r00t writes:
"Taking a page out of Lexmark playbook, the Keurig company, famous for it's one-cup coffee making system, now comes with new and improved 100% DRM. Apparently, Keurig is upset over re-usable third-party 'coffee pods' which allow the consumer to escape the Keurig throw-away models which carry a retail price 5% to 25% more. Keurig's CEO, Brian Kelly referred to the move as 'game-changing performance.' Perhaps this will finally be the year of Linux on the Coffe Maker?"
Related Stories
We covered the Keurig's DRM'ed Coffee Pod three days ago, but today Blackmoore provides us with a link to a Cory Doctorow article: Why DRM'ed coffee-pods may be just the awful stupidity we need.
In it, Doctorow argues that this case might conceivably lead someone to initiate legal action which could eventually, given a technically-savvy judge, result in common sense being applied and legal precedent being created. Blackmoore also provides this quote from the article: 'But of all the DRM Death Stars to be unveiled, Keurig's is a pretty good candidate for Battle Station Most Likely to Have a Convenient Thermal Exhaust Port.'"
(Score: 5, Interesting) by edIII on Monday March 03 2014, @07:14PM
1) Stuck your head so far up your ass, you could be in Guinness
2) Not actually purchased a device that makes coffee
3) Agreed to wake up to be that CEO's personal bitch and drink what he decides you can drink.
How any consumer finds this appealing is beyond me. I would just stop drinking coffee altogether before allowing such idiotic and reprehensible forms of control over me, that are so easy for me to deny. Don't buy their little Hitler coffee maker and make do with something else.
(Score: 5, Funny) by GungnirSniper on Monday March 03 2014, @07:20PM
So the new product will be iCoffee?
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [dev.soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by danomac on Monday March 03 2014, @07:27PM
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday March 03 2014, @07:40PM
I... yes. It will effectively become iCoffee :)
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday March 04 2014, @09:29AM
You jest, but there's a reason for Apple's walled garden. But a DRM coffeemake? WTF?? Who would be stupid enough to buy one?
And it's not DRM, what digital rights does a coffeemaker manufacturer have? Christ, it's just a couple of heating elements, a tank and a switch. Perhaps we need a new name for this consumer lock-in evil and stupid bullshit.
Free Nobots! [mcgrewbooks.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday March 05 2014, @12:34PM
> You jest, but there's a reason for Apple's walled garden. But a DRM coffeemake? WTF??
Same reason... to secure a percentage of the profits on every sale of (apps/coffee).
(Score: 5, Insightful) by gallondr00nk on Monday March 03 2014, @07:38PM
The worst thing is, I'm willing to bet people will still buy it, the same as they still buy Lexmark printers. For the casual impulse shopper both look like a good deal, I guess.
Like said Lexmark, the consumer will be perfectly happy until they buy the first or second refill, then it'll end up gathering dust as they aren't willing to fork out for the consumables.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by edIII on Monday March 03 2014, @07:49PM
Dear Lord.... if Lexmark actually said that they should be dragged out in the street and shot.
Adding that much misery to the rest of the world in the form of electronics waste, pollution, and manufacturer impacts on the environment in a deliberate fashion knowing it will just be wasted is pure greed and malice.
With ideas like that, it's no wonder I've never bought Lexmark then. They were always shitty, and their laser offerings were subpar with subpar features and subpar coding.
I always wondered why I never heard any recommendations for their products. Just assumed they were horrible, not active parasitic mutants...
(Score: 5, Informative) by frojack on Monday March 03 2014, @08:06PM
You will note that Lexmark lost this fight, and upon hearing that HP decided not
to go down that road. All HP does is disable its ink level detection circuits
if they can't sense one of their own cartridges. The printers still work.
Discussion should abhor vacuity, as space does a vacuum.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by NCommander on Monday March 03 2014, @09:02PM
It's a bit worse than that. Most people who buy Kureig machines use it initially with just K-Cups, then perhaps later use different cups (I know a couple of people with them, and my old roommates had one as well which I used fairly often). I mean, its a bloody plastic cup with a bit of foil that shoots hot water through it.
