I’m from a US state where we don’t pump our own gas. Since I don’t pump my own gas regularly - only when I’m out of state - I’m not exactly sure when this happened, but all gas pumps seem to play ads now while the pump runs. At least the states adjacent to mine. Like can I not even pump gas in peace? Stop trying to manipulate my purchasing decisions 24/7.
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The 2nd button down on the right side of the screen mutes it. I always hit it when pumping gas.
Grab a screwdriver and stab the shit out of the speaker, that shuts them up fairly reliably.
But in all seriousness I refuse to go to a gas station with ads on the pumps because fuck that shit. Old gas stations are the way to go (for now).
One of the unlabeled buttons on the side of the screen should mute it. Whenever I find it, I’ll take a pen or sharpie and mark which one is the mute button for future people who don’t want to be subjected to that shit.
They will just disable the mute buttons. It happens around here all the time, marking them accelerates it.
I now avoid any gas station with immutable ads. But if I am in a pinch. The longest sharpest key on your key ring can slide right in and puncture the speaker, thus solving the issue more permanently.
Almost two decades ago, I worked at a network service provider who had as a customer a company that provided the technology for serving those gas pump ads.
At each gas station they had a VSAT, a router and of course the digital signage boxes on each pump.
They fed the ads to thousands of pumps via a single T1 to HughesNet in Atlanta. They’d multicast the ads, and have a local cache at each pump that would receive the stream, cache it and serve it.
It was one of the most elegant setups I’ve ever seen, and should serve as a case study in multicast for efficient bandwidth utilization across an expensive data transmission medium.
Lol, imagine thinking you’re allowed a momentary reprieve from advertising in this hellscape of a world we’ve built.
I’m from Washington and occasionally drive in Oregon, which is one of those states.
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welcome to like ten years ago?
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yes it’s awful. Everything is awful.
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you can mute them or turn down their volumes. The buttons are there so you can press them.
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if it’s not on the pump: yeah that’s truly evil.
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late stage capitalism, in some cases, is still capitalism. You could tell the station worker or owner you don’t like that and it’s bad. But good luck with them not spitting in your face in return.
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do you live under a rock? Are you so isolated somehow that the GAS STATION is your only exposure to this bullshit? Tell me your secrets, I need that level of peace in my life.
I kinda set a no ads tolerance policy for myself. I pay for some services (e.g. $5/month for Nebula, I donate monthly to Lemmy, etc). YouTube is the main area where ads tend to creep in since iOS doesn’t have an ad blocker for YT. My goal was to totally ditch YouTube for Nebula, but they are missing some creators I like.
You’re going to hate this response, but if you’re already paying to avoid ads, you could get YouTube premium. I got grandfathered into it from Google Music and honestly I feel it’s absolutely worth it. It’s about the same cost as Spotify and comes with YouTube Music that works just as well. So I look at it like paying for Spotify with the added bonus of no ads on YouTube and being able to play videos in the background. I also tend to watch a ton of YouTube videos and often use them to fall asleep to.
At this point, it’s the only subscription service I still pay for. I’ve ditched all the others, but that one has stayed. Anytime I see someone watching YouTube without it, or without a good quality ad blocker, I’m horrified. So. Many. Ads. I don’t get how anyone can watch anything like that.
But I get it; most people would rather drag their ass through a mile of broken glass than pay YouTube a dime, and I totally respect that. Just sharing my experience.
Protip: moving to a place where it takes effort to understand the language turns ads into a dadaist experience.
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Second button from the top on the right will mute the ad.
This works on most I’ve encountered, but not all. New gas station near me built less than 2 years ago has no mute button, and the ads play 24/7 whether someone is there or not. If you are pumping gas late at night with nobody else around you get to hear 10 pumps all blaring ads to nobody and each milliseconds out of sync. It’s totally fucked.
So will sticking a needle into the speaker.
Pretty sure that would just make the speaker slightly buzzy.
I never see ads when pumping gas because all the gas stations that have ads that play on their pumps have been
vandalizedimproved so the screens don’t work lolGet an EV. Charge at home. Watch YouTube ads while you wait.
What are YouTube ads?
Signed, an AndroidUser
What’s youtube? Signed, a Nebula user.
ps. Ik ik tell me I should use PeerTube.
What’s a computer?
I could almost stomach the ads if they weren’t blasted at max volume; it’s like being assaulted at the pump. I feel sorry for anyone who lives in proximity of those stations and have to hear this crap at all hours.
Most have a mute option it’s hidden but every one I have seen has a mute button… You might have to press some random button… Pro tip have a sharpie so you can label said mute button
They used to, not so much anymore. Most of them I’ve been to (I travel A LOT for work) no longer mute at all no matter which button you press.
The entire US is a lesson on the consequences of barely-regulated rampant capitalism.
Weirdly enough the PNW just has normal gas pumps that don’t have screens or sound
Typically the button on the right, second from the top mutes. It depends on the model, but it works on some.
I have like a 70% success rate with this trick
When the 2nd from the top on the right doesn’t work I proceed to hit all of them. Normally that works
The US never stop to amaze me
They’ve stopped using exposed speaker grilles so you can’t shove a screw driver into the speakers anymore :(
Ad blaring pumps are in Canada too. Shell is the most obnoxious.
Is gas less expensive compared to pumps where they don’t do that?
Bahahahahahahaha!
No.
Nope!
So, most pump POS used to have a labeled or unlabeled mute button. That has become rare.
So far, I’ve been able to kick all of them into a diagnostic/trouble menu by pressing pairs of keys on each side of the monitor in sequence from the top.
Some of them have a timeout on this screen, but the counter resets when you hit a key.
Passwords can be entered from the keypad, with ok/enter also working. I bet the passwords are the manufacturer default, probably a 5-7 digit number. I was able to find partial training manuals and setup docs from one of the POS vendors but I didn’t find a default password or deeper technical docs for the one brand I looked into.
Fucking ads in my face fucking piss me off.
12345 works as a default a surprisingly large amount.
2580 is another one I’ve used with success.
Had an Android tablet that sat in a lost and found for like three years with no claims. Finally decided to mess around with it. After charging it up there was a password screen. Tried 1234. No dice. 2580 and it opened right up.
Why would 2580 be common?
Straight down the centre.
I’m from a US state where we don’t pump our own gas.
You can just say New Jersey. After Oregon lifted its ban in 2023, it’s the only one left!
Yes, just say “I’m from the best US state” next time instead, OP, people will know what you mean.
We’ll just have to observe him carefully and see if he’s able to complete a left turn without assistance. That’ll tell us for sure.
Do petrol station attendants who have to pump fuel get paid better than those who don’t? I’m assuming that they need some kind of license?
Bro they are lucky if they get paid at all.
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??? I was just in NJ for the first time earlier this week and I pumped my own gas.
That’s funny. Maybe they just didn’t notice? When I was there and started to pump my own gas (being from out-of-state), they stopped me and took over, but it wasn’t like the pumps were locked or anything. I did see that stations turned off the pumps after-hours, when they didn’t have anyone to pump fuel…
Then they weren’t paying attention or didn’t care.
