On 9/23/2011 5:24 PM, HeyBub wrote:
harry wrote:
On Sep 23, 4:24 pm, Doug
wrote:
Yes, folks, that's right. Sears just sent me an email titled "New
garage door opener with Internet connectivity". The web site linked
in the message says "UNPRECEDENTED CONTROL AND PEACE OF MIND.
Finally, a garage door opener you can control from thousands of
miles away."

WTF?

Looks to me like a solution in desperate search for a problem.

There are GEEKS out there that think the solution to every problem
lies in a computer.
The geeks will buy.
They are the worlds most dopey people.

You bet. Sometime back I read about some college students who hooked up the
dorm's soda dispensing machine to the internet. It could tell you in a nonce
whether your favorite beverage was available, thereby possibly saving you a
trip down the hall.

As a practical application, such a device could save a stop for the
soda-machine refilling person. Heck, I bet the concept could even be
expanded to, oh, gumball machines.


More likely, the college geeks just hacked into the onboard web site it
already had. Most pop/commercial vending machines the past 10 years or
so have (at least as a factory option) on onboard web page, and LAN or
polling dialup connection. In addition to calling home when it needs a
refill, it also includes tilt switch and power-has-been-off and other
alarm capabilities. That machine that sells ice cream sandwiches? Power
goes off, you want the route guy out there pronto, to empty/clean it.
They ain't fancy web pages- similar to the one your home router probably
has.

--
aem sends...