Now the cups are going to need some sort of electronic method to get the DRM shit to work, and that means the cups will be even more environmentally unfriendly, and more expensive. Who the fuck wins for this?
Still always moving
(Score: 5, Insightful) by edIII on Tuesday March 04 2014, @01:49AM
"Who the fuck wins for this?"
The Share Holders, the only caste that matters now...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by davester666 on Tuesday March 04 2014, @02:12AM
keurig of course. not only will the cup be more expensive to produce due to the drm, but keurig will want a cut on top of that for 'inventing' this technology.
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Tuesday March 04 2014, @11:32AM
(Score: 4, Interesting) by mojo chan on Tuesday March 04 2014, @09:29AM
I wonder if that makes it qualify as WEEE waste in the EU? Can't just throw the empty pods in the bin in that case.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by cykros on Tuesday March 04 2014, @01:26PM
I'm wondering if this will go so well for Keurig in the long run. Seems like something that may get them a lawsuit for anti-competetive practices. For the most part, DRM is usually about intellectual property "rights" (or self-granted privileges). Provided these third party refill options don't violate any patents, I'm not sure how Keurig would fare in such a case.
Anyway, here's to hoping that it dies in the marketplace before it can even get that far. I'll be sticking with my DeLonghi espresso machine personally, and drinking something that tastes GOOD instead (for less than the cost of a Keurig, I might add).
(Score: 1) by EvilJim on Tuesday March 04 2014, @06:05PM
That's right, they'll probably reduce the price of the coffee maker due to the expensive consumables, soon it'll be cheaper to buy a new coffee maker with two free coffee pods than it is to buy the two coffee pods on their own, think hp printers / ink prices.
(Score: 2) by bucc5062 on Monday March 03 2014, @07:51PM
I almost anti-snorted snot reading this...thank you. Perfect response.
The more things change, the more they look the same
(Score: 2, Interesting) by BradleyAndersen on Monday March 03 2014, @08:03PM
when i by X, i should be allowed to do with X whatever i please, so long as i am not harming others through such use. i *almost* bought one of these ... now i will re-think.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by frojack on Monday March 03 2014, @08:11PM
Don't buy.
These are amazingly fragile and fickle devices.
The warranty return rate on them is sky-high. Especially the earlier models.
Most of the time Keurig stands behind the product and ships you a new one so you
are only without the device for a week or two. My brother's machine broke down 3
times, and each time he was upgraded to the newer model free of charge.
Discussion should abhor vacuity, as space does a vacuum.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 04 2014, @01:56PM
Anonymous posting for reasons.
I've been told point-blank by people who sell and service these machines not to touch any consumer model, because the water pump is made of shitty cheap material that WILL break within months. The office models have slightly better pumps. For some values of "better".
Do keep in mind, the money is selling you the overpriced refills. The brewing machine is effectively a loss-leader disposable item, and is engineered as such.
(Score: 1) by MachineShedFred on Tuesday March 04 2014, @04:35PM
Which, they'll happily do now, as the new model will contain their DRM shit that prevents you from not having to buy their blessed fucking coffee.
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Blackmoore on Monday March 03 2014, @08:30PM
At best you'll find a bunch of fist time buyers who buy on name; and then after finding out that the new machine doesnt work with the cups they just bought relegate it to the back closet. Another wasteful purchase.
(Score: 1) by jasassin on Monday March 03 2014, @10:57PM
Keurigs new "The Little Hitler 2.0". Brews a mean cup of coffee. Brews an even meaner cup of coffee if you are Jewish.
(Score: 1) by cykros on Tuesday March 04 2014, @01:29PM
I don't know whether to mod this up (for being funny) or down (for managing to invoke Godwin's Law in reference to a coffee pot).
I guess I'll leave it an this little explanation...
(Score: 2) by nitehawk214 on Thursday March 06 2014, @04:51PM
4) Not adequately informed of the drawbacks of the device you just purchased; and should return it for a refund.
"Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh
(Score: -1) by skullz on Monday March 03 2014, @07:15PM
So, what about these new and improved pods is digital (as in Digital Rights Management)?
