Posts by Juan Inamillion

A rabbit hole lead me here from 2026

Gotta love an Ai search:

Kytch is a San Francisco-based tech company founded in 2018 by Jeremy O’Sullivan and Melissa Nelson, originally developing a device to fix and monitor McDonald’s notoriously unreliable ice cream machines. The Kytch device, a small computer that connects to the machine’s controller, provides real-time diagnostics, remote monitoring, and alerts to help franchisees prevent breakdowns and reduce downtime—saving an estimated $625 per day in lost sales.

In 2020, McDonald’s sent a company-wide email to franchisees warning that Kytch devices posed a “serious safety risk” and could cause “serious human injury,” leading to a sharp decline in Kytch’s sales. Kytch claims this warning was false and part of a coordinated effort by McDonald’s and its equipment partner, Taylor, to undermine the startup. In a major legal development, Kytch uncovered a 2020 internal email from Timothy FitzGerald, CEO of Taylor’s parent company Middleby, which stated: “Not sure if there is anything we can do to slow up the franchise community on the other solution,” suggesting a strategic effort to block Kytch.

Kytch sued McDonald’s and Taylor in 2021, alleging trade secret theft, corporate espionage, and tortious interference. The company claims Taylor reverse-engineered its device to create a competing product called Taylor Shake/Sundae Connectivity, while also allegedly using access to Kytch’s password-protected interface during trials. In 2021, a judge issued a restraining order requiring Taylor to return Kytch devices, and Kytch later filed a $900 million lawsuit, seeking damages and a jury trial.

Despite the legal battle, McDonald’s has not delivered its promised replacement device, and ice cream machine outages remain common—McBroken, a tracking site, reports that between 13% and 17% of U.S. McDonald’s locations have broken machines at any given time. Kytch continues to operate as a platform for smart, connected quick-service restaurants (QSRs), offering AI-powered predictive maintenance and remote control solutions.

More importantly..

I and most of my friends absolutely hate what Apple has done to it’s iOS Photos app in the latest upgrade.

Swiss Army

I have a bijou Victorinox pen knife on my key ring which has a small 2cm blade, an LED light, a small file/screwdriver and the smallest scissors. I flew to Spain recently (from Stanstead) and panicked very slightly that they’d nick it off me. I bunched it up with the keys and thankfully it wasn’t noticed in either direction, possibly because it didn’t have the tool to remove stones from horses hooves.

Unbelievable

1984 and people are whinging about Mac vs PC.

2023 and people are whinging about Mac vs PC. But faster.

40 years. So depressing....

Give it a boost

In the late 60's when I was a slightly precocious teenage schoolboy interested in electronics, I convinced my father that I could squeeze a bit more life out of our old black and white TV, that was gradually fading away.

Opening it up I located the mains transformer which, like most in those days, had various taps on it to adjust for slightly different AC mains voltages around the country. I moved the the wire to the next tap, which increased the voltage in by about 10 volts. I switched it on and my father marvelled at the increased brightness of the screen. Maximum brownie points.

Three months later there was a bit of a bang and a burning smell.

Oh well, we needed a new one anyway...

multiple sheets

Many years ago my then partner and I co-owned a house. We were splitting up, not particularly amicably, accusations of misappropriated money from mortgages on the house etc. She sent me a document prepared by her accountant outlining what they thought the split should be with all the costings. At the bottom I saw the the tell-tale 'Sheet 1' 'Sheet 2' 'Sheet' 3 of a default Excel spreadsheet, and lo and behold there were all their workings, comments and annotations.

Needless to say she failed mightily to stitch me up.

Backfire

Many years ago my then g/f and I went on holiday to Gomera (one of the smaller Canary Islands). It turned out the island and our hotel in particular were very popular destinations for German tourists. Sure enough every morning we got down to the pool all the sunbeds were either occupied or had towels on them, sometimes for hours with nobody turning up.

