this post was submitted on 20 May 2024
380 points (98.2% liked)

Technology

58101 readers
3910 users here now

This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.


Our Rules


  1. Follow the lemmy.world rules.
  2. Only tech related content.
  3. Be excellent to each another!
  4. Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
  5. Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
  6. Politics threads may be removed.
  7. No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
  8. Only approved bots from the list below, to ask if your bot can be added please contact us.
  9. Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed

Approved Bots


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

I see no problem here

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

There used to be this music festival in my college town and they liked to charge absurd money for "tokens" to use at the vendors. I didn't use all of them but I found they worked in the parking meters (I think they detected as slugs, because they immediately gave me an hour and flashed the meter) but nobody in the city bothered to ticket me for it. I dunno, I felt kinda bad but at the same time, I don't like to parallel park.

For what its worth, I paid more for the tokens than I ever did parking.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Here’s a reminder that most washing machines use a universal key, which you can buy online for like $5. You can just pop it open and hit the little “coin inserted” switch to make it think you paid.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Are you sure the key is universal? I dont need the make and model?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I mean, the owner can choose to re-key it. But there are only a few manufacturers for them. Most laundromats use Speed Queen machines, for instance. And the manufacturer ships them with a single universal key, so the owner isn’t left juggling like forty different keys for a single laundromat. If every machine had a unique key, the owners would need to have a bunch of different keys just to service everything at the end of the day.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Just hope they don’t have cameras.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

Steal those too

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

I had free laundry for most of my freshman year of college. We had coin operated machines, and somebody quickly figured out that you can strip 2 wires and just touch them together, or touch a coin to both of them, and every time you did that the machine would think a coin had been inserted. Eventually the college caught on and one day I went down there and all the machines were taken apart with maintenance guys working on them, and after that there was a heavy duty housing for the coin acceptor with no exposed wires. It was nice while it lasted!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Is it USSA?

[–] [email protected] 37 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I (white boy) visited India in the early '90s and brought back a bunch of rolls of half-Rupee coins as souvenirs. Turns out they were the exact same weight and diameter as US quarters (even down to the number of ridges, which makes me suspect India bought a bunch of used US minting machines to make them), so I started using them at laundromats. The exchange rate at the time was 35 Rs to the dollar, so a load in the US that normally cost $1 was costing me less than 6 cents. I do feel bad for the harassment that actual Indian customers probably ended up receiving, although possibly the owners never noticed or cared.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I used to work as a teller and we used to run magnets on every roll of quarters that came in from laundry mats and car washes. While the weight is correct, American coins are never magnetic. Every single time it's the laundry mats that foot the bill.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

When i used to go to france for my family holiday every year (i live in southeast england so not far) i used to take as many 2p coins as i could because they were close enough to the €2 coin to work in those insert and twist sweet/small toy machines

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

British coins really seem absurdly overly-beefy for the monetary value they represent. I think it's a way of saving up metal for the next time the Germans need sorting out.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

we're not allowed guns really so the only option will be to throw our ever diminishing currency at any invaders

load more comments
view more: next ›