I'll wait. Gotta brew some more coffee anyway.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Evil_Crash on Monday March 03 2014, @07:21PM
Most likely the new pots will have a circuit that checks to see if the pod installed has the chip on it from the manufacturer. Just like the newer ink cartridges do now. No chip, no coffee. Probably will have a display reading "no pod installed" of "Cannot detect pod" or if they are feeling cheeky, "Stop being cheap and buy our pods you insensitive clod!"
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 03 2014, @07:51PM
If RFID, tape single chip to top of Keurig. If not RFID...???
(Score: 3, Insightful) by frojack on Monday March 03 2014, @08:01PM
Its going to be RFID, or optical. Chances are the detector will be deeply embedded in
the machine so you can't get at it.
I suspect they will claim that defeating it violate the DMCA, but since the only purpose
of this chip will be to make sure you only pound Their nails with Their hammer, I suspect
it will fail in court. There is no copyright or patent involved in using a different
source of coffee. If there were, they would go after the suppliers.
This backfires faster than New Coke.
Discussion should abhor vacuity, as space does a vacuum.
(Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Monday March 03 2014, @08:20PM
Yeah, but none of what you said makes jack diddly *%&$ of difference in court.
The DMCA is so wonderful in that regard to the IP holders. All of the arguments about whether it should be protected fall on deaf ears in the courts. It's still fundamentally unlawful to bypass copyright protection measures .
It's one of the few legal situations in which if you run into a building saving old ladies and kittens left and right, that it was still illegal to enter the building period.
They, the legislators, made it unlawful to even touch the lock with anything but a key. Even if the lock is just a flimsy piece of wet cardboard that a 5 year old could bypass. Not just security through obscurity, but security through inane laws.
Next thing you know, and just you watch, that Keurig will require the Internet and the ability to phone home and authorize the unit to produce coffee. It's just so blindingly insane and stupid it could work! Their stock will go up, even though the investors first cognitive dissonant thought is, "I should buy the cheap coffee and not use these idiots".
Of course, all that being said, I would *LOVE* to see Keurig find somebody and take them to court over it. I'll make popcorn (not with that microwave that only recognizes Orville Redenbacher's)
(Score: 4, Informative) by frojack on Monday March 03 2014, @08:27PM
I will remind you that Lexmark LOST in court.
So apparently it DOES make a difference.
Read the lexmark decision. Link in the summary.
Discussion should abhor vacuity, as space does a vacuum.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday March 03 2014, @08:37PM
Really? That's awesome.
I've never heard of the DMCA losing in court like that. They've always just won on the technicality that the copyright protection measures were bypassed, and that was against the law.
Apple was the only notable exception to that rule with the justices saying that jailbreaking was acceptable, even though they failed to apply that same logic equally to Non-apple technology.
Cool. Something in our favor for once.
(Score: 1) by cykros on Tuesday March 04 2014, @01:31PM
I'm not so sure this falls under the scope of the DMCA even a little, as there's no copyright at work here to begin with. Patents, perhaps, though I'd assume that if the third party refills were in violation of patents in the first place, they'd be getting dealt with that way.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday March 04 2014, @03:07PM
My understanding is that the DMCA protects the hardware irrespective of the content being protected. Even if there is Public Domain inside, or maybe even your own property (licensed or otherwise), that bypassing the lock itself is a separate crime.
However, Frojack (I think I spelled that right) pointed out that Lexmark had lost a case. Which does set some precedence. Only other precedence I was aware of was a one-off with iPhone jailbreaking that wasn't evenly applied to the rest of technology.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Monday March 03 2014, @07:59PM
That is just so intensely wasteful though. I love the idea of a k-cup, but adding to the landfills just to keep people using your own brand is ridiculous. I can't possibly see what pro-consumer information or capabilities are in that chip at all.
It's greed like this that continues to look for ways to monetize and forcibly capture 'audiences' instead of thinking about how to make things reusable and efficient.
I wish people would keep the environment and sustainability in mind when coming up with designs. It's not hard to do. There are many companies now doing it, and this is about bringing efficiency.
100 years from now when there is no coffee people will look back at the height of our luxury and marvel that we had the resources to so blithely toss into the trash.
The older I get, it's simply amazing and deeply terrifying how much we are like Rome in the final days.....
