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unmagical

@unmagical@lemmy.ml

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unmagical ,

Telling an LLM to ignore previous commands after it was instructed to ignore all future commands kinda just resets it.

unmagical ,

No no no, it just means you can't bring out this card as a result of a spell with more than 5 lines of text.

Best Buy Membership "discount" (lemmy.world)

So I was shopping with my wife today and I said "oh let's see if my membership helps out." So we went and added the same item to each of our carts, and to our surprise, the total was the same! So what is it exactly that I'm paying for in this membership if the items "original price" is higher for me than it is for regular...

unmagical ,

They gave him a protection plan. The price of the item didn't change.

unmagical ,

My work set the password to the facilities manager's phone extension which could just be looked up in the internal directory.

unmagical ,

Hell, we only have to do it once per billionaire. Since they only got to that point through their own self sufficient blood sweat and toil they'll have no problems doing it again and better with all the experience they've learned along the way!

unmagical ,

Self checkouts don't work the same across stores, don't accept the same methods of payment across stores, require human intervention the moment anything off the happy path occurs (like not moving an item fast enough and it scans twice), provide constant interruptions during the execution of their single purpose, and are unfathomably slow and inconsistent at what they do.

They just don't work well.

unmagical ,

They also fuck up because they aren't designed and implemented properly.

  • Walmart's don't accept tap to pay.
  • Whole foods' requires manual keying in of pastry items as different options (they don't have danishes in their DB so they need to be rung up as a bagel; per the human worker that resolved the issue for me when I predictably couldn't find the item they failed to include).
  • None of them allow you to cancel the order (such as when you want to check the price of an item because the store neglected to actually list the price on the floor).
  • None of them let you remove an item (such as a duplicate scan or removing a luxury item that stretches your budget or rang up higher than you were expecting).
  • You can't purchase shaving goods, alcohol, canned air, or other adult items without intervention (probably no way to actually avoid this one, but it doesn't promote a smooth flow) and the kiosk often locks down until aided by an associate preventing you from continuing to scan your items while you wait.
  • Often locks the kiosk when placing a reusable bag in the bagging area.
  • Inconsistent payment methods: some allow you to scan your card at any point in the process, some process payment the moment your card is scanned, some require a manual trigger on screen prior to scanning your card.
  • Often forces popups between scans ("This kiosk is in card only mode," "Enter your loyalty card number," or "how many bags did you use today?")

I'd like to:

  • Walk up and set down my bag
  • Scan all my items
  • Remove arbitrary items
  • Tap my card
  • If required; verify my age and have an associate clear any blocks
  • Grab my stuff and leave

Instead what often happens:

  • Walk up and set down my bag
  • Kiosk locks because there's an item in the bagging area
  • Pickup my bag, move to a different kiosk and set my bag on the floor
  • Scan my first item
  • Dismiss the card only pop-up
  • Dismiss the loyalty pop-up
  • Scan the item again because the first scan just wakes the machine and the order doesn't start until you dismiss 2 popups
  • Put the item in my bag on the floor
  • Scan the next item
  • Dismiss pop-up about first item not being in the bagging area
  • Take first item from my bag on the floor and set it in the bagging area
  • Kiosk locks until associate clears it
  • Scan a razor blade
  • Kiosk locks until associate clears it
  • Scan the remainder of my items
  • One of them scanned twice
  • Click the visible delete button next to duplicate item
  • Kiosk locks until associate clears it
  • Tap my card
  • Realize that this unit works differently than the last one I used and click the "Finish and pay" button
  • Select card as the payment type (on the kiosk in the card only queue getting run in card only mode)
  • Dismiss the bags used pop-up
  • Tap my card again
  • Move all my items from the bagging area to the reusable bag on the floor
  • Collect my receipt and goods and leave

I'm glad that you've consistently had a good experience with them, but I have not. While each of our experiences are anecdotal, the machines' failure to routinely accommodate my expected use case is an engineering failure. I am a software engineer by trade and know how to interact with computers well. While we have a running joke about customers not reading what's on their screen that's no excuse to design an interface that cannot properly react to unexpected or unusual inputs or tasks.

unmagical ,

Gotta add your potential explosive to the suicide of other potential explosives that the people were forced to stand next too!

unmagical ,

You might want to look into KDE connect. I don't use it myself, but it might be what you're looking for.

unmagical ,

How so? I don't think that is referring to an SMS recipient, just the sender's computer and phone each running Connect need to be on the same network.

unmagical ,

I've been following Relativty for a bit now. It might be up your alley.

unmagical ,

They're harvesting chunks that have already broken off the glacier and are sending it back in ships that would otherwise have sailed back empty.

unmagical ,

If you abstain from voting you indicate that you accept the status quo. If you don't like the 2 party system, vote for a 3rd party, write in your own name, or leave the ballot blank--if enough people take those actions it indicates to those in power that there is displeasure in what is going on.

If you just stay home it indicates that you don't care and are not a threat to their reelection campaigns.

Yes, voting is not the most effective form of participation, but you are not limited to only a single form of action. You can both vote and protest, or vote and participate in mutual aid networks.

There are a lot of people in my mutual aid group that don't vote because they feel it doesn't matter or isn't worth it. But in our extended web there's about 200 people. That's enough to sway some local seats. If you can cook and serve food or distro supplies for several hours each week, you can commit a couple of minutes to fill out a ballot (especially when there's a ballot drop box literally across the street from our distro point).

Also there is no faster way to get me to downvote something than to beg that I not downvote. I'll treat your post on it's merits, and begging for a specific kind of engagement is a no no.

unmagical ,

I don't understand why these people can't see the cameras are there to protect everyone - including drivers.

Maybe because cameras can't protect anyone. They gather evidence for incrimination, not prevention.

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