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From: les@GANG-OF-FOUR.STANFORD.EDU (Les Earnest)
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: finger weather (really Coke machines)
Message-ID: <9104092239.AA29859@Gang-of-Four.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 9 Apr 91 22:39:24 GMT
References: <1991Apr5.200246.923@spool.cs.wisc.edu>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 35

>> As far as I know nothing similar has been done elsewhere, so CMU can
>> legitimately boast of having the only Coke machine on the Internet.
>
>  Here at the University of Wisconsin we were *FORCED* to computerize our Coke
>  machine a year ago (or they would take it away).
.  .  .
>  The coke machine was also modified so
>  that it would NOT take money and could only be activated from the computer.
>  So I guess Wisconsin can claim the only Coke machine that can be controlled
>  via the Internet.

A vending machine was connected to the SAIL computer at Stanford
around 1973, which I believe was much earlier than any other computer-
controlled vending machine.  It sold snacks, soft drinks, and beer.
Everything could be purchased for cash or credit except the beer,
which could only be bought on credit and then only if the buyer was
over 21.  Any attempt by an underage person to buy beer elicited the
error message "Sorry, kid."

The national wire services ran a story on this machine at the time and
some representatives of one of the major vending machine manufacturers
came to see if they could turn it into a product.  They were
apparently deterred by the fact that they didn't understand diddly
about computers.  They also were put off by the fact that the computer
being used for this modest task (a large DEC 10) cost about $1 million.

SAIL was one of the earliest systems on ARPAnet and, for no good
reason, has been recording both its machine room temperature and the
outside air temperature at 10 minute intervals for the last 20 years.
SAIL and its vending machine are still in use today at the Computer
Science Department at Stanford, but they will soon part company --
SAIL is scheduled to die on June 6, its 25th birthday.  It has lived
a rather full life as computers go.

	-Les Earnest (Les@SAIL.Stanford.edu)