| ACM Server Back Online | September 21, 2004 |
After taking a long time to do not very much, we've got the ACM server back online. This means that the cheap soda cyber fridge should be working again.
| Server maintenance | September 12, 2004 |
The ACM server is going to be down from Monday afternoon to Tuesday morning. It will return looking exactly the same, but better.
| Cyber fridge | September 09, 2004 |
WU ACM's refrigerator has a new name and even more processing power than before. No, I'm not talking about the old motherboards we keep in the freezer and tell gullible freshmen are ACM's super-cooled web server. Bubble, the fridge, is now sporting a fully functional Pentium II, internet connectivity, a 14'' monitor, keyboard, and magnetic card swipe.
Thanks to some software written by myself and Charles, ACM members can now use their student IDs as debit cards. The motivation for Bubble was that our old system, ie a change box inside the fridge, was rather inefficient, annoying for both officers and members, and open to theft. Now we can collect $10 of soda money from you in convenient $10 bill form, instead of in nickels, dimes, and quarters.
To encourage the use of our newfangled electronic system, soda purchased through the card swipe system will only cost 35 cents (sorry, 25 cents just doesn't cut it anymore, with inflation and what not). Soda purchased through the change box will cost 50 cents because it is really that inconvenient for us to deal with the change box. Chips and candy currently cost 50 cents through both systems, but that may be changed.
Bubble has a really easy to use interface; swiping your card brings up a purchase menu and your current balance. Unfortunately the school won't let us tie into the food services database, so accounts are separate from any meal plan you may have. The good news is that unlike food services, we don't charge a $50 "processing fee" to punch numbers into a computer. Simply give an officer some money (please, $5 or more), and they'll update your balance via the web. While members can run a small negative balance, this is strongly discouraged. First, you'll get automated nagging emails if your balance dips below zero. Second, we literally know where you live. Do not upset the people who can write programs for refrigerators. Positive balances are a good thing, and you can convert your remaining balance back to cash at anytime by catching an officer.
Finally, Bubble is a work in progress. In the next month, we hope to finish our library project. Then, members will be able to check out books from ACM's library using Bubble, their student ID, and our barcode reader. The lounge webcam will also be hooked up to Bubble, and there's plenty of computer vision things to do with a webcam and a cyberfridge. If this interests you, or you have ideas of your own for what Bubble should do, talk to Charlie or myself. Bubble is exactly the sort of hacking project that we'd like our members to get involved in.