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Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

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Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#351
post #264

How long before someone exploits this? - Build an app that injects malware but also shows the restaurant's menu. Give it the same name as the restaurant. - Go to the restaurant, overlay your QR code sticker on top of the restaurant's. - When someone scans the code they are asked to install "[Restaurant's name] menu", obviously they are going to do it. - They open the app -> malware is activated, menu is shown. Profit…

I'm totally going to use my 0day iOS sandbox escape to steal the $50 order from the restaurant down the street.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#352
post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Connect to the wifi, get a captive portal > Need to put my phone number in to connect to the wifi; there is no signal, so I need to go outside, to receieve the confirmation code. Somewhere around these steps is where I would leave. It’s the equivalent of sitting at a table for 15 minutes waiting for the waiter to give my group menus[1] - they don’t want me as their guest. [1] It happened, both the waiting and the l…

I fully agree with the addition that personal interaction can make waiting for 15 minutes acceptable if a reasonable explanation is given. I can accept that something has gone wrong if somebody feels responsible and apologizes for the mishap. It might even develop into an occasion for a welcome chat with restaurant staff. For instance, I recently visited a newly opened restaurant at its 2nd day where we had to wait f…

> I fully agree with the addition that personal interaction can make waiting for 15 minutes acceptable if a reasonable explanation is given.

Absolutely. In this case however, there were multiple waiters refusing eye contact while passing right by our table and there were also other tables right by ours that got there after us and was being taken care of. It was as if we weren’t there.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#353
post #129

When they work well, they're really good, but when they work badly, they're _really_ bad. The other week, I went for dinner at a place that had a online ordering system. My experience was as follows... Arrive at the table, scan the QR code No phone signal in the restaurant, so I need to connect to the wifi. Connect to the wifi, get a captive portal Need to put my phone number in to connect to the wifi; there is no si…

The only QR related issue here is lack of signal, everything else is irrelevant

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#354
post #334

I've had a waiter looking at me puzzled why my phone wasn't able to scan a QR code. I told him already that my camera wasn't able to. But I had to open the camera in front of him. - "Have you tried rotating the camera?" - "Try zooming in and out" - "Why don't you download a QR code app!?" These questions / remarks were placed by him while showing him it really didn't work. When I told him I didn't want to download a…

I seriously hope Google pushes their OEM to include QR code support in the builtin camera app. This should be a default feature. That said, if you want a privacy-friendly QR Code reader app on Android, Binary Eye is my recommendation. GitHub: https://github.com/markusfisch/BinaryEye Play Store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.markusfisch... F-Droid: https://f-droid.org/packages/de.markusfisch.android…

> This should be a default feature.

A decade ago. This should have been a default feature a decade ago. Feature phones had QR code readers in the first half of the 00s. QR codes had a worldwide resurgence in the early 10s and now again in the early 20s.

How this is not a default feature is absolutely crazy.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#356
post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It smacks of entitlement when dining at a restaurant is considered basic necessity and preparing your own meals is considered a luxury. Think about history. Think about the vast, vast majority of people on earth. Consider just how entitled one must be to have the help prepare your basic necessities of life.

Fast food has been a staple of life since antiquity: For centuries, folks went to the baker to get bread, since home kitchen facilities were very limited. Women have been stuck in home kitchens for eons, with male family members not learning even basic skills unless they were employed as cooks or bakers. I think we've been depending on others for food prep for a very, very long time.

