Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

github.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

341–350 of 356 posts

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#341

Post by jrm4 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #256
jrm4 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Everyone does it every day" That makes it okay? "It is not considered wrong" By WHOM? I go out of my way to avoid self-checkout when I can, because I consider it 'wrong.'

By everyone who uses any tool invented in human history. You are drawing an arbitrary line at self checkouts for some reason, but I am sure you have no problem with the millions of other ways automation has benefited you, obviously including using a computer to express your ideas on a forum hosted by a business that invests in other businesses that use automation as their springboard to success.

Reductio ad absurdum big time.

But let's see if I can explain it in a capitalism friendly way, I guess.

I have a preference for cashiers checking my stuff out for me, so that's how I select. Partly because I like the convenience, partly because I like knowing more people are having jobs.

And here's the important part; I personally actually have significant control over this, which makes it different from your silly argument.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#342

Post by renewiltord »

uhfraid wrote: post #340
renewiltord wrote: post #271

I use a similar trick with most software. Instead of buying the online one, I get it on The Pirate Bay. These days even open source software you can simply just apply Claude and get a different version. People online will kick up a fuss about GPL and shit but in real life no one bothers. Shoplift. Close an OSS project. Who cares. Sometimes I even ride without a ticket. In Europe/Asia especially if you act like cluele…

More often than not, they’re aware but let it slide because they pity you

Yeah, that's the social engineering part. It's a hacker trick. "Cmaan, I'm a little guy I'm a little birthday boy" https://x.com/eshear/status/1941696051884458278?s=20

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#343

Post by renewiltord »

zbentley wrote: post #335
renewiltord wrote: post #271

I use a similar trick with most software. Instead of buying the online one, I get it on The Pirate Bay. These days even open source software you can simply just apply Claude and get a different version. People online will kick up a fuss about GPL and shit but in real life no one bothers. Shoplift. Close an OSS project. Who cares. Sometimes I even ride without a ticket. In Europe/Asia especially if you act like cluele…

In some specific instances, this approach is clever. Taken as a general philosophy, it’s regrettable, harmful, unethical. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

You can't Categorical Imperative me. I'm a hacker.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#344

Post by DANmode »

Aboutplants wrote: post #29

I was in college when self checkout became a thing and it took us all of about 45 seconds to realize that you could just check everything out as bananas. Steak was weighed and priced at 4011 (banana code) as the stoned teenager cashier paid no attention. Everything on the receipt was literally Bananas

Are you still a serial thief?

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#345

Post by lotsofpulp »

jrm4 wrote: post #341
lotsofpulp wrote: post #256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By everyone who uses any tool invented in human history. You are drawing an arbitrary line at self checkouts for some reason, but I am sure you have no problem with the millions of other ways automation has benefited you, obviously including using a computer to express your ideas on a forum hosted by a business that invests in other businesses that use automation as their springboard to success.

Reductio ad absurdum big time. But let's see if I can explain it in a capitalism friendly way, I guess. I have a preference for cashiers checking my stuff out for me, so that's how I select. Partly because I like the convenience, partly because I like knowing more people are having jobs. And here's the important part; I personally actually have significant control over this, which makes it different from your silly a…

I have no idea how to interpret your comment.

GuinansEyebrows's opinion was that businesses are wrong for implementing self checkouts. Presumably, ryandrake agreed with GuinansEyebrows.

I do not think that a business's decision to use self checkouts is wrong, and in fact the business is consistent with all of us, as we all choose to use automation/technology how we see fit.

Maybe it is suboptimal for some people, but why would a business be wrong for trying something that reduces their costs? I try to reduce my costs all the time. For example, I like restaurants where you order at the counter or on a device and self bus. I don't like waiting for a waiter. Is that business wrong?

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#346

Post by squibonpig »

joemi wrote: post #206
squibonpig wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah but like it's fine if two people use a flipper zero to get cheaper groceries. That's not actually a bad thing.

