alt.hn

7/15/2026 at 1:03:15 PM

Software bloat? This elevator needs an 8GB Core i5

https://www.theregister.com/offbeat/2026/07/15/software-bloat-this-elevator-needs-an-8gb-core-i5/5270901

by Bender

7/15/2026 at 3:57:25 PM

Could this be some kind of thin client thing? Where the physical screen is not connected to the machine whose bios we're seeing? Because then maybe we're looking at a machine running just this live poster but potentially the ones in multiple elevators or even a large section of the building.

Or even, perhaps someone's just having a laugh and put a screenshot of that particular bios screen just for debugging or maintainence or perhaps to give riders a joke.

Or, okay, wait, here me out. If it's a 4k display, and you want 60fps, and you purchased the machine in '19/'20, were the i3s of the time doing 4k/60 video output? Maybe this particular board was pushed as discount/special in '22/'24?

There's got to be any other reason than someone genuinely deciding that this was the correct device...

by goodmythical

7/15/2026 at 3:37:14 PM

The excuse for bloat used to be that programmer time was expensive and that it was cheaper to throw more hardware at the problem. I wonder if this will reverse with the advent of AI.

by tonyedgecombe

7/15/2026 at 4:44:35 PM

This is just dumb clickbait. "Needs" in the title is not correct - some guy just took a picture of the bios screen that says that the computer has a Core i5 and 8G ram. Your average IPad has higher specs than that, and for these "fancy" elevator touch screens it seems like the cheapest option would just to use an existing reasonably spec'ed device. An 8G ram stick is still on the order of 50 bucks - does the author really think that's where the elevator company should be optimizing their spend?

by hn_throwaway_99

7/15/2026 at 1:06:29 PM

[dead]

by OhNoNotAgain_99