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Endless Liquid Refreshment
rabtech writes "I'm very lazy. As part of that continuing effort, I've come up with a guide for installing a soda fountain in the house. I've detailed how to get the equipment, hoses, and supplies, as well as how to install and calibrate the system. Now you won't ever need to move for lack of liquid refreshment! My next project: Food Replicator."
Would be if you'd managed to rig a kegorator to dispense Guinness. If you feel like drinking a calorie-laden fizzy beverage, it might as well be one that tastes good.
Besides which, there is evidence that diet soda drinks are mildly carcinogenic and may slow down the metabolism enough to negate the fact that they are less caloric.
Have you been stalked by Seth today?
As if people aren't fat enough...an endless supply of extra calories, extra sugar, and easy dehydration from too much caffeine. I'll install a water fountain: I perfer to keep my teeth and not get fat.
All told, I spent about:
$300 for the system
$50 for the CO2 tank deposit
$200 for various fittings and hose
Reoccurring costs that you don't recoup are:
$16 per CO2 tank fill; should last 6 months to a year
$4 per month for the tank rental (versus $125 to buy a tank)
Water (we are on city water, but it is so cheap as to be listed as "free")
Electricity (again, very little)
Reoccurring costs that you DO recoup:
$50 per 5 gallon box, $25 per 2.5 gallon box. The syrup has an expiration date, so I am trying to stick to 2.5 gallon boxes, since those get used up faster.
Since we only buy a few 99-cent bottles of soda here, this is another plaything if you got over $500 dollars burning a hole in your pocket.
An easier way is to buy soda in bulk, and keep a 2 or 3-liter bottle of soda in an ice bucket next to the couch.
Just not as much wow-factor.
The Pigloo
without reading the story, how does he handle the soda NOT corroding any piping? Is it all plastic? Can plastic survive soda corrosion?
"I would say that 99 per cent of what my father has written about his own life is false." - L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
I had my own soda machine setup in our old house for a couple of years. While the appeal is definatly there, cost savings should not be among them. The stories you hear about "the cup costing more than the actual soda" is competely false While it is slight cheaper than purchasing 2-liters, after doing the math, it really only has a cost savings of about 20%, assuming your paying around $40 per pre-mix box, and $15 or so for the CO2. It is damn cool though, and the chicks dig it.
an insulin dispenser
"I'm very lazy. As part of that continuing effort, I've come up with a guide for installing a soda fountain in the house. I've detailed how to get the equipment, hoses, and supplies, as well as how to install and calibrate the system. Now you won't ever need to move for lack of liquid refreshment! My next project: Food Replicator."
Wow! You're right! That 'continuing effort to be lazy" sure does take a lot of work!!!
It's also a fun project (fun for those who enjoy a challenge). And every time you have a drink, it's a little celebration of your achievement.
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals."
I'm a big fan of club soda. I don't drink pop becuase its too unhealthy.. that much sugar is bad news.
Any one ever try coffee and club soda? I've never seen anyone else drink it, but try it, its great. Hrmm... I think I'll go put some coffee on right now.
Have a nice evening.
Wow! How to install a soda fountain! The very height of tehcnology. Something I have always wanted to do. Wait a minute.
If the guy would have installed it and controlled it with a wireless NIC and had Big Gulp cups printed with the Penguin and a caffeine molecule
Whats next in the story department?
1. Watching Paint Dry - The do's and don'ts.
2. Color Coding Recycling bins.
3. Zen and the Art of the Compost heap.
4. Tae Boe Power Knitting.
5. Sheep dipping for fun and profit.
But seriously, admittingly I sit in front of computers probably far too much, this guy has no life. Diagramming his soda dispenser installation?
Hooray that he installed then had so much time on his hands to create a web page?
Now I have seen everything.
Puto
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
...or with that same $500 you could've spent $495.00 on a decent web server, and then bought a case of your favorite soda.
www.GamezCore.com For Hardcore PS2 Gamerz : By Hardcore PS2 Gamerz
an automated insulin injector, thanks to your newly-developed diabetes, too!
Yeah, right.
The whole thing is pretty absurd, hence I feel silly being serious about this...but...making it that much easier to consume soda, which is LOADED with calories(among other things- mostly from sugars), is only going to give you diabetes sooner and plump you up mighty quick. I forget exactly what economists call it, but you're more likely to spend money that's easily accessed. Ie, the bag of chips next to you is gonna get eaten faster than the one downstairs in the drawer.
Seriously, folks- get out and walk, jog, run, bike, skate/skateboard/rollerblade to the local corner store, and carry the 6-pack back. If you're lucky, it'll all balance out. you'll get your daily exercise(what is it, minimum 30 minutes raised heart rate per day?), which means you'll feel better(excercise creates endorphines), and you'll live longer, too. You'll also get to excercise the brain, and reduce eye fatigue, since you'll be moving your eyes a lot and focusing on different things.
There's also cool stuff like(gasp!) water, fruit juice, and vegetable juice. All three are much healthier for you, and(at least IMHO) taste better. I'm not saying switch off soda completely- just go for variety; it's probably the most common thing you hear from nutritionists- eat a little of everything. It's more fun/interesting, too :-)
700,000 people a year die from heart disease. "A little exercise won't kill you" is truer than you think, and eating healthy is great insurance. Ask people who just came out of having heart-bypass operations or their first heart attack, or just got diagnosed with diabetes, and ask them if they wish they had eaten better. I'd be amazed if the answer isn't 100% "Yes".
