Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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Internet Microwave

Nothing fancy, just an ethernet port and a web page that tells you if it's in use.
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There are other ideas out there, both halfbaked and not, for fancy internet microwaves. They download recipies, etc. that make your microwave experience easier. This is not that idea. All this is is a simple web page similar to those created on network printers that tells you if the microwave is in use, and the length of time until it's done. This will allow me to stay at my computer at work and not have to get up, walk to the lunch room, find that it's in use, walk back to my desk, repeat. Seems to me this would be a very easy addition and therefore should not cost too much.

Optionally (though starting to get too complex for my taste), you could have a scheduling page that will allow you to reserve the microwave for a certain time - if you are late by 30 seconds you lose your reservation.

Worldgineer, Dec 08 2003

Micro-Gerbil 2001 http://www.joecarto.../pages/microgerbil/
Interet Microwave [Letsbuildafort, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

One of these should make the task fairly simple. http://www.picoweb.net/
Contains an ethernet port and a web server. It'll run ya about $100.00. [half, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

[Phoenix]'s coffee http://www.cl.cam.a.../coffee/coffee.html
no unsimilar in usefulness, but also no longer with us. [neilp, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

$1 tiny web server http://www-ccs.cs.u....edu/shri/iPic.html
Perhaps, inspired by [half], I can bake this myself. [Worldgineer, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]

[link]






       With a webcam ... please bake-in a webcam   

       That way when I'm conducting wierd microwave experimentation, I can get it all on film.
Letsbuildafort, Dec 08 2003
  

       (slaps forehead) Everybody wants fancy. Ok, it's available as an upgrade.
Worldgineer, Dec 08 2003
  

       There are lots of "micro webservers" around these days. Such a thing as proposed shouldn't be too difficult to cobble together.   

       The webcam would surely come in handy for determining if what's in the microwave is worth trying to steal.   

       Oh, and a microphone to transmit "voice" over IP (or just a smoke detector) so I can tell when my popcorn is done. I guess we're getting in to a media streaming microwave oven here.
half, Dec 08 2003
  

       erm. bluetooth, wifi or ethernet over power please ? buggered if I'm cat5'ing my kitchen (+)
neilp, Dec 08 2003
  

       [half] Sure, microphone, webcam, smellometer, and recipe chat room all available as upgrades - leave them out of mine please.   

       [neilp] This isn't for your kitchen. This is for your employer's kitchen.
Worldgineer, Dec 08 2003
  

       182.11b -- The B stands for Better Cooking ... Martha Stewart Edition
Letsbuildafort, Dec 08 2003
  

       + I dunno, IEEE 1394 firewire has a nice ring to it also.   

       //leave them out of mine please. / /   

       Oh and a 270 gig hard drive plus a super graphics card. Can you put all of those features in my microwave and make it cost less than 20 USD? :)
sartep, Dec 08 2003
  

       [Worldgineer] - I'm definitely not putting CAT5 in the kitchen at work :) go on, let's have a blue/fi version.
neilp, Dec 08 2003
  

       I'll give it to you as an option (along with [sart]'s graphics card with a laser projection system, displaying your food on the ceiling), but unless such devices become more standard it would price or complicate this device out of my invisioned market. Besides, you're going to have to CAT5 your kitchen for the new internet refrigerator and toaster anyway.
Worldgineer, Dec 08 2003
  

       naah, I reckon someone'll blue/fi them for me before I splash out (my employer's) money. Thanks [World]
neilp, Dec 08 2003
  

       The first web cam was developed to monitor a communal coffee pot. This isn't all that different.
phoenix, Dec 08 2003
  

       Except it's not a web cam, and there's no point in watching a coffee pot, and this is something that can be easily marketed. But yes, this isn't that different in the way that a calculator isn't that different from a mainframe.
Worldgineer, Dec 08 2003
  

       I like the original simple version, but I have a feeling that as soon as it becomes available, several people will start sprinting from their desk, negating the utility for all but one of them. Perhaps there should be some way of spooling and queuing multiple lunch jobs.
AO, Dec 08 2003
  

       Thinking about the scheduling page a bit more, I think I like it now.   

       I decide I want to take lunch at 12:00, so I check the page. Nope, but 12:07 is available. Enter my cook time - 4 minutes (it will add an extra two minutes to my reservation just in case my estimation is off by a bit). When it's 12:05 I check the web page - 45 seconds remaining. When 12:06 comes around I walk by the lunch room. The last person has just removed their lunch and the microwave displays "Reserved for Worldgineer". I enter my 4 digit code, the microwave starts, and I return to my desk to check the HB. A few minutes later I return to a steaming meal.
Worldgineer, Dec 08 2003
  

       Like CLOCKWORK ... Nice, but this fine tool can be used for the dark side. Microwave Ninjas hiding in their cubicles just waiting for a hearty enough meal to pilfer ... You'd have a Yogi Bear-style Microwave Ninja on your hands then!
Letsbuildafort, Dec 08 2003
  

       "PC Load Lunch"
AO, Dec 08 2003
  

       <alert> Your microwave has detected new food installed! Please wait, while our food wizard figures how to best cook this. <a>
sartep, Dec 08 2003
  

       Thinking again on how to build a prototype for retrofitting...the linked micro web server has digital I/O capability. Rectify, filter and voltage divide or regulate the power from the interior light, read the voltage via one of the digital input lines and voila, you come pretty close to knowing if the machine is in use.
half, Dec 08 2003
  

       webcam would violate the privacy. Everybody can see what you are cooking
artist, Dec 09 2003
  
      
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