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Cooler screens

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Re: Cooler screens

#121

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

coldpie wrote: post #107
pimlottc wrote: post #2

Some images in this article for those who haven’t seen them: https://www.businessinsider.com/cooler-screens-make-it-harde...

I made a positive statement to myself, as I left my teens, that I would never become that old man that hides from technology and gets left behind. But boy, I think I'm getting there. Between crap like this and the massively unethical "gig labor" economy and VR headsets, I want no part of what the world is becoming.

It's not that tech, or even new tech, is a bad thing; it's that people keep making awful things with new tech.

Re: Cooler screens

#122

Post by qingcharles »

I hate these things. I shop at Walgreens because it is the only grocery store for several miles, and they have these on all the coolers. They have never once accurately shown what is actually in the coolers. All it does is tease the hell out of you by showing products on the shelves that aren't there when you open the door. And you have to open the door and let the hot air in just to see what is actually in there.

Re: Cooler screens

#123

Post by theandrewbailey »

I suppose there's the option of playing dumb if you don't like them.

Cashier (the only one left that's not a robot): Did you find everything you want?

Me: I went into the aisle where the pop was, but couldn't find any. I saw plenty of TVs though.

Cashier: We don't sell any TVs.

Me: I don't care. I wanted pop, not TVs.

Re: Cooler screens

#124

Post by fy20 »

RetroTechie wrote: post #36

The reliability issues are surprising: First on some testbench, developing software, power supply, (physical) install procedures, etc. With that done, one would expect to outfit a few stores to see how they work IRL. But no: "The initial round of installations in 2018 reached 10,300 screens in 700 stores." As part of a $200 million plan to cover 2,500 stores. From testbench to fitting 10k screens across 700 stores, w…

I work in digital signage. We don't do these, but we do have other products aimed at retail.

Most of these displays are powered by run of the mill Windows machines. Often they are just standard off the shelf hardware, which when packed in an enclosed space with other electronics, and wrapped with cardboard, doesn't last too long. Even the screens are often just standard bigbox store TVs, although some manufactures do make displays specifically for digital signage (for 10x the price).

We have our own hardware running a custom Linux distro, and it's designed to operate in these sorts of environments. However not all accessories are. Right now we are trying to figure out what to do with a camera which is only designed to operate in environments under 50c where we keep having hardware failures.

The budget for installations like this most likely comes from the marketing department. So instead of paying for print ads with no idea how well they convert, the money is spent on digital signage which can at least track basic data like the number of impressions. Unfortunately in this case, it's probably treated like a win as they get more analytics data than they did before (impressions, door opens, open time).

Re: Cooler screens

#125

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #82
briHass wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Insulating glass better doesn't usually involve making the glass thicker; glass is a reasonably good heat conductor. It usually involves more, thinner sheets of glass stacked with air gaps between them. Argon is often used instead of air (nitrogen/oxygen) because it is a better insulator.

Adding extra layers of glass increases the thickness and weight of the entire glass assembly, which is colloquially what we refer to as glass thickness in North America. Maybe it's different from where your from?

As someone from and in North America, we don't usually refer to multi-layered thin glass as "thick" glass, we call it "double pane" or something similar.

Particularly since it's much lighter than an actual, single glass pane of equal thickness, which is the point here: the weight wouldn't be an issue, and even if it was, the screen is far, far heavier than better insulation.

Re: Cooler screens

#126

Post by ThatGeoGuy »

coldpie wrote: post #107
pimlottc wrote: post #2

Some images in this article for those who haven’t seen them: https://www.businessinsider.com/cooler-screens-make-it-harde...

I made a positive statement to myself, as I left my teens, that I would never become that old man that hides from technology and gets left behind. But boy, I think I'm getting there. Between crap like this and the massively unethical "gig labor" economy and VR headsets, I want no part of what the world is becoming.

I think the core difference is that as a teen we see people reject tech and assume that it's the tech itself being rejected. That there is some underlying progress being shunned.

As an adult I realize that the tech is a layer of gloss and glamour on actively making the world worse than I knew it could be. I didn't have that perspective as a teen because as a teen I hadn't known the world.

Re: Cooler screens

#127

Post by gertrunde »

Some of these complaints remind me of the menu screens in places like McDonalds.

i.e. Holding up the queue because I'm unable to choose what I want from the menu, because the menu has temporarily changed into something else, and I have to wait for it to cycle around again.

Re: Cooler screens

#128

Post by the_gipsy »

petesergeant wrote: post #69
the_gipsy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I stopped going to my local station brand that blares ads non-stop over loudspeakers while pumping. Nobody ever measures lost sales due to annoyed customers, it contradicts someone else's project, politics. Like that website that you immediately close when it bombards you with engagement popups.

> I stopped going to my local station brand that blares ads non-stop over loudspeakers while pumping. I worry about the feedback loop here. You stopped going because of the ads, but unless the person making the decisions knows that, then these things don't change. I don't have a solution.

The person just wants to collect a "project successfully executed" score. Nobody else in the organization really cares either, because the organization is way too complex and works to sustain itself rather than the customer or even profits. It's exactly like those pages that bombard you with engagement popups as soon as they load: they only measure increase of engagement, but never the portion of users that close the page instantly.

I don't really care though. Gas quality is the same across brands.

Re: Cooler screens

#129

Post by dopidopHN »

skrebbel wrote: post #6
pimlottc wrote: post #2

Some images in this article for those who haven’t seen them: https://www.businessinsider.com/cooler-screens-make-it-harde...

Thanks. I thought the article was some sort of future fiction thing but apparently this is real?

Yeah I saw them as described in the article since 2 solid years?

They are mostly broken?

Re: Cooler screens

#130

Post by jaywalk »

photonthug wrote: post #91
taberiand wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More to the point, is anyone not repulsed by this stuff?

Everyone hates it, and no wonder since frankly it is kind of violent and rape'y. No one has ever been forced to sit through captive-audience advertising and said to themselves "I love getting my ear and eye-holes hijacked against my will, hail corporate".

> it is kind of violent and rape'y.

Comparing hearing an ad while you pump gas to rape is disgusting. Grow up.

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