Are there still poker hands on the coffee cups?
2: The automation will reduce the number of hours that everyone works. The future will be amazing.
I think someone tried to open a retro automat on St Mark's Place. Not sure how that worked out.
Return to the future of sprawling homeless camps populated by former baristas. Thanks, Obama heebie.
In the future, everyone automated out of jobs serving lattes at hotel coffee shops will turn toward independent craft production of the same. They will also get paid to do it as part of a 21st Century pony-land Craft Works Progress Administration, and guild socialism will rule the land.
I've seen a couple of these around lately, but they were in places where it makes sense to provide a wider variety of options but not somewhere you'd expect to have a person working. At the hotel lounge, not the coffee shop.
Pwned by 4. I was just about to suggest that.
I visited one of the famous NYC automats back in the 80s. It was sort of depressing.
I think this technology is a miracle. Think of all the unnecessary human interaction it prevents!
I visited one of the famous NYC automats back in the 80s.
Is there something uniquely NYC about automats that I'm missing? It's not the not-exactly cutting-edge thing that's all over Heebieville in 2015?
Oh, ha. I was reading "laundromat". Those are ubiquitous.
Fully automated machines for coffee are very common in Vienna (unsurprising, since it's probably about minimizing expensive labor) and are awesome. I.F.'s institute has one, too. So neat to have each drink's beans ground right then and there! ... Although I just realized as I typed this that I've actually totally gotten used to it and don't find it that impressive anymore. Boo for hedonic treadmills.
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Oh hey do I really have to use turbotax or equivalent just to file for an extension? (Still haven't gotten the ACA subsidy documentation form.) And filing for the extension is not free since my income is over 60k? I don't understand why filing for an extension requires more than a 3 line web form. :'-(
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A fancy coffee costs as much as a not-fancy beer and provides so many fewer utils.
A fancy cup of coffee can barely make a mouse come any more than a cheap cup of coffee.
"Robusta" is Latin for "mouse porn."
Robots replacing humans isn't frightening to you?
Wait, are we talking replicants here? Because that's extra scary.
If we replaced all recorded music with guys holding a banjo, full employment would happen right away.
I was briefly happy at those new soda machines that let you choose different flavors to put in different base drinks, since my preferred diet soda was rarely/never available in many of those flavors, but then I cut out diet soda altogether.
Next version will be robots programmed with old world skills values to make artisanal, hand-crafted food items in steam punk vending machines
For extra authenticity, they can screw up your order and get your name wrong.
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Never mind about the tax extension question--my 1095A showed up after all, so I can just go ahead and do our taxes with three whole days to spare. Thanks, Obama!
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They have those machines at Tim's work. I think that they're all fine, but the Swiss people have strong enough feelings about one particular machine that they'll walk over a bridge to another building to get a cup of coffee in a room with no seating.
Swiss people have butts, but not in a way we can understand.
Some of their butts speak German, and some French.
Have we discussed automated check-out lanes at grocery stores yet? (I tried to check the archives.) Because I've decided I love them and I do not feel the least bit bad if they eliminate "grocery check-out clerk" completely.
Some of their butts speak German, and some of their butts speak French,
Some of their butts like to sit in a chair, and some of them prefer a bench,
Some of the Swiss butts like coffee, and some of them only like tea,
Some of the Swiss butts want to sit on you, and some are sitting on me!
Swiss butts..... Swiss butts...... they're for banking and for spanking.... Swiss butts.....
I'm not so fond of the self-checkout machines at the grocery. Every time I'm in line for one, the person in front of me develops Ludditism.
I like self check-out, but my local grocery store eliminated it a year ago or so.
I'm all for checkers. But I went to a different grocery store than usual this afternoon--had to get the kids out of the house, so we went and fed geese, then did the shopping, while bonsaisue did some preparing for her best friend's week-long visit which commences tomorrow.
It took two to three times longer than needed for her to do her work. She was also bagging--there is no way for customers to bag at this store--and was the worst bagger of all time. I brought two bags--one clearly a zipping, insulated number, the other a giant open tote.
