Pizza restaurant signage caught serving raw Windows
- Reference: 1766481911
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/12/23/pizzaexpress_bork/
- Source link:
Take this example of some digital signage at PizzaExpress. Spotted by an eagle-eyed Register reader at Edinburgh airport, the screen occupies the space where customers might have once found a generic bit of printed or colored plastic.
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Click to enlarge
However, progress is progress, and every bit of space must now be occupied by migraine-inducing digital signage, capable of displaying whatever important messages the marketing machine thinks prospective consumers must see.
Including, in this case, the Windows desktop. Because there are few things more likely to lure a weary traveler into an emporium of pizza dough and tomato sauce than some forlorn icons and a reminder of the time when Windows Media Player ruled the roost.
[2]Honored guest Bork visits Warsaw, Poland
[3]Biz Daemon is too cool to respond to fans of his big screen work
[4]The amber glow of bork illuminates Brighton Station
[5]Kia Niro electric vehicle defies physics with record-breaking 114 million miles on the clock
It's not clear exactly what has befallen the screen. Some of the icons reference ViPlex Express, a tool for managing digital signage. However, unless the software has a bork mode, or the establishment is seeking to attract the sort of Register reader who likes to snap shots of screens in distress, the lights are on, but nobody's home.
And then there is the tempting "test" file. The thumbnail isn't giving away many clues about its content - we hope that whatever it contains won't put anyone off their pizza or force a sad-faced engineer to do the walk of shame to HR.
The operating system itself is probably Windows 10, judging by the icons, and will, we're sure, either have been enrolled in Microsoft's Extended Security Updates program or be a version still supported since October.
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We look forward to the next menu update. Joining the classic Margherita and American Hot will be Scottish Bork, with the famous Sloppy Giuseppe replaced by Slapdash IT. ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/12/11/bork.jpg
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/02/bork_comes_to_poland/
[3] https://www.theregister.com/2024/10/26/biz_daemon_app_error/
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/04/bork/
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2024/07/24/kia_niro_app_blunder/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aUp2T5UDMMRSFcaI87gamwAAAUY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[7] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I recently 'dined' at Luton Airport
Where the proprietors of the 'restaurant' not only had the temerity to require me to order online, but also to create an account so to do _and_ enter my payment details before ordering.
Fortunately, standing up and walking out triggered a waiter magically to appear and take my order (and kudos to them, they would not accept a tip when I paid _after_ eating).
FFS - people like interacting with people. Employ people, not robots.
Re: I recently 'dined' at Luton Airport
No, a lot of the time I prefer to not have to interact with people, so give us the choice.
If I do the order myself, it won't be transcribed badly, nor bits forgotten. Or at least if that does happen I can't blame someone else.
Fine dining is a different matter, but airport dining should be as transactional as possible in my opinion.
Re: I recently 'dined' at Luton Airport
It's the "You must open an account in order to pay for something" bit that really annoys me. I'm AT the place I'm purchasing from, you do NOT need my email or my home address in order to make a delivery because I'm right here. Why should I need to open an account?
The digital menu screens are fine. It's the people who configure them to switch/animate in a way that makes them hard to read that are the problem.
Having the signs update to strike out anything that is no longer available has saved quite a lot of time, in my experience.
Call me a luddite but I'm not a fan of these digital menu screens. They love to flip between the menu and an advert at a fair lick, so it takes you three times as long to read what's available.