Comment On Hand Dryer Crashed

Actually, the hand dryer is a great idea.

With all the talk about energy efficiency, why not put the warm air vented from the PC's power supply to good use? One person's waste product is another person's design goal.

If all UPS had was an address with a PO box or military (APO/FPO) address that they can't legally deliver to, what's wrong with sending a postcard to ask what address the recipient would like their package sent to?

Corporate IT really shouldn't have dismissed Melinda's call. She discovered an error in the future! Time-travelling UAT FTW!

I don't think it finished printing "2007"

CAPTCHA: cogo

snoofle:

Ok, I need to ask... *why* does a hand dryer need an operating system?

Advertising. It doesn't as such need an OS, but it was probably the simplest way the designers could come up with for displaying animated advertising where people are going to see it.

yes the wtf is that there is a PC in the hand dryer!

snoofle:

Ok, I need to ask... *why* does a hand dryer need an operating system?

I doubt it runs the dryer itself. It's to display advertising. They have screens over some urinals too.

Advertisers get a captive audience but one has to be careful else your customers will associate your product with toilets and peeing...

The real WTF is the date format "10/12/20". The internet is international, so please use ISO 8601 whenever you can.

YYYY-MM-DD is the one and only format or do you have another interpretation for nnnn-nn-nn?

And BTW: The day has 24 hours and not just 12 and the number of hours should change significantly at midnight.

Leo Davidson:

one has to be careful else your customers will associate your product with toilets and peeing...

Microsoft might as well buy the ad space then -- many of us already associate them with toilets and peeing (us off)....

Leo Davidson:

snoofle:

Ok, I need to ask... *why* does a hand dryer need an operating system?

I doubt it runs the dryer itself. It's to display advertising. They have screens over some urinals too.

Advertisers get a captive audience but one has to be careful else your customers will associate your product with toilets and peeing...

I had a similar experience in a McDonalds in Zurich last summer. As you approach the urinal, you hear an electircal *clang-bzzt* as the relay switches on and it illuminats a poster on the top of the urinal bowl.

Its amazing how unsettling it is peeing on something that has mains power running through it.

I think it was advertising a holiday company, but I didn't really want to hang around to check it out.

Leo Davidson:

snoofle:

Ok, I need to ask... *why* does a hand dryer need an operating system?

I doubt it runs the dryer itself. It's to display advertising. They have screens over some urinals too.

Advertisers get a captive audience but one has to be careful else your customers will associate your product with toilets and peeing...

Sooooo what's next? A sensor that detects when you're done peeing, reaches out and shakes-you?
... New from Microsoft: the Auto Weenie Whacker - powered by Windows Technology!

That Al Gore picture is kind of legit ... It's from the Futurama movie (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0471711/) where Al Gore plays himself doing his save the earth campaign.

im sure it displays ads, although that answer makes me kinda sick

Now: you put your hands under the dryer and is asks:
Are you sure you want to dry your hands?

10 years from now:
you put your hands under and a paperclip comes out and days:
I see you are drying to dry your hands by holding them under the dryer...

After installing BSD on a toaster, they tried a hand dryer http://www.theinquirer.net/en/inquirer/news/2005/08/11/toaster-pc-runs-bsd-and-makes-toast

notme:

snoofle:

Ok, I need to ask... *why* does a hand dryer need an operating system?

Advertising. It doesn't as such need an OS, but it was probably the simplest way the designers could come up with for displaying animated advertising where people are going to see it.

Furthermore, give it a touch-screen and it can be FULLY INTERACTIVE.
Yet another reason to spend time in the RestRoom!!

I can't read the error on the hand dryer? It's not "Keyboard not present. Hit F1 to continue" I hope...

knarf:

The real WTF is the date format "10/12/20". The internet is international, so please use ISO 8601 whenever you can.

Did you notice that none of those values could even *represent* the current year? If may be referring to the 1920s or earlier, or maybe 2010 or later, but I doubt it.

