Coca-Cola Reserves a Massive Range of MAC Addresses 371
An anonymous reader writes "GNU MacChanger's developer has found by chance that The Coca-Cola company got a range of MAC addresses allocated at the OUI, the IEEE Registration Authority in charge of managing the MAC addresses spectrum. What would Coca-Cola want around 16 million MAC addresses reserved? What are they planning to use them for? Could this part of a strategy around the Internet-of-things concept?"
Not cans (Score:5, Insightful)
Vertically integrated vending machines?
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Or, security/privacy problems waiting to as the vending machines are integrated with a ridiculous amount of things (and with zero consideration for security).
Think social media campaigns and other things which want you to "check-in" with your phone at the soda machine.
And I'm sure the ones I'm seeing with credit-card readers are all super secure too.
Re:Not cans (Score:4, Insightful)
Then put your dollar bills into the machine and never worry. Banks pay for credit card breaches, not consumers. You may argue that we do so indirectly with higher fees, but not really. Fraud is a few billion dollars, but the fees they collect cover that without hassle. And since the swipe fees are money they collect at no actual cost--there's no product to produce, no actual expenses per transaction (merely a distribution of the fixed costs of maintaining the network)--they just don't worry about fraud. When you make money from air, losses aren't terribly bad.
I've had my credit card number stolen a couple times. As long as the thieves only get your number and not your actual identity (and the card info is all they will get from breach at a POS), it's merely inconvenient. The biggest hassles are setting up all the automatic payments again and learning a new number. I have a couple cards and if I'm somewhere I worry about the system's integrity, I use the card that doesn't have any autopayments associated with it. Then if it does get stolen, there's absolutely no hassle outside of a two phone calls to the issuer: one to report it, and one to activate the new card.
The bank doesn't care about losses, so I'm not terribly worried about it either. Of course, users of debit cards have a LOT more hassle, but that is their choice to use that financial product. If they learn to trust themselves use credit cards responsibly and pay off the bill each month, then they can enjoy these same benefits.
Re:Not cans (Score:5, Interesting)
On a slightly related note, there is a very nice Microsoft Research paper on password theft and bank fraud, and who actually gets affected.
I will admit that most of what I actually thought of this subject was quite wrong.
Linkage: http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/161829/EverythingWeKnow.pdf [microsoft.com]
Re:Not cans (Score:4, Insightful)
Then put your dollar bills into the machine and never worry.
[rant]
For Christ's sake USA, get rid of the dollar bill already. There's nothing more freaking frustrating that trying to feed *paper* money into a vending machine - Especially crumbled torn and dirty American singles. I don't know what on earth you print your nearly-monochrome money onto but man it sure doesn't survive well... Get some $1 and $2 coins into circulation and make your smallest paper bill a five.
[/rant]
Re:Not cans (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Not cans (Score:5, Funny)
In the coin slut?
Re:Not cans (Score:5, Funny)
Make it hail!
Re:Not cans (Score:4, Funny)
Where do you put $1 coins when at the strip club?
In the slot?
Re:Not cans (Score:5, Informative)
Never been to a strip club, but I did a quick google search and found a couple of threads on the subject.
Two answers stood out - 1, some clubs issue coupons that you can use in place of money; the strippers just redeem them at the end of the shift. 2, use $5s, you goddamn cheapskate. :)
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"Where do you put $1 coins when at the strip club?"
In the Phillipines during the Cold War (I can't vouch for later) there were various establishments where the entertainers would lower themselves onto a beer bottle and engulf coins set upon the top.
Alas I only saw photos belonging to other Airmen as Mount Pinatubo rudely erupted ensuring I could not visit on TDY.
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I realize utterly brainless is a necessary qualification for serving in government, but it passes belief how stupid the guys in charge of currency are. Make a HELL OF A LOT more than a few billion dollar coins and simultaneously STOP MAKING NEW GODDAM DOLLAR BILLS. The old bills will rapidly turn to garbage and fade out of circulation. If some bird brains want to horde a few, fine; they won't evaporate in storage; but soon it will be good luck finding a vending machine that will take them, or a clerk dumb e
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Every time I travel.
