Slashdot Mirror
Networked Refrigerated Microwave
shades6666 writes "BBC news is reporting that Tonight's Menu Intelligent Ovens has developed a refrigerated microwave that can be controlled over the net or by mobile phone. The prototype uses a Peltier cooling device.
It expects the appliances to be ready by the end of the year, costing around $2,000."
I sure hope the software to control it is *VERY* secure, so I don't have random microwaves causing mischief around my house.
is Internet-enabled ingredients that know how to prepare themselves and then hop into the microwave!
One of my friends and I often discuss the idea of the networked house, where everything can be remotely controlled. He always brought up one problem when I said "Hey wouldn't a networked stove/microwave/etc be a really cool idea??" : He pointed out that you actually need to physically put the food into the device - something that requires either a lot of expensive machinery or ... you. And a lot of foresight. Most people who are lazy enough to use something like this lack foresight. I know I do.
So do you want an appliance that when hacked it burns your house down?
-Sean
Ah!! They beat me to market. Now who will buy my microwave-enabled networked refrigerator?
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
Great
/. patch
Mon - Windoze patch
Tue - Linux kernel patch
Wed - sendmail/samba patch
Thu - IIS/Outlook patch
Fri - Microwave/Fridge patch
Sat - Nerd wish I had a date instead of being on
Sun - Car ECU patch
is to be able to start a fire at our homes *remotely*
Hope nobody installs a backdoor... hope nobody send a virus to my cell which will turn on all my appliances....
Technology is not always good.... is it?
When I walk to the pantry from my home office to get munchies for the day, I can take last night's pizza out of the refrigerator and put it in the microwave. This will save me the trip later. At lunchtime, I won't even have to wait the two minutes until the pizza is hot. I can turn the microwave oven on from my office, nearly fifty feet away!
Wow. Technology is grand. I'll hit that 350-lb mark yet!
.sig wanted. Inquire within.
I only hope that it can talk to my Bluetooth-enabled heated ice cube tray.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
Modern microwave ovens are rather bad for the users health: Most of them are low quality Japanese/Korean/Chinese stuff with leaky shielding so that much microwave radition leaks out and affects the user. Using a microwave oven is only recommended in emergenies.
And now these companies develop methods which make using the microwave oven easier thus tempting incautious users to use it. (The bad user interface of old style microwave ovens was in fact a rather good protection of the users from using them.)
But this is the side effect of modern libertarian capitalism: companies do everything to satisfy their greed and sell even such potentially dangerous products.
Owner of a Mensa membership card.
I may have more culinary talents than most, but if I know that I'm going to be too busy to make dinner, I'll toss a slab of beef and some potatos in the crock pot in the morning, and eat whenever I want to at night.
And it sure as heck tastes better than anything that comes out of the microwave.
Moving on...
Does anyone here think internet appliances are going to take off? The only good ideas I can see are:
A webcam in the fridge, so I could check if I needed to hit the store, and
Thermostat, so if I'm going to be gone all night I'm not heating/cooling the house needlessly.
And I bet defrosting the fridge would go like *that*...
How much time in advance do you really need?
Gee, I'm about to start my 45 minute commute home. Better get that popcorn started!
For $2,000, the front window better be an active overlay that renders a thermal scan of the contents of the microwave, so I can see exactly how hot the AOL CD that it's nuking is getting.
"Excuse me, what's that racked next to the Cisco 7000?" "Oh, that? That's our new stackable 24-port 10/100 switch and microwave combo unit."
-- Dossy
(I wonder how many RC5 keys this new microwave can break.)
Dossy's Blog
Now I can have my exploded gerbils chilled promptly afterwards.
Sweet!
A Peltier junction that could effectively cool the space of an average microwave oven costs around $60 on the high side. Throw in adequate heatsinking and fans to the tune of another $20-30. An expensive microwave costs about $130. Embedded webserver and the associated hardware, maybe $300.
Does this device seem like an utter ripoff to anyone else? I understand "niche market" but come on... A top-of-the-line laptop costs LESS than two grand...
Today microwaves. Soon, the toaster.
I had a very small beverage fridge that used the peltier element. long story short, it didnt get mut the slightest bit cool and did not chill drinks. took it back. waste of money
-Foxxz
When will they free Leonard Peltier??!!
TMIO has been working on their fridge-oven for about six years. Mr Mansbery came up with the idea because his family was missing out on regular meals.