Who do you think feels the effect of fraud/theft at retail stores? The "rich" owners feel a little of it, sure, but they have a proven strategy for keeping their profits up by reducing costs: fire employees and make those who remain do more work for the same pay. So you think this is "not actually a bad thing" because you're screwing over but really you're just screwing over the workers.

That's not true. If any company loses revenue is has a lot of places to dump that loss. One is shrinking profit margins, another is raising prices, and another is lowering operating costs like labor, but also pulling lower-margin items off shelves and all other manner of cost cutting.

Let's oversimplify dramatically and say that every single lost dollar is paid through cutting the workforce. You're ignoring the fact that people benefit from the theft: those who need food and are able to steal it rather than going hungry. How do you know that feeding those people is worth less than employing the workers lost to their theft?

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#347

Post by joemi »

squibonpig wrote: post #346
joemi wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who do you think feels the effect of fraud/theft at retail stores? The "rich" owners feel a little of it, sure, but they have a proven strategy for keeping their profits up by reducing costs: fire employees and make those who remain do more work for the same pay. So you think this is "not actually a bad thing" because you're screwing over but really you're just screwing over the workers.

That's not true. If any company loses revenue is has a lot of places to dump that loss. One is shrinking profit margins, another is raising prices, and another is lowering operating costs like labor, but also pulling lower-margin items off shelves and all other manner of cost cutting. Let's oversimplify dramatically and say that every single lost dollar is paid through cutting the workforce. You're ignoring the fact…

I'm not quite sure I follow your question. Are you asking how do I know that someone who loses their job needed their job to afford groceries? If so, I guess I felt it was a safe assumption that the people working at grocery stores are not financially independent.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#348

Post by spockz »

tekne wrote: post #175
spockz wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is actually quite nice. I’ve been toying with the idea of mandating this 10% maximum margin for products and services on every for-profit company. Trouble is, how do you prevent them making stacks of companies compounding the 10% profits. And is 10% sufficient to build up a buffer for when hard times hit? This thinking has been triggered by fuel producers and sellers making sky rocket profits because of the incr…

You hit on what, in my opinion, is the actual core issue with this type of thinking -- it doesn't compose. To make a poor analogy to physics: if you measure something which changes when you change unit/frame of reference -- it's not a well-defined thing. The best policies have the same effect regardless of the legal structure (within the policy) superimposed on the actual action. Medium policies can be optimized/game…

So, how would we go about defining policies that prevent “excessive” profits while still allowing for building buffers in risky and capex heavy industry?

More heavily tax profit above a certain level? Allows for funnelling back some of the excessive profits. Suffers from the same tax evasion as we currently have where profits are skewed on the books with all kinds of accounting tricks.

Demanding sales prices cannot exceed cost + 10% of cost? In aggregate or per unit?

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#349

Post by acessoproibido »

Avshalom wrote: post #163
acessoproibido wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's really surprising. In my experience its so much faster than traditional cashier.

They're not effective at reducing/preventing shrink. Unsure what the time situation is at scale for the stores. To be sure I'm faster and better at bagging but holy crap some people are not.

Shrink meaning theft? That would make more sense to me.

Re: Edit store price tags using Flipper Zero

#350

Post by squibonpig »

joemi wrote: post #347
squibonpig wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not true. If any company loses revenue is has a lot of places to dump that loss. One is shrinking profit margins, another is raising prices, and another is lowering operating costs like labor, but also pulling lower-margin items off shelves and all other manner of cost cutting. Let's oversimplify dramatically and say that every single lost dollar is paid through cutting the workforce. You're ignoring the fact…

I'm not quite sure I follow your question. Are you asking how do I know that someone who loses their job needed their job to afford groceries? If so, I guess I felt it was a safe assumption that the people working at grocery stores are not financially independent.

No not my question. Sorry if it was unclear. I'm trying to understand how you're thinking about this. The question is "are there numbers x and y for which it's good that x number of people who would otherwise go hungry eat food even though it costs y number of people their job"
Post reply on HN