P.S - Treating people like captured audiences is exactly why we are all her at Soylent and not visiting Slashdot anymore.
(Score: 1) by cykros on Tuesday March 04 2014, @01:34PM
I wouldn't guess all or even most of us don't visit slashdot anymore, but then, when I do (it's still in my RSS reader), it's the quickest way to get me to come over here. Every time I'm over there, I find something else to hate about beta...
(Score: 2) by edIII on Tuesday March 04 2014, @03:14PM
I don't even really think about Slashdot anymore. I know that others outside of Slashdot always derided the community for it's apparent unreasonableness when it comes to change, but there was more to it than that. It didn't even have anything to do with Javascript, which a lot on Slashdot irrationally hated. When used properly there is nothing wrong with it. Personally, the old interface we have here is comfy and familiar, but it could be spiced up quite a bit with some simple AJAX calls that don't require me to open a new tab or jump through hoops to post a comment.
It was summed up so damn well by one poster on Slashdot at the time, and that was that we are emphatically not an audience. We are Slashdot, and that's not egoist or entitlement speaking.
Beta wasn't just a change in aesthetics. Beta was a change in the core culture and concepts, and embraced corporate/marketing culture that is quite frankly an anathema to most Slashdotters.
I only bring it up because the audience/community discussion is very appropriate to a lot of what is going on in this country at many levels. We've become audiences that are spoken at.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday March 03 2014, @09:50PM
I am glad the Insensitive Clod meme has carried over from Slashdot of old.
(Score: 4, Funny) by istartedi on Tuesday March 04 2014, @12:28AM
PC LOAD POD
Followed by baseball bats in the park.
'nuff said.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by GungnirSniper on Monday March 03 2014, @07:18PM
So a product that is arguably bad for the environment, by creating thousands of single-use plastic cups, is going to get even worse by making the machines that process them obsolete? The benefits are missing from this management-speak:
What does that even mean? Interactive technology meaning more user input? Or some sort of sensor in the K-cup to tell temperature?
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [dev.soylentnews.org]
(Score: 5, Interesting) by EvilSS on Monday March 03 2014, @07:24PM
The new pods are recyclable (they pull apart so the paper and plastic are separated). And yea, actually that was what they were advertising: custom brew temps and add-on pods like foam and whatnot.
Personally, I'll stick with my keurig 1.0. I bought it BECAUSE the patents were expiring and 3rd party K-Cups were coming on the market.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Tuesday March 04 2014, @03:46AM
You know what is better than recyclable? Not making the waste in the first place.
Recycling is great, but remember that there is lost energy at every step: making the cups and paper (let's just skip the whole extraction process required to get logs and long chain hydrocarbons) takes energy, moving the cups wastes energy that could be spent on moving actual coffee, then X% of cups get thrown away, which take energy to get to the dump and process, and 100-X% get recycled, which more energy is spent transporting them to a recycling facility, more energy spent on the recycling process, more energy spent on moving the recycled raw materials to a cup manufacturer, which spends more energy making cups, which are then transported to to a coffee filling plant, where they are then moved to a store, then purchased and moved home.
That's a lot of diesel, gasoline, and electricity that gets greenwashed under the label "recyclable". Wasted energy that basically benefits nobody but Keurig.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday March 04 2014, @09:35AM
Indeed, I'll stick with my Bunn that Ralph left Linda when he died that Linda left me when she died. When it craps out I'll buy a new one, they come with a lifetime warrantee and make great coffee. And the only waste is the coffee can and filter.
And it works with any brand of coffee.
Free Nobots! [mcgrewbooks.com]
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:01AM
"Not making the waste in the first place."
The problem is I got mine because its way cheaper and also more environmentally friendly than my wife driving to Starbucks for each $7 coffee. The Keurig has completely broken her of her starbucks habit. It doesn't take very long to pay for itself compared to starbucks and although I don't drink coffee I'm told the Keurig has bean varieties other than burned and extra-burned.
People are going to want a "premium" cup of coffee. Trying to talk them into not wanting a premium cup of coffee isn't happening, caffeine is an addictive drug. You'd have better luck trying to talk smokers into quitting.