Ok, most ovens have timer controls already on them that you can set ahead of time to start either pre-heating the oven or baking outright (my mother used this ever since I can remember).
Ok, so you can CANCEL the operation over the 'Net/Phone which is I guess an acceptable feature, but... I really don't see how this can be adventageous UNLESS the god damn thing gets the Honda robot to take the food out of your fridge, carry it to the counter, prepare it, then put it in the device.
Preparation is still necessary. Give me a break.
Instead of embedding webservers into everything, why not devlelop a new protocol for use by these types of rather simple applicances. This way you won't get 500 different types of web interfaces to these things. Then you could do some really cool stuff like being able to create scripts without having to worry about which brand etc. You could have your oven turn on, cook at 450 for an hour, then turn on burners 2 and 3 to start the veggies (you do eat your veggies don't you?) and when the roast gets to a nice medium rare (with your wired meat thermometer), turn the oven down to a nice warming temp. Of course the oven would also automatcially call the fire dept (and activate the kitchen sprinkler) if you forgot to remove that oven mitt from the burner or forgot to put the water in the pot. Basically a higher tech version of X10.
I wonder what a slashdotted microwave would look like... Imagine the microwave going on and off with nothing inside it. (Just like these x-mas lights last christmas)
It would be cool to see /. endorse a little friendly competition among readers to knock one of these together for the lowest cost, meeting minimum specifications, i.e. keeps food chilled or frozen, able to be called with minimal fuss. Cooks food.
Thoughts?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
If I recall correctly, ThinkGeek was selling a USB George Formann grill that could also be controlled over the net and programmed as a network device for April 1st.... GIVE UP THESE DAMN APRIL FOOLS TACTICTS, I GIVE IN!!
**waves white flag**
Seriously though, why the hell would you need a networked microwave, those tings heat stuff up at hyper speed as it is. As for the cooling part.... Cool!
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
In related news, I am looking forward to dry-powder shampoo, ice cube ovens, and water-based olive oil.
And while you're at it, give me a stair machine that walks me DOWN the stairs instead of up them.
Wasn't April Fool's Day last week?
So this device is primed to be on the 'Dangerous Technology' list right?
-Foxxz
You want a killer new appliance? I'll give you one, free of charge: an automatic vacuum-cleaner, that cleans the house unattended. That would sell.
The fact that we can do a thing doesn't mean that we should do it.
Rome taught me patience and assiduous application to detail. Virtues which temper the boldness of great, general views.
The company has used embedded web technology...they do not need to have a computer built inside
Hey Marge, they have the Internet OFF computers now!
Of all the remote-controlled possibilities they had to choose from, this is what they picked?! Not remote control of the thermostat, or taping that TV program that you forgot to tape, or even feeding the cat... No, they're trying to appeal to that vast segment of the market who is willing to drop $2,000 so that they don't have to wait 5 or 10 minutes for their crappy microwaved entree when they get home! The people who can afford that kind of convenience can already call and tell the housekeeper to heat up the food.
umm.. sorry to ask, but what's the point? leave a meal in the refrigerated microwave, then send out an email or whatever that says "time: cook, 2:30" to cook whatever's in it?
the main feature of a microwave is that nothing takes over 5 mins to cook. i'm sure no one is so busy that they need a TV dinner to be ready when they hit the doorstep.
I can just imagine the protocol being hacked, and some haxor turning on microwaves when nothing's in them to cook. boom. house fires.
What percentage of Slashdot users do you think will try to install Linux on it?
Well, first off, you're saving what, 6 minutes at the most? That's how long it takes to cook most microwave dishes, except the ones which require quite a bit of manual assistance, which this gizmo couldn't prepare automatically anyway. You're also limited to the dish you chose when you left the house; no flexibility for last-minute changes of appetite. (Haven't you ever gone to the freezer for one nukable food, and decided to cook something else instead?)
For the pirce and complexity of this gizmo, I think I'd rather just nuke it when I'm ready for it.
> Imagine being able to leave a meal in the fridge for the day but then send a command over the internet to cook it so that it is ready when you get home.
Wasn't this possible before? Maybe not over the internet, but i could make a call on the mobile... it was called the wife.
Ohhhhhhhh, sorry!
Since microwaves don't take all that long to cook anyway, I don't see a huge need for it to start without me.
... it could just figure that out by itself and set itself accordingly.
But if you're going to the trouble of networking your microwave, how about having it do something useful.
Put a barcode reader on it so that when I pull out the box of frozen Mac and Cheese, I can scan it and have it lookup the correct cook cycle for an oven of that wattage.