ATM only gives out $20. Some ticket/food/item only costs $2-3, I get 17 $1 coins jingling around in my pocket.
You get rather paranoid if you're out walking around.
Re:Not cans (Score:5, Interesting)
Some ticket/food/item only costs $2-3, I get 17 $1 coins jingling around in my pocket.
This seems unlikely. No vendor would give away all their change like that. They'd give you a ten, a five, then coins.
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They were those Susan B Anthony dollars. The problem was that so many things like newspapers were sold using mechanical spring type vending machines that only accepted quarters, nickels and dimes, and not one dollar coins. Not even laundrette washing machines or electronic vending machines accepted them. So you could get rid of the spare change by buying a newspaper or a snack but not those coins. Not even supermarkets would want to exchange them. They needed the quarters to give customers change.
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I haven't had a problem with paper bills in modern vending machines. Maybe you're just bad at figuring at which way is up?
As for coins, they're a pain in the ass to carry around more than two or three. We've had dollar coins for many years, and there's a reason they never caught on. I'd much rather skip the vending machine and not carry any singles than have to carry around coins.
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Re:Not cans (Score:5, Funny)
When I visit the States, I definitely wish they were coins.
You are welcome to holiday in any of the other 200+ countries.
Meanwhile, the very dumbest of the bottom of the barrel of humanity here (inner-city youths, illegal immigrants, etc) manages to visually separate Benjamins from singles, and they can't even post on Slashdot. Pretty much everyone knows that 100 > 50 > 20 > 10, etc.; those being the numbers that are clearly marked multiple times on every bill.
So... WTF is your malfunction?
And, just for good measure --
Your currency is ridiculously annoying.
Your beer sucks.
Re:Not cans (Score:4, Funny)
Your beer sucks.
Try our water, it should taste more familiar.
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But I can't keep dollar coins in my wallet and hate loose coins in my pocket
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Get some $1 and $2 coins into circulation
You must jingle a lot when you pull your pants up.
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Actually, they will be replaced by bitcoins.
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Re:Not cans (Score:4, Interesting)
Then put your dollar bills into the machine and never worry.
[rant]
For Christ's sake USA, get rid of the dollar bill already. There's nothing more freaking frustrating that trying to feed *paper* money into a vending machine - Especially crumbled torn and dirty American singles. I don't know what on earth you print your nearly-monochrome money onto but man it sure doesn't survive well... Get some $1 and $2 coins into circulation and make your smallest paper bill a five.
[/rant]
Nobody wants dollar coins. Its been tried and died a dozen times in the US.
Seems even Canadians, once fooled, are twice shy about converting paper to coins [wikipedia.org]:
In 2005, the Canadian government polled its citizens on the idea of retiring the five-dollar note, replacing it with a five-dollar coin. The money saved in making the coin would then fund the Canadian Olympic team. Canadians resoundingly rejected and ridiculed the idea of a five-dollar coin.
Paper folds. Its in a wallet without jingling and bulging.
And vending machines are very good at accepting even the filthiest of bills, because the vending companies have learned that accepting anything close is better than getting people in the habit of avoiding the machine. Especially when selling a product that costs less than the bottle it is sold in.
Re:Not cans (Score:5, Insightful)
Sigh. In ones and twos? I thought not. Complete red herring.
New Ad Campaign (Score:4, Funny)
"I'd like to teach the world to ping...in perfect harmony...."
Re:Not cans (Score:5, Insightful)
Banks pay for credit card breaches, not consumers
Like any other business, you, the consumer, eventually do pay for them - in higher (and newer, more devious) fees, lower savings/CD interest rates, and higher loan interest rates.
Don't fool yourself into thinking that you;re getting a free ride.
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Banks pay for credit card breaches, not consumers
Like any other business, you, the consumer, eventually do pay for them - in higher (and newer, more devious) fees, lower savings/CD interest rates, and higher loan interest rates.
Don't fool yourself into thinking that you;re getting a free ride.
