this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2025
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[Moved to !iiiiiiitttttttttttt@programming.dev, check pinned post.] iiiiiiitttttttttttt.

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you know the computer thing is it plugged in?

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[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 172 points 4 weeks ago (7 children)

Fuck I despise this menu bullshit. Give me a fucking menu.

[–] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 90 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

They had to put a fucking law in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo mandating that restaurants had to have physical menus with the printed prices.

[–] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 51 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

I like when there's a qr code that allows you to order and pay without needing to wait for a waiter. A qr code where it just links to a pdf of a menu that they didn't want to print sucks.

[–] 4am@lemm.ee 32 points 4 weeks ago

If it’s printed on the inside of the menu so you can order quickly when it’s busy and help take some of the pressure off the servers and maybe get your food faster? That’s cool.

When it’s just a virtual menu so they can surge price in real time? Fuck those places.

[–] CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

PDF is at least kind of permanent. Most restaurants that have qr code set up usually have "surge pricing" that allows them to change their prices on a whim.

[–] boreengreen@lemm.ee 7 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Not much of a challange to have a webserver point to another pdf when some condition is fulfilled.

[–] Takumidesh@lemmy.world 15 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

You can just generate a PDF on demand. There isn't much permanent about them at all.

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[–] Donjuanme@lemmy.world 26 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Give me a menu or I'll tell you what I want and you can figure out how to put it in.

Either that or I walk.

[–] TachyonTele@lemm.ee 9 points 4 weeks ago

Say "for $3.00" after your order, too. Fuck'em.

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[–] ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 78 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (7 children)

I get someone made a hilarious mistake.

But why would you not even test the code before gluing them to all the tables?

Or before sending the code to be etched?

[–] HexadecimalSky@lemmy.world 72 points 4 weeks ago (4 children)

I think since its not so much btoken as pointing to a local file, I think they may have tested it on the one device they made it, so it worked...on that device.

They should have 100% tested it on other devices

[–] ironhydroxide@sh.itjust.works 21 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Guess I'm showing my age then. Because the intended end use device is obviously a phone, I assume they used their phone to generate the qr, send it out to etch, and test the result. I can't use my phone for shit like that. To me that is much more a real screen type of job (generating the qr code, generating the gcode in lightburn, etc) done on a computer, instead of a tablet/phone

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[–] thesystemisdown@lemmy.world 18 points 4 weeks ago

Or perhaps hire someone who knows what they're doing.

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[–] Harrk@lemmy.world 23 points 4 weeks ago

I created a QR generator website and you have no idea. I get emails from people saying they’ve printed the codes before discovering it goes to the wrong place (sometimes even to my own site!) and if I can fix it. No... check your codes before they go to print!

The funniest one I had caused me to get a huge spike of traffic on Christmas. It was so weird and left me clueless for weeks, until I got an email from somebody wishing to cancel a subscription.

I don’t sell subscriptions or anything at all!

Turns out somebody printed a QR code into a smartwatch instruction booklet that went straight to my site… The ad revenue was insane tho!

[–] rustydrd@sh.itjust.works 9 points 4 weeks ago

Might have been a temporary link (e.g., shortened URL) that passed tests initially but stopped working later on.

[–] JackbyDev@programming.dev 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

They did test it. On their machine.

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[–] kameecoding@lemmy.world 54 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (1 children)

I had a worse fucking experience somehow just last week, the QR code pointed you to their fucking instagram, that's where the weekly lunch menu options were posted, except I have no idea how my colleagues even accessed it, because anything I clicked didn't take me to that "story/reel" whatever the fuck it's called, the owner of that restaurant deserves to burn in hell for eternity

[–] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 18 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I honestly want to fight businesses who don't have a website.

Website hosting is dirty cheap, domains are dirt cheap (relative to other costs of the business).

If you're a retail/hospitality venue your traffic is so low.

If you point me to a Facebook or Instagram page as your only web presence (meaning, no organisation at all, just bloody chronological posts, and maaaaybe some useful information in the page bio), I'm gonna be annoyed.

The number of times some business or organisation updates things on Facebook and Instagram, and not on their website, is frustrating.

Has happened to me many, many times, where I turn up to something that isn't happening because they've only posted it on Instagram

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[–] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 36 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)

The #1 reason I hate QR codes (edit: directing to a website to order & pay for a restaurant online) is because they make you agree to further terms and conditions like collecting data on you.

All just to fucking order food.

Shit should 100% be illegal.

I'm not against the concept of having digital ordering as an option. But it must be an option, and without any data collection

[–] RagingRobot@lemmy.world 5 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

I don't think you have to agree to terms to look at a menu. Maybe a cookie popup though. Those are annoying!

[–] rmuk@feddit.uk 10 points 3 weeks ago

Cookie popups are terms and conditions. They could easily make a page without any tracking cookies, only the ones nessecary for the service to functions, and they wouldn't need the popup.

[–] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 5 points 4 weeks ago

Oh sorry, I was referring to when the ordering is through a website, where you provide your email and phone number in order to pay.

Often times, they're harvesting your personal details.