Please help metamoderate.
That carbonation in club soda is horrible for your teeth, so you might want to find a new healthy drink if you dont brush and floss.
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals."
I thought that the computers were supposed to be able to do this already. I mean, that's how it worked in the Jetsons.
And if going to the bathroom becomes too inconvenient, try some of these.
At least you can see the thick, cludgy syrup that makes up these carbonated sugar drinks.
Perhaps the eye-opening nutritional odyssey will offset the convenience of the dispenser?
For me, nothing beats good ol' H20...
Does it run Linux?
I hold a patent on sigs...
I work for one of the vendors listed on that site. We sell every part you could possibly need to do something like this, but we don't sell to home consumers or even individual restaurants. We're a sister company of the largest manufacturer of fountain soda machines in the world. So, working were I do, I've found out a fair amount about these machines. We have about 90 employees in our office and haven't installed a fountain machine because with so few employees the lines would get coated with syrup in no time. You really need a larger volume of people, or you will have to flush the lines all the time. Personally, I say just get yourself a Culligan water dispenser and save your money and teeth. If you really need soda, buy 2 liter bottles.
I was not touched there by an angel.
It's alright to be lazy, but you couldn't even offset that with a slightly respectable diet?
My next project: Food Replicator.
Number 6: And I invented the bottemless peanut bag.
Homer (number 5): Wow!
Ok maybe it is cool that the dude made a fountain, sure. But the author of the referring post is right - we need to stop this crazy binging on sugary drinks. And remember, researchers in psych found long ago that the number one thing that makes us eat more is food/drink that is more accesible. Let see what this dude weighs like in a few months ...
-- (Score:i, Imaginary)
Hopefully, the important lesson is this: If you're going to slashdot your server, at least have one capable of handling such an effort.
I got about half of the images broken and the other half weren't even found.
*sigh*
Anyways, for all the flame mongers out there complaining about how it's not "worth it", please. This is what hacking is about. If you sit around asking "Why? This is useless!" how do you expect to have any fun in life?
Flying cars and voice-operated light switches are pretty useless, doesn't mean I wouldn't want one.
Karma: Non-Heinous
I hate to say it, but that's one occasion when the lameness filter worked as intended.
Seriously, I have some weird genetic thing that kept me from having a lot of my teeth. I'm pretty sure what I have is the same as this.
Kinda weird when you get a half-set of false teeth at age 16.
Now, all you need to do is buy and install a large theatre-style popcorn maker, a keg of beer, and a 60" high definition TV.
1. Invite friends over to watch the game or a dvd on your big-screen t.v.
2. Charge them movie theatre prices for the fountain soda, popcorn, and beer.
3. Profit!
(Repeat until your friends get tired of paying for refreshments and you run out of paying customers. Don't forget to offer "loyalty discounts" to those that stick around.)
make the 4th spout insulin.
"It's so convenient to have a system where everyone is a criminal" - A. Hitler
put diet coke into your soda fountain.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Well, I'm too lazy to find all of that stuff and then go install it.
So, I found this instead.
It seems like it should work just as well and have only a minimally higher cost, but the up front cost is much much less (~$500 vs. ~50).
w00t for extended laziness!
Work sucked, until it became unemployment, when it became slightly more tolerable. -Tet
In any case, if you're going to go to the effort of a beer tap at home, why not go the whole hog and have it dispense Chimay, preferably Chimay Blue? Not only is it wonderful drinking - it's about 10% alcohol... :)
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
thanks, Kenny
"They say I'm lazy but it takes all my time..." -"Life's Been Good"
Now, I didn't watch Star Trek (NG!) that much, but thinking back on it, i think the stupidest thing in that show was the food replicator . . .
This post was brought to you by the number 584811 and the characters / and .
prepare to kiss your website goodbye...good thing this is a Sunday!
Get lots of teabags and put them in a strainer, run water thru them into a cup making very strong and high in caffene tea.
;-))
I havent regeistered a patent (yet
Disclaimer: The link is slashdotted so I dont know he did or not.
3. PROFIT! [because coders' teeth fall out]
I'm glad you put that explaination there in parentheses, because I had no idea why a dentist would profit from this scenario. Once again, thanks for the road map!
do not read this line twice.
Make an old-style soda counter, then you only need a single siphon for soda, which would be much cleaner than beverage.
Then one enters a pump full (in the old style soda counters) of syrup, and fill with soda water.
Then a vanilla Coke is a shot of Coke syrup, and one of vanilla. And one can make root beer, floats, black cows, etc.
Less hardware, more varities.
I always used to think about all the drugs I'd make with it.
Nice use of mod points to LOWER AN ALREADY INVISIBLE POST!!! I hope your ass gets kicked in a dark alley. I mean, I hope your ass gets kicked in m2.