Or for these things that require XX minutes on low then XX on high
A small LCD display could even display instructions at certain points in the cycle (beeping to get my attention) "Remove cover and stir, then press the START button to continue cooking."
How long until we are able to hack these things into decent webservers running Linux?
Business \Busi"ness\, n.;
A scam in which all people involved perceive as beneficial...
It takes 2 minutes to cool a meal.
It takes 15 minutes to connect via GPRS, type in the website, and navagte the menus. By that time you'll be home.
hmm... for fun I enjoy launching DDoS attacks against 127.87.42.5
Learn to cook for real, people. It's cheaper, sometimes healthy and definately more satisfying. Cooking is a lot like coding -- you follow instructions. Good cooking is a lot like hacking -- you follow the instructions and then do what feels right.
Lemme get you started:
Cajun Honey Shrimp and Sausage Linguine
2 servings
1/2 package linguine
2 serrano peppers, sliced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
3 T honey
3 T balsamic vinegar
3 tomatoes, chopped
1/4 c. fresh chopped basil or 2 T dried
1 link hot Italian sausage, casing removed and rolled into marble-sized balls
cream cheese
olive oil
12 21-25 ct. uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 c. sliced green onions
Boil water for pasta in a large pot. Heat saucepan to medium with a small amount of olive oil. Toss in the sausage balls, sauteing until they're browned (3 minutes or so). Add garlic, cook 1 minute. Add chopped tomatoes to pan and stir it up. Add the pasta to the pasta pot and begin cooking according to package directions (usually 11-12 minutes). Add peppers and basil to pan, stir together. Stir honey and balsamic vinegar into sauce. Add up to 1/4 c water from the boiling pasta pot (this will be dependant on how much water was in the tomatoes; you'll get a good feel for this after a few times making this dish). Continue to stir sauce periodically. When pasta is done, drain and return to pot with 2 or 3 T of olive oil - just enough to make it a little shiny. Mix in two spoonfulls of the sauce and mix well.
Add shrimp and green onions to sauce, cook 1-2 minutes, stirring a few times and flipping shimp in the sauce -- DO NOT OVERCOOK THE SHRIMP!
To serve, put pasta on a plate and top with sauce. Spoon 4 or 5 1/4 t. balls of cream cheese on top. Serve with wine; I highly recommend a Gewürztraminer.
Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.
As long as I can control the light so that I can make it flash on and off at random intervals. Or maybe connect it to my website hit counter. So when I get slashdoted my microwave goes supernova.
Invalid Checksum. Retrying.
>2 servings
Or about 1/3 of a serving for your normal Slashdot poster...
.sig wanted. Inquire within.
...and I pity the desperately lonely souls on their evening train ride home, glued to their cell phones and talking to their appliances.
Then again, they really arn't "top of the line" compaired to wintel laptops.
Nifty. But... do you think they could leave off the bigass LCD screen?
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
I guess my letter would not embarrass you since I have
no previous correspondence with you. The foreign
trade office of the Nigeria Chamber of Commerce and
Industry gave me your company's details. My request
however centers on mutual collaboration and your
unflinching support to confidentially set-up a
Joint-Venture outfit in your country. I hope I would
not regret approaching you in this matter.
I am at present working as the Chairman of the Task
Force that is reviewing all previous and present
contract awarded by various ministries in the country.
This appointment is from the office of the Presidency
in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Since the
appointment took effect from November, 2000. The Task
Force have jointly discovered some irregularities
comprising of over invoice contract values. In the
meantime, we have discovered about Nine Hundred and
Eighty Million United States Dollars
(US$980,000,000.00).
In our respective positions and status, this is an
opportunity to enrich
ourselves and our family, as a matter of fact, this is
a timely opportunity considering the economic
situation in this country, we have agreed to declare
only Nine Hundred and Fifty-Six Million United States
Dollars US$956,000,000.00) to the government while the
balance of (US$24,000,000.00)Twenty - Four Million
United States Dollars only will be remitted to your
private/company's account. We hope to establish a
Joint-Venture Business with you in your country. This
money if accepted by you will be used in financing the
cost of equity and other expenses for the take-off
of the Joint Business.We have set out the machinery to
enable us secure the effective remittance of this fund
to your account, if only you can work with us.It is
however noteworthy that this business is extremely
sensitive and must be kept confidential. furthermore,
30% of the money will be due
for you as compensation for your effort and
assistance, 10% for incidental expenses to be incurred
on the course of transferring this fund while the rest
goes into the Joint-Venture Project. Please note that
remittance
would be effective from 14 working days on receipt of
your Bank Account
details as follows:
1. Bank Name and Address
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3. Beneficiary's name and address
4. Private Telephone/Fax number for easy communication
and confidentiality of this transaction.