That’s extremely sexist. I for one am an excellent cook, I’m not a women, and I haven’t been employed for my cooking abilities. I learned to cook because I wasn’t able to experience restaurants. I was tired of the bland boring food my parents made. I started cooking our meals and I would copy from tv shows, magazines. I wanted better food, but couldn’t afford to have it prepared for me so I learned a skill. Any restaurant food is considered a luxury to me. I aggressively budgeted so that I could start going to restaurants as an adult. My cooking abilities only got better when I was able to taste the food that I’d been mimicking for so long. For me a normal family meal cost $20, a single value meal at McDonald’s is $10. So for my family a meal at McDonald’s would be $40 minimum. That increases as the greatly as you transition into sit down meals; where a meal is $15 per person and that’s before tip so $80. How are these not luxury expenses? 1 meal at a restaurant cost as much as 4 at home and those home meals will also produce leftovers for lunches. Before COVID I would eat out 1 times a week with my family and 1-2 times a week for lunch. At that frequency it’s still a lot of money and I have always treated it as a luxury expense that is part food and part entertainment.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#357
post #129

When they work well, they're really good, but when they work badly, they're _really_ bad. The other week, I went for dinner at a place that had a online ordering system. My experience was as follows... Arrive at the table, scan the QR code No phone signal in the restaurant, so I need to connect to the wifi. Connect to the wifi, get a captive portal Need to put my phone number in to connect to the wifi; there is no si…

On the general topic of "technology in restaurants", I've noticed an increasing number of restaurants where the waitstaff uses phones/tablets with some kind of specialized app. This happens often: we start telling them our order, and they have to say "wait a sec.... (taps phone for several seconds) okay what was that?". The "UX" as a patron is pretty bad compared to the waitstaff just whipping out a notepad and scrib…

Several of the large chains already have pay at table kiosk's I have always wondered why they just do not have order at table as well...

I am waiting for the first restaurant that only has Cooks and Food Runners with no traditional waitstaff...

This will likely coincide with the removal of tipping as a custom in the US. We will move to kiosk ordering, press a button to get drink refills, pay at the table, and leave.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#358
post #332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The reason these wait staff get tips is because they work so hard The reason they get tips is because they are waitstaff, it has zero to do with how hard they work, it's simply custom to tip waitstaff, even lazy waitstaff. Most employees work just as hard without getting tips (like the people who are actually cooking the food).

Maybe for you, I tip extra for working hard to keep my meal hot on delivery, water topped up, checking in at appropriate times. I honestly don't understand how you can say tips are not proportional to level of service and how level of service is entirely detached from working hard. > Most people work just as hard without getting tips (like the people who are actually cooking thr food) Most people get paid a real wage…

> I tip extra for working hard to keep my meal hot on delivery, water topped up, checking in at appropriate times.

Those are things happen with good management, they have little to do with how hard an individual employee is working at a given time.

Besides the claim wasn't waitstaff gets "extra" tips for working hard, the claim was that waitstaff is tipped because they work hard. Don't move the goalposts.

>I honestly don't understand how you can say tips are not proportional to level of service and how level of service is entirely detached from working hard.

I tip the same if my service is shitty, I am not going to put an individual employee in a position of taking a pay cut when I can't know the exact reason something went wrong. I don't know enough about their operations to be punishing individual employees. Even if I could tell if it were an individual employee's fault, most places pool tips, so I'd be punishing the other employees working at the same time. So everyone gets the same tip from me.

I also simply just don't enjoy LARPing as a lord of my personal fiefdom.

Again, you get good service with good management, simple as that.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#359
post #129

When they work well, they're really good, but when they work badly, they're _really_ bad. The other week, I went for dinner at a place that had a online ordering system. My experience was as follows... Arrive at the table, scan the QR code No phone signal in the restaurant, so I need to connect to the wifi. Connect to the wifi, get a captive portal Need to put my phone number in to connect to the wifi; there is no si…

I'd leave as soon as I could not use the system without connecting to their WiFi, and especially if it required any personal information at all to do so. I have a VPN, but that's just too much.

Re: Bring back menus, QR codes are terrible

#360
post #129

When they work well, they're really good, but when they work badly, they're _really_ bad. The other week, I went for dinner at a place that had a online ordering system. My experience was as follows... Arrive at the table, scan the QR code No phone signal in the restaurant, so I need to connect to the wifi. Connect to the wifi, get a captive portal Need to put my phone number in to connect to the wifi; there is no si…

The only QR related issue here is lack of signal, everything else is irrelevant

You shouldn't need internet connectivity or a smart phone to view the menu.
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