Andy Greenberg from Wired (archived, non-paywall version):

Of all the mysteries and injustices of the McDonald’s ice cream machine, the one that Jeremy O’Sullivan insists you understand first is its secret passcode.

But after years of studying this complex machine and its many ways of failing, O’Sullivan remains most outraged at this notion: That the food-equipment giant Taylor sells the McFlurry-squirting devices to McDonald’s restaurant owners for about $18,000 each, and yet it keeps the machines’ inner workings secret from them. What’s more, Taylor maintains a network of approved distributors that charge franchisees thousands of dollars a year for pricey maintenance contracts, with technicians on call to come and tap that secret passcode into the devices sitting on their counters.

This is a fantastic look inside the world of fast food, the kitchen tools that make the industry run, franchise and franchisee relationships, and the right to repair movement as a whole. I wonder what the outcome would have been had the protagonists had cozied up with the ice cream machine manufacturer.