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Wireless Networking Toys Hardware Entertainment

Build Your Own Wireless Beer Pitcher Monitoring System 184

Willy K. writes "Technology comes to the rescue when disaster strikes and your pitcher runneth dry. These Cornell students have rigged up beer pitchers that wirelessly advertise to the central serving station when they are empty, prompting alert wait staff to bring another round." Add a few steins and you're all set.
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Build Your Own Wireless Beer Pitcher Monitoring System

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  • by timmi ( 769795 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @11:44PM (#9091391)
    is an automated system to refill it!
  • Hahahaha (Score:4, Funny)

    by (1337) God ( 653941 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @11:45PM (#9091392)
    In combination with this earlier pizza story [slashdot.org] from tonight, this should make for an interesting evening!
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 07, 2004 @11:45PM (#9091396)
    ...that a cut-down shotgun get's the attention of the bar staff..
  • by RyuuzakiTetsuya ( 195424 ) <taiki@c o x .net> on Friday May 07, 2004 @11:48PM (#9091409)
    it's called living in Vegas. The only place where "last call" even exists are in "family" establishments.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 07, 2004 @11:48PM (#9091410)
    Why the very thought of anyone drinking such a low class beverage has CAUSED MY MONOCLE TO POP RIGHT OUT! And really, who drinks beer in this day and age anyway? Everyone should drink only expensive wine and scotch.

    Why just the other day my chauffer took a wrong turn off of the freeway and pulled me past this run down little liquor store where this shabby looking man (who by the way was driving a Pontiac! A PONTIAC!!!) who hadn't shaved for a couple of days was walking out with a bottle of Johnny Walker Red. RED LABEL?! I exclaimed, exhaling a puff of cigar smoke and tipping my top hat back in a bemused manner. WHO ARE THESE CRETINS? I practically had my driver phone the police right then and there..
  • Re:Hmmm (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 07, 2004 @11:55PM (#9091433)
    BEER WENCHES dude.

  • Dupe? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Lord_Dweomer ( 648696 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @11:56PM (#9091441) Homepage
    So since this is a dupe, do they bring you two pitches of beer?

  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 07, 2004 @11:56PM (#9091442)
    The server station consists of an LCD and an array of control buttons that reset the meter, change the table number, and reset the pitcher count. So now I need an engineering degree just to serve beer?
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 07, 2004 @11:58PM (#9091453)
    How is this different from shouting WERE OUTTA BEER! at the top of your lungs?
  • by Intocabile ( 532593 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @11:59PM (#9091457)
    I like my beers handed to me not thrown.
  • by MikeDawg ( 721537 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @12:00AM (#9091460) Homepage Journal
    Next step past this invention would be a cocktail waitress that would actually pay attention to your/your "buddy" bars orders and drinking needs.
  • by h0tblack ( 575548 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @12:00AM (#9091461)
    We used the a priori knowledge that when a pitcher is empty the pitcher's bottom is perpendicular to the ground..... There is a direct correlation between the maximum angle the pitcher has reached and the volume still in the pitcher.
    Could this be modifed to:
    We used the a priori knowledge that when a punter is full the punter's bottom is parallel with the ground..... There is a direct correlation between the maximum angle the punter has reached and the volume still in the pitcher.
    Could be a good way to easily tell when you've had to much ;)
  • by momerath2003 ( 606823 ) * on Saturday May 08, 2004 @12:01AM (#9091466) Journal
    This is michael posting. Shouldn't this article be under YRO? I mean, think of the privacy applications of having a device monitor your beer consumption. Frankly, this is pretty frightening, and, though I may be putting on my tin foil hat here a bit, I think it's safe to say that this is another drastic setback for modern privacy rights.
  • Hmm... (Score:5, Funny)

    by physicsphairy ( 720718 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @12:08AM (#9091498)
    Build Your Own Wireless Beer Pitcher Monitoring System

    Well, I guess that's definitely a step forward from the (now) antequated "Plug-in Beer Pitcher Monitoring System." Sure, you can get around the bar if you bring an extension cord, but don't spill your beer on any open leads. Drunk geeks make excellent ground connections.

  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 08, 2004 @12:13AM (#9091522)
    There is no beer "inside" my stein. [kleinbottle.com]
  • One word: (Score:4, Funny)

    by momerath2003 ( 606823 ) * on Saturday May 08, 2004 @12:14AM (#9091524) Journal
    Wife.
  • by thedillybar ( 677116 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @12:14AM (#9091525)
    Oh no...drunk people spilling beer is bad enough. Malfunctioning machines spewing it everywhere?

    ALCOHOL ABUSE!!

  • by AvantLegion ( 595806 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @12:17AM (#9091540) Journal
    Much like the invention of the sword required the invention of the sheath, or the invention of the engine required the invention of the brakes...

    ... the invention of the CLI pizza interface [slashdot.org] requires the invention of the wireless beer pitcher monitor!

  • by jimmy page ( 565870 ) <ug2b@j[ ].com ['uno' in gap]> on Saturday May 08, 2004 @12:22AM (#9091561)
    Seems like Michael has something on his mind. First the Command Line Pizza and now the Auto Replenish Beer.

    Guesses for next subject - Barf Bags, Taxi Rides Home, Diet Trends?
  • Solid! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Saeed al-Sahaf ( 665390 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @12:23AM (#9091569) Homepage
    Now this is a solid Slashdot story. None of this duplication bullshit, none of this silly Microsoft vs. Linux garbage. True technology by geeks for geeks. News for nerds that matters.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 08, 2004 @12:27AM (#9091582)
    I think we all wish our lab partners were as hot as this chic!!! [cornell.edu]
    Now we know the true intentions for the beer pitcher project!

