There was a symbol of a "waving hand" over a sensor. Having marveled at the ingenuity of German engineering, I couldn't wait to see what happened.
When I waved my hand over the sensor, a rectangle of plastic came out from the wall over the seat. The seat began to rotate as a small spigot sprayed a cleaning fluid on the seat. A sponge inside the opposite side of the rectangle wiped the chemical off. (It's been a couple of years, so I'm trying to remember the exact details of how it worked.)
Those danged German engineers! What will they think of next!
I first saw a soda vending machine similar to this in Germany. A little elevator moved up, a robot arm gently pushed the soda onto the elevator, and it brought it down to the door. I chuckled at the ingenuity, but I really started to appreciate it after coming back and using the soda machine at church. It unceremoniously dumps it down the shoot. When you open it, it, well.... SHOOTS!!!
That soda machine ranked up there with the self-cleaning toilet seat for pure engineering coolness! Third runner up was the radar that told you how close to the curb you were. That was the first time I had ever seen that!
Those danged German engineers! They think of EVERYTHING!!!
We are a Christian homeschool family with a teenage boy (15) and girl (13). We get into arguments with our daughter sometimes about her modesty in her dress. She dresses like most of her friends from public school, which usually isn't too bad. But sometimes, she'll get a pair of shorts or a t-shirt that shows WAY TOO MUCH! I sent her a link to this site, and threatened that we'd get all of her new clothes from here unless she uses a little more discretion!
LOL! I can't wait until she sees it! That should solve THAT problem!
I had just gotten Charter Cable. I had been using a ReplayTV box, which had the 30 second skip feature, and some other features I liked (like the ability to download shows to my Mac). But, I figured I'd get rid of one box, and switch to Charter's PVR, which was made by Motorola.
I lost some features, but it seemed to be better integrated, so I was fairly happy. Then, one day, I punched my "30 second skip" button, only to skip ahead 15 minutes!!! I was like, huh?!? So, I rewound the 15 minutes at 8x speed, to try the button again. I skipped another 15 minutes! After a few times to make sure I wasn't dreaming, I called Charter to tell them my box was broken. They replied, "No, it's not broken. We turned that feature off remotely at the request of the advertisers, because they say they are losing too much money from people skipping their commercials."
Eventually, realizing that $60 a month for very little good content and a remotely-sabotageable PVR wasn't worth it. I went back to limited basic cable. The tech who unhooked me said, "Dang, you are the ONLY person that I've ever seen get off the 'crack' and return a PVR!"
I now have MythTV and limited basic cable. If I search hard enough, I can find movies and programs worth watching, after I transcode them to remove commercials!
Gosh, you know, I love the Korean people to death! My wife's family and I get along great. They think the world of me, and I love them.
But, I tell you what. They just have a whole different way of thinking than we do. They don't do anything half way, whether working, spoiling you to death (our family and friends are always stuffing me full of yummy food!), playing, or getting revenge! I'm not sure what the Korean word for "moderation" is, or whether they even have one! When they are nice, they are the nicest people in the whole world. But don't tick them off!
I'm an American with a Korean wife. I speak Korean, and my wife, kids and I watch Korean TV shows together. We especially like the game shows. The game shows mostly have popular stars as participants.
Certain participants are so popular, that if a not-so-popular star insults a popular one (even during a game called "Dangyon Haji", or "Of Course", where the OBJECT of the game is to insult the other person until they quit), that not-so-popular one will get bombarded with hate e-mail, hate-posts, and sometimes they even get bombarded by physical objects! Their popularity drops dramatically. Some stars have been known to lose intentionally to avoid earning the wrath and ire of the "fans."
I don't think this has anything to do with the fact that they "teched-up" rapidly before online etiquette was formed. This has more to do with emotion-driven Korean culture. The word "fan" comes from "fanatic," and that is what some of the "fans" really are!
Slashdot Mirror
I saw one of these in Germany.
