Slashdot Mirror
Soda Machines for Geeks?
PhaseBurn writes "In all my findings, I've yet to see things like
Bawls
or Jolt
in a soda machine. Even bottled water is hard to come by... Working in a call center for an ISP, we don't have to worry too much about what's popular with the rest of the world, and so, I'm tasked with finding a vending machine replete for geeks. While Jolt can come out of any normal soda machine that
supports plastic bottles, the glass Bawls bottles woultn't fare so well. Do they make a soda machine that would work for this? What's around your office... And what's popular among the geeks today, as I want it to appeal to the vast majority of our staff?" Why use a vending machine when a community cooler would work just as well. With that aside, what kind of beverages would you like to see more of in vending machines?
I'm a geek, but I don't need to have my special geek beverages just to prove it. And as far as water goes, the water fountain (bubbler if you prefer) suits me fine.
I used to bulls-eye womp-rats in my pants
I'd be happy if they had regular Dr. Pepper instead of just diet, but I've given up trying to get it and just bring my own.
Besides, the baby makes sure I don't get any sleep anyway...
No Longer a Menace to Society.
Alexandria Morrigan born 2/22/01 l. 20.5in wt. 7 lbs. 5 oz.
Your reality is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever. - Baron Munchausen
Diet 7-up and Diet Coke are all you need.
That and Love.
And maybe some some cups. That 7-up really fizzes up something mean.
I have been pwned because my
Beer. Lots of it.
-raph
I drink Coke, and lots of it. BUT, I bought my own bar fridge and moved it next to my desk =) So now I can stack the fridge with Coke from the value packs, costing me about half of what it costs to drink from the vending machines (well .. not really cosing me half, allowing me to drink double is more correct).
Not only that, I can sell the drinks to my workmates and make a small profit on them ... muahahaha
>Why use a vending machine when a community cooler would work just as well.
Because the day after you set up the community cooler, it's going to be empty, and believe me there won't be any quarters inside.
Been there, done that. At my previous job (non tech related) they brought in a full-sized refrigerator and installed it in the break room. For a few days, the fridge was actually stocked on the company's dime with soda, fruit juices, and even iced coffee. I think they underestimated what people would drink. By the end of the week they'd already announced that they would no longer be stocking it, there was a memo hanging on the fridge door that said they'd spent over $600 in beverages just in the first few days.
So, no biggie, everyone can bring in their own drinks, right? Yeah, right! You show up for work, pop a few Mountain Dews or Frulatte's in the fridge, and by the time you go to grab one they're all gone. Even if you wrote your name on them, someone else would swipe them. Unless you have a very small office where everyone can view the fridge at all times, community coolers/fridges aren't going to work, cause the community is gonna nab your drinks.
The fridge was still there when I left, but nobody really used it. It was more a rite of passage than a utility. New hires would think "hey cool, a fridge" and quickly learn that it was a magic fridge, which made anything you put into it disappear.
Go with a vending machine. If people start stealing out of that, you can prosecute!
You could try finding an old bottle vendor (like the old coke machines) that have a door and allow you to take one, and only one, bottle when the door is opened.
--MonMotha
...and no one has brought up modding one? Get an old one from E-bay and make it suit your needs! Hell, you could even cut a window in it and put neon lights inside. Maybe even a biohazard logo. Or something.
"And what's popular among the geeks today, as I want it to appeal to the vast majority of our staff?"
Including Jolt is a good idea. Other than that, I would say wouldn't it be a better idea to ask your staff what they like to drink instead of us?
Condoms - for scoring the new helpdesk chick before she realises you are a geek.
Whisky - for dealing with people who have no idea about using a computer.
Caffeine Pills - for running the helldesk late at night.
Bananas - In case a management type fella visits the area.
Deodourant - because geeks always forget that sort of thing.
Post It (tm) Notes - for attaching to the machine when it breaks down.
CD-Rs of mp3s - for those boring times in between.
AK47 - for those stress related shootings.
Mold - to make a geek feel right at home.