However, do endeavour to reply me if your capacity
does not meet up our
proposal so that I can further more negotiation.
Best Regards,
MAJOR C.O KEFFAS
Anything thats costs this much and poses a potential nuke threat to my beer is just not on.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
...the MACROwave!
ba da bing!
John
Wow, what a bargain! Only $2000 to make sure my microwave burritos are nice and toast by the time I come home from work.
Manipulate the moderator system! Mod someone as "overrated" today.
Marge, can you set the stove to cold?
Karma: Excellent^(-t/Tau), Tau=Wittiness/Trollishness
Is anyone actually so lazy that they can't set a timer to engage their microwave/oven? At first I thought they actually were making an "anti-microwave" oven - a device that cools food quickly. I haven't a clue how the technology would work, but it would be almost as revolutionary to cooking as the microwave was. If it's a cooled oven you're after, Whirlpool beat them too the punch. Available now, and I think it's around $2400... http://polara.whirlpool.com/
The Polara Refrigerated Range is the same, but is a convection oven rather than a microwave. It's got a real compressor, and is available in stores now!
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
This would also make more sense as a product since microwaves cook things quickly and ovens do not (but give much better flavor and texture). Since this thing doesn't come with a robot arm to prepare the food (or maybe that is why it costs $2000), it doesn't save you on preparation time, which ussually isn't a factor in microwave food, but is for oven food. The ability to prep a small roast, refridgerate it all day, and have the baking start so it is ready when you get home would be much better. Than, say, refridgerating a lean quisine all day and then microwaving it when you get home (if you started before you left work, it would be cold by the time you got home).
Galium Arsenide is the material of the future, and always will be.
I worked at a place with an environmental testing chamber, easily big enough to put in pizzas and crank up the heat, with liquid nitorgen bottles for cooling ... wasn't internet enabled, tho ...but this was 15 years ago ... wonder what they are like now?
Infuriate left and right
NetBSD? :)
What would you use this for? Leave your frozen pizza in there from the night before, and have it heat up as you drive home..
Cue Homer Simpson; "30 seconds!? But I'm hungry now!"
I guess you could put in a pound of beef or a chicken or something and then put it on defrost an hour or two before getting home.
Or, you could just sit the beef/chicken in the fridge (or in the shade on the counter) like people have been doing for a hundred years.
I can't for the life of me think of what this device does that warrants a 2000 dollar price tag.
The only thing its good at is costing a lot of money.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Now, when I leave work, I can have the microwave heat up the 2 minute burritos so I can eat them in the bathroom, instead of having to wait until I get out! Come on, how many of you cook full meals that take longer than 10 minutes in a microwave? While it is a novel idea (though not a new one), it seems like it would be a lot more useful if it were a convection oven or something, and even then, how often do you have roasted chicken or other large baked meals?
Fifty years ago, consumers were promised automation gadgets that would give us more free time. What do we have now? Remote controlled ovens to cook our food because we're too busy to cook it ourselves.
What have we come to?
I leave the house before the sun comes up every day. I wade through an hour's worth of traffic. I spend ten hours a day at my job, but only about twenty minutes at lunch, then wade through an hour's worth of traffic on the way home. It's dark when I get there. Weekends exist only to catch up on things I couldn't get done during the week.
I'm certain I'm not the only one out there that lives like this. Gadgets like this freezer/oven seem neat, but to me it suddenly throws into sharp contrast just what we're doing with our lives. Have we gotten so busy that we no longer have time to cook a meal? That's pretty fucking pitiful, if you ask me.
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
What if, say, this were left on too long and it started smoking? No one would be there to turn it off. Safety hazard if you ask me.
You can also get the companion applicance to this...the Polara range. It's a refridgerated oven. Apparently you can toss in your lasagna the night before and out comes a hot meal the next evening sans the food bourne illness. At $1799 for the cheap model, it is even cheaper the then the mentioned microwave. It however is not networked.
Now I don't need a sun-oven trailer to cook dinner while driving home! (Unfortunately now I have no excuse for leaving work at 3pm either.)
my blog
Doesn't this sound an awful lot like having a brake pedal that's also the gas pedal in a car? (but with an ethernet port!)
