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Comment The franchisees don't want the machines to work (Score 1) 80

The franchisees don't want the machines to work. The daily clean-up time (and believe me... when dealing with dairy you want it to be VERY clean) takes a long time. They lose money unless they are selling TONS of servings. Nobody could possibly sell enough ice cream to break even.

Let's suppose it is going to take 1 person-hours each day to clean the machine and you make 10 cents profit per serving. Assuming labor cost of $10/hour (these numbers are all fiction). You're going to have to sell 100 servings just to break even. That would mean a TON of advertising and promotion to drive that kind of sales volume. Doing those promotions cost even more money, which requires more sales to make up for.

It is much more profitable to leave the machine broken and have that 1 hour of labor doing something that they know makes money... like grilling burgers.

Of course... this is an excellent opportunity for iFixit and others to advocate for the changes they want. McDonald's can't publicly admit they don't want the machines fixed. It gets good PR for iFixit and friends.
The Almighty Buck

Startups, VCs in India Request 'Relief Package' From the Government To Fight Coronavirus Disruption (techcrunch.com) 25

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
More than six dozen startup founders, venture capitalists and lobby groups in India have requested the government to grant them a "robust relief package" to help combat severe disruptions their businesses face due to the coronavirus outbreak. From a report: In a joint letter to India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, startups requested the government to bankroll 50% of their workforce's salaries for six months, provide interest-free loans from banks, waive rent for three months and offer tax benefits among other things. "Unfortunately, our startup companies across the nation are inherently young, less resilient and most vulnerable. Many of them face likely devastation during this extraordinary economic downturn. At this dire moment, Indian startups need a robust relief package from the government, lest all our collective efforts of the past few years are in vain," they wrote.

As India, where the economy growth has been slowing for several quarters, scrambles to provide for its 1.3 billion citizens, the letter has drawn some criticism from industry figures. "I can't fathom how such a list gets made in a country of more than a billion people who are facing a crisis unlike any they've seen before. A significant majority of them daily wage earners who have no financial cushion or any idea where their next meal is going to come from. Let's not even stray into health and the need for medical emergencies; just putting three square meals on the table a day is proving to be impossible for so many," wrote Ashish K. Mishra in a column on The Morning Context.

Comment SIGGRAPH TPPT is exactly what you asked for! (Score 2) 95

SIGGRAPH is the ACM computer graphics research conference. You won't find anything more cutting edge. Each year they produce a video "SIGGRAPH $YEAR : Technical Papers Preview Trailer". This is exactly what the OP was looking for. Here's 2017's video:
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Comment OK, now DO SOMETHING about it. (Score 4, Insightful) 693

Like so many other things, people slap a magnet on the back of their minivan to Raise Awareness, and then pretend they've done something. You being all alarmed or convinced or otherwise aware of the problem after seeing the movie, doesn't actually accomplish anything. DO SOMETHING. Plant a tree. Plant a thousand trees. Install solar panels. Change your light bulbs over to LED. Turn down the thermostat. Properly inflate your tires. Get a job closer to home. DO SOMETHING.

I've planted around 10,000 trees, and installed around 10KW of solar panels. The solar panels are on a 4-5 year schedule to pay back the money spent on them, after which it's pure profit. AND, all the CO2 emissions that have been avoided by having them producing energy. I changed jobs to reduce my drive by an hour a day. We even gave tree seedlings to our wedding reception guests. Maybe I don't have a magnet on the back of my car, but, to me, actually doing something about it is more important than "raising awareness".

Solar is a great way to do something, and, have a great investment. Where else can you put your money and get a ~5 year ROI?

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