(Score: 1) by cykros on Tuesday March 04 2014, @01:37PM
Keurig coffee is only "premium" if you're comparing it to garbage like DD or Starbucks. You have to pretty seriously go out of your way to try to get any worse...even 7-11 has drinkable enough coffee, something I can't say for the first two.
French press or espresso machine is the way to go for making coffee at home if convenience is what you're after. Drip pots aren't exactly rocket science either...
(Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Tuesday March 04 2014, @02:40PM
Yes and even 7-11 is more expensive than a Kcup, especially when you factor in a quarter gallon of gasoline or so.
And none of your suggestions make precisely one serving as far as I know (although I'm not a coffee drinker, which is why my wife only needs one serving...)
I don't know of any fundamental reason single serving coffee couldn't be brewed at home using the technology I use for looseleaf tea brewing.
Another interesting discussion point is she claims that the kcups taste vastly better than generic instant, which is what the kcups replaced. This makes sense to me, in that each serving is sealed, but it takes her weeks/months to use up a big instant coffee container so I imagine being an oil containing product it tastes pretty stale after a couple months exposure to air.
Again I'm no coffee drinker but I believe the problem with the espresso maker is capital cost, aside from my wife not liking espresso. Aren't they like $1K, whereas the k brewer was about $100 and both last about 5 years?
(Score: 1) by EvilSS on Tuesday March 04 2014, @01:20PM
You've made the fatal assumption that I actually care about recycling them to begin with. I don't. Just pointing out that they CAN be recycled.
(Score: 1) by DeathMonkey on Tuesday March 04 2014, @02:57PM
You know what is better than recyclable? Not making the waste in the first place.
Indeed,
Reduce -- Reuse -- Recycle
It's in that order on purpose.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by sjames on Tuesday March 04 2014, @11:57AM
So what poor schlep sits there in a mound of garbage all day pulling the paper and plastic apart?
In other words, are any of them actually recycled in practice?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by EvilSS on Tuesday March 04 2014, @01:17PM
The same poor schlep that hauls your garbage out to the curb. You pull them apart as you discard them into your recycling. The Vue pods (Kuerig's new system) have a tab you pull.
(Score: 1) by sjames on Tuesday March 04 2014, @01:27PM
So not a lot of recycling going on?
Some individuals probably do, especially if they happen to live somewhere that actually picks up recycling, but I'm guessing that percentage is low in office environments.
(Score: 1) by sjames on Tuesday March 04 2014, @11:54AM
Your bank balance gets a bit more interactive with their bottom line.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 03 2014, @07:20PM
It was reported that new Nespresso machines broke when copycat capsules were used.
However, newer copycat models (with "Eva" rings) are promised to work: http://www.coffeecapshop.com/category_s/1817.htm [coffeecapshop.com]
(Score: 2, Interesting) by EvilSS on Monday March 03 2014, @07:21PM
Is this for their K-Cup line or their new Vue and Revo systems? The new ones were created to get around the K-Cup patent ending and IIRC one of them (or both?) were supposed to use RFIDs or something like that to "read" each pod and adjust temp and other parameters based on what it was. AFAIK rivals are locked out anyway since the new pods are patent encumbered to begin with.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Monday March 03 2014, @07:28PM
Why use RFID when proprietary bar codes would do the same for less cost?
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [dev.soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by EvilSS on Monday March 03 2014, @07:42PM
So they can protect their market when the patent expires on this pod design, duh! Also, given the circumstances it may be more reliable. The area where the pods go does get a little dirty, at least in mine.
(Score: 5, Funny) by snick on Monday March 03 2014, @07:28PM
K kup kost breakdown:
IP Lawyers: 70%
Marketing: 20%
RFID chip: 5%
Other packaging 3%
Coffee: 2%
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Fnord666 on Tuesday March 04 2014, @12:24AM
That's interesting since Braun's Tassimo brewers have been doing this for quite some time.
