The Fridge of the Future

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Posted by CmdrTaco on Friday September 3, 1999 @06:09AM from the waste-of-money dept.

oooooops hooked us up with linkage to amuse your brain on a friday. This is a new fridge That has an embedded computer that allows you to manipulate it all sorts of ways. Very strange.

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Honey, we've run out of milk! by messman · 1999-09-02 22:18 · Score: 3

Dear Honey,

I am sending you this email because I opened the
fridge and noticed we've run out of milk. I tried
to buy it from http://www.peapod.com/ but their
server was down. Or maybe our browser in the
fridge is not working since I stepped on the
Ethernet cable when I was preparing coffee.
Re:Screen Fridge by Accipiter · 1999-09-03 05:53 · Score: 2

....Which brings up the problem of porting Linux to it. I don't think this thing has any kind of a floppy drive, or a CDROM drive. As for input, the web site says it uses a "virtual keyboard" via the touchscreen. That being the case, this monolith has an embedded system, and runs either a proprietary OS, or Windows CE. With WinCE, it would be a matter of implementing LinuxCE once completed. The only problem with that is, it doesn't look like there is much of a desktop connectivity option. As far as I know, the only link to the outside world this has is a phone line.

-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

--
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't. :P)
Honey... by irrelevant · 1999-09-02 23:03 · Score: 4

Did you leave the fridge plugged into the net all day?
Re:privacy by kennylives · 1999-09-03 07:18 · Score: 2

Agreed. I'm a bit creeped out though by the information in the FAQ on this beast, under "How much will it cost?"
When we go to market with this product we may try non-traditional business models such as lowering the price to consumers in return for displaying banners on their fridge doors.

Uh... Thanks, but no thanks.
More and more, we're being bombarded with advertising: "Try this, it'll change your life" or "Buy this, it'll make you sexy!" or "You've just GOT to have one of these!!" Can't turn on the TV, the radio, or fire up a web browser or email without being solicited by someone to "Click Here!" or "Buy now!!" For fsck's sake, enough already! I can't even get in my car and drive out to the country without seeing billboard after billboard beckoning me to buy more stuff!
The last think I want to do is actually invite even more advertising into my home with one of these monsters... Ugh...

--
Where the value of X-Mailer: is the true measure of a man...
Screen Fridge by Accipiter · 1999-09-02 21:22 · Score: 2

Apparently, out are the days of the Post-It-Note, and in are the times for leaving E-Mail for family members on your friggin Refrigerator. (Or hell, have you ever seen a Post-It-Note that can record video?)

Oh, and you can also use this nifty toy to send Internet E-Mail, and browse too. (Tell me, who the hell is going to stand in front of the refrigerator for 2 hours surfing the net when there is a computer in the next room? Don't even say "well, they might not HAVE a computer!" Please....If they have one of these things, they have a computer.)

Well, we've moved in to the Computer/Kitchen appliance era. Now, instead of putting up your kid's artwork with magnets, you get to scan them in and make a slideshow.

Don't try to use the magnets. You'll distort the screen.

-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?

--
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't. :P)
1. Re:Screen Fridge by Enry · 1999-09-02 21:30 · Score: 2
  
  There actually is a practical use for this. My wife and I both love to cook, and have about 100,000 cookbooks. If there was a machine study enough to keep in the kitchen and serve up recipes, that would be worth a lot.
  
  Better would be "show me dishes based on (list a few ingredients)" and it runs off and lists a variety of recipes that match it.
2. Re:Screen Fridge by Accipiter · 1999-09-02 21:37 · Score: 2
  
  Yeah. I'm not disputing the practical uses for it. (god knows an onscreen Recipe system is a good idea, which is why I helped put a computer in my mother's kitchen.)
  