She put all the cold shit in the giant open tote, and then two bottles of household cleaner, two bottles of wine, and a box of granola in the insulated bag. I wanted to throttle her and myself.
That she did everything exactly wrong suggests room for swift improvement.
Not swift enough for TJ's purposes, though.
I'm just saying, the guy gets 50% of the coin tosses right is less of a psychic than the guy who gets 0% right.
Depends on how many tosses he gets to predict.
I'm enjoying the Swiss butts subthread.
That sounds like the name of a very small bikini bottom.
36: Based on the bagging, it sounds like at least a dozen.
We switched grocery stores because of truly terrible checkers a few years ago. The new one has the self-check lanes, which refuse to recognize our bags without the employee verifying them. This employee is frequently not available, because they seem to be assigned to both the customer service desk and the self-check station. The checkers (and baggers if available), on the other hand, are lovely.
My worst self-check experience involved the employee overseeing the area accusing me of shoplifting. That was fun.
I have no problem whatsoever with bagging. I would mostly prefer it, as the art apparently is lost, now.
"Bagging" is a funny word for "shoplifting".
Those free range kids in MD were back in CPS hands again.
http://wtop.com/montgomery-county/2015/04/md-free-range-kids-found-alone-again-taken-into-custody/
Of course I read bagging as banging.
Hm hey ho it's 1:23 am and I am up literally biting my nails time for a new job maybe. 1:24.
43: Even by today's standards I thought that it was okay for 10 year-olds to be alone, if not 6 year-olds. So, the parents have to accompany *both* of them?
Roombas and their derivatives are starting to catch on here. The ex had me buy her one for her birthday, even though we hired someone to clean our apartment every two weeks, and I kept wondering whether politeness would require hiding the Roomba when she came over ("here's a reminder of your future robot substitute! If only the technology were slightly better you'd be out of a job already").
46: You can ask the cleaner to do the bathroom. What we need cleaners for, and what they often won't provide, is tidying and organizing, as well as scrubbing in corners that are too small for the vacuum to reach.
43:Drat you, I just posted on this one.
How appropriate that their weather site is zombie themed.
Have we discussed automated check-out lanes at grocery stores yet? (I tried to check the archives.) Because I've decided I love them and I do not feel the least bit bad if they eliminate "grocery check-out clerk" completely.
So very wrong. Even ignoring the employment angle, it makes buying booze a hassle, and in one major UK chain the scale they use to ensure you're not cheating is ridiculously finicky about small weights, so a typical basket requires manual intervention about three times.
Re: automated check-out. It seems to work OK in CVS, but it's been a train wreck in every full-on grocery store where I've encountered it. Two places near me tried it for about 3 months then quietly phased it out.
49: My dad was using a pay service (EarthNet?) to get his email until just this winter when his kids figured out. Maybe it's that kind of thing.
re: 50
Waitrose have little scanners you can carry about it with you, which are fucking amazing when shopping with a small child. Beep, beep, etc.
Then when you get to the self-service till, you scan a little barcode, pay, and leave. With everything packed, and no screaming grumpy child.
Hasn't automatic check-out at grocery stores been working just fine for nearly 20 years? It definitely started when I was in college.
I can remember using them 15 years ago, at either Kroger or Harris Teeter (or both), but there were none in Pittsburgh when I got here. The grocery store by me just got it a couple of years ago.
Just think - if things keep getting more and more advanced we may eventually see not just fancy coffee machines, but tea that isn't stale, low quality tea bags and coffee scented, well below boiling water available!
I bet I saw my first ones in 98 or 99. So not quite 20 years. But still not novel either.
I'm still kind of thrilled that grocery stores take credit cards. That was new to me in college.
I can remember when being able to pay with a credit card at a grocery store was a novelty.
So, I did not expect to be pwned on that one.
But not having to carry a check book makes my life easier.
Grocery stores (and gas stations, which got something like the same deal) operate on margins too slim to give up 2.5 or 3% of revenue on credit card purchases
And still I get 2% cash back on grocery purchases from my credit cards. Plus about the same again in gas points.