I can just see it now...
"This here is a brake pedal, that also runs the gas! Want to speed up? Push that pedal! Want to slow down? Push that same pedal! Want to speed up or slow down REMOTELY, when you aren't even in the car?!? Just load VNC, and click on the 'PEDAL' button on your screen!"
OOOOH! aaaaahhhhhh!
Some ideas are just too stupid to take seriously. Anybody remember the bar code reader that was supposed to revolutionize reading magazines?
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
Which would make it marginally more useful, since it takes longer to bake stuff than it does to microwave it.
The pictures are of a small thing about the size of a microwave, but the text of the article seems to indicate that it just heats things (the peltier heaters are just regular heat, right?)
Still not terribly useful, I mean, will it punch a hole in the bag and whatnot as well?
-Zipwow
I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.
Time saved using device 5 min /meal
Premium payed for device $1500
Probable lifetime of device 5 years
Times per week using device 2
Cost per heated meal = $1500/(5*52*2) ~= $3
Money per unit time saved $3/5 min = $60 / hour
Conclusion: device useful only for people with high hourly incomes, short on time, and frequent eaters of microwave food. Probably a small customer segment.
Tor
That's how much the internet enabled LG fridge cost....
/. Where the truth
This website is being revised and is temporarily unavailable
Yeah right....
More like "Oh shit we are being slashdotted. Take the site down!"
Maybe you should educate the morons of tomorrow so they'll stop believing the leaders of tomorrow. - Dogbert
I would think a real oven with the refrigeration and remote control would be more useful here... I mean who really cooks a meal that takes longer than 10 minutes in a microwave? However, it would be great to throw a meal in the oven for the day and have it start cooking an hour before you get home...
I'm of course glazing over the fact that any sort of appliance (especially one that can burn your house down) should not be accessible from the internet.
THE MAGIC WORDS ARE SQUEAMISH OSSIFRAGE
Rather a unit that could be preloaded with a roast or a lasagna or whatever and then remotely triggered via webphone or such would be much more useful, improve on my parent's 50 year old CookMaster with dual timers. I'd love to prep a main course the night before, or even a series of 'em over the weekend, put them into the combo unit in the am and start it all cooking 45 minutes or whatever before I expect to be home. Or if smoething comes up I just change my plans and not trigger the cook cycle, come home at midnight after a night out on the town to my meal still ready to be cooked the next day.
However as microwave ovens are usually used as quickie-cookers I don't see a 'net enabled one of them being a big hit; most of the long cooking action happens in a heat oven. Same with most other appliances there's not much advantage to remote operation. Blender, mixer, chopper, cooktop, toaster - I wanna be there for those to be on. The 'fridge & freezer? Well it'd be nice to get an alert if they suddenly start getting warm but beyond that who cares?
Inventory control? I could see some advantage to my pantry, 'fridge & freezer keeping track of what I have, hold old it is ("Time to replace the Paprika - it's just red dust now... The chicken needs to be used within 3 days, the milk is low, the lettuce on it's way out.") but really that's a local affair, no need to make it "Internet" just networkable. Indeed rather then entering all the information locally (never had any ambition to be a market clerk) I'd just as soon prefer my grocer email me a nicely formatted file every time I shop, dismiss with the long papertape version. That my kitchen app could use to make a good guess of what is going on in the larder and make suggestions, certainly a better investment then laser-scanners on every shelf and RF tags in the dairy goods.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
If I get a refrigerated microwave, the first thing I'll make is Jumbo Shrimp. :)
NYUK NYUK NYUK NYUK!
On the very first instance of network enabled appliances I have had exposure to, the humble VCR, the first thing it does is want to phone home to get permission to do anything.
I can only imagine having monthly bills arriving in my mailbox for every appliance I have.. washing machine, dryer, refrigerator, etc. And any attempt I make of divorcing them from the net would be considered criminal.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
Here is a buttload of information on solid-state cooling and other odd functions of peltier devices.
...the Finns have developed a refridgerated sauna for the Mediterranean market. Take a quick dip in the stiflingly hot ocean, or make angels in the baking hot sand, but be sure to run back to the welcoming chill of the ground breaking cold sauna, lest you be overcome by the merciless heat of the Mediterranean sun. The best part however, the Finns say, is that the proverbial beer in the sauna just gets better and better the slower you drink it.
"I have opinions of my own, strong opinions, but I don't always agree with them." -- George H. W. Bush
...it's that people aren't so much frantic as they are exhausted by the time they get home.