... where's the any key? I see ESC, CTRL (ki-tarl), and PGUP (pig-up), but I don't see any ANY key! Phew, all this computer hacking is making me thirsty, I think I'll have a TAB. I never thought the day would come. *sniff* Now if only there were enough room in there to turn the soda dispenser into a tower (a water-cooled one, no less), I'd be impressed.
When I am king, you will be first against the wall
With your opinion which is of no consequence at all
i imagine it would scare the chicks away...
for a few of us, maybe it's not a bad idea..
You're nothing; like me.
(Not only a fitting double-meaning topic, but a nice subtle X-Men comic book reference ;D )
:p Still, the endless fountain was great while it lasted.
We had a free soda fountain when I worked at ANS - err, UUNet Ann Arbor - err, Worldcom - err, a hollow shell of a building... but I digress. After they put Mountain Dew on tap, productivity incresed... as did the waistlines of a lot of co-workers.
I finally decided one day that the weekend caffine withdrawls (since I was drinking upwards of 3 to 4 liters of Dew a day when at work) and related mood swings were causing too many problems around the house, I quit cold turkey. I lost ten pounds in the next month or so, after having cut over 1000 calories a day out of my diet. Great while it lasted... but then I replaced the raw calories with fat and sugars in the form of chocolate, and gained them all back
Come to the University of Mars! Classes starting soon!
[100% ISO 646 Compliant]
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO.
Soda's alright, but I'm more of a water drinker. Do you think you could adapt this thing to dispense water on demand?
Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
Flamebait? That was a troll...
And seriously, I have wanted one of these for awhile. $500 seems pretty high though... if they sold the stuff for $100-150, I'm not sure I could resist.
It would be a million times worse to replace the syrup than get a new can/bottle of soda when it runs out, even if it is only every week or so. Plus, fountain soda is definitely not as good as canned/bottled soda.
Wouldn't it then go
1. Have coder install endless soda fountain.
2. coders' teeth fall out
3. PROFIT!
since you have the roadmap you don't need the ???
moo.
Squeeze the air out and close the cap tightly. They'll still go flat eventually but last a lot longer this way. Also don't leave the bottle out of the refrigerator.
Food Replicator, zoo repliscmater. Just get a few 20 lb. bags of Bachelor Chow very couple of weeks or so.
Hardcore Waste Recycling
Can't wait to see the sheep story.
My dream as an engineer-turned-manager is that I will someday use dot-com investor funds to buy a Slurpee machine for my engineers...
We'll have team building parties where we merge flavors to create a special slurpee specific to a particular project.
Got any good job leads?
Hey, man, i tried to mod it too, when it was still at 0, and by the time i hit moderate it was at -2 and it retured a "post allready at threshold", there are just that many active mods today, and if you really have to hide behind the anon cowward so be it
come comment on the madness at http://slashdot.org/~phreak03/journal/
The servers been /.ed
If you don't stop reading this right now you owe me $1,000. Send check or money order too...
There's no vitamins in there either, unless they've been added after the fact. You're better off sticking with water to quench your thirst if you're health conscious and enjoying your soda/juice in moderation.
Interestingly enough, our pediatrician told us that Gatorade was better than fruit juice if the kids didn't want milk.
This is the funniest ./ comment all day...
Did you know that if you put a slab of steak in a gallon of cola, after about an hour the steak will be dissolved? Cola also can be used to clean your toilet bowl or other stains. I'd put more facts but I lost the chain mail I read them in lol.
Coke is acidic, my chem teacher said its mol2, but even without the syrup the soda water makes a pretty good solvent. Theres a valve on the back of the fountain for just soda water, some places fill a bucket up with that before close to clean the floor with.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
assuming coders even have money to spend on silly things like teeth
The carbonation in soda is pretty bad for you. It will react and strip calcium off of pretty much anything in you, teeth, bones etc, this is why sports coaches tell their players not to drink soda, it can weaken your bones. All this will also leave you with lots of Calcium-Carbonate(scale, like in hard water), this can also lead to problems. Drink a lot of soda in a short period of time, and you might notice your piss is slightly cloudy, the extreme of this happened a friend of mine, kidney stones. Ouch.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
Jeeez.
My uncle brews a little, and in the rec room in the basement at the sink behind the bar he has hot, cold, and beer.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
You just brought back one of those embarrassing first job moments. Worse than selling vacuum cleaners door-to-door, it was selling home pop-machines! Evil company called 'sodamistic', long-since-defunct, I'm sure.
...).
A valuable formative experience in the sleazy world of hard-sell direct sales, it lets me watch movies like Tin Men or Boiler Room with an insider's appreciation, and more importantly, it taught me the importance of never ever letting a salesman inside your house. (Not that time-share group sales pitches are much better.)
For those who are interested, a google search for sodamistic turned up a minor reference in the comments section of this totally on-topic to this story web page: How to Make Your Own Carbonated Soda (Coke, Pepsi,
What I really want is a slurpy dispenser. Anyone have instructions for one of those? ;-)
So who are you back-dooring?
What a long, strange trip it's been.
Just what one needs -- more sugar water!
When I read the subject line, I thought somebody
finaly invented the Everlasting-Gobstopper!
How many of your original teeth do you have left?
Teabag you.
This gent right here.