I always wonder why gas stations didn't band together against pay-at-the-pump.
Because it helped them avoid people filling-up and driving off.
OT: My office was just searched by a little beagle mix. They say they are looking for bedbugs, but maybe they want drugs.
67: I thought you always had to drop off a credit card at the counter?
My office was just searched by a little beagle mix. They say they are looking for bedbugs, but maybe they want drugs.
This time, bedbugs. Watch out for the remix.
The little coffee stand across the street from my office that I go to daily posted the amount that they pay per year in credit card transaction fees as a way of pleading with people to please use cash. The amount was something like $17,500, so I've tried to avoid using a card if at all possible ever since.
69: When I was younger, I always associated having to pre-pay for gas with being in a bad neighborhood. It was pretty rare that you couldn't fill the tank and then walk in.
62: Just yesterday, I had a credit card charge for $0.39 cents at Target. I had what I thought were 2 $50 prepaid target cards but what turned to be a $50 and $6.35 left cards. And precisely $0.00 in cash money. The checkout clerk preferred just having me put the extra on the credit card than redoing the whole thing on it as I offered/suggested (I was frankly surprised that it was not below some minimum -allowable level).
Anyone ever had a smaller transaction?
I want to say I've charged 25¢ on a parking meter, but there may have been a 50¢ credit card minimum.
I had a similar-to-73 experience at the grocery store once, with what turned out to be just slightly too little cash (after I had put what I had into the self-checkout machine). So I charged 11 cents onto my card. As far as I know it never showed up on the bill, though, so I'm guessing they have some sort of bar below which they just tell you they charged you and never bother sending it in.
My wife gets alerts in email for this card and mentioned she saw it was posted.
I have in fact charged 25 cents on a parking meter.
When there was some political campaign where you add 0.02 to indicate it was from a particular funding drive I wanted to send a message to the candidate that I supported the drive to elect a Democrat in a red state but disagreed with many of the candidate's positions so I just contributed 0.02. Some campaign worker called me on the lab phone I had given as a contact number and at first thought I had made a mistake on the contribution page, then realized I was being an asshole, and told me they couldn't accept the contribution because it was too small to charge.
Small charges at random stores are usually a sign of fraud, they test stolen cards with a small amount first to make sure they're viable then use them for big purchases.
I've been having trouble with grocery self-check as long as it's been around. I usually avoid it unless regular lines are too long and feel lucky when it works out fine. The issues I run into almost always have to do with the weight on the bagging platform.
I feel like I'd be fine if the grocery store gave me paid training.
78: That literally just happened to me the other week -- $5.76 charged in a Grand Hyatt in Virginia, and then big charges started showing up in China. So annoying having to put in a new card number everywhere I use it online.
So annoying having to put in a new card number everywhere I use it online.
Credit card numbers: another good use for password managers.
then realized I was being an asshole
How do you manage that?
Not to dismiss how much credit card fraud sucks! My sympathies.
I very much enjoy not having to deal with people at the checkout. Bliss! Our Market District at the Waterworks has self checkout machines that usually work quite well except that when I buy a Sunday paper it warns me not to place the object in the bagging area for safety reasons. What's up with that?
I do feel bad about the lost jobs though - it may not be great pay but the people losing their job probably really needed the it.
The Waterworks is too concretely named for me to to shop there. Plus, too far.
Plus, I live near Sav-Mor. I just buy cases or individual glasses.
Wow - that's a great distributor with an actual useful website. Envious.
Market District does have a nice bar with decentish food and 20 taps. I'm a sucker for that stuff.
Decent food is great, if you're into that sort of thing.
Some of need an excuse to sit at a bar...
I don't mind having to do self check-out sometimes but for bigger shoppign trips it's a pain.
AT one store you swipe or weigh and put the stuff on a belt. That works fine. What I hate is when you are using the kind where you swipe and bag right away and the thing chirps out "Item Not in Bagging area," and if you put something in the bag that's the wrong wait, the machine demands that you call a clerk.
It's even worse when the machine demands that you call a clerk and then demands the clerk seriously consider taking some classes at night.
