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Admin
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.
Admin
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?
Admin
At least it's Energy Star compliant!
ingenium
Admin
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?
Admin
Corporate IT really shouldn't have dismissed Melinda's call. She discovered an error in the future! Time-travelling UAT FTW!
Admin
I don't think it finished printing "2007"
CAPTCHA: cogo
Admin
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.
Admin
yes the wtf is that there is a PC in the hand dryer!
Admin
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...
Admin
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.
Admin
Admin
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.
Admin
Admin
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.
Admin
im sure it displays ads, although that answer makes me kinda sick
Admin
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...
Admin
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
Admin
Admin
I can't read the error on the hand dryer? It's not "Keyboard not present. Hit F1 to continue" I hope...
Admin
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.
Admin
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).
Admin
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.
Admin
It is probably a video advertisement display and not related to the function of the hand dryer.
Admin
Has anyone said that the screen is for showing advertisements yet?
Admin
What? You want to use the dryer without watching the ads? That's stealing. Totally unacceptable.
Admin
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...
Admin
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
Admin
No joke here. Just wanted to say I hate the blow dryers ... give me paper towels any time!
Admin
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.
Admin
My guess? Embedded advertising.
Admin
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.
Admin
It's probably because the hand dryer got too hot. I wonder how the heat management is on that PC.
Admin
Why would you advertise for Microcontrollers, Compilers, PC104 and Mini-ITX products in the WC?
Admin
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
Admin
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.
Admin
Profit?!?
Seriously, good Captialism requires a new mousetrap. It doesn' have to be better, just new (and patentable).
Admin
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.
Admin
Profit.... I should invest in sensor enabled flat screen video ads placed somewhat high above urinals in bars....and advertise waterproof shoes on sale...
Admin
I wonder what the Operating System on these dryers is...
HanDOS, maybe?
Admin
Clearly it's an advanced system for perfectly cooking the bacon.
Admin
[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.
Admin
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.
Admin
Admin
Admin
10/12/20 - Yet another VITAL Y2K bug?
Admin
I'm guessing that the unsuspecting bathroom user will be forced to watch advertisements while drying his hands. When booted successfuly, at least.
-dZ.
Admin
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.
Admin
Next they'll convert the device to do another blow ... task, and show pron on the screen.
Admin
[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
Admin
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.