sudo make me a sandwich
It seems laziness can sometimes be a source for inspiration and invention. Bre Pettis and Adam Cecchetti decided they’d had enough of making their own sandwiches, what with all the getting up, and taking out all the ingredients, and actually cooking, why bother? They have now made a small robotic sandwich maker which makes sandwiches on command, direct from the computer!
The device is quite simplistic; it is nothing more than the combination of a griller and a simple mechanism to dispense the bread and cheese. When commanded to do so, the machine first drops a slice of bread onto the grill-plate, then a slice of cheese, then another piece of bread. This concoction is then pulled into the griller by a motor, and voila! you have a grilled cheese sandwich.
Attitude is built into the device, as it won’t make a sandwich unless commanded to do so by the superuser! If you enter simple ‘make me a sandwich’ it rudely tells you to “Make it yourself.”, when told to do the same with proper privileges however by entering ‘sudo make me a sandwich’ (sudo is a Linux command for running something as the super-user, similar to right clicking and selecting ‘Run as Administrator’ in Vista), it readily complies, whirring into motion to speedily serve its master.
I convey my greatest of thanks to such heroes, who dedicate their time and effort to simplify and endlessly annoying task! Gone are the days when we had to get up from out computers to get something to eat, nevermore will my hands be distracted from their rightful place at the keyboard! Now if only I could dial down the attitude.
Source: Bre Pettis’ Blog