Pizza - Dead cold and with extra cheese.
Coke
Dr. Pepper (or Pibb, ask around)
Tea (get one of those sets with all sorts of flavors)
Prune juice
Coffee (yes, decaf too)
Water
Mt. Dew
Whiskey
Orange juice
Snapple lemonade
Pepsi (for the infidels)
Sprite
Calpis soda
its people like you that ruin slashdot Please think before you do this, and DONT If you really want to test the middle row of your keyboard, try using notepad. Go Away Loser
Posted by EvilCliff on 22:13 Tuesday 09 July 3002
from the its-shrinkage dept.
ari writes: "I woke up this morning and I was out of coffee. This was a real pain in the ass. I had to go to seven eleven in my underwear and en route, I was accosted by a school of fish floating in midair. I really thought I was losing my mind, but cookiemonster assured me I was okay, so I continued on. I then noticed that my penis was exposed. My question is, has this ever happened to anybody, and if so, how did you solve the problem? I'd really prefer an Open Source solution if possible, of course." Penis exposure is a problem for men everywhere. What works for you?
rooooar
Just pick up a few cases of this stuff (I usually saw it for $0.70 or so a bottle at the local Oriental Mart) and the caffine problems of your staff are solved.
This stuff was vital for my schedule of sleeping for 6 hours every other night when I was in grad school.
I still have a dozen or so bottles lying around that I give to people who think they can handle caffine.
So far they have all bowed down to the fury of the real red bull.
The glass bottles look like they'd fit very easily into one of the machines that dispenses nestea. Also, for bottled water there already are vending machines for Aquafina (I've seen and purchased from them). Call up the manufacturer of the drink you want in there and talk to them. I believe they'll work out a deal for the machine if they believe there is enough of a profit to be had, and they will know exactly where to get an appropriate machine from.
"Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try." -Homer Simpson
...a Caramel Frappuccino from Starbuck's. I believe Starbuck himself enjoys one after a hard day (night? does it matter in space?) fighting with Apollo against the tyranny of Lucifer, Baltar and the evil Cylons.
balls is apparently made with guarana. i thought i read somewhere that guarana is a natural aphrodesiac. that and daimana.
is that why its called "balls" ?!?
Slashdot ruins itself. I've tried notepad but it doesn't do my karma any good.
Have a good day.
there's nothing like a $0.25 can of Busch at 10:00.
There aint no pancake so thin it doesn't have two sides.
Pabst Blue Ribbon beats Jolt any day.
I also like those Japanese cold coffee drinks and the fruit drinks with the fruit still in 'em.
Yum.
And I wouldn't mind plain seltzer either.
evanchik.net
Oh, speaking of that soda machine, it was supposed to contain Pepsi products but since we stocked it, it contained both, with a printout of the actual contents taped next to the buttons. Joy of Joys when that list was re-created slightly out of order. You'd think that the original partners would have had the buttons memorized but no, they were still going off that list. And I have no idea why someone could get so uptight about recieving the wrong soda...
Bleh!
Preview works better when you read the whole post before submitting...
Bleh!
...and I am AC'ing to protect my reputation, my company's reputation, and my coworkers reputation, but the drink of choice seems to be either beer or hard liquor here in IT land. Actually, it has been that way even before the dot-boom and dot-bust. Management definately loves the wine and liquor. Beer is more common at the lower levels or when lower management is trying to pal-around with the grunts.
Completely inappropriate for the office vending machine, but that DOES seem to be the drink of choice. Perhaps you should stock bottles of Robbutussin instead?
Maybe it's different where you are, but I can't buy PBR in my area anymore. Folks in the local bottleshop claim they can't order it anymore. (No longer made? Out of business?)
I don't know why more people don't go for the old standby, water.
I used to be a heavy soda drinker, consuming at least 5 every work day. One day, I didn't have enough change to buy sodas, and I drank water all day.
I can not adequately describe how much better I felt, and how much more productive I was. I felt like my whole body was just flushed out, especially my brain.