And don't believe that old fallacy that it's the banks that pick up the tab either- as pointed out here [slashdot.org], it's the retailer that almost always has to pick up the tab in such cases.
The banks simply yank back any fraudulent transactions and leave the business out of pocket- not them. This is why banks- in the UK at least- do not give a fuck about individual instances of credit card theft and fraud. They're not the ones having to pay for it.
If you're a retailer who knows with near-certainty that a credit card h
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And for God's sake, stop using that stupid Internet-of-things buzzword.
yep vending machines (Score:5, Interesting)
It's for wireless enabled purchases at vending machines.
I did an RFP for this in grad school. In our scenario the beverage company was working with AT&T to enable the wireless internet connection.
They'll probably "partner" with other vendors of consumer goods...whatever the marketing people come up with.
Simplyfying inventory management (Score:2)
I think it allows a central inventory management office to track the inventory in each vending machine, and setting automatic alerts when certain vending machines need to be refilled. The vending machine having its own IP helps in that it is uniquely addressable and all the inventory data it has, as well as any cash/payments made to it could be tracked, and more effective planning made possible.
16M addresses? This is particularly these types of uses that justify IPv6. With IPv6, Coke could get itself a
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MAC addresses, not IPs. They may actually be going to use IPv6. That's not part of the article.
[John]
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MAC addresses aren't part of IPv4 or IPv6 (IPv6 does have a standard for automatically generating IPv6 addresses from MAC addresses, but, as you point out, you can hand addresses out centrally from a DHCP server instead). They're part of Ethernet. TCP/IP (4 or 6) needs a data link layer to actually move the bits for it. T
Re:yep vending machines (Score:5, Interesting)
I believe it's for more than just vending machines. The new computerized soda fountains that have been popping up in various fast food restaurants all report back to the mother ship as well.
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Ya, I was thinking vending machines, fountain dispensers, company owned coolers in retail establishments, and even store shelves. They can (and do) have a lot of hardware out there that can't be monitored remotely. It would be very advantageous if they could know that a machine is or isn't working, what the stock is like, and know immediately what the sales are like.
Right now, they lose a lot of money from vending machines that aren't fully stocked. I'm sure just about everyone has gone to a store and
Re:yep vending machines (Score:5, Interesting)
Fountains are a good bet. For instance, a certain large, well-known company that owns theme parks and resorts has recently added RFID chips to the soda cups they sell. When you go to a self-service fountain, the fountain checks if the cup is allowed to be filled. They check to see if the cup is from this location, if it is within an allowed 'free refill' time, and if it is being used too often (you must wait a few minutes before it can be refilled). No more buying a single cup and walking around all day getting 'free refills'. No more buying a single cup then giving all 8 kids a soda by pouring from the purchased cup into your own cup over and over.
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I bought bottles of coke from Coca-Cola vending machines with SMS more than 10 years ago already (in Finland). In the last couple of years they've been rolling out special apps to be used with vending machines; or at least for random snack kind of setups. The phone-home -functionality has most likely existed as long... Sounds like they are about to modernize things globally.
^agree (Score:2)
yep, and actually in our RFP (which was allegedly a real-world RFP with company names changed that an alum gave us) it wasn't just for people who purchased something...the wireless machines were collecting data from any device that was in proximity
not that this is really a surprise to anyone here, but if Coke can do this on all their machines it would yield an a
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And that's scary, but completely unsurprising.
Marketing people continue to be assholes, film at 11.
Agree (Score:2)
Agree, vending machines that act as a kiosk and/or take debit/credit cards as well as cash.
The real question here... (Score:2)
It's an obvious guess that these are for NIC cards to be used in some type of vending and/or dispensing machine. What I'm wondering is why is Coca-Cola designing their own cards? Do they really have a use for these that commodity cards can't accommodate?
Does Coca Cola own their own vending machines? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Does Coca Cola own their own vending machines? (Score:4, Informative)
The 16 million number is because that's what you get when you want MAC addresses from IEEE. The other option is something like 4096 addresses and that's just dumb.
