Facbook's Tech Vending Machines

#1

Post by flapjack » Fri, Jul 15, 2011, 12:07 PM UTC

Facbook's Tech Vending Machines
money.cnn.com

Re: Facbook's Tech Vending Machines

#2

Post by nodata » Fri, Jul 15, 2011, 12:44 PM UTC

Text equivalent: http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/06/facebooks-vending-mac...

Re: Facbook's Tech Vending Machines

#3

Post by savrajsingh » Fri, Jul 15, 2011, 2:31 PM UTC

Princeton's EE department has had such a vending machine for a while. It dispenses various electronic parts for student projects. The cool feature was being able to place an order via a web interface and then enter a code at the machine to collect it, and all your parts would drop at once.

Re: Facbook's Tech Vending Machines

#4

Post by paddy_m » Fri, Jul 15, 2011, 2:43 PM UTC

That seems great for batteries and power supplies, although I don't see a lot of need there. For keyboards, I'm not interested, none of those keyboards looked great. And for power supplies, especially for mac power supplies, why not just have enough available in general?

Re: Facbook's Tech Vending Machines

#5

Post by unshift » Fri, Jul 15, 2011, 2:45 PM UTC

anyone putting 30 second video ads on the internet just doesn't get it. it's not like tv where you have to recapture the viewer's attention -- they're hyper focused on a single place on the screen. i would imagine a 5-7 second "samsung phone X has features Y and Z" ad would be way more effective if only because people would consume it without immediately closing the window.

Re: Facbook's Tech Vending Machines

#6

Post by andyking » Fri, Jul 15, 2011, 3:04 PM UTC

I love the way the guy had to take us at great length through how the vending machine actually worked--as if us mere mortals who work at places that aren't tech giants have never bought a Mars bar!

Re: Facbook's Tech Vending Machines

#7

Post by rsoto » Fri, Jul 15, 2011, 3:40 PM UTC

unshift wrote: post #5

anyone putting 30 second video ads on the internet just doesn't get it. it's not like tv where you have to recapture the viewer's attention -- they're hyper focused on a single place on the screen. i would imagine a 5-7 second "samsung phone X has features Y and Z" ad would be way more effective if only because people would consume it without immediately closing the window.

you should install adblock

Re: Facbook's Tech Vending Machines

#8

Post by ethank » Fri, Jul 15, 2011, 3:52 PM UTC

So cool. When I was running a tech department I had a supply cabinet in my office that had the same function. We had spare hard drives, keyboards, mice, batteries, cables (especially USB and display dongles).

We also had a good one day turn around on getting new RAM or other supplies.

My motto for my team was "It costs me more money to hear you bitch about how slow your computer is than just buy you more RAM or a new one"

Re: Facbook's Tech Vending Machines

#9

Post by cfaubell » Fri, Jul 15, 2011, 4:06 PM UTC

paddy_m wrote: post #4

That seems great for batteries and power supplies, although I don't see a lot of need there. For keyboards, I'm not interested, none of those keyboards looked great. And for power supplies, especially for mac power supplies, why not just have enough available in general?

It's a lot easier to run to the vending machine when you spill coffee on your keyboard than going through the IT dept.

Re: Facbook's Tech Vending Machines

#10

Post by nodata » Fri, Jul 15, 2011, 4:24 PM UTC

paddy_m wrote: post #4

That seems great for batteries and power supplies, although I don't see a lot of need there. For keyboards, I'm not interested, none of those keyboards looked great. And for power supplies, especially for mac power supplies, why not just have enough available in general?

> For keyboards, I'm not interested

This is so that users' can get a replacement keyboard. Not about them choosing from a store's worth of models..