Ciaran:

Did you notice that none of those values could even *represent* a year that's not already passed? If may be referring to the 1920s or earlier, but I doubt it.

I think someone already mentioned it, but it is quite possibly a matter of truncation (i.e. 10/20/2007 but the "07" got snipped).

snoofle:

Ok, I need to ask... *why* does a hand dryer need an operating system?

50 years ago: stack of paper towels
40 years ago: roll of paper towels with tear-bar
30 years ago: electric dryer with proximity sensor
20 years ago: electric dryer with proximity sensor and timer
10 years ago: energy efficient electric dryer with sensor/timer
today: an operating system?

Because the screen is for an integrated advertising system. See http://www.airvexmedia.com/ for more information. Sorry to disappoint...

Now, if the ad screen is down, the dryer should still work. The post doesn't say whether that's the case or not.

It is probably a video advertisement display and not related to the function of the hand dryer.

Has anyone said that the screen is for showing advertisements yet?

About a year ago, I snapped a similar picture. In mine, it had finished booting, and was displaying the login console of Red Hat Linux.

I snapped a pic, and now i wish I'd thought to send it in here for my 15 mins of fame...

snoofle:

Ok, I need to ask... *why* does a hand dryer need an operating system?

Maybe so you can finger it on the internet.

As one of their infamous pranks, maybe MIT students should network their hand dryers with finger access:

finger @hand_dryer.2nd_floor.library.mit.edu

No joke here. Just wanted to say I hate the blow dryers ... give me paper towels any time!

Actually trying to send a postcard to a partial address is smart on UPS's part. USPS has the most well defined data on people's addresses and have spent millions of dollars making it a point to deliver difficult to deliver mail. IE. missing or wrong zip codes ... poor handwriting etc.

snoofle:

Ok, I need to ask... *why* does a hand dryer need an operating system?

My guess? Embedded advertising.

Perhaps it's warning about the future. It is VITAL, after all.

It knows something.

Don't know about you, but I'm not leaving the house on October 20th, 2020.

It's probably because the hand dryer got too hot. I wonder how the heat management is on that PC.

RandomWTF:

snoofle:

Ok, I need to ask... *why* does a hand dryer need an operating system?

My guess? Embedded advertising.

Why would you advertise for Microcontrollers, Compilers, PC104 and Mini-ITX products in the WC?

The real WTF is that soon they will be beaming advertisements into our dreams, ala Futurama...

Seriously, do we really need to be bombarded with ads while we're in the bathroom?? *sigh*

Actually, the UPS ploy in sending a postcard to a screwed up address has a pretty good chance of succeeding. USPS clerks and carriers are often able to deliver items to addresses that are hopelessly muddled or even missing.

snoofle:

Ok, I need to ask... *why* does a hand dryer need an operating system?

50 years ago: stack of paper towels
40 years ago: roll of paper towels with tear-bar
30 years ago: electric dryer with proximity sensor
20 years ago: electric dryer with proximity sensor and timer
10 years ago: energy efficient electric dryer with sensor/timer
today: an operating system?

Profit?!?

Seriously, good Captialism requires a new mousetrap. It doesn' have to be better, just new (and patentable).

I'm not sure the UPS postcard thing counts as a real WTF. An incomplete mail address can sometimes be successfully delivered anyway, but there's no guarantee. It's probably worth a few dimes to try and see if the postal service can figure out your garbled address.

Andrew:

snoofle:

Ok, I need to ask... *why* does a hand dryer need an operating system?

50 years ago: stack of paper towels
40 years ago: roll of paper towels with tear-bar
30 years ago: electric dryer with proximity sensor
20 years ago: electric dryer with proximity sensor and timer
10 years ago: energy efficient electric dryer with sensor/timer
today: an operating system?

Profit?!?

Seriously, good Captialism requires a new mousetrap. It doesn' have to be better, just new (and patentable).