  I'm just ragging on the useless parts. :)
  
  -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
  
  --
  -- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
  (If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't. :P)
3. Re:Screen Fridge by Jburkholder · 1999-09-02 21:38 · Score: 2
  
  Surf the web standing in front of my fridge? Nope.
  Get and send e-mail? Not unless I'm sending a shopping list to my wife at work with what we're out of.
  Food management? For sure! I've thought about this before where it would be cool if there was an easy way to keep a list of what was in my fridge, and also keep a list of what I need on the next shopping trip. Sure, I can kind of do this with a dry-erase board - but the idea of running a a database and spreadsheet application over Linux on my refrigerator is an appealing idea!
  Now let me have recepies and cookbooks and nutritional data handy and I would find this very interesting.
  Again, sure you could do this with a laptop that doesn't have to be imbedded in the appliance, buteventually when imbedded devices are cheap and ubiquitous (sp?), why not have interesting application ideas already worked out and refined?
4. Re:Screen Fridge by rde · 1999-09-03 12:36 · Score: 2
  
  Tell me, who the hell is going to stand in front of the refrigerator for 2 hours surfing the net
  If they put the screen on the outside, no-one. But I for one have spent days on end accidentally defrosting the fridge by standing there with the door open wondering what to make for dinner. If I surfed for recipes at the same time, I could not only have used those hours productively, I might even end up eating something else.
  But damn, I love cheese sandwiches.
What's next...? by DocJohn · 1999-09-02 21:27 · Score: 2

First we got the computer hassock, now the screen fridge.

Can the Xeon Toothbrush(tm) be far behind? ("More power to get to those nasty teeth in the back!")

How about the Alpha Door(tm)? ("Not only can I open automatically, but I can finish the SETI work in a week or two.")

The Linux Loveseat(tm)? ("Open source couch potato.")

The list is endless.
This had to be said.. by BugMaster+ChuckyD · 1999-09-02 21:30 · Score: 3

im sorry but I just can't resist. Such a fridge truly would be "a cold, calculating machine"
Re:What's next...? A Linux Bat House ! by Jim+Buzbee · 1999-09-02 21:44 · Score: 2

I've got the only Linux Powered Bat House in the world.
And it's on the Internet here
What, I'm the first to ask?? by Enoch+Root · 1999-09-02 21:46 · Score: 3

Yes, but can it run Linux? :)
And such a beauty would surely become my "Open Source" of beer!

"There is no surer way to ruin a good discussion than to contaminate it with the facts."
Screen Fridge by dkh2 · 1999-09-02 21:47 · Score: 2
I saw a story on a similar future product from another company (GE?) earlier this year. Theirs was supposed to work as a networked client. The assumption was that you would set it up as an access point to your household network. As I recall there were references to the thought that it would run a "highly customizable OS, such as Linux" with an interface to a household server. The server would then provide access to all other services such as
- E-mail
- WWW Surfing
- Recipe & menu wares
- Any other software you can server over a wire.
Looks like this is where household appliances are headed. Ultimately, you'll be able to have your refrigerator tell the oven how to cook the turkey and digitally page you on your family to call them to dinner.
Set up an inventory controll package and you can even have it generate your shopping list.
Build in speakers, microphone, and camera and you have a ready-made speaker-phone with video conferencing, and you can play Netradio while you work.

D. Keith Higgs
CWRU. Kelvin Smith Library
--
My office has been taken over by iPod people.
Re:Beowulf cluster of these... by Jburkholder · 1999-09-02 21:53 · Score: 2

...and you could overclock the hell out of them with the abundance of refrigerant available!
(god i'm bored today!)
A Real Application by Anonymous Coward · 1999-09-03 01:12 · Score: 2
Anyone with a moderately complicated home life will agree with me that the right application for something like this is calendaring and coordination. Where and when does everyone have to be picked up, dropped off, etc. What birthdays are coming up? When is the big party? What is the to-do list for the family?
It has all of the right attributes:
1. It is centrally located
2. Everyone is going to look at it regularly
3. It is at eye level
4. It is a flat, vertical surface. It won't be buried in other clutter.
I cannot see using it to monitor the contents of the refrigerator for reorders. Seems like a big waste of time to me. "Sniffing" for spoiled food could be good. Honestly, most of the applications that I can think of are really not refrigerator-related. It would be too hard to use the dishwasher-mounted model, though :-).
Also, we could mount a camera on it, facing the kitchen, and see who really ate all of the leftovers.
Jeff;
That's It!!! by JoeyJoJo · 1999-09-02 21:58 · Score: 2

No longer must we search for cooling solutions for our PC's...gone are the days of 12 and 15 fans.

We can use our computer refrigerator as an overclocking beast in our dens!

And we can even put beer in it!

Joe
Re:What's next...? A Linux Bat House ! by John+Campbell · 1999-09-02 22:05 · Score: 2

So, uh... have you actually got any bats in that bat house yet?