There was a symbol of a "waving hand" over a sensor. Having marveled at the ingenuity of German engineering, I couldn't wait to see what happened.
When I waved my hand over the sensor, a rectangle of plastic came out from the wall over the seat. The seat began to rotate as a small spigot sprayed a cleaning fluid on the seat. A sponge inside the opposite side of the rectangle wiped the chemical off. (It's been a couple of years, so I'm trying to remember the exact details of how it worked.)
Those danged German engineers! What will they think of next!
Yes, it has a soda and candy (empty most of the time) in the fellowship hall / youth room.
I first saw a soda vending machine similar to this in Germany. A little elevator moved up, a robot arm gently pushed the soda onto the elevator, and it brought it down to the door. I chuckled at the ingenuity, but I really started to appreciate it after coming back and using the soda machine at church. It unceremoniously dumps it down the shoot. When you open it, it, well.... SHOOTS!!!
That soda machine ranked up there with the self-cleaning toilet seat for pure engineering coolness! Third runner up was the radar that told you how close to the curb you were. That was the first time I had ever seen that!
Those danged German engineers! They think of EVERYTHING!!!
dochood
Hey, thanks for the site!
We are a Christian homeschool family with a teenage boy (15) and girl (13). We get into arguments with our daughter sometimes about her modesty in her dress. She dresses like most of her friends from public school, which usually isn't too bad. But sometimes, she'll get a pair of shorts or a t-shirt that shows WAY TOO MUCH! I sent her a link to this site, and threatened that we'd get all of her new clothes from here unless she uses a little more discretion!
LOL! I can't wait until she sees it! That should solve THAT problem!
dochood
I had this happen to me once.
I had just gotten Charter Cable. I had been using a ReplayTV box, which had the 30 second skip feature, and some other features I liked (like the ability to download shows to my Mac). But, I figured I'd get rid of one box, and switch to Charter's PVR, which was made by Motorola.
I lost some features, but it seemed to be better integrated, so I was fairly happy. Then, one day, I punched my "30 second skip" button, only to skip ahead 15 minutes!!! I was like, huh?!? So, I rewound the 15 minutes at 8x speed, to try the button again. I skipped another 15 minutes! After a few times to make sure I wasn't dreaming, I called Charter to tell them my box was broken. They replied, "No, it's not broken. We turned that feature off remotely at the request of the advertisers, because they say they are losing too much money from people skipping their commercials."
Eventually, realizing that $60 a month for very little good content and a remotely-sabotageable PVR wasn't worth it. I went back to limited basic cable. The tech who unhooked me said, "Dang, you are the ONLY person that I've ever seen get off the 'crack' and return a PVR!"
I now have MythTV and limited basic cable. If I search hard enough, I can find movies and programs worth watching, after I transcode them to remove commercials!
Gosh, you know, I love the Korean people to death! My wife's family and I get along great. They think the world of me, and I love them.
But, I tell you what. They just have a whole different way of thinking than we do. They don't do anything half way, whether working, spoiling you to death (our family and friends are always stuffing me full of yummy food!), playing, or getting revenge! I'm not sure what the Korean word for "moderation" is, or whether they even have one! When they are nice, they are the nicest people in the whole world. But don't tick them off!
I'm an American with a Korean wife. I speak Korean, and my wife, kids and I watch Korean TV shows together. We especially like the game shows. The game shows mostly have popular stars as participants.
Certain participants are so popular, that if a not-so-popular star insults a popular one (even during a game called "Dangyon Haji", or "Of Course", where the OBJECT of the game is to insult the other person until they quit), that not-so-popular one will get bombarded with hate e-mail, hate-posts, and sometimes they even get bombarded by physical objects! Their popularity drops dramatically. Some stars have been known to lose intentionally to avoid earning the wrath and ire of the "fans."
I don't think this has anything to do with the fact that they "teched-up" rapidly before online etiquette was formed. This has more to do with emotion-driven Korean culture. The word "fan" comes from "fanatic," and that is what some of the "fans" really are!