

Facbook's Tech Vending Machines - flapjack
http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2011/07/05/tt_facebook_vending_machine.fortune/

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nodata
Text equivalent: [http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/06/facebooks-vending-
mac...](http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2011/07/06/facebooks-vending-machines-a-
coke-or-a-keyboard/)

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unshift
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.

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rsoto
you should install adblock

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artursapek
It didn't do it for me that time

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savrajsingh
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.

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cbs
I read the written piece, price tags in the vending machines, cards needed to
get new supplies instead of their previous cabinet solution, employees copied
on the bills the company picks up for them to so "so they can personally keep
track of their usage patterns and corresponding cost to the company". _Campos
is a strong proponent of employee accountability_

I don't work at one of the "hip" tech companies, even we don't have to jump
though bullshit hoops like this or have the company nag us about the bills
they pick up. Facebook's going cooperate, man.

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andyking
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!

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ethank
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"

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paddy_m
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?

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nodata
> 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..

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rmason
I've worked a few places where this would be terrific. Am I the only one who
thinks this might be a possible business opportunity?