Re:Does Coca Cola own their own vending machines? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Does Coca Cola own their own vending machines? (Score:5, Informative)
Don't forget that a MAC address is 48 bits. The vendor ID portion is 24 bits - leaving 24 bits (approx. 16 million addresses) as the smallest range of addresses you can obtain if you obtain a single VID.
Re: (Score:2)
If you figure there's one Coke vending machine per 100 people, that's 3 million Coke machines in the US alone. So certainly the scale (if we extend to worldwide) is about right.
Or it could be fountain kegs instead of vending machines. I can see an application for keg connectivity to monitor syrup level, temperature, and gas PSI. Coke has end-to-end control of bottled/canned products, excepting temperature, but not fountain drinks.
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Re:Does Coca Cola own their own vending machines? (Score:5, Funny)
Don't piss him off, or he'll show you the back of his right envelope.
Vending machines? (Score:3, Funny)
Or maybe vending machines. Also, vending machines.
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vending machines....there's got to be a use for the unsold ARM processors that were intended for last year's tablets.
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Inventory and Maintenance. (Score:2)
Vending or Inventory Controls (Score:3)
Coke builds own NIC in machines... (Score:2)
Coke builds own NIC in machines. Full stop.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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Because they suspect that vendor supplied NICs are backdoored so the NSA can get free coke?
I don't think Coca Cola supplies the kind of coke that the NSA wants. But then they are the NSA, so maybe they know more then I do.
Not unusual (Score:3)
From the start, OUIs were 3 out of 6 bytes long.
Not particularly massive... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not particularly massive... (Score:4, Informative)
Also, to my knowledge there is no provision for subdividing within an OUI - a 24 bit address range is the smallest you can get.
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It's more like a /8, but yeah. Nothing to see here
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Well actually it's more like a /16 since the ipv4 address space is just smaller. whatever.
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They are getting MAC addresses, not IPv4.
Oh, really. Perhaps try reading GGGP
Evil plan to TAKE OVER THE WORLD!!! (Score:2)
Or, you know, it could be the blatantly obvious answer of "vending machines." But where's the headline in that?
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Freestyle fountain machines (Score:5, Informative)
or... (Score:2)
...maybe they just have an engineer who convinced them to be early this time. If you had got a class A network back when they were basically given to anyone who so much as asked, you know?
"Massive range"? (Score:5, Insightful)
"The original IEEE 802 MAC address comes from the original Xerox Ethernet addressing scheme. This 48-bit address space contains potentially 2^48 or 281,474,976,710,656 possible MAC addresses."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address [wikipedia.org]
2^48 / 2^24 = 2^24 so OMG NOES they're getting one-sixteen-millionth of the available space!
If 16 million other companies do this we're TOTALLY SCREWED!
(Unless I did my math wrong or there are other things I'm unaware of, which is totally possible. I'm sure someone who actually knows about networking will either correct me, or confirm that this is a total non-story. If they wanted 16M IPv4 addresses this would be a little different.)
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Another way of looking at it: This is the smallest possible address range you can obtain, since OUIs are 3 bytes.
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If 16 million other companies do this we're TOTALLY SCREWED!
If 16 million other companies do this, then we still have enough for 777,000 more companies. And these should really be for some kind of manufacturers. Like Apple or HP or Dell might have gone through a few dozen of these, but not much more unless they were careless.
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There is the local/global bit and the multicast bit, so it's more like 4 million other companies. However, you are essentially correct.
One block is not a massive range (Score:4, Insightful)
So, Coca-Cola went and spent $665 dollars for a single block. This is not news.
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$665 dollars
cool square-dollars there, bro
Currency speculation (Score:2)
MAC addresses are the new BitCoins. Buy 'em up while they're cheap!
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Missing words (Score:2)
with
be
How much does it cost? (Score:2)
How much does it cost to reserve a block of MAC's? If they needed a thousand MAC addresses for some small project (maybe a new corporate standard Coke machine), and there's little to no incremental cost to get a block of 16 million, then there's no reason to think that they have some big plans to sell millions of devices.