.. this shouldn't take very long at all. As soon as the onions are clear add the broth. Things go much smoother from here on.
.. this would be a good time to code, watch TV, grade papers, download porn, etc.
Simple potato soup recipie:
2 lbs potatoes, washed and diced
4 cups chicken broth or veggie broth
1 onion, peeled and diced
4 green onions, washed and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
butter, 1 tablespoon
olive oil, 1 tablespoon
frozen peas and/or corn
Put butter and olive oil into the bottom of a soup pot. Let it melt and move it around to coat the bottom of the pan. Add the onions, green onions and garlic. Let them cook until the odor escapes, but don't let the garlic or green onions burn
Add potatoes, bring to boil. Turn down the heat and let simmer for an hour or so
The potatoes should be pretty much falling apart by the time an hour passes. Stir until the potatoes pretty much disintegrate into mush. Add frozen peas or corn. Let cook for another couple of minutes, just long enough to let the peas or corn thaw out. Serve hot.
I served this stuff in mugs, with lots of salt and pepper. It's a great way to get fricking fat, so be careful.
Finding God in a Dog
are those the ones made by the top secret military intelligence program, derived from jumbo shrimp dna stored in plastic glassess ?
errr....umm...*whooosh* *whoosh* Is this thing on ?
This is a great press release reprint. I wasn't aware that the BBC was counting that as journalism now too. Some choice quotes: "Embedded web technology developed by NASA" (and countless bored college students)... "Doesn't contain a computer" (as long as you define computer as an x86 based PC with a VGA monitor). Give me a break. When MIT students internet enabled their soda machines in the early '90s it was an original idea. Now it's been done before, and they're applying it to a fairly non-useful device (you can really only cook one thing in a microwave at a time).
Besides, people have been leaving their stuff in the oven on time-bake for ages, why do we suddenly need to refridgerate it for the whole day before the heat kicks in now? Can't we just have an internet enabled time-bake feature, and skip this silly refridgeration.
1. Get a microwave.
2. Get an LCD.
3. Place LCD on top of microwave.
4. ???
5. Profit!
toast.jpg
Get a girlfriend, msg her on AIM and tell her to have dinner on the table for you when you get home
-_-_-
There are 0x40000000 types of people: those who understand 32-bit IEEE 754 floating point, and those who don't.
In the paraphrased words of that gret group 3rd Base: The took a story and they duped it...they duped it.
My sig of choice is Marlboro
How long until someone builds a beowulf cluster of these, capable of microwaving *huge* numbers of AOL CD's in record amounts of time.
I mean, really, who gives a FUCK anyway? Jesus give me a break. Can you say .com blowout?
About as bad as the US military spending $1bil on computerized butt plugs.....
Roomba
Dunno if they'd start a fire or could be made out of less microwave-hostile material, but RFID tags would be even better, because the microwave could read the tag without barcode reading problems.
Make the RFID sturdy enough to withstand being microwaved and give it some kind of temperature probe ability and not only would you get an accurate time auto-set into the microwave, but you could have the food cooked to the ideal serving temperature as well.
what this thing can do if the link to it is HAXX0RED!?
Two words:
Kitchen Fire
Virutally every cook book, and even packaging pre-prepared foods say not to leave the cooking food unattended. Now they're not only giving you a way to not attend it, but to not be there when it starts.
Here's a few references to read before we start:
A few fatally famous Software Bugs,
The Therac-25 Radiation Overdose accidents from 1975 to 1987.
and
Microsoft makes hackers obsolete
---> Worst case scenerio 1:
Hacker A finds this device. He manages to figure out how to get into it.
Victim B is someone at home preparing to use the microwave. They open the door. Hacker A sees the indication that the door is open, and activates the oven at 100% power.
---> Worse Case Scenerio 2:
User A is driving home, expecting that the frozen dinner is still in the oven. He activates the oven 15 minutes prior to his arrival home.
Kid B is home early, sees the frozen dinner in the oven, pulls it out, and puts in popcorn instead. Due to a programming error, the oven activates while he's still rearranging foods, and the door is open.
---> Worse Case Scenerio 3:
User A put frozen dinner in oven before he left home. Being it was 5am, he wasn't thinking very well.
User A remembers on his way home, that he put food in the oven, and activates it while driving.
User A forgot to take the food out of the box, or that part of the packaging contained foil.
User A comes home to a house fire which has been going for approx 15 minutes.
