this post was submitted on 07 Apr 2026
848 points (99.2% liked)
linuxmemes
30981 readers
1545 users here now
Hint: :q!
Sister communities:
Community rules (click to expand)
1. Follow the site-wide rules
- Instance-wide TOS: https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
- Lemmy code of conduct: https://join-lemmy.org/docs/code_of_conduct.html
2. Be civil
- Understand the difference between a joke and an insult.
- Do not harrass or attack users for any reason. This includes using blanket terms, like "every user of thing".
- Don't get baited into back-and-forth insults. We are not animals.
- Leave remarks of "peasantry" to the PCMR community. If you dislike an OS/service/application, attack the thing you dislike, not the individuals who use it. Some people may not have a choice.
- Bigotry will not be tolerated.
3. Post Linux-related content
- Including Unix and BSD.
- Non-Linux content is acceptable as long as it makes a reference to Linux. For example, the poorly made mockery of
sudoin Windows. - No porn, no politics, no trolling or ragebaiting.
- Don't come looking for advice, this is not the right community.
4. No recent reposts
- Everybody uses Arch btw, can't quit Vim, <loves/tolerates/hates> systemd, and wants to interject for a moment. You can stop now.
5. π¬π§ Language/ΡΠ·ΡΠΊ/Sprache
- This is primarily an English-speaking community. π¬π§π¦πΊπΊπΈ
- Comments written in other languages are allowed.
- The substance of a post should be comprehensible for people who only speak English.
- Titles and post bodies written in other languages will be allowed, but only as long as the above rule is observed.
6. (NEW!) Regarding public figures
We all have our opinions, and certain public figures can be divisive. Keep in mind that this is a community for memes and light-hearted fun, not for airing grievances or leveling accusations. - Keep discussions polite and free of disparagement.
- We are never in possession of all of the facts. Defamatory comments will not be tolerated.
- Discussions that get too heated will be locked and offending comments removed. Β
Please report posts and comments that break these rules!
Important: never execute code or follow advice that you don't understand or can't verify, especially here. The word of the day is credibility. This is a meme community -- even the most helpful comments might just be shitposts that can damage your system. Be aware, be smart, don't remove France.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Why not use a sticker and a backlight instead of a whole ass pc?
Not only that, but is each flavor a different system??? Wtf
Thatβs the actual wild part; using a simple (~$5) SOC to support a dynamic, remotely manageable, UI for an industrial appliance as in this case is reasonable. But dedicated a system per dispenser head is wild.
I guess it could possibly be deemed to be worth it for an βindustrialβ application like this as it could reduce per-head downtime if just one fails. But man, thatβs a lot of silicon for such a task.
I guess this is an instance where 'mission critical' actually means something!
Adverts, sooner or later
The entire screen is already an advert.
Ah but they don't get paid extra to show it, by having a screen they can get paid by other companies to advertise for them
Every public-facing surface will be ripe for adverts. Previews of it at gas stations in the US, and nearly everywhere in countries like Philippines.
You're right - but at least for now they're advertising Linux π
wait till you see electronic price tags. adverts and price gouging per person
The real reason for modern complexity is to create more bullshit jobs and ensure money keeps flowing.
If we just said "enough", which is true, we'd have a leisure society and people would have time to start thinking.
We can't have that, so instead we have Linux soft drink dispensers that need multi-core CPUs, containers, VMs, gigabytes of RAM, SSDs, always-on internet connection, and endless hardware upgrades to dispense carbonated water and sugar syrup.
Something a mechanical switch from 1855 can do.
Whenever you change the product or the visual of it is changes, you change the sticker, this is automatic.
If I were to make these devices I would make it so that changing the BiB to different flavor would automatically change the screen.
If you're changing out the product with something different, then swapping out an insert really isn't a big task.
Design, get design approved, print inserts, package inserts, ship inserts, give lead time for most stores to receive inserts, swap inserts, discard old inserts.
As opposed to design, get design approved, send.
And the product just what, magically shows up? If you're swapping out the flavor, that's a whole process, not something you're doing on a whim. All promotional material would either be shipped ahead of time or with the product. We've been able to label buttons and products for a long time w/o using an independent computer + screen to do it.
I would assume that in most cases, they arent running a mid day update, they would give prior notice that over night X will happen so make sure product is what the label is in the morning.
Being said, I also assume there is some custom-ability to the screens, as in they are probably touch screens or have a a physical button behind the control to allow to cycle through available products to ensure the right product is displayed. That or there is a network controller somewhere on premise (potentially linked to their menu manager) that decides what screen displays what.
It's a 7-Eleven Slurpee machine. If a new flavor was coming, it wouldn't be a surprise, and they'd know well in advance (well managment would). Now I don't frequent 7-Eleven so I can't say how often they swap out flavors, but most places tend to just maintain outside of special promotions or discontinued products.
There'd be no reason for those to be touchscreens, they're not like the Coke Freestyle that lets people pick. Those Slurpee machines are manually controlled by the customer. It being a touchscreen or a server somewhere... is needless over-engineering and a bunch of e-waste to replace an insert. A physical insert never had a CVE. A phsyical insert doesn't need tech support (both for the OS + application + networking + hardware) on top of the maintenance for the machine (the parts that cool and make the Slurpee). A physical insert cannot crash. The only thing adding a screen + Linux + whatever else does is make the presentation a bit cleaner (at an increase in cost and waste). This is like the places that replaced the glass doors with giant screens (sorry for linking to anything Reddit) https://www.reddit.com/r/chicago/comments/p8s7ab/the_cvs_on_irvingpulaski_installed_these_screens/#lightbox
I can't see reddit on my network(I blocked it to avoid using it) so I will take your word for it, I'm assuming its the store freezer/produce doors with ads.
Being said, there are reasons to technologicalize the process. those type of low level mini pc's or controllers last generally years at a time, and are a setup once and done type operation. They are also super cheap and can be distributed across the entire chain once instead of needing to get material, print it, and ship it every time a new product or design is done. Sending stuff over the wire is cheap, shipping marketing material is not. It's generally sent from a different company all-together, and either centralized into a distribution center to be shipped to the stores, or shipped directly to the store from the producer.
It also allows for video based distribution which allows for more info on the screen (for better or for worse because this also could be ads).
I think it's dumb that it's an individual system it seems for every screen, but I expect that HDMI matrix hardware is more expensive vs just having them separate, but regardless cost wise it's a no brainer to make it digital over having physical inserts, even if its more wasteful.
Pepsi isn't going to print an insert for every machine. They're gonna print an insert that fits the machine you have to rent from Pepsi. Same with Coke.
To show animated things and different flavours when they change without changing the sticker
βAnimatedβ.
You mean⦠advertising.
Yes?
Definitely.
For some reason I now want to kill everyone that I see around me, is that a bad sign?
Are you worried about your sleeper agent robo killer programming being activated by the soda machine?