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Re:It Takes 16 Clicks for a Student to Open a PowerPoint on ... by crote on Saturday November 14, 2026 @10:44AM (#50497927)
The alternative to a toilet-flushing app is a flushing button.

If flushing the toilet without an app would suddenly require you to walk across campus to obtain a one-time-use Toilet Flushing Override Token (and no, you can't ask for multiple ones - no "hoarding" allowed!), there would be riots on introduction - and rightfully so! The fact that an app has to exist at all is a symptom of a systemic issue.

Same with parking. ANPR cameras are ancient technology, and many commercial lots already have tap-to-pay at the exit barrier. Or even the entry barrier, for fixed-price parking. Even the complicated cases have you enter your vehicle registration on the payment terminal these days, rather than messing around with paper passes. In this world it should not be complicated to handle employee parking with a one-off license plate registration on some intranet web page, or just allow tapping your employee badge at the parking barrier. Worst-case scenario they'd hand you an EZPass-like RFID tag during onboarding to put behind your car's windscreen.

The toilet-flushing app should not have to exist. It is the ultimate embodiment of institutional "we have tried nothing, and are all out of ideas". Accepting deeply-flawed workarounds for non-problems should not be a normal part of your day-to-day life.

Re:It Takes 16 Clicks for a Student to Open a PowerPoint on ... by spider-mario on Saturday November 14, 2026 @10:51AM (#50497985)
> The alternative to a toilet-flushing app is a flushing button.

Well, yes, that’s exactly my point. It’s not the case with parking, so the analogy breaks down.