I really wish it were possible to mask my number, but in my country that's not really possible.

The one thing I've done, is get an alt number as an esim, that I use to receive codes, or whoever you're required to provid a number.

Mean I know with certainty any call I get on that number is spam, or any text I receive I haven't initiated it spam.

I'd much prefer it I could get throw away numbers though

[–] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 5 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

The #1 reason I hate QR codes is because they make you agree to further terms and conditions like collecting data on you.

0.o A QR code is basically just a data-encoding format and is mostly used to store a link to something. I'm not sure where ToS/etc. come into that.

[–] Localhorst86@feddit.org 18 points 4 weeks ago (7 children)

You'll be redirected to a website, and then you'll get asked to allow cookies, etc.

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[–] MisterFrog@lemmy.world 8 points 4 weeks ago

Made an edit for clarity.

QR codes are great, linking me to a website where I need to provide my email and phone number to get food is annoying

[–] boreengreen@lemm.ee 33 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

I don't do resturants all that often and I never saw one that had these. But I once encountered this at a clinic. I had no qr reader on my phone and no internet access at the time. So I just waited around until the receptionist came around. Turns out every person in the room ignored the qr-code as well.

[–] SatyrSack@feddit.org 27 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (4 children)

Would this probably work if you connect to their Wi-Fi?

EDIT: I am smart, I promise

[–] zdanger@lemmy.world 90 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Localhost denotes the device itself. It would work if your phone were running a web server with the cafe's menu hosted on it

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 37 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

I almost said yes, but no, localhost is your own device. If it was a 192.168 ip it would be different.

[–] SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world 12 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

But their subnet is 10.1.1.0/24

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[–] zurohki@aussie.zone 10 points 4 weeks ago

I'll know it's the future when I start seeing http://[fe80::xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx]/ link fuckups.

[–] 4am@lemm.ee 14 points 4 weeks ago

Listen, you’re in good company. I literally almost posted this and then I realized. Made my day that I wasn’t the only one.

Also, it’s amazing that someone made QR codes with a localhost URL.

[–] ekky@sopuli.xyz 13 points 4 weeks ago

You'd still go to localhost, so realistically: no.

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 20 points 4 weeks ago

Well, you forgot to install the menu-server-app. Do it, and the problem is solved.

[–] A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world 11 points 3 weeks ago* (last edited 3 weeks ago) (1 children)

Yeah, sorry not sorry, I'm not sitting down at a restaurant and scanning a random QR code in the hopes of getting a menu.

Only thing worse than this is places that don't accept cash or credit, only some kind of cash transfer app like zelle.

[–] tocopherol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

don’t accept cash or credit, only some kind of cash transfer app like zelle.

That sounds sketchy, I've seen card only but where have you seen a business do this?

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[–] postmateDumbass@lemmy.world 9 points 4 weeks ago

Someone needs to name their catering business 'localhost'

[–] roserose56@lemmy.ca 9 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (6 children)

Yea but we shouldn't pollute the world with printed menus! websites don't get lost, like the printed ones! downtime is amazing! /S

I prefer printed menus, you sit, you read, you eat. No scan, no using your phone or anything else. What else they gonna add? dine in but order online?

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[–] TheImpressiveX@lemm.ee 7 points 4 weeks ago

"Ticket closed."

[–] fushuan@lemm.ee 5 points 4 weeks ago (9 children)

Reading other comments I'm on the unpopular side, but I prefer QR menus to physical ones. We don't have that surge price thing here, prices are pretty stable usually.

Printing several menus and having to replace them when they get dirty and stuff is such an unnecessary waste.

[–] Irelephant@lemm.ee 9 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
[–] fushuan@lemm.ee 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I don't mind when there's physical menus but people saying that they would leave the restaurant when there's not is crazy for me, menus are a waste of paper and ink.

I'm more used to either PDFs that are updated once per year (and the restaurant usually has a bunch of physical copies, but not enough for everyone on peak hour and that's completely reasonable) or webapps that have the regular menu where they can strikethrough sold out items so that it's easier for customers to notice, add dynamic items like "the fish of the day", or even being able to click each item to get a preview image.

I agree that having prices be updated every hour/minute day according to demand is incredibly scummy and completely inexcusable, and restaurants that do those things should be boycotted, but that's a separate from the menu digitalization.

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[–] dellish@lemmy.world 5 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I'd be fine with it if all the we page did was take my order. Too often I need to put in a name and email address, just to order food, and that pisses me right off. I just want to eat at your stupid place, not sign up to the foodies-food-fanclub

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[–] jecht360@lemmy.world 5 points 3 weeks ago

Aside from finding it annoying, QR code menus effectively prevent some people from viewing the menu.

Think about the requirements to view the menu. You must have a smartphone and a cellular data plan. People that aren't well off may skip on those in order to purchase things that are more important, like food. I guess I could understand if it was just fancy/expensive restaurants doing this, but I'm seeing it all over.

It's a similar issue to businesses that are cashless. You're effectively barring people who can't/don't have a bank account or credit card from paying. Both of which are notoriously hard to get if you're homeless.

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