My dad got grumpy when I told him I used an app to do my laundry instead of a sack of quarters. Then he got real grumpy when I explained it was better in every. single. way.
This is that, in policy form. (EDIT: This is the important part, not how I do my laundry)
The downside to the app, is 40 or 50 companies and several government agencies now know how much you spend, how much laundry you do, what cycles you chose, what laundromat and what time, and many other downstream metrics, inferred or otherwise.
While it might not be apparent when our seemingly unimportant information ends up in the hands of data brokers, it is actually very damaging.
Information is power, and silicon valley and the data brokers have too much of it. Don’t surrender your information if you can help it, there is a reason the world went to shit, and complete informational awareness of our rulers is a very big part of that.
The main disadvantage that I see is the quarter-laundry machines were pretty easy to modify so that you didn’t need to pay them. The whole app thing appears to be a lot more difficult to hack, the coin machines can be disabled with a screwdriver.
I do not miss broken laundry rooms. They never stopped at disabling the quarter machine, lets get them quarters that are in there! “Oops, we bent the frame and the door doesn’t close until someone comes to fix it.” Good times. These good guy hackers you remember running around dispensing free gas and blowing up ATMs never existed.
BTW, there’s still a quarter machine for people that want it.
These good guy hackers you remember running around dispensing free gas and blowing up ATMs never existed.
My building mysteriously had the wonky coin payment system bypassed after the landlord began to truly embrace his inner pos and stopped fixing them. I feel the other tenants enjoyed the benefits of having the only functional pair of machines in the complex at the low, low cost of press the button more than I did.
My dad got grumpy when I told him I used an app to do my laundry instead of a sack of quarters. Then he got real grumpy when I explained it was better in every. single. way.
This is that, in policy form. (EDIT: This is the important part, not how I do my laundry)
The downside to the app, is 40 or 50 companies and several government agencies now know how much you spend, how much laundry you do, what cycles you chose, what laundromat and what time, and many other downstream metrics, inferred or otherwise.
Quarters don’t snitch.
If Tide wants to know when I do my laundry and the settings I use for the trade-off, fine. I accepted that, literally a button I pressed said ACCEPT.
But eleven quarters per load? Fuck me.
I’d buy that T-shirt
While it might not be apparent when our seemingly unimportant information ends up in the hands of data brokers, it is actually very damaging.
Information is power, and silicon valley and the data brokers have too much of it. Don’t surrender your information if you can help it, there is a reason the world went to shit, and complete informational awareness of our rulers is a very big part of that.
The main disadvantage that I see is the quarter-laundry machines were pretty easy to modify so that you didn’t need to pay them. The whole app thing appears to be a lot more difficult to hack, the coin machines can be disabled with a screwdriver.
I do not miss broken laundry rooms. They never stopped at disabling the quarter machine, lets get them quarters that are in there! “Oops, we bent the frame and the door doesn’t close until someone comes to fix it.” Good times. These good guy hackers you remember running around dispensing free gas and blowing up ATMs never existed.
BTW, there’s still a quarter machine for people that want it.
My building mysteriously had the wonky coin payment system bypassed after the landlord began to truly embrace his inner pos and stopped fixing them. I feel the other tenants enjoyed the benefits of having the only functional pair of machines in the complex at the low, low cost of press the button more than I did.