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Restaurants are a good example of where this breaks down, though, I think. There are cash-only bars with mechanical registers, and food trucks with no electric

Restaurants are a good example of where this breaks down, though, I think. There are cash-only bars with mechanical registers, and food trucks with no electric hookups, and small third-party kitchens in bars and corner stores that all have websites or at least social media profiles with hours, menu, location, etc. These businesses have no interest in running a web server. They may not even have internet access onsite beyond employee cellphones.

hackable_sand 2y ago
Wrong angle.
ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago
Exactly right. No one is bemoaning the lack of restauranteurs constructing their own buildings or farming their own food. Why do we want them to host their own website?
INTPenis 2y ago
You're absolutely right, and yet the romantic in me still thinks there is hope. I have an excellent example where some friends used to run a wifi mesh in my city. They handed out mesh nodes to small business owners like restaurants and corner shops. These devices were tiny, and only required power since they were mesh nodes. The point here is that these nodes lasted for years. Sometimes we went around and restarted, or updated firmware, but by and large they worked so well that they were forgotten by the business owner. This was 10 years ago, today a local web server, or similar device, might work in a similar way. One idea would be to integrate it into their internet package. They get a router that gives their shop wifi, at the same time it also runs their ordering system. I think it's possible, anything is possible if you're motivated, but large businesses don't like independence. They prefer that small business and end users are dependent on them.
- jeffbee 2y ago
  The masses of small businesses yearn to put their local cable monopoly on the critical path of their revenue? This is your belief?
  - INTPenis 2y ago
    Yeah you're right, it would be better as a separate box next to their router. The router was just a tempting entrypoint since every pizzeria and falafel joint has one.

hackable_sand 2y ago

Wrong angle.

ahmeneeroe-v2 2y ago

Exactly right. No one is bemoaning the lack of restauranteurs constructing their own buildings or farming their own food. Why do we want them to host their own website?

INTPenis 2y ago

You're absolutely right, and yet the romantic in me still thinks there is hope. I have an excellent example where some friends used to run a wifi mesh in my city. They handed out mesh nodes to small business owners like restaurants and corner shops. These devices were tiny, and only required power since they were mesh nodes. The point here is that these nodes lasted for years. Sometimes we went around and restarted, or updated firmware, but by and large they worked so well that they were forgotten by the business owner. This was 10 years ago, today a local web server, or similar device, might work in a similar way. One idea would be to integrate it into their internet package. They get a router that gives their shop wifi, at the same time it also runs their ordering system. I think it's possible, anything is possible if you're motivated, but large businesses don't like independence. They prefer that small business and end users are dependent on them.

jeffbee 2y ago
The masses of small businesses yearn to put their local cable monopoly on the critical path of their revenue? This is your belief?
- INTPenis 2y ago
  Yeah you're right, it would be better as a separate box next to their router. The router was just a tempting entrypoint since every pizzeria and falafel joint has one.