I think it was also a bit more special pre-internet as these companies felt a bit more magical and mysterious. You can only read about them through video game magazines and see their names in the credit scenes at the end of the games.…

In 1997 I typed up a letter to Maxis in Microsoft Creative Writer about how much I liked their games and wanted to move to America and work at Maxis when I grew up: https://i.imgur.com/1eHcead.jpeg Unfortunately I made the mistake of mentioning that it'd be cool if you could print out an image of your city in SimCity 2000, as you could in the previous SimCity game. That was enough to get me only this letter from lega…

Can't see the images as imgur has geoblocked the UK.

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#183

Post by addandsubtract »

dizzy3gg wrote: post #21
Roedou wrote: post #18

I wrote to Sainsburys (large UK grocery store chain) in 1993, suggesting an idea for a "self checkout", where you would scan items yourself as you put them into your shipping cart. My anti-theft solution was that they'd weigh your cart as you left, to make sure you'd scanned everything! I never expected a reply, but was so stoked when I received a letter with a similar generic-but-enthusiastic reply, along the lines…

So you're to blame!

*thank

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#184

Post by gosub100 »

projektfu wrote: post #105
nogridbag wrote: post #15

These letters matter a lot to kids. I sent my video game idea to Nintendo as a little kid and I had the same reaction seeing that envelope from Nintendo in the mailbox addressed to me. I think it was also a bit more special pre-internet as these companies felt a bit more magical and mysterious. You can only read about them through video game magazines and see their names in the credit scenes at the end of the games.…

Six year old me sent an idea to McDonnell Douglas for an airplane with turboprops to back up the jets in case of engine fire. There was also a fire suppression system. They sent me some nice brochures about the DC-8, -9, and -10, but looking back on it they could have mentioned that the jets are already redundant and will usually stop burning when the fuel is cut.

Teenage me sent a letter to a US airline maintenance department asking why they don't put a one-directional fin on the landing gear tires to cause them to rotate in the air, so they wouldn't create as much smoke when they contact the runway. I don't remember what the reason was, but they wrote me back so I appreciated it.

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#185

Post by danparsonson »

ramblin_ray wrote: post #97

Similar age; similar story to many others' here. I "designed" so many things as a kid... including this spaceship: https://yesteryearforever.xyz/spaceship_cross-section I remember the wiring, pipes, everything actually went somewhere and was meant for something. Nothing was just for looks and everything served a purpose. Still hasn't been built to this day ;P

Wow that's impressive work - surely you can get some VC funding together to give it a go??

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#186

Post by andix »

Romario77 wrote: post #138
andix wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of companies and organizations actually reply to letters/emails of any kind. Often very appropriately and not just with some boilerplate text. I guess they have to deal with so many annoying complaints, so they are really happy if there is something joyful once in a while.

you can get a lifetime fan just by replying to a letter - like you see here. That's a very effective marketing. I got a rejection letter once from a company I submitted my resume to (online) and I still remember that and in a positive light even though it was a rejection. Now they just ghost you even if you went through 5 rounds of interviews and spend a bunch of your time.

> you can get a lifetime fan just by replying to a letter

Absolutely. But it doesn't increase next quarter's revenue. Which seems to be the main metric nowadays.

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#187

Post by joe_mamba »

Keyframe wrote: post #171
joe_mamba wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're severely mistaken if you think that's how businesses operate. Companies penny pinch on staff even for recruiting, they're not gonna increase headcount just to answer mail form kids just because you think it makes good marketing.

not sure where you work, but you might consider changing the company you work with.

Because you actually believe the world is full of benevolent companies who work for the public good?

Or maybe people have seen what companies are doing behind the scenes that goes against their PR, making it worthless and hypocritic. Remember "don't be evil"?

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#188

Post by projektfu »

gosub100 wrote: post #184
projektfu wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Six year old me sent an idea to McDonnell Douglas for an airplane with turboprops to back up the jets in case of engine fire. There was also a fire suppression system. They sent me some nice brochures about the DC-8, -9, and -10, but looking back on it they could have mentioned that the jets are already redundant and will usually stop burning when the fuel is cut.

Teenage me sent a letter to a US airline maintenance department asking why they don't put a one-directional fin on the landing gear tires to cause them to rotate in the air, so they wouldn't create as much smoke when they contact the runway. I don't remember what the reason was, but they wrote me back so I appreciated it.

Pinwheels on landing gear would be pimp.

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#189

Post by joe_mamba »

Keyframe wrote: post #180
bigDinosaur wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can spin up any idea and claim it increases brand loyalty, but you have to have actual evidence that that either happens or actually matters in some way, and in this case it probably doesn't and isn't worth the expense once the scale exceeds >1 employee spending more than a few minutes a day. If you've got the data to prove otherwise so that you can actually make someone money, go ahead and sell people on the ide…

I don't have to - it's called image branding and is a well-known and established marketing discipline. Not direct ROI like hard sell techniques, but it lands you with higher margins, lower customer acqusition costs, longer customer lifetime value, etc. Apple was a master at that, Nike, and in this particular example LEGO regularly responds to children mail, Nintendo built a whole business channel around it with Ninte…

So according to you, we should all quit our jobs and go work for Lego, Nike, Apple and Nintendo because they have good PR with kids, while you ignore the fact that most of them use sweatshop labor in China, fuck the environment and sue honest people for bullshit IP reasons?

If the problem of society could be summed up in one bite, this would be it.

Re: I pitched a roller coaster to Disneyland at age 10 in 1978

#190

Post by eks391 »

davkan wrote: post #87

At 8 I pitched a rocket car to the DoD and got a letter from my congresswoman and the Secretary of Defense. They were a bit bored pre 9/11 i think.

It was more likely written by a staff member who thought it would make your day, and signed by the Secretary of Defense. It is pretty neat that you got two letters though, because your letter probably got passed around and made the day of several people.
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