Ever since, I have only gone for a soda when I need a really quick rush of sugar or calories. This is usually true in the last hour or two before I head home to eat dinner.
Try drinking nothing but water for an entire week at work, and see if you find yourself feeling better and thinking better as I did.
Snaple has a machine that can help you out. it doesn't drop the bottle to the bottom, it uses a moving shelf to safely move the glass bottle.
=================
Unix is very user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
After watching my waistline steadily increase from 128+ oz of Mt. Dew a day while I was at college, I switched to diet pops, which has helped greatly. Now I have gone even more extreme, and my prefered libation is Caffeine-Free Diet Coke. I think it tastes just like the real thing, while the diet caffeine-free pepsi tastes so watery. If they made diet caffeine-free Code Red, I'd drink that, but I am enjoying my non-caffeinated lifestyle now.
The Register has an interesting article on how to set up a works drink vending machine.
I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered.....my life is my own.
This is slightly offtopic, but I wanted to ask if I can find Jolt or Bawls in Israel? From what I've seen, I can't order single bottles from ThinkGeek, but only cases of 24..
Thanks.
Slashdot community, please notice: I am looking for a girlfriend.
Nave H. Weiss
You could try one of these and put whatever you want in it. But it would have a much smaller capacity than a standard pop machine.
In all my experience, the office refrigerators are never very cold, and the vending machines always serve the cans nice and frigid.
This summer, however, I've been hitting the local McDonald's twice a day to get a 42-oz diet Coke with extra ice for only 59 cents...
Well, I haven't used one since the late 80's, when I got a decomposing fly along with my water, and realized why my stomach had been queasy since I started that job :p
Im waiting for the coffe patch!!
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
People working in a call center aren't exactly geeks. They're more like geek wannabes.
Well, if you need a soda machine that can hangle an assortment of glass botles. Go low tech, get a 1940 style soda machine. They still make then, or you could splurge and get an antique one.
l
http://www.marketware-tech.com/noscoksodmac.htm
Personaly, I like the VENDO MODEL 81, from http://www.vintagevending.com/sodaCoke.cfm
Try this solution:
Use a distinctive lunch bag. Prepare a lunch where EACH ITEM is laced with a laxative. Change the lunch items around for a week or two, so your lunch bag is on a different shelf location with different-appearing contents. Note when items disappear, and what items are most popular. The problem will soon be solved by itself; the offenders will identify themselves by urgent dashes for the loo, and will avoid your lunch, thinking it is a ptomaine paradise. You should remain anonymous to avoid reverse effects. Periodically repeat the experiment with the same or an "unmarked" lunch bag for a "maintenance" effect. However, I suggest you keep your actual lunch in an unmarked bag, in case an offender figures it out and spikes the distinctive bag...
The geniuos at coke who changed the formula of good ole Mr. Pibb to Pibb Xtra needs to pay, big time.
Veramocor
Tea (get one of those sets with all sorts of flavors)
Krabappel: "What kind of little boy has a tea set?"
Skinner: "I think we both know the answer to that. A LUCKY boy!"
Speaking of geeks and vending machines, at my local acm we are working on a computerized soda machine. The idea is you press order on the web form and if there's money in your account, the soda drops out of the machine. We are in the process right now of figuring out which caffinated beverages will and will not fit into into the slots of our pepsi can vending machine.
Tea is good and refreshing, I like mine with no milk and a slice of lemon. Too much coffee gets me feelin crappy after a while. Water is cleansing, but sometimes boring, but I guess that's only a problem if your job is boring.
The ideal vending machine for me would be where I could make up my own recipe. Most soft drinks served in bars are usually just concentrates and carbonated water mixed in the nozzle, meaning only 1 large pipe is needed, and several small ones for the concentrates.