Besides, 16 million is not many MAC addresses if they really did expect to release any public product.
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16 million is only one 16 millionth of macs (24 bits of 48) not that much it's also the minimum they can reserve.
Why not? (Score:2, Insightful)
Someone is being clueless- it's not a massive range, it's the smallest range you can reserve.
If you're a large enough corp and it doesn't cost much, you might as well reserve a block for yourself.
I don't see mac addresses going away anytime soon, and since they are given out in blocks of 16 million and there are "only" 16 million blocks one day coca cola's block of 16 million might become handy even if they don't use it now.
Kinda obvious (Score:2)
My next guess is an shipment tracking on scale t
FFS, Slashdot. (Score:5, Interesting)
What I read: "One of the world's largest companies has need of an allocation unique identifiers for network hardware".
Fuck, they sell 1.7 BILLION coke products every single day (their 2010 annual report, on their website FAQ too).
That means they sell over 1000 products a day for every MAC address they just reserved. They could use them to control the various parts of the fucking production lines via Ethernet and it still wouldn't be enough for their normal, everyday usage of such things. It's certainly no "Internet of things" heap-of-crap headline.
How the hell did this make it onto Slashdot?
Minimum Mac allocation (Score:5, Informative)
It's a 48 bit address space. They have lots of addresses. This is the minimum allocation IEEE hands out. Lot's of companies have a /24 of Mac addresses.
FFS, all I wanted was some delicious sugar water (Score:5, Funny)
Uh - can't I just put in some quarters?
I AM AN INTELLIGENT INTERNET-CONNECTED VENDING WORKSTATION. I DISPENSE DELICIOUS COCA-COLA PRODUCTS, CHANGE YOUR FACEBOOK STATUS TO 'CURRENTLY ENJOYING A FINE COCA-COLA OR OTHER DELICIOUS COCA-COLA PRODUCT', LIKE THE COCA-COLA COMPANY, TWEET 'CURRENTLY ENJOYING A FINE COCA-COLA OR OTHER DELICIOUS COCA-COLA PRODUCT', SEND A PHOTO OF YOU OPENING YOUR COCA-COLA OR OTHER DELICIOUS COCA-COLA PRODUCT TO SNAPCHAT -
Okay, okay! Here's my Visa card.
THE VISA CARD ISSUER IS REPLYING THAT THERE IS SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY ON THIS CARD. IT WAS USED TO MAKE A PURCHASE IN THE AMOUNT OF FORTY-FIVE DOLLARS AND ZERO FIVE CENTS IN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, FAR FROM THE ZIPCODE ON YOUR BILLING ADDRESS.
Yeah, I bought something off of Amazon - Oh, nevermind... here's another card.
WHAT IS THE PIN FOR THIS CARD?
7734
THAT PIN IS NOT RECOGNIZED FOR THIS DEBIT CARD.
It's not a debit card. It's an ATM card.
I CANNOT ACCEPT ATM CARDS DUE TO FEDERAL BANKING REGULATIONS. PLEASE INSERT A DEBIT CARD.
I don't use a debit card. They don't protect my account. It could be stolen and all the money in my account - Oh, nevermind. Do you take dollar bills?
I AM AN INTELLIGENT INTERNET-CONNECTED VENDING WORKSTATION. I DISPENSE DELICIOUS COCA-COLA PRODUCTS, CHANGE YOUR FACEBOOK STATUS TO 'CURRENTLY ENJOYING A FINE COCA-COLA OR OTHER DELICIOUS COCA-COLA PRODUCT', LIKE THE COCA-COLA COMPANY, TWEET 'CURRENTLY ENJOYING A FINE COCA-COLA OR OTHER DELICIOUS COCA-COLA PRODUCT', SEND A PHOTO OF YOU-
I know! I know! You already said that! You don't accept any cash at all?
DO YOU HAVE A PAYPAL ACCOUNT?
Yes, unfortunately I do.