Profit.... I should invest in sensor enabled flat screen video ads placed somewhat high above urinals in bars....and advertise waterproof shoes on sale...

I wonder what the Operating System on these dryers is...

HanDOS, maybe?

snoofle:

Ok, I need to ask... *why* does a hand dryer need an operating system?

Clearly it's an advanced system for perfectly cooking the bacon.

[quote user="yet another Matt]
Its amazing how unsettling it is peeing on something that has mains power running through it.[/quote]

Naw, you're safe.

Mythbusters did a show with this. Fortunately, urine streams are much choppier than they appear. The current can't run up the stream.

SomeCoder:

The real WTF is that soon they will be beaming advertisements into our dreams, ala Futurama...

Seriously, do we really need to be bombarded with ads while we're in the bathroom?? *sigh*

I believe I saw all the Futurama episodes (not the movie, though), but I can't recall this one.

I do however remember seeing this in an issue of Transmetropolitan.

snoofle:

Ok, I need to ask... *why* does a hand dryer need an operating system?

50 years ago: stack of paper towels
40 years ago: roll of paper towels with tear-bar
30 years ago: electric dryer with proximity sensor
20 years ago: electric dryer with proximity sensor and timer
10 years ago: energy efficient electric dryer with sensor/timer
today: an operating system?

You used a hand driver with a motion sensor in 1978? Must have been alien technology. I would slide all of those 10 years and replace "50 years ago" with "cloth towel that you suspect is just an infinite loop no one ever removes to wash".

knarf:

The real WTF is the date format "10/12/20". The internet is international, so please use ISO 8601 whenever you can.

YYYY-MM-DD is the one and only format or do you have another interpretation for nnnn-nn-nn?

And BTW: The day has 24 hours and not just 12 and the number of hours should change significantly at midnight.

1. We already know this
2. No one cares what you think.

10/12/20 - Yet another VITAL Y2K bug?

snoofle:

Ok, I need to ask... *why* does a hand dryer need an operating system?

50 years ago: stack of paper towels
40 years ago: roll of paper towels with tear-bar
30 years ago: electric dryer with proximity sensor
20 years ago: electric dryer with proximity sensor and timer
10 years ago: energy efficient electric dryer with sensor/timer
today: an operating system?

I'm guessing that the unsuspecting bathroom user will be forced to watch advertisements while drying his hands. When booted successfuly, at least.

-dZ.

SomeCoder:

Seriously, do we really need to be bombarded with ads while we're in the bathroom?? *sigh*

The short answer is no, it is not *needed* as such. And nobody has actually asked for it either (no consumers, at least). However, since people require to use public bathrooms at times, and there is no pratical alternatives at such moments, they become de facto "captive audiences"; meaning that they will by necessity be exposed to any advertisement pushed then and there.

And since most people (even those that do not like it) will just forget all about it once they leave the lavatory, there is virtually no downside. From that commercial point of view it then becomes a necessity to exploit the situation.

-dZ.

Next they'll convert the device to do another blow ... task, and show pron on the screen.

[quote user="BJ Upton"][quote user="yet another Matt]
Its amazing how unsettling it is peeing on something that has mains power running through it.[/quote]

Naw, you're safe.

Mythbusters did a show with this. Fortunately, urine streams are much choppier than they appear. The current can't run up the stream.[/quote]

I know a guy who, on a bet, pissed on an electric fence. Aparently his urine stream was neither choppy nor a good insulator and he learned first hand why electric fences are so effective on a cattle ranch!

-Stubby

SomeCoder:

The real WTF is that soon they will be beaming advertisements into our dreams, ala Futurama...

Seriously, do we really need to be bombarded with ads while we're in the bathroom?? *sigh*

Actually, it's a great place to advertise. Not too many place where you know you have the individuals unstimulated gaze concentration on one area (above the urinal, back of the stall door). Not too many distractions while whizzing. Especial if men abide by the strict "stare dead straight at all times" rule.