Its just soda! It would have been a good read if it was coffee, or even better, BEER! And if he was really that lazy, he would have made a monkey do it. (Returns monkey helper to handicap store) OMG, what happened to you? (Clirk hands monkey keyboard) MUST SAVE MOJO!
What's up with American obsession with soda? Drink tea, it's healthier and cheaper!
1. Get sheep.
2. Dip sheep.
3. ?????
4. Profit!
You go to the local bar check out the (fill in favorite female body part) on your favorite bartender (here in CA they are mostly women) Have a few then go back to work (walking of course DUI's are expensive
Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock. Will Rogers
I found lots of links
Lots of risks
This one is teen girls
Of course, this seems to imply more to women(i.e. the original poster) than men, but Osteoporosis usually does, until about age 50, then its pretty much 50/50...
~~~
Click here, you know you wanna!
The basic machine attaches to a water line and draws 110V from a wall outlet, and that's all that you have to hook up (you can even buy an accessory water tank, eliminating the water line). Inside the machine is a little refrigerator, a small CO2 cylinder, and space for three 1-litre syrup boxes.
The thing actually mixes pretty decent soda, but apparently there were reliability and maintenance problems. In any case, the whole program flopped,and Coca-Cola no longer manufactures the Breakmate. They still make supplies, though, and you can buy a used Breakmate for $200-$300 on Ebay or through vendors like this one.
Drawbacks? Well, you're restricted to a short list of Coca-Cola beverages... Pepsi and others are out of the question. The syrup packs are relatively expensive... each pack makes about 30 glasses of soda and costs $8-$10, so you'll pay about $0.25-$0.35 per glass. More bad news: the little CO2 cylinder doesn't go very far (many Breakmates have been modified to use larger cylinders); fortunately, they're refillable, and CO2 is cheap. Despite the drawbacks it might be worthwhile; the machine does work, it's a lot cheaper and simpler to install and use, and it's sorta cool besides.
--Larry
Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence
I agree that drinking sodas is a bad way to go. Yet, I still consume about 3L a day of some cheap-but-amazingly-good pseudo-Mountain Dew. (It's called Mountain Holler; see Save-A-Lot: 58 cents!)
I'm already working hard to stop smoking- that's the top of the list. If I can kill that demon, the next two are increased exercise and moving towards drinking water-only.
As to exercise: what's a good choice for people like us? It seems pointless to run in place for 20 minutes. Biking has gotten downright dangerous. Is there anything *you* do that you find interesting/useful?
I'm serious; I want something that doesn't amount to standing in the rain....ya know? Painballs? Swimming? (can't, BTW) Karate?
--- For a good time mail uce@ftc.gov
Guy with a pool Que removed mine
Diplomacy is the art of saying "Nice doggie" until you can find a rock. Will Rogers
Just curious, but one impression I gained from the article is that soda companies such as Coca-Cola and Pepsi are very reluctant too sell too the home buyer. Is this merely due to a fear that they may make less profit, or else something more sinister?
Now tell me, which is lazier - buying a bar fridge and putting it within arms reach of your desk, and stocking it with any number of varieties of pop; or running hose and machinery through your house for a limited number of selections? Of course, if all you drink is your caffienated beverage of choice, then the second half of the question is moot...
Sure I'm paranoid, but am I paranoid enough?
Ultimate Frisbee is fun and it feels like you will die within 10 minutes of game play, you'll love it!
Basketball (especially full court) is good, soccer, hockey etc.
Walking is good, and here is a very key point. Distance matters, time doesn't! If you jog a mile, run a mile, or walk a mile. You will burn the same calorites (work = force * distance) so don't have a heart attack trying to run when you are out of shape.
It is best if you can find someone to excerise with, because you will be more likely to stick to it.
--Joey
This guy is attempting to debunk the concept of soft drinks being bad for the teeth, /and/ gets positive moderation.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Obviously, with all that pointless work, and creation of a web page depicting how "lazy" he is, just to get fatter and greasier on the couch was only done because...
HE IS A WHORE!!!!!!
karma whore that is
Due to the nature of my job, I can sometimes consume up to 7,000 calories a day (usually only about 3,600) and I am not fat. I am a member of a particular talked about unit of your military. The only way that I, and the rest of the guys don't baloon, even though many have insane metabolism anyway, is that we...
/. geeks too! : )
EXCERCISE, EXCERCISE, EXCERCISE!!!
Really, sitting on a couch and drinking 200 calories per 12oz that you drink will only make you fat and prone to various diseases (diabeties, heart desease, etc). Trying to preserve laziness and increasing your caloric intake is propably one of the stupidest things you could do to youself health wise.
and yes, some military squids can be
I think its absolutely gay when people want to be sure that people with mod points see their post by...
Spacing
Out
Their
Lines
so that they see them. It is kinda like the pop-up ads, and the shoot-the-duck banner ads. If you want to get modded high, write something intelligent, and get it modded up like a man. Don't go trying ASCII tricks to get your post recognized!
It was starting out to be a funny joke, but you killed it with your karma whoring. (and the italic commets)
...and it is more expensive, but at least fruit juice has some vitamins.
Milk has a lot of sugar also. But it too has some redeeming vitaminic properties.
My suggestion: Take a multivitamin and drink water.
My other first post is car post.