I'm not sure I like this invention. I'm no technophobe, but this sounds kind of dangerous.
Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
and your roast is toast.
- PETA
Robots are slowly coming down in price. With all the innovations in bipedal robot locomotion, it will only be a matter of time before robots like the Asimo are common place.
I only see this peltier oven as a short term, limited lifecycle product. It's only a matter of time before I can go to the web interface of my Asimo at home, and tell it to monitor the GPS location of my car as I drive home from work, take a few El Monteray Burrito's out of the freezer 5 minutes before I get home, place them in the microwave and nuke them for 3 minutes. Maybe have it spread some grated cheese on top after 2 minutes of cooking, and BAM robotic cooking.
No I'm serious folks, this isn't even trying to go for a funny on this one. Robots will make this thing obselete.
I just bought my microwave yesterday and it's already out of date??? Why do I even bother?
Still hoping for that George Foreman USB Grill to come out :-)
$2000??? The iFrill was only $100!
How Stupid!
As a self confessed wannabe housewife I am sorry to report that most conventional ovens offer this kind of delayed cooking action. Albiet, one has to be organised enought to put the lamb roast in before heading to work.
It seems great, but who can remember to put the disgusting frozen TV dinner in the thing in the first place.
Honestly, the best use of the internet is ordering Pizza.
Kissy-pie
LaQuisha
I think internet appliances will take off. Here are some examples:
what about setting all the clocks in the house from one room?
what about starting the coffee maker from the comfort of your own bed (or maybe setting to wait another 30 minutes...)
Just because these appliances can be accessed from across the globe doesn't mean they have to be.
This could be a new way to start the car to warm up on a cold day, turn on the tv with your internet enabled sofa (since who can keep track of a remote anyway).
Left the iron on? Internet enabled electrical sockets will fix that!
etc.
I mean, its cooled, its internet enabled, makes snacks. If it runs quake, it's my new lan-party machine.
And this long long speach comes to one point... That-- OOOO! QUARTER!
... USB controlled George Foreman Grill!
Case in point, those voice recognition directories that companies use to reduce there customer service costs.
Oh and toasters that can be plugged into the microwave.
Okay, let's take a look at what's in this thing. It's got some kind of web server capability, big whoop, and a cooling unit, and it can control the heating system of the microwave. I suspect you would need either two or three pins to control these devices. The xport has three control pins.
What else do you need to support this? Just a little bit of electronic crap to tie the xport into some higher-power signals, perhaps relays or mosfets, hopefully optically isolated, to protect the $50 xport device, which is probably the most expensive part of the equation. Then you just stick some peltier junctions with heat sinks and ball bearing fans (brushless would be nice) inside the box, and a power supply to drive the xport and the peltier junctions.
Total parts cost: $150 to $250, depending on how nice you want the heat sinks to be. You could also use some big copper coolers without fans, which would cost more but last longer. This would be my preferred solution. I think even I could whip this up in about a week.
If anyone would like to sponsor me in such a project, please paypal me $250. I have a "half-pint" microwave I can use for prototyping :)
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Well, we sure as hell ain't slashdot but. .
I HEREBY ANNOUNCE THE REED AND WRIGHT NEW GEN APPLIANCE CONTEST!
This is a contest to build a combination refrigerator/oven that is remotely addressable, compact, and scriptable.
Submit entries to me, with specs, costs, pictures, explanation, and a one hundred word summary.
Costs are judged on the basis of repeatability. "We happened to have a SubZero around so that was free" don't fly.
Extra points for:
Using a heat exchanger to cool using outdoor air during winter time
Using readily available materials
Clarity and usability of instructions
High usable area/total area ratio
Energy efficiency
Providing a downloadable open source driver
Using readily available surplus parts, such as Palm OS or Newton PDAs
Using SMS or other low-bandwidth, high robustness signal means
Ease of cleaning
Ease of repair
Points will be deducted for:
Using Windows (duh!)
Excessive damage to the shell of the microwave
Requiring excessive complexity, let alone coding, by the user
Requiring hard to obtain tools
Pressure cooker, convection oven, and other heating system variants will be considered
Please put fridge contest in the subject line of your entry.
The winner will be featured on our site, have their proposal introduced to key environmental policymakers, and, if we can pull it off, get introductions to venture capitalists and/or possible manufacturing partners. The winner will also be helped, if they want, to either have the project open-sourced, or to create business plan to start making the things.
If we can swing it, there will also be a cash prize.
