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We can now fix McDonald's ice cream machines

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

#301

Post by matheusmoreira »

Zak wrote: post #163
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,…

What the hacker community should be lobbying for, everywhere is the complete repeal of these anticircumvention laws. DRM does not meaningfully protect against piracy, and most of the things it does protect against are otherwise-legal

Anticircumvention laws are the backbone of big tech's business models. They're all about creating little digital fiefdoms with us as their serfs. They own the platforms, they have all the keys to the machines and they aren't interested in hackers taking away their control.

Same tech companies that used to reverse engineer and adversarially interoperate whether their competitors liked it or not. They're the ones lobbying now. They don't want others doing the same thing to them.

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

#303

Post by fsckboy »

borski wrote: post #259
Dilettante_ wrote: post #220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The USA is not a nation-state, it is just a state, nor is Canada. That throws up the question in my mind: What makes a people into a nation? How uniform do they have to be?

I swear I’m not trying to pull an RTFM, but the Wikipedia page is genuinely an interesting one and goes into the history and the fact that nation-states, in particular, are a relatively modern phenomenon. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation

With today's (good) sensitivity to not letting ethnicity guide us to whether someone is a friend or an enemy, the rise of the nation state can seem like a bad idea. However, it should also be kept in mind that prior to nation states emerging, ethnicities were combined in states through the force of Royal or Imperial power; Bourbons, Hohenzollerns, Angevins, Carolingians DnGAF what nations they were ruling over, just as many as possible; and often times there still were ethnicities with greater power at the center who simply wanted to take your mind off of that.

then of course, prior to the age of empires, nations formed where there were geographical boudaries between them and their neighbors, and they did exist as nation-states. The modern rise of nation-states took place in the context of the downfall of nobility/aristocracy. Democracy and free speech do, by their nature, unlock the expression of vulgar passions.

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

#304

Post by fsckboy »

jMyles wrote: post #279
fsckboy wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

just as an aside, in political science/international relations, a "state" is what you are calling a nation state. A "nation" is like canadian first nations or the cherokee nation or the german nation before there was a german state (not very long ago), i.e. it's an ethnicity/language. A nation state is when a nation and a state are combined, like Italy (a country, a polity, where the italian people live) and Japan. T…

You know it's funny; I actually went back and forth several times on that part. I really just wanted to distinguish between city-states (and for that matter, cities), which, it seems obvious, have an easier time staying in their lane with regard to this conflict with IP. But you're absolutely right; the point was better made with simply the phrase "large states". (FWIW - and I think it's not worth much - I have a deg…

not your fault, the computer security community and crypto defi community just say "nation-state nation-state nation-state" as often as they can these days. I think it's because "the United States" which is made up of little states that-are-not-states internationally, has ruined the word "state" for the thing they want to talk about, the financial equivalent of state-sponsored-terrorism for example.

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

#305

Post by borski »

fsckboy wrote: post #303
borski wrote: post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I swear I’m not trying to pull an RTFM, but the Wikipedia page is genuinely an interesting one and goes into the history and the fact that nation-states, in particular, are a relatively modern phenomenon. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation

With today's (good) sensitivity to not letting ethnicity guide us to whether someone is a friend or an enemy, the rise of the nation state can seem like a bad idea. However, it should also be kept in mind that prior to nation states emerging, ethnicities were combined in states through the force of Royal or Imperial power; Bourbons, Hohenzollerns, Angevins, Carolingians DnGAF what nations they were ruling over, just…

I have no problem with the concept of nation-states. People will always seek to find their tribe.

That is what makes America exceptionally unique on the world stage; it is seemingly becoming more tribal anyway, but the mix is unusual.

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

#307

Post by bonestamp2 »

legacynl wrote: post #219
minitoar wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there anything stopping a franchise from putting 2? I think it can’t be required because they have to meet some sort of smallest viable footprint.

I think that the opportunity costs are just too high. Since the reliability of these machines seem very low, even having 2 machines doesn't guarantee that you're always able to serve ice cream. And if you're able to serve all your customers with one machine, in times when both are functioning, the second machine doesn't really enable more sales. But you do have to power it, have a dedicated space for it, have someone…

They're not that unreliable, but it seems like they're more unreliable than they actually are because they sometimes lie to customers -- it's easier to say it's broken than explain what is actually happening.

You see, demand for ice cream is very weather driven and that means nearly everyone wants ice cream at the same time. But each machine has a throughput limit. So, a lot of the time when they say the machine is broken, it's really just that the demand has exceeded the machine's capacity, and it takes awhile for the machine to freeze the ice cream mixture when it is refilled. If you had a second machine, that's when you switch to the second machine and by the time that one's capacity is reached, then the other machine will be ready to go again.

The machines also do what modern refrigerators do and they run a defrost/heating cycle to prevent ice from building up on the cooling equipment inside. If a defrost cycle happens at the same time as a freeze cycle, it extends the downtime because it then takes longer to freeze the ice cream mixture.

> to storage, frying station or something else that is more useful.

Storage and frying capacity is not at problem at most McDonald's. Two things they do really well is frying and just-in-time delivery.

> by the time you find out the machine is broken, you're already in the store or drive through anyway

A lot of people come with a car full of kids just for ice cream, they go to your competitor when you don't have it. If they didn't want the expense of an extra ice cream machine, they could keep ice cream sandwiches in the freezer and offer those as a substitute when the ice cream machine is locked out in a freeze or defrost cycle.

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

#308

Post by Bjartr »

LtWorf wrote: post #274
Bjartr wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the issue as I understand it, is that the machine is fairly opaque as to why some failures occur can appear somewhat "flaky" as a result. When this occurs during a cleaning cycle, the whole cycle is void and a new 4 hour cycle must be run. If the machine was clear about communicating the issue, it would be fine. It's not and can require a technician to come out with a tool to both read the machine status in d…

McDonald is big enough to change suppliers of machines and impose easy maintenance.

It's not a problem to be solved from McD corporate's perspective.

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

#309

Post by amscanne »

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…

I don’t think the surprise was based on the head of the executive, rather it was based on the DOJ taking a stance in favor of exemptions.

I just get tired of the idea that the president/executive completely colors every single government action. Let’s stop pretending that every election will completely rewrite the MO and agendas for every agency.

The comment I replied to was based on exactly those kinds of assumptions (“couldn’t possibly imagine this happening under Trump”) and was wrong. Now you’re just doing a no-true-Scotsman (“oh, it only happened because he wasn’t paying attention”).

I’ve personally seen no evidence that right-to-repair is a partisan issue in the way you’ve suggested, and I’ve seen plenty of evidence that the cronyism charges you’re levying are also not limited to a single party. You can hate the guy for lots of reasons, but the idea that Trump is uniquely capable of being bought on this issue seems very strange to me.

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

#310

Post by abustamam »

xoxxala wrote: post #278
fHr wrote: post #244

Earlier quoted context omitted.

people who get angry at the underpaid employees are the worst, treat them like human beings please

The world would be a better place if more people had to work an underpaid service job at the start of their employment.

I agree with the sentiment, but ideally people should not have to do X to empathize with/respect people who do X. It's sad that they have to, but I wish people just learned empathy/respect better.
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