While Slashdot users put in a soda fountain, Kuro5hin users make mead by hand.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
So do all the frats on the row.
Foor replicators are too advanced and require too much energy for the present to be practical. I recomend that you work on a self contained sanitary waste to algae food machine. I've seen done before, but I can't remember where. Matrix Food Equipment sounds right, but it's not it.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Whouldn't the system need to be cleaned? Also you don't want to loose the fizzyness if you leave in in there for too long. And make sure it won't explode in an eathquake or somthing =)
cat
I didn't read much past the second paragraph of your garbage, but I can tell you this.
Programmer's are NOT the most important part of a company. Despite the fact that you probably just got fired from a job that pays you little is why your writing that.
Programmers, even great programmers, are dime-a-dozen these days. So if you think that companies should be paying you more than all the management, be giving you free cars, insuring everypart of your body for $1 billion, you are stupid, and should have been fired before Friday. Programmer's couldn't make money without the help of the rest of the company. A sales man can sell just about anything, even if it's programmed poorly, but a well engineered, err, programmed product would never get sold without a half-way decent sales man. (and no, im a software engineer also)
You are soooooo dumb. And are happy now that someone read your offtopic post and replied.
A quick bit of googling should be able to disabuse you of that notion. The beer tap systems you see in bars cost thousands of dollars to set up.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
"I'm very lazy. As part of that continuing effort..." Don't we have a contradiction right here? "...I've come up with a guide for installing a soda fountain in the house..." Why do people bother to say things like: "I'm really lazy, so I decided to repaint my house!" Or, "I'm really lazy so I built and documented the process for building a soda fountain." I mean, aren't you expressing a lot time and hardwork spent on a project, in the name of laziness? Whatever...
obviously we have different definitions of the word... seems like too much work for me
This kind of thing is frequently due to people not having a clue how to exercise and driving their hearts way too hard. Pick up a heart rate monitor for less than $100... Polar is a good brand. Set it for your optimum heart rate speed (the watches come with some relatively good guidelines) and stay in them. Wham, suddenly you're only a tiny bit more likely to die of a heart attack while exercising than you are while getting up from the sofa to get some chips.
-fred
Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
I just tried putting club soda in my coffee.. you're right, it's pretty good. It really brings out the flavor of the coffee.
Do you really have deadly cauliflower-like organisms in your water supply? Perhaps you meant "coliforms".
"E pur si muove!" - attributed to Galileo Galilei, 1564-1642
Good old google.
Researchers Clarify Link Between Consumption
Of Carbonated Beverages and Bone Loss
With soft drinks now the beverage of choice for many Americans, researchers have become increasingly concerned about the link between intake of carbonated beverages and increased risk of bone fracture. A new study exploring this link has shown that calcium depletion -- and ultimately bone loss -- experienced by people who regularly consume carbonated beverages is more likely due to an inadequate daily intake of calcium rather than the ingredients in the beverages.
A team of researchers at the Creighton University Osteoporosis Center studied 30 women aged 20 to 40 who consumed more than two 12-ounce cans of carbonated beverages daily. The team measured levels of urinary calcium excretion after the subjects consumed caffeinated and noncaffeinated soft drinks. Milk and water were used as control beverages.
While the researchers measured little or no calcium loss from the consumption of the noncaffeinated soft drinks or the control beverages, they found that drinking carbonated beverages containing caffeine does indeed cause the body to lose calcium, but only temporarily. A compensatory drop in urinary calcium excretion later in the day offset the small calcium loss from the caffeinated soft drinks.
So what is the explanation for the bone loss observed in people who regularly consume carbonated beverages? The researchers placed the responsibility on the "empty calories" of soft drinks that replace nutrients derived from other foods and beverages. "The most economic explanation for the association of carbonated beverage intake with poor bone status is milk displacement," said lead author Robert P. Heaney, M.D.
The relationship between drinking carbonated beverages and calcium is important, according to the authors, because the National Osteoporosis Foundation recommends that adults get 1,000 milligrams of calcium a day, 1,200 milligrams for teenagers, pregnant women and people older than 50. However, according to the Foundation, most adults only get half that amount.
The study results were published in the September 2001 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
Forget soda, I want a Slurpee [tm] machine.
rob
idrinksoda.com. $100 or so gets you the machine, then they sell you virtually any soda syrup you want, including esoteric stuff. I saw it advertised in a live demonstration at the Seattle Home Show. He mixed up a diet coke for my fiancee (who'd know), and she said it was as good as fountain drinks. The "system" is basically a carbonator and a regular delivery of CO2 & syrup. You put the water in the machine, carbonate it, and put it in the glass with a squirt of syrup. No syrup in the machine, so no lines to clog. Overall cost (not including the startup of the machine) seemed roughly equivalent to $0.50/liter. It wasn't for us, but maybe for you...
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
I guess I should just give up, but damn there are a lot of reposts on Slashdot.
We have one at where I work (Costco Wholesale), and I'm the same damn way. I'm just glad that I've recently moved to a different building from the Cafeteria (I used to sit ~30 meters from it), so I pretty much have to quit cold turkey. Unless I want to walk .5km each way to get my soda.
