Pendell

@pendell

Current Hyperfixation: Wizard of Oz

He/Him

I use outdated technology just for fun, listen to crappy music, and watch a lot of horror movies. Expect posts about These Things. I talk a lot.

Check tags like Star Trek Archive and Media Piracy to find things I share for others.

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Pendell @pendell3/15/2023, 4:28 PM

gravis again @cathoderaydude

gravis again @cathoderaydude3/15/2023, 4:25 PM

love how the local coffee shop spent a fortune (presumably) on LCD menu signs, then they post paper signs at the window with the current pastry options

you can bet that the chain owner was sold these things with the promise that they could do away with printed signs, but it didn't take long for the reality to sink in: either there's no way to update the thing except to generate and upload a png (and the chain has no staff graphic designer) or there's no way to update it per-store, or there's some silly permissions limitation. Either way, it's a monumental task to change what's on these screens

Did I mention that the cable they had buried in conduit is noncompliant, so the menu flickers and loses signal every couple seconds

Pendell @pendell3/15/2023, 4:28 PM

A few years ago, a new Taco Casa was built in my town next to a main road. Of course, they had to have the LCD menus inside, but they also installed a great big LCD sign right next to the road for advertising. The moment I saw them building the thing and installing the panels I was like "oh this thing is going to be dead so fast"

It worked perfectly for about a month, I'd say. Which surprised me. Since then, it's been in varying states of disrepair, but it has never worked 100%. I have to wonder who's paying to get it worked on every now and then, and how much it's costing them.

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in reply to @cathoderaydude's post:

~@modulusshift3/15/2023, 5:15 PM

I don't understand how businesses got locked into this? Why isn't this just a static site generator running on the manager's computer? When you run the generator, make it pop up a little table with menu items, descriptions, prices, calories, whatever else, cached from the last generation for easy editing. Edit whatever you want, hit generate, boom new website, it notifies the menu display to refresh. And it saves the last menu site in a backup folder in case you need to revert in a hurry. No technical knowledge needed whatsoever for day to day operation! I would personally want it even simpler than that, but this is the bare minimum for arbitrarily fancy animations and such, so whatever, it can animate however you like mr. man.

and the noncompliant cable is criminal tbh

gravis again @cathoderaydude3/15/2023, 5:26 PM

because that's how a computer person would do it, and computer people don't sit around brainstorming small business ideas. those who do never have any idea how to execute on them, and in most cases they don't care, especially because - as seen here - they know the customer won't demand their money back if the product or service is garbage. they just sigh and leave the broken menu up and keep paying because they already got screwed out of a bunch of money and time once for their attempt to improve their business, and if they spend time and money to try to back out of it, they'll just end up with even less time and money when they're done.

~@modulusshift3/15/2023, 5:47 PM

what's sad is that computer people with this level of ability are just littered around the place, personally I'm being criminally underused and I'm not sure how to fix that without what, starting my own business? I would enjoy being a tech consultant for local businesses honestly, swooping in and solving little headaches in a sustainable way, but I get the feeling that's not actually practical as a steady business.

gravis again @cathoderaydude3/15/2023, 5:52 PM

exactly. under our broken economy, it doesn't make sense to start a little business doing little things. yeah, you could do it, but - if you actually helped this customer properly, you'd end up being their fulltime employee for all intents and purposes. they'd have little problems, all the time, that each soaked up a good hour or two, making it impossible to work on anything else. you'd need employees, and then you'd need to pay them consistently, which would mean bringing in new business frequently to ensure cashflow. that would mean hiring salespeople, and salespeople are huge money sinks when they aren't selling, so you'd have to pay them on commission to keep them from tanking your business in between sales, which would lead to them lying and cheating to get those sales, especially if/when the local market saturates...

it all just ends in tears. we can never have honest businesses as long as paying rent and eating depends on commerce.

gravis again @cathoderaydude3/15/2023, 5:53 PM

btw, I am speaking from experience, working for a company that doesn't want to admit they're an IT outsourcer. the number of calls where we're visibly picking an arbitrary line to refuse to work past is "most of them," solely because the moment we touch the customer's domain controller or whatever, we're married to them forever.

~@modulusshift3/15/2023, 6:22 PM

Right, I've seen that kind of business practice in action myself. it's not limited to tech fields, either, liability-inspired limitations pop up all over the place.

Joe Wintergreen @joewintergreen3/15/2023, 11:08 PM

or! you help people resolve situations in a sustainable way that they don't need help next time, and now each customer only ever needs you once and you're unsustainable yourself

gravis again @cathoderaydude3/15/2023, 11:17 PM

god right? that's the other angle: if you build something the customer can use... then they'll use it. you basically just did a shopping trip for them. bye!! they'll never call you again, and now the demand to churn up even MORE new-sale customers every single day becomes even more intense.

@garudina3/15/2023, 5:31 PM

last time I saw this being done the solution device was a Roku displaying images off a thumbdrive in the way they can technically do.

natescape navigator @natescape3/15/2023, 6:27 PM

If I were a small business owner I would simply contemplate the barest, most immediate ramifications of a costly decision that impacts every aspect of the customer-facing portion of my business

Cay @caymanwent3/16/2023, 5:39 PM

As someone who has worked primarily for small business my entire working life, I can say with certainty that very few small business owners ever think this way.

Geight @Geight3/15/2023, 7:37 PM

At the corporate coffee shop I work at it's a frequent occurrence to have a customer look at our big digital menu signs and point at the picture of the thing they want instead of using their words, and then the menu shifts to a different screen so we both have to stand there staring at it waiting for the picture they wanted to come back. Sometimes once it cycles back around I then have to say "Sorry, we actually don't have that in stock right now, but we don't control the menu anymore." It's a great experience for everyone involved.

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