One of these exists at
MIT LCS. One person was appointed the accounts keeper, and would create accounts for anyone who wanted cola. You give him some money, he puts it in the
soda fund, and adds that amount to your
account. You
could telnet into the account from anywhere on the network (to check your balance or your favorite soda's availability, or to transfer credit to another user), but when you want to buy a soda, you use the terminal next to the machine. It always gave me a thrill to simply type in name, password, and soda selection and KER-CHUNK -
You've got Root Beer!I guess the ultimate in
fizzy-drink-vending-automation would let you pay by
credit card, and would re-order soda automatically at a certain point.
Side note: I often wish that more of the things I type had actual, physical consequenses - don't you? Addendum - hooray for the X10 firecracker module and the br *nix interface - now keypresses can operate any electrical device in my home!