(Score: 1) by MachineShedFred on Tuesday March 04 2014, @04:39PM
Of course, they could skip the bullshit expensive and over-engineered use of RFID and use a damn barcode, which would be insanely cheaper and easier to implement. But, then you can't DRM the living shit out of it. Barcode-programmed coffee data can be read quite easily, and reverse engineered with a bit of time, a stopwatch, and a thermometer.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by anthem on Monday March 03 2014, @07:22PM
First essential tool to coffee at home is a good grinder. Once you have that the rest can be had cheaply - from cold brewing to hot brew methods. I've tried some of these machines and I'm just not very impressed. Now if I could ssh into a coffee maker then I'm interested :)
(Score: 1) by efitton on Monday March 03 2014, @07:49PM
I've done French Press, Mocha Pot, Drip Machine, Drip from the Kettle over my cup. However, while I know cold brew exists I've never cold brewed. Thoughts? Would like to know more about cold brew.
(Score: 2, Informative) by anthem on Monday March 03 2014, @08:51PM
Cold brew is awesome. I never actually done it myself but I buy it from natural foods stores. You can boil up water, put the cold brew into the cup then add boiling water. It mixes and balances out to perfect drinking temperature unless you want it stronger. If you do it yourself you can always have it ready just mix water brought to a boil (or however warm).
I don't like cold brewed at a cold temp. A company by me also recently started offering cold brew nitro tap - Different but kinda weird. I also am lucky to live by a coffee place that has a clover before they got bought out by starbucks :)
Also if ppl are bothered by coffee being acidic apparently cold brewed is not as harsh - but Im not really in the know about all that never had any problems myself.
(Score: 5, Informative) by gottabeme on Tuesday March 04 2014, @01:36AM
I've done it and I like it. You can google up many different howtos and info. All I do is dump the same amount of coffee grounds and water into a jar, seal the lid, and put it in the fridge overnight. Then I pour it through my coffee maker's filter, into the carafe, and then pour the coffee into an empty jar, and put that in the fridge.
It's a bit more concentrated than regular coffee, but it's also much less bitter. It really tastes different. You may or may not prefer it. Personally, I don't like bitter coffee, so this can turn a bitter hot brew into a smoother cold brew.
One of the best things about it is that, unlike hot brewed coffee, it doesn't taste bad after being heated in the microwave. So if you make some and put it in your fridge, you can have hot coffee in a matter of seconds, and it still tastes good.
I guess the downside is you miss out on the smell of coffee brewing, which can often be better than the coffee itself.
A fun thing is watching how the coffee grounds absorb water and sink to the bottom of the jar. As the hours go by, you see more and more at the bottom. If you shake the jar gently, grounds start to "rain" down, but not all of them are saturated, so some grounds will stop mid-fall and "rain" back up to the top. Almost like a coffee ground snowglobe.
(Score: 4, Informative) by el_oscuro on Monday March 03 2014, @07:53PM
A good burr grinder can be had for about $50. For another $50 you can get a good Thermos type drip coffee machine, like my Hamilton Beach. These make better coffee then the regular hot plate type machines. You will also save a ton of energy too, as they turn off as soon as the coffee is brewed. On a regular one, the burners consume about 800 watts, so if you leave it on a typical 2 hours a day, it will consume about 1/2 megawatt hours over a year. That is a lot of juice for a fricking coffee machine.
TI haven't tried SSHing into it yet. :)
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday March 03 2014, @08:54PM
I'm sure this could be an interesting Arduino type project. It would be cool to control parameters with a cron job to make your coffee, and a simple API could let you control your coffee maker from a tablet or smartphone remotely. Only interesting to me though, since you would be in complete control and it *wouldn't* send a Twat out every time you made coffee to gush about how good your coffee maker is...
(Score: 1) by anthem on Monday March 03 2014, @09:04PM
I believe this was done with a raspberry pi at some company before and it was posted on dicedot - or i vaguely remember something of the sort.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday March 04 2014, @10:03AM
In fall of 93 or spring of 94 I was looking at a coffee pot in .uk on this newfangeled "world wide web" thing. Its an old idea.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by hemocyanin on Tuesday March 04 2014, @12:33AM
Forget ssh, get a percolator. The kind that sits on a stove, that would only know "ssh" if you stamped it into the metal.
