On Tue, 15 Feb 2000 22:10:35 +1300 Andrew Hooper writes: > One of the manufacturers of White Wear in New Zealand install a > prepay > cell phone into some of the refrigerators, im not to sure but it may > just > be the experimental ones. > > They can then call up these fridge's and analyze the average > internal, > external > and motor temperatures. Also they can find out what the running > cycles are > of the fridge. > > This reminds me of a very clever idea I heard from a Canadian company. They built a cordless phone transceiver into a cable tv converter box. They then gave consumers a complete cordless phone that this box could talk to. The cable tv box would then phone in tv viewing info for ratings. I wonder if a similar thing could be done with the toaster. Put a cordless phone in the toaster. It then communicates with a base station that calls out to set the time on power-up and occasionally. There are also those little "cordless phone outlets" that give you tip and ring when you plug the device in a wall outlet. It then communicates with a similar device that has access to both AC and the phone line. I've seen these used with satellite pay per view services to phone in billing info. Harold FCC Rules Online at http://hallikainen.com/FccRules Lighting control for theatre and television at http://www.dovesystems.com ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.