I'd have a machine with a choice of coffee, tea, carbonated/still water, mineral water, caffiene solution [in 100 mg increments, up to a safe maximum of 500mg], several fruit flavours, cola, spirit shots [25ml, 3 per drink, max], and beers. Add a simple touchscreen interface, and you got yourself the coolest vending machine in the world! Many ingredients would take up relativeley little space. If the water could be taken from the main pipe and carbonated in the machine, then the machine can be pretty small, or can be made to accomodate a good selection of other drinks such as Bawls, various bitch pisses [Metz, Breesers, Reefs, Archers etc...], and/or whatever.
Naturally, it will run embedded Linux and Apache to provide drink statistisc on the intranet, saving wasted trips and allowing prompt re-stocking. But beware the boss who sticks in a webcam!
Comments invited... How about a casemod? ;-)
Ali
Ph33r m3!!!
Call your local Coke machine distributor.
At the place I jsut started working, they have a machine that stocks regular plastic bottles, so technically, this isn't appropriate, but....
The machine stocks them vertically, but they don't drop. Instead, a conveyer belt on an arm moves up to just underneath the particular shelf, the bottle drops onto it, the belt moves down to the outport, and rolls the bottle over to the side, where it falls about 4 inches, into the receptacle.
So it isn't something you need to have built - they are out there, you just need to get your supplier to get one in your market.
This space for rent. Call 1-800-STEAK4U
sorry to rain on your parade, but that's really not such a great idea. vending machines are already convienent, why do you need to make them even more so? (not very much more convienent if i may point that out) maybe you should work on a machine that never gets stuck...that would be true innovation.
If you really want caffeinated beverages supplied to your office or place of work or heh, even your home, I suggest that you go to Thinkgeek.com ( ::praises:: ) as there you can get shipments of the splendid caffeine delivered to you. If only some office members want it then have the fee split. ::shrugs:: Just my advice.
~*~Bunny~*~
In my office building, we have a vending machine that dispenses the regular 20 oz bottles of soda and water, as well as bottles of Sobe and Starbucks Frappuccino drinks. The drink trays look like they can be set to almost any height, but I didn't look closely enough to see if the widths were adjustable for larger bottles. I just ordered myself a Frappuccino, and the dang machine nearly launched it right through the glass! Okay, it only seemed like it, but the glass bottle survived the tumble from the topmost tray to the access hole at the bottom. I'm sure you can find one of these machines by contacting your local vending machine rental companies.
I wanted to ask if I can find Jolt or Bawls in Israel?
The first can be had within 30 meters of the explosion, the second is easy to find afterwards along with other assorted body parts.
Uh, you should check an online material safety data sheet before you work with pure caffeine powder. There IS a lethal dose of the stuff - I'm not sure, so *don't just take my word for it*, but I think it's around ten grams. It's also unhealthy to inhale pure caffeine dust. We tend to forget it, but caffeine is DANGEROUS when in its pure, non-foodstuff or pill form.
Here's a safer alternative: thinkgeek, in the caffeine section, has caffeinated syrups that are VERY highly caffeinated, in a variety of flavors. If you chugged a bottle of this stuff, you might get in trouble, but short of that it's a hell of a lot safer than the pure powder, and thinkgeek says how much caffeine there is in each ounce, so you can use this stuff to determine the caffeine content of your drinks pretty precisely. Just mix with soda water, maybe some fruit juices as well.
In short, DON'T "FREEBASE" CAFFEINE. BAD IDEA.
I'm the stranger...posting to
"Earl Gray, hot."
I'm the stranger...posting to
I find that as my daughter (born 5/4/00) gets more interested in doing what I'm doing, I have more projects that I don't really get to work on until she goes to bed.
*laugh* I hear that. I've been playing around with directional antennas for 802.11b (trying to link two buildings on the cheap) and my son can't understand why he can't help dad cut & bend sheet metal.
-- MarkusQ
...we have one here, serviced by Canteen, that does serve glass bottles (juice, Charbucks Crappuccino, on the top level even!). It does make a bit of a startling THUNK when it dispenses the drink, but doesn't seem to break.
If broken glass in your ass is a problem, why not use a foam pad at the bottom of the vend area to absorb the impact of your bottle? Crisis averted.
Having Fun @ H2K2....