One night, late after returning from a local hostelry, definitely a bit worse for wear, we thought what fun it would be to take all the towels from the little store room by the pool and put them out on the sunbeds and see what happened in the morning. We came out at about 10am to an eerily quiet hotel and no-one in or around the pool. Obviously very curious we went to reception and asked where everyone was. The receptionist said 'It's Wednesday, all the Germans have gone on their scheduled walk round the island...'

Mono laser all the way

Many many years ago a client gifted me a HP laserjet 1015 A4 printer. I don't really know how long I've had it but I just checked and it could be used on Mac OS9 and I'm now on MacOS 12.6. I don't think I've bothered to install drivers since MacOS X first shipped. It's very fast and economical. I've probably used 4 or 5 toners (which I can buy now at £11).

The bane of my life as an Apple tech was always inkjet printers, I recommended several clients (even domestic ones) to buy colour lasers (Brother have always been particularly good) and bin their inkjets and have never looked back.

p.s. I just saw a for sale advert for a refurbished HP1015 for £145. Way overpriced realistically, you can get the similar but WIFI enabled brand new HP LaserJet M110we for under £90, but the new model uses 'chipped' toner carts at £54 each! Hahahahaha! Way to go HP!

Trash storage

Client says his Mac is very slow and he's very fed up, can I fix it 'now'.

Get info on his HD shows it's very nearly run out of free space.

Check his Trash, ooerrr lots of files there, GB's in fact. So I empty it.

Yep.

"But that's where I save all my stuff!!!!"

To this day I have no idea of the thought process that says 'Save important data in the Trash'.

I'm slightly heartened by the similar experiences in this thread.

Wiring for safety

A million years ago (well, the 60's...) a friend of mine was working in an 'electrical shop', where back in those days sold appliance which often didn't have mains plugs on the the power lead as there were still a lot of houses with old two pin sockets. When you made your purchase you told the shop assistant what plug you required, took it home and fitted it yourself.

One day an elderly gentleman comes in to buy an electrical kettle. My friend says fine, what plug do you need. The gentleman says three pin please. My friend tells the chap to very careful wiring it up and make sure it's earthed properly. He came back a few days later complaining the kettle didn't work. My friend opened the plug to check the fuse and discovered he's put all three wires onto the earth pin....

And still BT/OpenReach...

...can't fix the fibre connection to a client's house in Belgravia, central London, after 6 weeks of promises.

Not entirely unrelated...

In an earlier life I was a recording engineer in a London studio. Large multitrack (2" 16 or 24 track) analogue tapes were starting to be moved around different studios and eventually overseas, particularly the US. (Much much cheaper to send someone with a tape to New York and record a band there than to ship the band to the UK!).

However, US customs suddenly cottoned on to the fact that these tapes contained 'product', albeit unfinished music tracks, albums etc. So they started to charge import duties based on some figure that they thought these were worth. The courier would then have to make frantic phone calls to make payment. Anyway someone worked out that the courier should say that the tape was only a backup tape (there's your IT angle) with only an intrinsic value of the cost of the tape. Amazingly this worked....

Token ring

Client with half a dozen Apple Macs with the AAUI interfaces and connected via BNC in a token ring. On two previous occasions a connector had 'come undone' and on each visit to fix it was carefully pointed out what had happened when they 'lost their network'. The third time I insisted they checked every connection and they insisted that it was all ok . I walked in and before I'd even removed my coat I pointed to the connector on the desk... 'No No NO' they insisted they'd checked... I connected it and walked out in less than 5 minutes and charged the full call out fee.

workaround

Select generic PCL worked for my HP LaserJet 1015

The phrase 'clutching at straws...'

"CBP officers at JFK Airport recently seized 2,000 counterfeit Apple AirPods"

Then it was pointed out that the goods weren't packaged as 'Apple Airpods' so can't be called counterfeit.

Whoops! Better find some other tenuous reason to save our sad arse.

“Upon examining the shipment in question, a CBP Import Specialist determined that the subject earbuds appeared to violate Apple’s configuration trademark,”

Job done!

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