Maybe they should have a test you can take and if you're good at self checkout you get to go in an express lane so you're not stuck behind the riffraff.
The one that always seems weird to me is self checkout at Home Depot. Guess what, my 2x4x8 doesn't fit in the bagging area!
96: I didn't mean to sound snobby. At least at some of the CVSs near me, there aren't any cashiers, and the only option is self checkout. If you're not good at check-out, you're SOL.
I only ever encounter self checkout on vacation, seems (hilariously, now that I think of it) exotic to me!
You should try vacationing someplace other than Home Depot.
AIPMHASPITP, I used to share on office with one of the offspring of one of the founders of that store.
What's worse than self checkout? The self service postal kiosk. The teller line is super long but the person at the front here has been banging away on the screen for five minutes.
Does it still give change in dollar coins?
I'll never find out, same person is still there. It actually appears she's reasonably competent, she just decided to mail a dozen things and consider that all one transaction instead of letting other people with just one envelope have a turn.
I'm exactly the person who would have adopted self checkout, if it had been painless when it was first introduced. If it's going to screw up and require that I wait on one of the self-checkout clerks to come fix the frequent errors, however, I'll stand in the checked line if I have more than 3 items.
I thought for years that ATMs should have trap doors right where the costumer stands that open if a transaction lasts for more than 5 minutes.
The problem with the plan is what to put underneath the trap doors. A tank filled with man eating sharks or piranha?
I took pleasure in banging through all the screens in 30 efficient seconds unlike those reprobates before me so I could impress all those behind me. I hope I didn't accidentally send my taxes to the Azores as a result.
84: Hmmm, based on this and some comments in a recent school district thread, I'm thinking that OOTB is relatively-speaking a neighbor (or at least in the same school district).
Everything on the other side of the river is the same to me.
Topologically speaking, we're all on the same side of the river.
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Department of Close Calls: when sending an inquiry to Luc S/nte, double-check before telling him how much you enjoyed his book that was actually by Louis Men/nd. Two Guys One Slot, amirite?
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Holy shit, one's first time being in a faculty meeting where people are debating who to hire as new faculty is illuminating. No one really has a fucking clue what they're doing, do they?
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No one really has a fucking clue what they're doing, do they?
New mouseover!
I say record everything they're saying and later if you have trouble you can threaten to release any embarrassing things they said to people who didn't get hired. I'd say that, in private, the chances that someone will say something lawsuit-worthy is very high to certain.
50: Since I live in Pennsylvania, buying booze at the grocery store is one of those travelers' tales, like men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders, or the hospitable maidens of Polynesia, which prudent people take with several grains of salt.
112: Actually, I had quite the opposite reaction to my version of that experience. But then, as my grandfather used to say, an optimist is never pleasantly surprised. That said, I endorse 114.
Wouldn't do to oversalt a Polynesian maiden.
Topographically speaking, all the Swiss butts are on the other side of the Alps.
108 - Probably a dead thread but yes - I'm on that side of the river in that school district. I figure we're about 2 miles apart. Don't worry, I won't bother you.
Ah yes, I think I've given enough info here to provide a pretty good idea of where my house is...
Don't worry, I won't bother you.
No worries. I'm the one who knocks bothers. (I would not be shocked if somewhere between schools, spouses, kids or what have you, some real world interaction between our respective family units has occurred. For instance, if you ever use the local library.)
Maybe time for a meetup. Like when Von Wafer comes to town sometime... not that he'd let the likes of us know.
Seeing as we've lived there for 28+ years at this point.
... How did that happen?
119 - I may have your approx. location wrong but there was a thread quite a while ago where you mention the mansion near you. Visible as you come across that bridge - no?
I do use that library, more now that I'm retired. Meetup sometime would be...interesting. I'd even read VW's last book to get ready!
Yep. Close to that mansion is correct. You should be able get a closer look at it in the movie Southpaw which seems to be slated to be released in July. And the picture in that article is apparently Jake Gyllenhaal!
Actually, only family member now at the library works down in its bowels.