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Australian Eateries Turn To Automatic Tipping as Cost of Doing Business Climbs
Australian restaurants facing a mounting cost-of-doing-business crisis are turning to automatic service charges as a way to shore up revenue. The practice is legal under Australian consumer law as long as customers are notified beforehand and can opt out, but it risks alienating diners in a country where tipping has traditionally been optional.
Wes Lambert, chief executive of the Australian Cafe and Restaurant Association, said only a handful of businesses in central business districts currently add automatic tips to bills, but the practice may spread as cost pressures continue. Automatic tipping is more common at venues frequented by international tourists, who view the practice as normal rather than exceptional. With international tourism now near pre-COVID levels, Lambert expects more restaurants to include tips on bills by default.
A Sydney wine bar recently abandoned its 10 per cent automatic tip after a diner's social media post triggered public backlash. University of New South Wales professor Rob Nichols said Australia's resistance to tipping stems from the expectation that hospitality workers earn at least minimum wage, unlike in the United States where tips constitute most of a server's income. Australians and tourists tip an estimated $3.5 billion annually, and tipping transactions grew 13% year over year in fiscal 2024-25.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0.3 Improves Drive Filtering and AppImage Bundle on Linux - 9to5Linux
Categories: Linux
Raspberry Pi Imager 2.0.3 Improves Drive Filtering and AppImage Bundle on Linux - 9to5Linux
Categories: Linux
Why Some Avatar: Fire and Ash Scenes Look So Smooth, and Others Don't
If you watched Avatar: Fire and Ash in James Cameron's preferred high frame rate 3D format and noticed certain sequences appearing unusually smooth while others had the traditional cinematic look, that visual inconsistency is entirely intentional. The third Avatar film continues Cameron's frame rate experimentation from The Way of Water, selectively deploying 48 frames per second for underwater and flying sequences while keeping dialogue scenes at the standard 24 FPS.
The human eye perceives somewhere between 30 and 60 FPS, meaning viewers can detect the shift between frame rates. Cameron argues the tradeoff is worth it: discomfort from 3D viewing isn't eye strain but "brain strain," caused when parallax-sensitive neurons struggle to process jumping vertical edges. Higher frame rates smooth this out. When critics questioned the approach, Cameron was characteristically blunt. "I think $2.3 billion says you might be wrong on that," he told DiscussingFilm, referencing The Way of Water's box office.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
This Linux app for cooperative controller gaming just got a big update - How-To Geek
Categories: Linux
What the Linux Desktop Really Needs To Challenge Windows
Linux's share of the desktop market has climbed to as much as 11% by one count, but that figure includes Chromebooks, and the traditional Linux desktop remains hamstrung by the same fragmentation that killed Unix decades ago. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, writing in The Register, argues that the proliferation of Linux desktops -- more than a dozen significant interfaces exist today, and DistroWatch lists "upwards of a hundred" -- makes it nearly impossible for ordinary users to know where to start.
Linus Torvalds has long agreed with this hypothesis. "We have way too many desktops," Vaughan-Nichols notes, summarizing Torvalds' position. The deeper issue lies in software delivery: traditional package managers like DEB and RPM "simply don't scale for the desktop," forcing distro builders to constantly rebuild programs for their specific environments. Containerized solutions like Flatpaks, Snaps and AppImages should solve this by bundling dependencies into universal packages, but the Linux community remains divided over which to adopt.
Linux Mint, for instance, refuses Snap because "Canonical has too much control over the Snap store." Hardware support further complicates this challenges, the veteran journalist writes. While Dell sells Ubuntu machines and specialist vendors like System76 and TUXEDO Computers cater to enthusiasts, "none of them make it easy" for mainstream buyers, and no major OEM strongly backs Linux. Torvalds has pointed to Chromebooks and Android as the model: Linux won on smartphones because "there's a single, unified platform with a unified way to install programs."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Categories: Linux
What the Linux Desktop Really Needs To Challenge Windows
Linux's share of the desktop market has climbed to as much as 11% by one count, but that figure includes Chromebooks, and the traditional Linux desktop remains hamstrung by the same fragmentation that killed Unix decades ago. Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, writing in The Register, argues that the proliferation of Linux desktops -- more than a dozen significant interfaces exist today, and DistroWatch lists "upwards of a hundred" -- makes it nearly impossible for ordinary users to know where to start.
Linus Torvalds has long agreed with this hypothesis. "We have way too many desktops," Vaughan-Nichols notes, summarizing Torvalds' position. The deeper issue lies in software delivery: traditional package managers like DEB and RPM "simply don't scale for the desktop," forcing distro builders to constantly rebuild programs for their specific environments. Containerized solutions like Flatpaks, Snaps and AppImages should solve this by bundling dependencies into universal packages, but the Linux community remains divided over which to adopt.
Linux Mint, for instance, refuses Snap because "Canonical has too much control over the Snap store." Hardware support further complicates this challenges, the veteran journalist writes. While Dell sells Ubuntu machines and specialist vendors like System76 and TUXEDO Computers cater to enthusiasts, "none of them make it easy" for mainstream buyers, and no major OEM strongly backs Linux. Torvalds has pointed to Chromebooks and Android as the model: Linux won on smartphones because "there's a single, unified platform with a unified way to install programs."
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Instacart Kills AI Pricing Tests That Charged Some Customers More Than Others
Instacart has ended its AI-powered pricing tests after a study from Groundwork Collaborative, Consumer Reports and More Perfect Union revealed that the grocery delivery platform was showing different customers different prices for identical items at the same store. The company said Monday that retailers can no longer use Eversight, the AI pricing technology Instacart acquired in 2022, to run such tests.
"Now, if two families are shopping for the same items, at the same time, from the same store location on Instacart, they see the same prices -- period," the company wrote in a blog post. The study drew attention from lawmakers; Sen. Chuck Schumer wrote to the FTC that "consumers deserve to know when they are being placed into pricing tests," and Reuters reported that the agency had opened an investigation. Instacart says the tests "were never based on supply or demand, personal data, demographics, or individual shopping behavior."
The company also reached a $60 million settlement last week over separate allegations including falsely advertising free shipping.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Everyone's favorite Linux newbie-friendly distribution received a big update - ZDNET
Categories: Linux
Here are 5 ways to feast, celebrate and explore with Google Arts & Culture.Here are 5 ways to feast, celebrate and explore with Google Arts & Culture.Keyword Contributor
This holiday season, transform screen-time into a festive cultural journey with Google Arts & Culture's dedicated "Festive Fun" page. Consider this your AI-powered c…
Categories: Technology
elementary OS 8.1 Released with Wayland Session by Default, ARM64 Support - 9to5Linux
Categories: Linux
Visa Says AI Will Start Shopping and Paying For You In 2026
BrianFagioli writes: Visa says it has completed hundreds of secure, AI-initiated transactions with partners, arguing this proves agent driven shopping is ready to move beyond experiments. The company believes 2025 will be the last full year most consumers manually check out, with AI agents handling purchases at scale by the 2026 holiday season. Nearly half of US shoppers already use AI tools for product discovery, and Visa wants to extend that shift all the way through payment using its Intelligent Commerce framework.
The pilots are already live in controlled environments, powering consumer and business purchases through AI agents tied to Visa's payment rails. To prevent abuse, Visa and partners have introduced a Trusted Agent Protocol to help merchants distinguish legitimate AI agents from bots, with Akamai adding fraud and identity controls. While the infrastructure may be ready, the bigger question is whether consumers fully understand the risks of letting software spend their money.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