The deadline for entries is February 1st, 2004. Results will be announced on May 15th, 2004.
I'll put up a more detailed and final version by the end of the month in my journal and on Reedandwright.com. That will, *bleh!* probably be delayed by talking to *ech!* lawyers first as well as trying to track down co-sponsors and some prize money.
May the building begin!
Rustin
Data is the lever, rigor the fulcrum, brains the force that drives it all.
If you want to keep something fresh - really fresh - use a microwave instead of a cabinet. The seal is tighter. Then there is the fridge...
If you have all of your frozen meals in those little plastic cylinders that they use at the bank, you could pick your poison, WHOOSH, it gets tubed to the microwave, cooks it, and then when it's done WHOOOSH! have it delivered to the little port that comes out by your computer! If done properly it could even the clean and reload the little cylinder that it delivers your food in!
All you will have to do then is mount all of this up in your fully networked bathroom and you will never have to move again.
Like arts? Like cheesy little Indie mags? Check out www.artwerkmag.com, and don't laugh at the bad coding please.
Finally something useful! I bet it even keep things cool when you want them to. Oh the possibilities....
The Political Programmer
A companion to StupidaMouse(TM), StupidKey(TM) etc...d f
http://www.dumbentia.com/pdflib/stupida.p
VKh
Freeze-dried water tablets.
The sad thing is, internet-enabled refrigerated microwave ovens will probably sell big.
... for the John Varley reference in the department line, though.
"Consider yourself a member of a virtual corporation with Mr. Torvalds as your Chief Executive Officer." - Linux Advocac
I want one that will super-chill a warm six pack before I get home. I can make one of these for a hundred buckazoids (plus labour).
I spoke at length with this guy at CES this year, and his products are quite cool (no pun intended). Not only do they make a microwave, but also an oven with the same functionality (i.e. refrigeration and networked control. Pretty amazing stuff. Keeps your food cool until cooking starts, and you can tell remotely when the oven has been opened (as the CEO of the company told me, that's so he can tell that his aged mother is actually eating the food w/o having to physically check in with her). I want one of each.
Now let me get this straight. The inventor came up with the refrigerated microwave because his family was eating too much fast food in order to accommodate their son's busy baseball schedule. The few minutes it takes to nuke up a dinner in the normal way would not fit into their schedule. Life was so hectic that during the 6 years he spent developing the microwave it never occurred to him to spend 15 minutes loading up a crockpot and a bread machine in the morning.
"The oven provides you with a method of having home-cooked meals when you want," said Mr Mansbery. "You are giving people back their life, with the option to provide healthy meals."
Are we sick yet of products that give us back our lives? I'm kind of hoping Mansbery is right when he says, "This will be the start of the future." Maybe this will make people realize how stupid and contrived the whole idea of the Internet Kitchen is. After they stop laughing, maybe they will realize how much money they have been spending on solutions that are really just solutions to the problem of how to convince them to spend more money. Maybe they'll start thinking that if they spent a little less time working and a little more time on their lives, their lives wouldn't cost so much and they won't have to work so hard.
I'm thinking I want to have an eye, or at least an ear on a microwave while it's cooking... how long is it going to be before someone puts a package dinner, wrapped completely in foil, into the microwave, starts it cooking while they're on the way home, and arrives to smoke billowing out of their kitchen?
You'd want these things to have some pretty good safety mechanisms, otherwise the instances of housefires is just going to skyrocket if these ever become mainstream.
I currently work for a white goods manufacturer (ok I'm sorry I'll leave now). The marketing guff goes so much deeper than you realise, here at 'Advanced engineering' >snigger we do the typical circuit and embedded SW design and other engineering functions. Ocassionally we have ideas, theres not much else to do in a day so why not. When you take a new idea to marketing you get a response along this line. marketing - "oh wow thats really cool, how many of these things get sold a year at the moment" engineer - "well none, we just thought it up" marketing - "so theres no market for it then" engineer - "its a new market" marketing - "thats still 100% of nothing" Imagine who gets it in the neck when company X comes out with the same thing 6 months later - us for not seeing this coming. Excuse me I have to go and take one of my stress pills now...
Surely large scale food processing is already extensively controlled with embedded systems and the like...or am I missing something?
"You know, it's at times like this when I'm trapped in a Vogon
airlock with a man from Betelgeuse and about to die of asphyxiation in
deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me
when I was young!"
"Why, what did she tell you?"
"I don't know, I didn't listen."
-- Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"
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