Welcome to Wendy's! Before your order can be taken, you must first reset this kiosk
- Reference: 1767265268
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/01/01/bork_wendys_kiosk/
- Source link:
Wendy's is a fast-food chain, predominantly found in the US, with a few scattered locations elsewhere around the world. It is notable for serving square hamburger patties in round buns, and a few examples of the company's goods can be glimpsed in the menu – the "Baconator" sounds particularly alluring.
However, at this drive-thru, an eagle-eyed Register reader was offered a side of bork with his order, along with a plea to "Restart Firefox manually!"
[1]
Do you want bork with that? - click to enlarge
Exactly how that would be achieved with the limited resources available at the kiosk is unclear. Perhaps an overeager opening of the car door could jolt the system into action, or attaching a USB keyboard that every self-respecting IT professional carries at all times.
Whatever, despite the professionalism evident in the zip ties and sticky tape holding the kiosk's enclosure together, Firefox is not cooperating. The browser appears to be running in Kiosk mode (although there are several possibilities for what mKiosk might be in this context).
[2]
The purpose of Kiosk mode in Firefox, as well as elsewhere, is to keep things as simple as possible. User access is intentionally limited, and the expectation is that the kiosk operator will have configured the hardware to deal with every eventuality. In this instance, however, it appears that some sort of reset is underway which has resulted in a clearing of settings and a request to restart the browser.
[3]
Somewhere, an engineer has doubtless been notified of an issue and will at some point issue a remote reset command. Although when presented with the mouthwatering alternative of a Baconator instead of immediately hitting the remote reset button ... well, we know what we'd do.
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/12/12/wendys_bork.jpg
[2] 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=2aVaoLXTX7jwD_MtPnvbjvQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aVaoLXTX7jwD_MtPnvbjvQAAAIU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: slightly disappointing article
Looking in the headers it appears that there is one, it just didn't end up in the actual text...
[1]https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/12/12/wendys_bork.jpg
Already sent a correction BTW
[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/12/12/wendys_bork.jpg
Re: slightly disappointing article
I just though my spam filter was being over zealous
Re: slightly disappointing article
The article is Borked? That's funny.
Re: slightly disappointing article
"https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/12/12/wendys_bork.jpg"
Looking at the partial menu to the right of the borked firefox, this Dave looks pretty deadly:
Dave's Triple (by-pass?) @ 12.49 Cal: 1500·1830 could qualify as assisted suicide in some jurisdictions. :)
The lack of a currency symbol and the big 'C' calorie would deem to implicate Trumpisstan as the location.
For no particular reason I had always assumed until reading this Bork report that Wendy's was purely an English aberration like Whimpy. Doubly odd I thought given the English, but perhaps dated, double entendre.
I now notice the UK menu gives the prices prefixed by £ and energy in kcal. We have a couple in AU where the nutritional information still gives energy in kcal whereas the Golden Arches give theirs in kJ although the ¼·pounder weighs in at 2.2MJ.
These fine dining choices always remind of the US sitcom Roseanne which was a sort of supersized † Married… with Children although I recall Kelly Bundy was…… Oh, never mind.
† the McLibel case was in the air around then defended by a much younger although probably no more wiser Starmer. :).
Re: slightly disappointing article
... good to know ... so the one ¼·pounder could theoretically power a 600W GPU for one hour ... and therefore a 100,000 GPU medium-sized AI datacenter could run on just 2.4 million ¼·pounders per day ... that's most barfylicious! ;)
They seem to be breeding around the Peterborough area in the uk, we have one in a horrible location (Maskew avenue) and another just on the A1.
Don’t go to them myself, but I know about them because I go by the one in Peterborough, and the A1 location features on Tom Lamb’s YouTube channel fairly often.
There appears to be another deluge of US food slop flooding across Europe... Wendy's... Taco Bell... Five Guys... Popeyes... etc... they've decided now is the time to expand (see [1]Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs ).
[1] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FKW1h53hSxs
"they've decided now is the time to expand"
" US food slop flooding across Europe... Wendy's... Taco Bell... Five Guys... Popeyes... " — their home planet is imploding ?
I'll be back!
Indigestion after consuming a Baconator .
With apologies to Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Ladies and Gentlemen. The Baconator
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baconator
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baconator
Re: Ladies and Gentlemen. The Baconator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baconator
At 3.9MJ would seem more at home on strategic weapons inventory than on a menu.
I went to a Wendy's once. In Tokyo it was. (October 1988)
"I went to a Wendy's once"
" I went to a Wendy's once. In Tokyo it was. (October 1988) " — just been revived from an induced coma ?
Trying anything. † once makes one a philosopher… persisting - a pervert.
† although in the case of fugu potentially either a dead philosopher or dead pervert.
Non-standard kiosk?
Looks like that "kiosk" is hacked together out of cardboard and an old tablet or something. We have lots of Wendys in Canada, but I doubt regulations would allow that kluge. I haven't eaten at a Wendys for a fair while, but I recall a regular burger with no condiments (I know, I'm weird!) was pretty good. I liked the milkshakes.
slightly disappointing article
No wanting to post the picture for this one?