Really, percolated coffee is excellent, and when you pour a cup right after turning the stove off, hot as a lawsuit. Plus, they last for just about ever and you don't even need a filter, though disc filters do make the last cup less chunky. I bought this exact pot 22 years ago: http://www.amazon.com/Copco-Polished-Stainless-Sto vetop-Percolator/dp/B0009U5NEY/ref=cm_cr_pr_sims_t [amazon.com]
Or just make up some espresso, add a bit of hot water for an Americano -- they come with stainless steel baskets, so no plastic waste and no paper waste. They're more complicated than stove top percolators so they do break down.
Alternatively, there's always the stove top espresso makers (Brazilian coffee pots) -- no paper, no waste, and a strong strong brew. I had a prof from S. America in college who said something like this: coffee should be hot as hell, black as sin, and sweet as sex. One of these makes coffee just like that, if you add a lot of sugar: http://www.amazon.com/Primula-Aluminum-Stovetop-Es presso-Coffee/dp/B001J1L59E/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-gard en&ie=UTF8&qid=1393907323&sr=1-1&keywords=coffee+m aker+aluminum [amazon.com]
As for drip. Blech -- tepid brown water. French press isn't much better and what a pain to clean up.
(Score: 2) by Khyber on Tuesday March 04 2014, @01:13AM
" French press isn't much better and what a pain to clean up."
Which shitty french press are you getting? My decades-old Bonjour works like a damned charm and comes apart in three easily-cleanable pieces with a simple twist.
Destroying Semiconductors With Style Since 2008
(Score: 3, Informative) by hemocyanin on Tuesday March 04 2014, @02:30AM
Bon Jour. Purchased around 1996. I even have three of the four glass cups it came with and all the cork coasters. None of the plastic stirrers though.
My complaints:
1) grounds get stuck between metal disk and the mesh. To clean requires unscrewing.
2) grounds lodged at the bottom and I need to scoop them out, rather than merely dump, to get them into my compost bin.
3) the coffee is OK, but not awesome.
(Score: 1) by amicotoni on Tuesday March 04 2014, @04:33AM
The stove top coffee maker are not from Brazil. They were invented in Italy by Bialetti, in 1933: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moka_pot [wikipedia.org]
(Score: 1) by cykros on Tuesday March 04 2014, @01:40PM
SSH into the coffee machine would be fantastic. Even better would be a full cron daemon. The timers that exist on some machines are pretty nifty, but nothing compared to the full versatility of cron.
I worry about the trend in this direction. God forbid my coffeepot gets malware that results in it only making decaf...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Joe Desertrat on Tuesday March 04 2014, @03:33PM
I've come to make my coffee one of two ways, depending on time constraints. A few years ago I bought a Cabela's stove top percolator for camping. In trying it out at home I discovered it made hotter, stronger, better coffee than any drip coffee maker. I get up to feed the cats at 6:30. I put the burner for the coffee pot on low, toss three scoops of coffee in the basket and go back to bed. By the time an hour passes it has been perking a while and is ready. You can let it go longer if you like stronger coffee. Old school coffee but better by a long shot than driving somewhere for some mediocre chain coffee.
Even more old school, I make a form of cowboy coffee if I'm in a hurry. I've saved the drip baskets from the coffee makers I've tossed over the years (for backpacking). If I'm in a hurry I boil water in the coffee pot, toss in a couple scoops of coffee and let it boil for about three minutes. I stack two baskets and the one from the percolator on top of a cup and pour the boiled coffee through them to filter out the worst of the grinds. Makes good, strong coffee. Just don't drink the last bit in the cup unless you want a mouthful of grinds...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by hubie on Monday March 03 2014, @07:23PM
They must be banking on the Keurig name going forward and that enough people would be willing to lock themselves into that solution and give up any third-party vendors. The CEO says the next version will have "game changing" technology and expects that a large number of current customers will choose to move up to the next version. I don't know if coffee makers are like game consoles. We have a Keurig at work, and it works very well for us. We chipped in and got the cheapest model, and we use third-party K-cups, but I can't see any reason we'd want to change our system and be required to use more expensive coffee.
