I lost most of those shreds a while ago, but I too loathe the "pre-tip" culture and refuse to participate on those terms.

Like others have said, this is just a weaselish way for employers to pay their workers shit wages and guilt customers into supplementing them. And they do it by capitalizing on psychology.

If something pops up before the payment is completed soliciting a tip, and it takes an affirmative action on the customer's part to choose "zero" instead of picking the default or some other "suggested" option, two things happen. One is the customer feels like an asshole for selecting zero, and the other is the customer gets to wonder if the workers will now blow their noses into the ranch sauce as a result of selecting zero. And as a bonus, the management gets to see how much is being tipped, and perhaps skim some of it or adjust base pay accordingly.

Being older than Snapchat, I hold with the belief that tipping is a reward for good service, and as such, cannot be done before the service is completed. The service doesn't have to be "above and beyond," though that would call for a larger tip. But just the basics -- being an attentive server, mentioning available specials, getting the order right, offering beverage refills, bringing a booster seat or high chair for the kid -- earn tips. Being an asshat who brings my food out cold and then disappears, never to be seen again until they bring the check, no tip for you. Same goes for delivery drivers -- if you brought my food to me hot, not spilled or smashed, and more or less on time, rather than me having to go get it, you earn a tip. If you threw my bag on the passenger seat sideways, spilled my cole slaw all over the place, then dropped it halfway up my sidewalk and fucked off, yeah, your tip is if I don't take pictures and report you to the delivery service.

Places I frequent regularly recognize me as that guy who always pushes zero on the POS, then hands my server cash afterward. Places I don't frequent, I like to open conversations with the workers... "this tip thing here, do they actually give you this? Do they skim it? Do you personally get it, or do they divide it among everyone? What if I just tip after?" Then they understand why I went ahead and pushed zero, and if their service is good, I'll tip cash.

That's kind of the crux of the issue here, since the USA has normalized that everyone needs the latest iPhone and must upgrade it every year or two. This sort of subsidy plans, carrier-sponsored trade-in offers ("Get the latest iPhone FREE! Just sign a new 3 year service contract..."), advertising and, at least on the part of some vendors, short software update windows, feed into this.

There was this article not too long ago, in which the economic ruling class is complaining that people are keeping their old phones too long, and it's causing a "productivity and innovation drag" on the economy. The duty of a good citizen is to consume...

More at JavaScript, but if the shoe fits...

Well, Arduino is written in Java (at least the legacy versions), and it's got a reasonably functional UI. Doesn't do very well at handling multiple displays, but aside from that it gets the job done with less cursing than I typically apply to Python. Also the IrScrutinizer project, which I use from time to time.

OTOH I've seen some really awful Java UIs too, mostly in embedded-systems IDEs from companies that ought to know better.

Yes, I'd my machine to run even more deliberately-obfuscated code, preferably written by an idiot for the lowest bid and then obfuscated by a machine until no one, least of all the author, knows what the hell it's doing.

It seems to be more or less universal that when a for-profit company says "we're not looking to profit from X," that's either a lie when it's uttered, or an unrealistic expectation that fails to hold up.

Elon Musk saying Tesla would not profit from charging fees or repair parts is a fairly good example. Streaming services and their endless rounds of "buy this and there's no commercials!" "Oops, that has commercials now, but perhaps if we built a large wooden badger..." Also the countless companies discussed here that sell a product with "lifetime service," only to subsequently alter the agreement and suggest the buyers pray they don't alter it further.

Yeah, wasn't sure what to make of that. I don't "own" any Kindle devices, but from what I've read it's moderately difficult for the non-technical user to pull even unprotected content off the newer ones and transfer it elsewhere. So even if more authors are incentivized to use DRM, it won't make a huge difference to the end-user, but authors who opt out of DRM get more flexibility to deliver their content to their readers in the ways they and their readers prefer...? I'd like to see this as a small win, but won't be shocked when the other shoe drops.

Something coming from a big corporation that appears to be pro-consumer and not flagrant enshittification? What's the catch...

Perhaps not from the FCC, but the public can rest easy knowing that you'd have dozens of privately-funded IP lawyers trying to track you down for unauthorized public performance of copyrighted content.

Will it be permissible to use Zapf Dingbats when emphasis is needed, or when discussing actions of the prior administration?

Another thing that doesn't work unless it gets a periodic OK from the cloud overlords.

If I've got the key/fob in my hand and can manipulate that and controls on/in the car at the same time, I ought to be able to drive it. What if I need to get help in an emergency, or flee some disaster, and this piece of shit is the only thing in my garage? If I survive, can I sue?

And the funny thing is, there are people who will write a check vs. using online bill-pay for "security and privacy" reasons. Give my account and routing number to any Tom Dick and Harry to withdraw money from my account willy-nilly?! Never! Unless I give it to them by having my bank print it on a piece of paper in a funny font and then mail them that piece of paper.

And some of them do implement it, and put it behind a paywall. Which is why, on many an occasion, I'll load up a cart at Walmart, then get to the checkout area and find that all the self-checkouts are closed and there's one lane operating with a 20 minute line, and just leave my cart there and walk out.

I've read somewhere that doing this is "the moral equivalent of theft," since apparently they have to throw away any perishables found in abandoned carts. Well, their failure to operate adequate checkout capacity is the moral equivalent of a middle finger, so I'm glad to be able to partake of moral karma balancing without the legal implications of actual theft.

It does in Gotham!

ISTR reading someplace that they already did turn off the beeps within their depots... yep, here. Whether or not that's still in effect or what else is being complained about, I don't know.

Having grown up just outside the fence of an international airport, and lived in an apartment where I could reach out the window and touch passing metro trains, I get it. Living next to infrastructure kind of sucks.

If the infrastructure was there first, suck it up, you chose to live there. In this case, it looks like the people were there first, and Waymo bought some property and turned it into noisy infrastructure. And I kinda concur with the NIMBYs: put your noisy infrastructure out by the airport or next to the garbage depot or something. The few deadhead miles it incurs is cost of doing business. You'll just pass it along to customers anyway.