Homade Soda Fountain instructions
+
"Be aware that there may be mistakes or gross errors on my part, as well as omissions. IF you spot any errors of this sort, please contact me so I may correct them at once!"
=
A very bad idea.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
Step 1: Find Girl
Step 2: Marry Girl
Repeat as often as Necessary
I work at a Taco Bell and in the back they have a soda machine for the really lazy. You just put the cup down and it automatically fills to the top, waits a few seconds till the foam goes down and then gives a last little squirt. It doesn't matter what size cup you use or how much soda is already in it, it will always fill to the top and there's never any mess (the cups are titled and any excess foam goes over the top of the cup into a drain and not down the side of the cup). I've wanted one ever since I started working there, I'd get the CO2 and the syrup from my grandmother (she owns a bar so she's getting syrup and CO2 all the time)
It's a nifty project, that's all. Wether it is economic as compared to buying soda in teh bottle is not the issue. I don't see why people can ooo and ahh over all the silly computer related projects that get posted to Slashdot but seem to think this is so dumb. It's something that was fun and cool. I mean, how many people have their own soda fountain?
It's just like any of the millions of geeky tech projects out there. For example, I have my own webserver, and I host it myself. It only holds a couple of sites, and nothing demanding. Including taxes, I probably pay around $150 per month to have the thing given that I need professional DSL to do it. I do get personal use out of the DSL too, which I'd pay for even with out it so figure maybe $100/month in actual money on the server.
Well there is certianly no need for this, I could easily move the sites to a shared hosting plan and pay a whole lot less. Know what? I like having my own server on my own line. It's not about economics, it's about fun and learning. Not only do I enjoy having my own server, I learn quite a bit having to admin the whole thing myself.
Well, this is just another neat pet project. IT's not intended to be the key to richness or anything like that, just a fun project.
Has it become impossable to have any fun anymore? Seems like any time someone does a fun, geeky, project (the very thing that makes a geek a geek) people ahve to start crying about how bad or wasteful or whatever it is. Get over it. It's a neat project, appreciate it for that. Quite preaching about excersize to people you've never met and can't see. Just because this guy owns a soda machine, doesn't mean he's out of shape, just like owning an excersize bike doesn't make you thin.
have kids. Then, when they are to old to fetch your soda (they move out, hopefully); volia! Grandkids!
My kids were fetching cans of refreshment from the fridge by around 4 yo.
-- www.globaltics.net
Political discussion for a new world
Czech beers are the root of all the Buds, Heinekens, Warsteiners and other pilsener/lager-like beers in the world. Budweis is even a Czech town, als is Pilzen (gee, makes you wonder where 'pilsener' comes from). They know how to make beer over there, IMHO better than the Germans.
;-)
That said, the most tasty beers come from Belgium. They also contain a fair load of alcohol too (10.5% is not uncommon). Not what I'd call 'wussy beer'.. Guinness is nice though
Learn from the mistakes of others. There isn't enough time to make them all yourself.
The downside of having the kids get the sodas is that they demand a "piece (or gulp) of the action". The extra sodas going down little gullets can quickly get expensive. Not to mention the dental bills incurred fixing young cavities!
Just go to some auction where they are selling off resturuant equipment, this isn't that big of a deal, geez...
Trogdor the carbonator???
I was expecting an informative inside view of how these things work, and I got it. But now I feel totally disgusted by the mechanics of the whole thing. Bags of syrup oozing into tap water mixed with gas? And you want to put this in your house? Ugh. I'll never drink soda again. I don't want to know! I don't want to know!
It turns out that geeks who still live with their moms are way ahead of you on this one.
In Soviet Rush, today's Tom Sawyer gets high on you.
I've heard that if you have lots of iron in your water, it will kill the RO filter membrane. How's your luck been with that.
I, too, live in a rural area with a well. Chunky style water, anyone?
But then again, I don't have to worry about my iron or calcium levels.
www.eFax.com are spammers
That's like saying, doesn't matter if you drive at 20 MPH, 35 MPH, or 90 MPH, you'll burn the same amount of gas if you drive the same distance. If you've ever driven and paid for your own gas, you'll know that's not true. Likewise if you've ever run track or cross-country, you'll know that's not true either. Your W = Fd equation ignores the "waste" energy, and that's where most of it goes anyway.
Just like any other machine, the human body is more efficient at a lower power output. So if you want to burn a lot of calories by walking, it's going to take ages longer than it will take running. Furthermore, you don't get much in the way of cardiovascular benefits from low-intensity exercise like walking (or even "power"-walking in most cases, unless you're really out of shape). The only way to improve your cardiovascular fitness is through aerobic-level workouts. Any exercise at all is an improvement if you're completely sedentary, but doctors recommend a minimum of three 30-minute aerobic (e.g. continuous exercise at a level that makes you pant and raises your heart rate) workouts every week for everyone.
Unfortunately, most Americans don't do this, and that's a big reason why they're fat. So please, no platitudes about just going for a walk now and again.
Yes, I like the Belgian beers too. Quite good.
I don't like Guinness. I like stouts, but not that particular one.