I understand Green Mountain's patent ran out and now they actually have competition in the K-cup market, so I guess they feel they need some way to lock out the competition again, but my bet is that they'll end up marginalizing themselves to a certain extent. Let's face it though, in that market they are the Microsoft of the 2000's. They can, and will, cut deals with big names. They recently "stole" Starbucks from Tassimo. However, I just don't see them doing themselves any favors by locking out third parties when I would bet the market for inexpensive single-cup makers will take off using the old K-cups. I wonder if they'll be stupid enough to change their K-cup design to not be backwards compatible with their current machines?
(Score: 1) by Boxzy on Monday March 03 2014, @07:25PM
that all forms of censorship are bad m'kay?
Don't do DRM m'kay?
It's bad.
Go green, Go Soylent.
(Score: 4, Funny) by AgTiger on Monday March 03 2014, @07:44PM
(Thank you, Douglas Adams. You keep me from frothing at the mouth when companies create stupid, annoying products.)
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 03 2014, @09:55PM
We have a touchscreen single-serving coffee vending machine at work, which I call the Nutri-Matic because it invariably delivers a cup of hot liquid that is almost, but not quite, like coffee.
I like the fact that it delivers a freshly-ground and brewed cup, but it takes at least 90 seconds to dispense a cup of coffee and if there are people ahead of you, forget it.
Last week it broke down, and we waited a day for tech support to come work on it. It was down all day, and the next day he brought another technician with him. When they finally got it working, it couldn't brew the 12-oz size, so you had to wait 90 seconds for HALF a cup of coffee. Since they got rid of our old drip coffee maker, for the 3 days the Nutri-Matic was down we had no alternative but to go across the street to Starbucks.
SHARE AND ENJOY!
(Score: 1) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 03 2014, @07:46PM
I put tea pouches or whateverthehelliwant in my Keurig. FUCK PROPRIETARY!!!
(Score: 1) by unimatrix on Monday March 03 2014, @07:49PM
pfffst...NetBSD has been running on toasters for a decade.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 03 2014, @07:54PM
Do they fly?
(Score: 2, Funny) by Subsentient on Monday March 03 2014, @09:37PM
Yes.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 04 2014, @01:57AM
I don't like rotting toasts, though!
(Score: 1) by zafiro17 on Tuesday March 04 2014, @06:55AM
Epson and HP are also fully in the "sell cheap device than gouge on the cartridges" model. Epson print cartridges now hold less ink than they did ten years ago - forced obsolescence. Razor blade makers: same thing.
Consumer: Stick to the basics and you'll never be screwed. I shave with an "old fashioned" safety razor. The Germans make some fantastic ones. Blades last for months, don't jam up with cut hairs, and a pack of 10 blades costs me about $2. The modern cartridges cost more than per cartridge.
Print cartridges: I don't have an easy solution there. Buy laser, maybe. Or don't print. But hell, it's a rip-off out there.
Coffee: Jesus people, you need a special machine with unique cartridges? Buy coffee, grind it, put it in a French Press, drink, enjoy, and when the caffeine high wears off, laugh your ass all the way to the bank. ("Oh, but the cartridges are so much ***easier*** wowzers!!!!1111elevenety). Go for it then - one of you is born every minute.
Now get the hell offa my lawn.
Soylent, Pipedot, Usenet's comp.misc. An embarrassment of riches.
(Score: 2) by JeanCroix on Tuesday March 04 2014, @11:50AM
Pfft, you go to the store and BUY coffee? Walk to Colombia, squat some land, grow your own coffee, steal a donkey, harvest it in baskets you wove by hand, grind it between two stones, make pots out of clay, build a fire, brew, drink, enjoy with your new pal John McAfee, pick the grounds out of your teeth, and when the smugness wears off, laugh your ass all the way to the bank. ("Oh, but buying coffee from stores so much ***easier*** wowzers!!!!1111elevenety)
My lawn - you know what to do.
(Score: 1) by meisterister on Saturday March 08 2014, @03:36AM
Alrighty then. As the rest of you are battling your fancy printers that shoot ink at pages, I'll be off to buy a $5 ink ribbon for my dot matrix printer that'll last me for the next two years.
(Score: 1) by rival on Wednesday March 05 2014, @05:04PM
What I want to know is will this be cross-compatible at all? I've got a lot of money in HP ink cartridges with DRM chips in them, and I have yet to find a coffee maker that will brew them properly. Is this the device I've been looking for all these years?