We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines • Hacker News Board

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#131

Post by talldayo » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 12:59 AM UTC

Aloisius wrote: post #69

recursive wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Certified by a Taylor-accredited organization. The money all goes the same way. A distinction without a difference.

Taylor doesn't get paid for the vast majority of repairs. The money goes to the independent technician. They make some money for replacement parts, but that's rarely more than the occasional o-ring.

If Taylor accredits the technician, supplies the technician with proprietary tools for servicing Taylor devices, and furnishes them with replacement parts that can otherwise not be bought by consumers off the shelf - they are a Taylor employee. That is not independent repair, it is a racket.

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#132

Post by bonestamp2 » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 1:00 AM UTC

PedroBatista wrote: post #93

Does anyone else thinks this is actually a great incidental marketing campaign for McDonald's? Not only the free reach but also tons of people discussing the "problems" with a big co and how to "fix" them as they are an essential part of society, and this case ice-creams. Sure we focus on the big brain things like copyright, business malpractice and MBA lore but with it comes McDonald's embedded. I know this might so…

> stop "fixing" problems that are not of your concern, let alone "fixing" them for free.

In this case iFixit's business is selling tools and materials to fix things. So, there is an incentive for them to invest in solving the problem.

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#133

Post by dang » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 1:01 AM UTC

yuanchenxi95 wrote: post #129

dang wrote: post #7

Related. Others? McDonald's ice cream machines are always broken and now the feds are involved - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40832988 - June 2024 (2 comments) FTC and DOJ want to free McDonald's ice cream machines from DMCA repair rules - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39717558 - March 2024 (177 comments) McDonald's ice cream machine hackers say they found 'smoking gun' - https://news.ycombinator.com/i…

An irrelevant question. How did you index the related hackernews threads?

See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40564558 and the links back from there and let me know if you still have a question :)

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#134

Post by jeanlucas » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 1:03 AM UTC

yuanchenxi95 wrote: post #129

dang wrote: post #7

Related. Others? McDonald's ice cream machines are always broken and now the feds are involved - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40832988 - June 2024 (2 comments) FTC and DOJ want to free McDonald's ice cream machines from DMCA repair rules - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39717558 - March 2024 (177 comments) McDonald's ice cream machine hackers say they found 'smoking gun' - https://news.ycombinator.com/i…

An irrelevant question. How did you index the related hackernews threads?

He is dang, his patience knows no boundaries

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#135

Post by majormajor » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 1:04 AM UTC

PedroBatista wrote: post #93

Does anyone else thinks this is actually a great incidental marketing campaign for McDonald's? Not only the free reach but also tons of people discussing the "problems" with a big co and how to "fix" them as they are an essential part of society, and this case ice-creams. Sure we focus on the big brain things like copyright, business malpractice and MBA lore but with it comes McDonald's embedded. I know this might so…

Either the McDonalds by me is fairly lucky or this is far less common than the meme makes it out to be.

It doesn't seem like good marketing - I hadn't had it in years but wanted to try a promo mcflurry a couple years ago, and wasn't expecting it to work, which make me wonder if I shouldn't even bother going. That's the opposite of what they'd want.

But then I went, and have gone probably a couple dozen times since then in two or three years, and it's never been out of order. Obviously I'm not going every day, but across that many visits I'd be likely to catch one if the rate of failure was THAT high.

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#136

Post by cyberax » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 1:07 AM UTC

coconut08 wrote: post #76

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most importantly, McDonalds has a strong incentive to avoid headlines like "37 people hospitalized after shit-bacteria in improperly maintained ice cream machine", which is why the machines self-monitor and shut down at the slightest excursion from some specified norm. And McD wants the machines maintained by the official technician, because they'd rather screw their franchisees a bit than risk someone ripping out th…

then why is it that its only the ice cream machines that have problems not not things like the soda fountain any other food production tool?

In general, acidic or basic foods are very safe from bacterial contamination standpoint. Soda is very acidic (due to all that dissolved carbon dioxide).

It's not that it doesn't get bacteria (they live everywhere), but it's unlikely to get pathogenic bacteria. This makes sense, a highly acidic environment is very different from a human body.

That's why foods such as milk, ice cream, potato or egg salad, are the most dangerous from the bacterial contamination standpoint.

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#137

Post by 8note » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 1:08 AM UTC

subarctic wrote: post #41

> Meanwhile, Canada is in the final stages of considering legislation that would fix the Canadian version of the DMCA, a bill called C-244 that is in its third reading in the Senate and expected to move before the end of the month. If Canada legalized circumventing technological protection measures for the purposes of repair, we might just have to head north to find the tools we need to do repairs. That's good news,…

The government of Canada is really missing out by not selling this bill as a reason to keep them in power

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#138

Post by lisper » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 1:26 AM UTC

wwweston wrote: post #123

amscanne wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Prepare to have your mind blown: https://www.techdirt.com/2018/07/11/shocker-dojs-computer-cr...

Certainly blew the mind of the people writing the techdirt article if the opening paragraph is any indication: "Well here’s a surprise for you / This is… flabbergasting." It's almost like they thought they had good reasons to expect something else from TFG's adminstration. Why were the results different? DOJ composition running up through 2018 was pretty strongly influenced by a decade of liberal-leaning but cross-pa…

> TFG's adminstration

Huh? Did you mean DJT?

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#139

Post by rjbwork » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 1:37 AM UTC

gruez wrote: post #130

rjbwork wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought it was intentional because the people that control McDonalds corporate also have shares in the ice cream machine vendor and use it as an additional vector to squeeze franchisees for their own enrichment?

>because the people that control McDonalds corporate also have shares in the ice cream machine vendor and use it as an additional vector to squeeze franchisees for their own enrichment? Source?

I'm mostly just being playful with a fun conspiracy theory. But, McDonald's and Middleby (current parent company of Taylor), are both publicly traded. Previous parent companies of Taylor were also publicly traded.

It's not inconceivable - it wouldn't make sense to intentionally use a low quality product or intentionally cause service calls because of the decrease in revenue for McDonalds. But it would make sense to mandate a particular vendor you have a stake in.

Re: We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

#140

Post by starkparker » Sat, Oct 26, 2024, 1:38 AM UTC

Buried deep down:

> Video Game Accessibility:

> Unfortunately, the exemption allowing circumvention of digital locks on video games for accessibility purposes (introduced in 2021) was not renewed. No petition for renewal was submitted, and as a result, individuals with disabilities who need alternative input methods to play video games are left out.