Most U.S. beers are horrendous, but it all changes when you discover the good microbrews. There's a brewery near where I live in NJ that specializes in Belgian-style wheat beers and does a damn good job of it. Wagner Valley in Lodi, NY (Same owner and building as Wagner's winery) and Ithaca Beer Co. in Ithaca, NY are also excellent. Wagner's doppelbock and Ithaca's seasonal stout are my two favorite beers.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
It's not half the calories. It's 1/100 or less. Aspartame (NutraSweet) has approx. the same calories per unit weight as sugar, but is 100-200 times sweeter per unit weight. (It's THAT strong. NutraSweet sugar replacements are 99% inert powder.)
One would have to drink a few liters of diet soda to even reach 10 calories.
Calorie-wise, diet soda = water.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Well,
you fat ass nerds can keep drinking your sugar laced, or chemical laced sodas.
Yeah. Install a home soda machine. Drink it all day long while you watch Star Trek re-runs. Become a fat ass. All the hot chicks will be after you....
sad
Weight lifting (it's cheap, too -- you can setup a decent home gym for $300), rope skipping, yoga, kettlebells (my favorite -- see sig)... what you do is not as important as *enjoying* it though. :-) (If you don't enjoy it, you'll quit before long.)
Make affiliate bucks
Rabtech write: "My next project: Food Replicator."
Before you go there, you might want to consider a DYI on self-catheterization.
...what better place to get medical advice? He must be right!
...nuff said.
Call me crude, but I love SOFT SERVE FROZEN YOGURT/ICE CREAM, like the kind you get at McDonald's and other "fine" eating establishments. I looked up on the Internet a while back, and the only things I could find were very expensive and seemed to require a fair amount of maintenance and regulation. For instance, if the freezer drops below a certain point, you have to worry about bacterial growth. Plus you have to keep the hoses clean.
Anybody have any tips or ideas? I know of one appliance that claims to make soft serve ice cream which you can get at stores like Target (made by Black and Decker, or somebody like that), but it uses regular ice cream, and I'm not sure how that's supposed achieve the same consistency as soft serve.
I guess the real question is whether or not it is possible to make authentic soft serve stuff without having the normal machine that is found in restaurants.
...a beowulf cluster of these...
;-)
Sorry, it had to be said
I feel so sig.
"Ever read a magazine article and it says 'Continued on Page...' and you say, 'Well, not for me...' "
"Ever lose the remote control and have to watch some total crap for an hour? I mean, you could get up and change it, but if you're going to do that, you might as well look for the remote..."
Ever read a book and try to work it into casual conversation since you're so proud... like someone says 'Hi' and you go 'I READ A BOOK! 250 PAGES!' "
And how about a demotivator for you.... "Procrastination: Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now."
And then there's my sig, but it doesn't fit in here...
"To confine our attention to terrestrial matters would be to limit the human spirit." -Stephen Hawking
Sure, W = Fd but F = ma. Think about what you're doing when you run faster. You're increasing the force that your feet apply to the ground since F(delta t) = m(delta v) (impulse = momentum). Oh, and P = W/t.
I didn't think this would really get posted, I just saw CmdrTaco say it was a slow news day.
If you can manage to grab http://www.boneville.net/soda/soda.zip, you will have the entire mirror.
I am working on getting this up elsewhere as well.
Natural != (nontoxic || beneficial)
And now there's a mirror here.
Thanks Digital Haiku..
I've used a Breakmate for years. There are some drawbacks as mentioned but they are all fixable easily with aftermarket stuff. First you need a machine. They were made by Siemans up until the very early 90's however they are very modular and very easy to maintain. You can get them off ebay or from one of the few vendors out there. MrBreakmate.com was mentioned and he is who I use. He has machines, parts and all the aftermarket parts needed(which I mention below). One plus to using him instead of Ebay is that he offers a warranty and knows these machines better than anyone else. Then you need to decide how you want it set up. You can hook into a water line, pay for the Watermate attachment or get a pump to pump straight from 5 gal water bottles. I like the pump and the 5 gal water bottles because you can then put the machine anywhere you want. Then there is the C02 issue. Breakmates have a special proprietary CO2 tank. However, it is real easy to not be stuck with those. You buy an adapter that will allow you to hook into any regular C02 tank. CO2 can then be purchased at any FireExtinguisher place or welding supply house. Syrup is another story. You have 2 choices. 1 is keep buying the syrup boxes or the other is to keep refilling the boxes you have. I opted to keep buying syrup boxes that fit in the BreakMate. I went down the refill it route for a while but it is messy and a hassle. Hint: don't leave a bag-in-the-box syrup box in the truck of you car for extended periods of time. Maitainence is simple. You can even get the service manual. Parts are available from the vendors out there. I had a few issues with a valve and the pump. All were easily fixable. The design of these machines is actually pretty good. Most parts are just and easy out and replace. The biggest pro of the BreakMate is cleaning. The other systems you need to take apart to clean the lines, take off the heads and soak them. With the Breakmate you clean the "dozers" when you change boxes and wash down the mixing tray and catch tray twice a week. Its also small and portable. Self contained with no need for tons of hoses etc. Just an informed view of soda machines and the BreakMate itself. As I said above MrBreakmate.com has all the stuff which makes it real easy to just buy the stuff and have a soda machine. His prices are just as good if not better than the other guys out there. SodaSteve
They call me Mister blimp.
