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Software Vending Machines
anubis__ writes "CNN details a sort-of software vending machine named 'SoftwareToGo' that CompUSA is testing out in their Seattle, WA, Dallas, TX, and San Francisco, CA stores. The upside to this vending machine is that your CD is burned when you request it, so the latest patches available for the software you're buying might already be included with the installation. The downside, like anything requiring some level of technical aptitude in the US, is that the machines are avoided by the masses of shoppers." This has been in the works for a year or so.
You know those little stickers...
"This machine will not release free product"
Then a little picture of the machine falling on a stick figure. Maybe it'll be a Penguin?
There's just no coin slot to insert your payment.
I won't use one of these until they're named "v3nd0-ju4r3z" in garish neon lettering.
One might refer to Microsoft as a Vending Machine.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The story is a dupe, the topic is boring, the facts weren't checked. WE GET IT!!
lugging all that change.
How many quarters does it take to buy MS Orfice?
Sweet informative mod.
now instead of kicking a machine for your $0.65 snack getting stuck, you can get really mad when your $60 game gets stuck!
Which is an interesting parallel to the main shortcoming of Usenet as a delivery system for sexual titillation.
I, for one, welcome our new software vending machine overlords.
"The upside to this vending machine is that your CD is burned when you request it,..."
So...I gotta wait 4 minutes before I find out the machine has taken my money and now the disc is jammed in the damned chute!!!!!
Ummmm...I think I'll pass on this one.
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
How is that any different than the current model:
1. Hack into
2. ???
3. Profit
Imagine the kids opening up a generic, burned CD from CompUSA instead of the flashy box with screenshots. You can forget riding home in the backseat of the car and ripping the plastic off to scour the manual. I guess you can stare at the white CD sleeve and get lost in the Times New Roman font displaying the name of the software printed on the front.
...but as other people noted in the last thread, you miss out on some of the other other niceties. For one, I hate "online" manuals. You can take your PDFs and stuff 'em. I treasure my spiral-bound manual for Neverwinter Nights.
You read manuals?
1. Grandma Notech (get it? no tech. stay with me here) needs to buy an operating system
2. Grandma Notech sees how expensive Windows is, and instead chooses a linux distribution instead
3. Grandma decides she likes the logo of Gentoo better than all the others and buys it
4. Grandma boots up Gentoo and attempts to install it
5. Grandma's head explodes. Now there's no more grandma
6. ???
7. Profit
Etiquette is etiquette. He kills his mother but he can't wear grey trousers.
you don't get many repeat customers that way though
Wow, was that hilarious. Whew, I can't stop laughing. Its just as funny as when I first heard it two years ago.