    *shameless pickup line* Hot chic...if you read this, email me!!!! I like beer too!
  • by Guernica Bill ( 777570 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @12:33AM (#9091599)
    These "college students" forgot one thing. They need to tweak that trigger angle. Never wait til the pitcher's completely empty to order the next one. Sheesh. Kids these days . . .
  • by vxvxvxvx ( 745287 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @12:45AM (#9091646)
    Great, so now instead of paying a person to make the rounds and ensure everyone has a supply of beer we can replace them with a machine. Whatever can't be outsourced..
  • by momerath2003 ( 606823 ) * on Saturday May 08, 2004 @12:54AM (#9091671) Journal
    No one can email you if you post as AC and don't leave any sort of identification or email...
  • by Jardine ( 398197 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @01:12AM (#9091713) Homepage
    a task I could have completed in half the time if I had done it by myself.

    I think I've figured out the problem. You're not getting drunk enough. That guy in the bathroom is there to let you know which one of the two sinks you see is the real one.
  • by rice_burners_suck ( 243660 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @01:31AM (#9091764)
    This is an incredibly good idea. I think every bar needs to use these. Quick response and low latency is of critical importance when you're trying to get drunk.

    Now all we need is method and apparatus, er, that is, a solenoid-operated tap controlled through a command line utility that works in most UNIX shells, so we can refill our pitchers or glasses from our keyboard. It might look something like this:

    refill -v=pint -b=guinness

    (It would be similar to the Pizza Party [beigerecords.com] utility advertised in another of /.'s stories posted tonight [slashdot.org], except it would refill beer instead of ordering pizzas. The -b option would use a flat text file to map beer names to tap numbers for maximum convenience.)

    Then, we could create a beer glass or pitcher monitoring daemon, beerd, which would invoke refill every time the pitcher empties, sending as the -b argument the name of the beer with which beerd was originally invoked.

    I can see it already: U.S. Patent #287542384328092840234, Method and Apparatus for Refilling a Beer Pitcher or Glass Through a UNIX Command Line Utility, and U.S. Patent #234823084932842843492, Method and Apparatus for Providing a GUI Frontend to the Beer Refilling Command Line Utility. (The GNOME version would be called Geer, the KDE version would be called Keer, RMS would insist that names of beer should be changed to GNU/Guinness, etc.) And, needless to say, U.S. Patent #234823084932842843493, Method and Apparatus for Automatically Invoking the Beer Refilling Command Line Utility, After Optionally Displaying a Dialog Box that Reads, "Are You Sure You Want Another Pitcher, You've Already Had Ten Beers Tonight?" With The Yes And No Buttons Moving Around So The Drunk Can't Click On Them.

    Then, we'll sue Darl for infringing on our patents when he's drinking his depression away after SCO crashes and burns. (What a waste of perfectly good beer.)

    And as if this isn't enough, we'll invent Pay Per Drink, a system whereby you get a keg of Guinness and a tap installed in your home for free, and when you activate the tap, a charge will be made to your credit card through the Internet. Brings new meaning to DRM. But to make IRC conversations with your friends across the globe more interesting, you could download ebeerd, the Extended Beer Daemon, which would allow your friends to "buy you a beer" through the Internet, which would be dispensed through the tap at your house. Then, you can buy all your friends a round, from the comfort of everybody's home, with a single click. (GUI frontends for GNOME and KDE should be forthcoming for this one, as should a Jabber plug-in.)

    Hmmmmmmmm... All this talk about beer, I need to get me a drink. Lucky I have some Guinness around. :-)

    Guinness. Because friends don't let friends drink Lite Beer.

    (Astute readers might notice that a long time ago, I didn't like Guinness and made a lot of posts where I said so. In fact, for a while, my sig even said something to the effect of, "George Killian's Irish Red. Because friends don't let friends drink Guinness." So what's changed? I discovered the difference between Guinness Stout and Guinness Draught. I stopped drinking Stout, started drinking Draught, and that fixed the problem. Now I drink at least a pint every night. Oh, and by the way, Irish Red [killians.com] is really, really good!!!)

  • by zalas ( 682627 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @01:55AM (#9091822) Homepage
    Nice idea! ...so we should find some way to pack 4 seconds of digital audio into these little Atmel chips, connect up some DACs, feed it into a nice bridged amplifier and speaker, and voila!
  • the last few years have given us: blue teethed camera phones, wi-fi, gps, i-tunes, etc. All useless compared to this fine implementation of hi-tech that will benefit all of mankind for generations to come.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 08, 2004 @04:30AM (#9092190)
    You know, many ladies (and a few men) actually put their MOUTHS on penises directly. The penis is no dirtier than any other body part.
  • by prog99 ( 319739 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @06:46AM (#9092441)
    What if everyone finishes their pitcher at the same time, could we see the slashdot effect at the bar?
  • Avast! (Score:1, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 08, 2004 @06:48AM (#9092445)
    And for pirate radio, visit http://www.arr!.org/
  • by tverbeek ( 457094 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @07:49AM (#9092546) Homepage
    My main worry would be how they plan to survive hundreds of runs through the glass washer.

    That wouldn't be a problem at the bar where I hung out in college.

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." -- Albert Einstein

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