The Russians have won. They have made the world a cesspool of distrust, greed, fear and hate.
You could always try fencing.
Rhapsody in Numbers
..imagine a beowulf cluster of those..
Actually, I think I would have preferred it in a glass back then, but all we had was that plastic tube.
You had a plastic tube?
Back in my day we could only dream about plastic tubes. We had to drink from a copper tube, which gave us copper poisoning after drinking too much. But that was better than the glass tubes that would break, and give us internal cuts.
In fact, we were lucky if we had a tube at all. Usually, our father would just stick our heads in the barrel, and wouldn't let us up before we had drowned.
Then he would give us heart compression with a hammer, and give us the "kiss of life" with a bicycle pump.
You had a bicycle pump?
Our father.....
Ad nauseam...
Irene KHAAAAAAN!
:-)
Yes, but a bit has been changed in the latest soda protocol, but we see nothin about that...
Slow news day, eh ?
Insightful??!? Jesus fucking christ, he just copied and pasted. That's not INSIGHTFUL! Informative, yes. But NOT insightful! Where's the insight that he added? Answer: it isn't there. There is none. He just INFORMED us. INFORMATIVE. Dipshits.
Why the fuck do we have different moderation categories if the fuckwits here are too stupid to understand them? Might as well just make them + and - without specific reasons. Jesus.
Don't forget the maintenance on the equipment. There is a fungus that grows in the tap workings and pipes that carry the syrup. The tap workings need to be cleaned once a week in a solution of clorox. The pipes must be replaced from time to time when they get a build up in them. The water also affects the quality of the drink. If you are running chlorinated water with the CO2 and syrup it's going to taste flat or have an odd bitter taste to it. You must use filtered water to get the correct flavor.
Have fun cleaning it I'll stick to the 2 the bottle.
is going to document how he had to increase the size of his doorframes to get to the toilet, go out of the house, strengthing his computer chair, replacing the flattened sofa, replacing the car's shock absorbers with those from rally cars.
And a few months later he will document how firefighters resuced him from his house when he was suffering from insulin shock.
drink lots and lots of beer.
Now you're talking! Fuck soda, I only drink soda if its mixed with alcohol, and in that case if its all that's available.
Within a year, you'll weigh 1,000 pounds and you won't be able to move anywhere
Not if you go out dancing and fuck a lot. That's what I do anyhow. And I drink all the beer I want.
Get on a fucking threadmill for crying out loud. Do some jumping-jacks. Also do some fasting, its good for ya. Quit eating all the bullshit. Though even if you do slim down, you may or may not get laid, you won't if you still continue to be lame and carry the stink of rejection with you. But its more the lameness that's the problem, hell, fat guys can get laid too and quite a few do.
--Drunk as in Beer
Drinking a glass of beer or wine a day will also lower your cholesterol levels. That doesn't mean you should drink 24/7, in fact we know that's extremely harmful.
I'm not saying your diet is dangerous; I'm just saying "proceed with caution". Things that seem too good to be true usually are, and I've been told these ultra-low carb diets can be dangerous.
Thank you for a well done article.
:->)
Out here in Indianapolis you can go over to the
Coke Cola plant, plunk down a hefty[note1] deposit and pick you a can of premix, add a can of CO2 a chiller and I think they have the cheapie hose and nozels or they know where to get them. This is 5 gallons of soda MUCH cheaper than this authors solution (even if I drool over the possibilites).
I called, I emailed, I didn't write Pepsi, they refused every effort on my part to do any sort of home vending other than sending me to a place that sold syrup in a box (at rip off prices in small lots). Real unpleasant people very ignorant of their own products. I suppose if it ain't got pink nipples sticking out of it, they don't know what to do.
Note 1: Damn you home brewers, just cause it was a 75 dollar deposit doesn't mean you can just keep the can, brew your beer in it mount it in a junk refrigerator and vend cold beer out the front. At 4 cans a refrig, the good people at Coke Cola had to raise the deposit on the tanks to near purchase price! So what if 5 gallons of the best Spudwiser is only 8 bucks and takes 30 days?
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
Except that the human body is much more efficient than any automobile engine. Nearly every calorie burning table I've even seen shows the same calorie burn rate for walking and jogging the same distance.
As to cardiovascular, you are correct. If you're heart rate doesn't go up, you're not getting a lot of benefit.
a beowulf cluster of these...
There's not that much demand for flavored soda in this house, but we go through a lot of plain seltzer. I'm hoping to find a through-the-countertop chilled seltzer dispenser similar to the hot water dispensers, with the "works" under the sink counter. The CO2 tank could go outside.
Well, I have the womanly curves to prove you wrong in saying that chicks don't dig it. I rather like the idea. It's pretty nifty. I'd rather have my own thirst quenching machine than have to walk the three blocks in the snow to the nearest store. Curses upon the bitter Chicago weather.
-- (me): Root! One should bow down before it. It is powerful. -- (my hopeless twin): You mean a guy's *ahem*?
What about Seltzer Bottles & Soda Siphon? I haven't tried it myself, but it doesn't sound like a bad deal for those who want to have fresh soda at home without the investment and maintenance of a large machine. http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF- 8&q=Seltzer+Bottles+Soda+Siphon&meta=