PLEASE ENTER YOUR NAME AND BILLING ADDRESS ON YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT. PRESS THE GREEN 'I ACCEPT AND AGREE' BUTTON ON THE TOUCHSCREEN AND YOUR FINE COCA-COLA OR OTHER DELICIOUS COCA-COLA PRODUCT WILL BE BILLED TO YOUR PAYPAL ACCOUNT.
Okay...I guess...
THANK YOU FOR SELECTING COCA-COLA. YOUR BEVERAGE WILL BE DISPENSED SHORTLY...WAITING FOR GOOGLE ANALYTICS....LOADING...CONNECTING TO FACEBOOK.API....WAITING...LOADING...
Forget it. I should be dieting anyway.
YOU HAVE PUSHED THE RED 'CANCEL TRANSACTION' BUTTON. ARE YOU SURE?
Yes, I don't want a Coke anymore. Besides, I can't figure out a way to buy one even if I still did.
DO YOU HAVE A BITCOIN WALLET?
Look - it's starting to snow. I am going to go over and scrape some together and let it melt in my mouth. Do you want some?
WOULD YOU BE WILLING TO TAKE A SHORT FIVE MINUTE SURVEY REGARDING OUR INTERACTION TODAY? YOU WILL BE ENTERED IN A DRAWING TO WIN FIFTY DOLLARS WORTH OF COCA-COLA OR OTHER DELICIOUS COCA-COLA PRODUCT...
Re:FFS, all I wanted was some delicious sugar wate (Score:5, Funny)
All I wanted was a cup of tea.
Hm ... (Score:2)
... wondering, how many of the posters here do not understand that specific MAC addresses are not relevant as far as TCP/IP is concerned? So as long as no duplicate MACs are used in a L2 broadcast domain, it doesn't matter what MAC you use ...
Exactly how old news is this? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Exactly how old news is this? (Score:5, Informative)
Turns out the URL has changed over time. Knowing what the URL used to be allows looking up earlier versions.
The allocation was made between 2010 Aug 08 [archive.org] and 2010 Nov 24 [archive.org].
Isn't it obvious? (Score:5, Funny)
It's a trademark thing. They just wanted MAC addresses starting with C0:CA:C0:1A.
Vending Machines + Apps (Score:2)
If you extrapolate, plus look at the hints Coke has been dropping...
Coke must be working on a phone app that allows you to configure your "preferred" drink at their multi-selection syrup dispensers. Yes, you can accomplish it with RFID, but If each individual machine is internet-aware, then it can geo-fence to know who is near the machine, report syrup levels for restocking, as well as more accurately track a customer rewards program. We can't rely on phones to have NFC/RFID, so they need to come up wit
Minimal range, not massive! (Score:3)
MAC addresses consists of 48 bits, of which 24 is a vendor code and the other half some sort of serial number.
I.e. the smallest possible allocation of MAC addresses is a single vendor code, giving 2^24 or 16M unique addresses.
Sounds like an obvious starting point for a Coca-Cola MAC address in every vending machine.
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Google bough Boston Dynamics, otherwise a four-legged vending machine might be a possibility
In any case, does this make you feel we (global "we") are paying way too much for our carmelized-sugar water?
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When I was kid it was 15 cents for a soda and 5 cents for an extra squirt of syrup so... Dr. Pepper with Double Cherry 25 cents, I really miss that and I'm not talking about the price. I have thought about putting nice soda fountain in my rec-room but I don't drink enough soda to make it worth it.
Re:I'm Confused (Score:4, Informative)
If you buy a network interface card then you have to include a connector for that card on your motherboard, and have the necessary chips to talk whatever protocol is used on that bus. Which also means you have to buy or design a motherboard - and designing one probably makes sense when costs and form factor matter and you have sufficient economies of scale.
If you're designing a motherboard, you might as well just buy the ethernet chip and put it on yourself. The chip doesn't come with a built-in MAC address; that's provided from flash (or some other nonvolatile storage device on board). Whoever programs the flash (or pays the CM to program the flash) provides it with a MAC address, not the vendor of the ethernet chip itself.
My employer designs products with built-in ethernet and we have our own MAC address range(s).
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You mean facial recognition and play a commercial depending on gender and skin color?
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