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Built-in Kitchen Computer?
shaun_gordon asks: "As a long-time geek and first-time home buyer, my wife are planning on a complete kitchen remodel. As part of the remodel, I want to put a computer into the kitchen to use for looking up recipes, controling the stereo, watching movies, etc. My only requirements are that it be Internet connected. My wife's requirements are that it be hidden. I am currently thinking of a flat screen that would fold down from under a cabinet and a keyboard in a drawer that pulls out. Has anyone had any experience installing something like this? Any recomendations on building or buying the integrated display? Anything else that I should consider?" Those looking into doing something like this may find a laptop with an 802.11-based wireless network adapter a better, and possibly cheaper, alternative for this kind of feature. Webpads might be another viable alternative, assuming they ever hit the consumer market at a worthwhile price. What suggestions might you have?
Buy an Audrey. That's what they're perfect for. Small form factor, fits in nice with the decor, networkable (so you can keep your main recipe db on your main computer and access it from the kitchen), wireless keyboard, touch screen with stylus, etc.
Durable, too-- my 3-year old hasn't broken ours yet!
And cheap. Also very important. Hunt around with liquidators or on ebay, should be well under $100 including the USB ethernet (unless the built-in modem suffices... modem-modem maybe, if you want to score extra geek points)
A.
http://www.iceboxllc.com/home.html
In the Star Trek evil Mirror Universe, virtuoso cellist Yo-Yo Ma is gangsta hiphop star DJ Yo Ma-Ma.
I'm not familiar with this at all, but my department just got a rack from dell for our cluster. It has a really nice pull out LCD and keyboard. The monitor can lay flat and the whole thing slide in when not in use. If you could install something like this at the right height, with a computer hidden in a cabinent underneath, it may work well.
Monitor image
I would try to avoid the need for a keyboard. Unless your kitchen is huge, space will be at a premium so who wants to fill up an entire drawer with a keyboard. I would also be concerned about how practical it would be to use a keyboard with food covered hands. Finally, anything that you use in a kitchen needs to be easy to clean, both for cosmetic as well as sanitary reasons.
A standard keyboard just seems impractical in a kitchen environment.
"My wife can use it to look up recipes"
This is one case where dead trees win every time.
Cookbook=extremely portable, relatively cheap, you can scribble notes on it, bookmark your place with a spoon, not affected by excess heat, won't crash, etc.
Unless you're actually going to get the computer to cook the damn food (which might work with todays' CPUs running so hot), it's a dumb idea, just like it was 30 years ago.
Before remodeling, try cooking w. a few recipes on a laptop, just to get the "feel" of it. Save yourself from wasting $$$ on remodeling twice.
The primary use of this computer will probably not be organizing recipies. It's one of those markets that look like they should be there...but aren't. Products have been offered time and again with little success.
Once you get past this, you'll have a lot more fun. The real value will be the non-kitchen related activities, as you mention, watching movies for example. You can do a lot make having a computer in the kitchen useful and expandable.
1) Include a cheap webcam and microphone. By building this in now, you won't have difficulty adding it when you want to do videoconferencing over the home network ("Honey, come out of the Server Dungeon, dinner's ready!)
2) Do everything you can to make it accessible to someone with a quarter-inch-thick layer of raw hamburger, bread crumbs, and egg clinging to their fingers. This is the biggest challenge. Either you invent a contactless way of typing and mousing, or find typing and pointing devices that can be easily cleaned. Touch-screen is out. I've seen too many monitors smeared with pizza and fried chicken grease, and that was just in an office. Touchpad devices do work if a thin layer of material is between the surface and the user's finger; you could use a piece of thin, tough white plastic (less than 1/16th inch) and seal it into one side of the keyboard tray. If it's waterproof, it can be wiped with a soapy rag like the rest of the kitchen.
3) Include a TV-and-radio-tuner capable video card. You've just knocked out two devices that you might one day want to have in the kitchen.
A few good ideas for using (and perhaps selling) the computer: Webcam in baby's room allows Mom to cook dinner and keep an eye on the kid. Grandma's also watching, and Mom is getting some input over AOL-IM on that favorite dish you keep asking for. The radio's on, or maybe MP3s are streaming from your server. And, just maybe, the computer holds a database of recipies.
I'm starting to envy you. Must...buy...house...make kitchen computer...
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