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Ever been struck with indecision when choosing food at lunch time? Well Magic 8-ball-o-vend is for you! Juxtaposed in-between normal vending machines that sell small, too-full cups of coffee and cans of soft drink that have been just shaken enough to fizz all over you, you will find the large black sphere
of the Magic 8-ball-o-vend. It sits gimballed and sprung, about a meter in diameter. Inside a similarly scaled up version of the Answer Icosahedron has little containers that hold different sandwiches on each side. The blue fluid is refrigerated.
To operate the Magic 8-ball-o-vend the customer inserts their money into a slot in the centre of the '8'. The ball remains still, until hidden microphones pick up the question, "what shall I have for lunch?". At this point the ball shakes up and down, back and forth, and then spins in its gimbals until the little window, which in this case is also a door, is presented to the hungry vendee.
The Answer Icosahedron presents the customer with their sandwich, the 8-ball has spoken, all is well.
Magic 8-ball info
http://8ball.ofb.net/
check out the dissection! [Zircon, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]
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Annotation:
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Would the weight of sandwiches cause the icosahedron to float the empty sections to the top more often than those with goodies in? |
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[st3f], would you rather they remain on the bottom? (ie: the eight ball has spoken... you shall have no lunch today.) |
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That's what I was thinking, 3f. It would need to be immediately refilled to work next time. |
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To make it more interesting, some options should be savory and delicious, while others should produce illness. |
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Perhaps the icosahedron could just have pictures of the various sandwiches printed on its sides, and the sandwiches could be dispensed in the manner of a standard vending machine. It takes a bit away from the baroque fun of the original design, but it *does* solve the problem of the sides of the icosahedron becoming lighter as sandwiches are dispensed. |
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I was thinking that between each purchase the Icosahedron could be retracted, possibly by means of large magnets, and robotically refilled. |
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Somebody needs to write a song about a magic 8-ball clock, in TPPCPPC... |
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[Zircon] one of the authors of your linked site is [egnor]. |
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I love the idea but I fear it would be filled up with leftover stuff that didn't sell well. |
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//Somebody needs to write a song about a magic 8-ball clock, in TPPCPPC...// |
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