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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...
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Beer. Lots of it.
-raph
>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!
...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.
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.
Aspartame != Saccharine. The worst you get with Aspartame is headaches and possibly brain tumors.
Additionally, saccharine has only been shown to cause cancer in *lab mice*. Are you a lab mouse? If not, then there are no studies that show that you will get cancer.
I have been pwned because my
Brain tumors? Is that supposed to make me want to drink that rubbish?
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
Try Lemon Diet Coke - it's fucking awful, I'm hooked. I mean the diet already tasted hollow, but now it tasted like hollow dishwash liquid. Fucking great, I tells ya.
So I've noticed. It's like Pledge- but (kind of) safe to drink!
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
...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" ?!?
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!
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Bleh!
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.
Yeah we used to do that at my school that recently bumped the soft drink can prices up to 1.2 AUD. In value packs, you can get cans each (Coke and Pepsi varieties - eg fanta, Dew, etc) for 0.4 AUD which is like a 1/3rd of the price. Then sold it to people for 0.8-1.0 AUD and made a fair profit - enough to keep drinks for yourself and friends free. Pissed off the school administration though.
The Register has an interesting article on how to set up a works drink vending machine.
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Yup, we have a filing cabinet here in the tech room with 'Beer' written on the front. This is misleading. It's full of whisky. :-)
-= Never enter a battle of wits with an unarmed man =-
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...
ROFL.
I used to take Diet Coke and add vanilla/sugar syrup. Gives me the sugar rush, and tastes sweeter. I'll probably try the Vanilla Coke when it comes out.
(Hey, idea for soft drink dispenser makers - serve Coke, and an optional switch to dribble in either lemon or vanilla flavoring in the right proportions while pouring it. 3 beverages available to customer, only one big-azz syrup tank required.)
Speaking of which. How can I get my hands on soft drink syrup? I'm sick of what gets drawn out of the soda dispensers. We've got soda in cans at work, but having a dispenser at work would be fun. "You want your Coke straight-up, or double-strength?" (Double. I'm a JOLT guy anyways.)
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!"
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
Heh. When I was a wee lad in high school, I was on the policy debate team (LD is for wusses!). A senior on the team used to get these 32 oz. Nalgene bottles full of Mt. Dew syrup and sell it to the caffeine tweaking speech and debate kids. Asked him where he got it, but that was a very closely guarded trade secret at the time. :P
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
Do you know how the scientists test for the carcinogenic effects of products like this? They take lab rats and either force-feed or directly inject them in a matter of hours or days with a large multiple of the amount of the substance a normal human would consume in a lifetime. Hell, you can even overdose on water.
I've thought a bit about cancer lately and I've had two ideas so far. First, look at the process of human aging. Basically, the body slows down it's reproduction and replinishment of cells in the body--it slows down maintaining itself. I tend to think of cancer as likely a side-effect of this slowing-down process (misplacing the resources used in the replinishment?). The second idea is what if it's a (momentarily detrimental) part of our evolutionary process? Perhaps we're in line evolutionarily for enhanced abilities to heal and slower aging--which would require greater regenerative abilities of the cells of the body.
(Hey, idea for soft drink dispenser makers - serve Coke, and an optional switch to dribble in either lemon or vanilla flavoring in the right proportions while pouring it. 3 beverages available to customer, only one big-azz syrup tank required.)
QuikTrip convenience stores, at least in metro Atlanta, offer cherry & vanilla syrup at their fountains.
Try http://www.popsoda.com - their storefront is around the corner from my house.
If it's bottled and non-alcoholic, they probably have it.
I used to stock the fridge in my old office with Black Lemonade - only one person ever stole one, and he turned out to be slightly allergic to the capsicum in the soda. It tastes like a liquid Sour Lemon Warhead, but it's black.
Unfortunately, the dye that makes it black is non-digestible, and makes things *green*.
Their soda prices aren't *bad*, but they're not great, either. Their selection is just flat amazing, though.
I think it'll probably cost you more to ship a single bottle to Israel than the bottle costs.
Specialization is for insects. - R.A.H.
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.
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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.
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