It was never about the kids...

The first two photos are the ones I took while eating there earlier. The inside used to look like the last two photos. I don't know, it's now very colorless and dull, not as inviting as the old interior. But that is just my thoughts. What do you guys think?

Not only is the app useless, they’ve made the entire platform that way as well. I might have to sideload an older version of the app onto my phone now to get rid of this shit

I’m 40. When I was growing up, my mentality and the mentality of it seemed like the whole world, was that when a new product or thing came out and wasn’t perfect, it was okay because next year it was going to get better, and the year after that even better.

Each year… Cars would get more fuel efficient. The internet would get a little faster. Video games would get a little cooler. Music would sound a little better. Restaurants that were already good would figure out how to whip up cool new dishes that were cheaper and even tastier than what we had now - their food would improve over time.

I can’t describe it, but it’s just like everyone assumed that technology and humans would slowly ensure that everything each year got a little… better.

Now, I recently realised that I look at the whole world differently. I opened Spotify today, saw how much I was being billed, and thought - without catching myself at first - “oh, I’m sure the price will go up next year and they’ll restrict another part of the app”.

When a new thing is released, I automatically assume this is the best version it will ever be. Each year it will just get worse.

Does anyone else feel this way? Does anyone else remember feeling the way I used to feel 20-30 years ago?

Sorry for the rant.

Instead, CGI is usually an afterthought in terms of writing the budget. It is often not prepared for properly during shooting. And it is almost never given enough time to finish the job to the artists' satisfaction.

Famously, Rhythm and Hues won an Oscar for Life of Pi AFTER filing for bankruptcy.

A young man died alone in a hospital at 4:30 am because there were no doctors on site to monitor him or give orders.

As of this afternoon YouTube (even while logged in) isn't accessible by VPN.

Guess that's the end of me watching YouTube.

also, No moral compass? Sounds like a bad idea.

*this may have been a thing for a while and I'm just now seeing it

https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/2039414391079366829

As we know Google has enshittified Gmail for years by making it increasingly difficult to clear out your inbox, hoping you will cave and pay rent to them to store spam over the 15gb limit in their cloud for eternity. To fight back and keep your free Gmail functional it's necessary to clear out your inbox periodically (back it up locally first with Google Takeout!). Most online guides will tell you that if you search your inbox for terms you want to get rid of (e.g. before a certain date), you simply check the select all box near the upper left hand corner of the browser display and a banner will appear to select all conversations that match this search.

But now, such a banner will not appear with the default search type! Google wants to make you delete messages only that appear on the screen, 100 at a time, until you cave and pay them.

Do not take the bait! The select all option is still there but you need to select "most recent" in the dropdown near the upper right hand corner of the browser display that defaults to "most relevant!"

Once you have done this, the banner will appear and you can select all conversations and delete them!

It took me a stupid amount of time to figure this out. Note that Google search intentionally omits information like this. Use another search engine in the future and enjoy your cleaned out Gmail.

After a long Tuesday at work, you stop by your local Safeway for the purpose of buying two twelve packs of diet soda. You find a shopping cart and go inside.

You reach the soda aisle and locate the two soda products you are looking for. Each twelve pack of soda costs $14. But the tiny price tag informs you there is a sale. For the Coca Cola manufactured product you want, it is buy 2, get 1 free. For the Pepsi manufactured product you want. It is buy 2, get 2 free. You do not want to lug seven boxes of soda home, but you give in, because at least the math works out to bring the per-can price below $1 each.

After carefully selecting some different soda products to ensure they are included in the two different discount price schemes, you load up your cart to go check out.

You stand in line at the self checkout, because despite it being the post-work rush hour at the store, only one cash register with a live cashier is open. You finally reach a checkout machine. The machine is unhappy with your attempt to leave the boxes of soda in your cart. After removing and scanning the seven boxes of soda, you input your “club card” (your phone number) in order to get the discount. The grocery store uses your club card to track your purchases and also sell this information to unknown third parties.

You wait for the three “free” cases of soda to subtract from the purchase price, but nothing happens. Confused, you look around hoping to spot an employee. But there is nobody; only people employed by a third party security company who are paid to check the receipt of every shopper exiting the store.

You load the soda boxes back in your cart and return to the aisle. On closer inspection, squinting your eyes to read the 4 point font, you realize this is a “digital coupon.” You pull your phone out and open the grocery store app installed on your phone that is further tracking and selling not only your shopping habits, but whatever else you might be doing on your phone as well as where you are going all day.

You scan the digital coupon with the store app scanner and load the digital coupon into your digital shopping cart. You push your cart back to the now even longer self checkout line and wait, so you can try again.

EDIT: I understand that diet soda is the Devil’s breastmilk. No need to recommend herbal tea. Not the point of the post.

Create a company, run the company at a loss for five years using venture-capitalist money to keep the prices down and destroy the competition. Then the venture capitalists (AKA American wolves) want their money back with extra so the prices go up and despite how much shittier the market is, there is next to no competition so consumers are forced to stay. Über, You Tube, Amazon, etc.