iLoo | Hacker News Reader

iLoo

en.wikipedia.org

354 pointsvezzy-fnord56 comments

    The i-Loo featured an internet-enabled monitor on the cubicle wall and a special
    printer that would allow users to print information
    on a standard toilet paper roll.

I would have loved to see that product pitch.

Take a photo of your boss, and get great satisfaction in going to the toilet.

Potential for nation wide mental health improvements.

http://crossdysfunctional.tumblr.com/post/92902946302/valrol...

Funny, but that blog had a "pitch" for Twitting toilet somewhere as well. It seems Microsoft combined both jokes into a single real-life product.

Near where I grew up, a petrol station toilet functioned as a de facto public toilet for passersby. The owner must have been a lilt eccentric.

Anyway, when you turned on the light a little disco ball would light up and some high energy pop song would play: "I Want to Break Free," "YMCA".. something like that.

It was the talk of the town.

iLoo seems like a bad idea, but for an unconventional marketing campaign, doing something with festival toilets is not a bad idea. If you've seen Better Call Saul's talking toilet, that would be a particularly impactful approach.

Combining keyboards and festival toilets, the two dirtiest things known to mankind, only seems logical. This could have spawned new lifeforms.

Don't forget doorknobs, the dirtiest thing unknown to mankind.

Lots are made of copper which would dispel that entirely.

For the curious https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_properties_of_co...

I think you mean brass. Edit: maybe not as the other commenter pointed out.

Brass or silver would do the job too.

Silver doorknobs would have a nasty problem of vanishing all the time.

Copper would too, just check out the wiring in any empty house in a county with meth problems.

Inevitably we arrive at the next iteration of the iLoo: make both the keyboard [1] and the toilet [2] out of copper.

[1] http://www.copperkeyboard.com/

[2] http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g1575479-...

Might as well make the exterior copper as well, like a steampunk tardis.

s/ar/ur/g

I like how utterly homemade the mouse looks.

The copper mouse is not pretty but it kills harmful bacteria 24/7. http://www.copperkeyboard.com

I read shopping cart handles were filthier than toilet seats or keyboards. A study in 2011 discovered that fecal bacteria was on 72% of all shopping carts: http://blogs.webmd.com/breaking-news/2011/03/fecal-bacteria-...

I recon the percentage for toothbrushes is higher, because proximity. Nothing wrong with giving your immune system a bit of a workout.

that is why its great to toss them into the dish washer to keep them clean.

The ex-boss of a friend of mine used to clean the toilet brush in the office dish washer.

You haven't been on a festival toilet then.

Many stores in the US offer wipes near the front of the store to wipe down the cart handles. I'd recommend using them, especially since so many people carry around raw chicken / meat products that leak.

That was my first thought too.

But maybe you could cover it with some kind of disposable plastic wrap? Every person would just throw the old cover away and new one would be automatically in it's place.

Edit: There's a condom joke in here somewhere....

At the CCC Camp there is something called the Datenklo (Data toilet) where they use festival toilets as weatherproofing for network equipment.

We had them at EMF Camp too.

There's something quite obscene about camping but with a 230v mains feed and >100mbit internet to your tent :)

You can just imagine the circumstances that led up to that being made. I suppose there is a market for weatherproof server racks nowadays with all these pesky kids and their gosh-darn cellphones at camps.

The dataloo: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/59/CCCamp_2...

I think it is just Microsoft's way of making fun of Apple's product naming convention.

Someone always has to spoil the party by blurting out the truth :)

Way ahead of its time. Nowadays everyone uses the internet while on the toilet.

Yet another great innovation crushed by unimaginative soulless beauracrats.

The flush servo is connected to a Windows ME box via serial. Fuck.

Tangentially related, but I remember reading a "Top Tip" in Viz (which is an adult comic - think Onion but more English and stupid https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viz_(comics)) which was along the lines of:

When at your friends house, subtly announce to them that you need a poo by asking for their wifi password.

Im sorry but you need to register a toilett paper license first at microsoft.com. Do not support unclean behinds! Report people doing the crapwalk!

That is after reading the EULA printed on the said toilet paper.

That's assuming the EULA will fit on said toilet paper.

Toilet Seat Genuine Advantage.

... cancelled because it would do little to promote the MSN brand.

It would have promoted the brand to be sure, just not in the direction they wanted.

I wonder if they were inspired by Apple to use an iName. But then, “internet” was the best excuse ever for the ridiculous leading vocal.

Apple didn't invent the iName, they were late on that bandwagon. For some unfathomable reason i or e whatevers were for a while the way to name your product if you had no better ideas. In fact, Apple have had to buy or otherwise acquire most of the iNames they use from previous users. (Including at least iPhone, iOS, iPad.) However, all the other consumer iWhatevers were generally completely uninspired products that didn't live long and which no-one remembers, while people do remember the Apple iProducts, so iNames are now associated with Apple.

Forget Dr. Who's 'Tardis' - Call this the 'Turdis'

The lines for the bathroom at our office are so bad, I actually want to block the wifi in there so people will hurry up and get off the can...

Was the latest in a long line of shit products.

That's pretty damn innovative for Microsoft. It's a shame they didn't have the balls to stick to it. That could've been the first step to electronics in all sorts of places, maybe even would've led to Microsoft spearheading IoT.

Novel, yes, but I wouldn't call it innovative. It seems overkill and I can't think of many practical uses. Hotmail station is icky (dirty kryvoard). Keyboardless applications.. Hmm, video chat with other iLoo users??

If you want to commercialise the public toilet in 2003, just add a stack of mildly interesting sponsored magazines, and build an internet station with Hotmail like a public telephone.

How have I never heard of this before?! In a way I think it was brave of Microsoft to try something like this, something so out of the box for the company.

It needs a Kinect.

The more advanced edition will come with Oculus Rift VR.

and here I am thinking it was the next version of HP's iLO - http://www8.hp.com/us/en/products/servers/ilo/integrated-lig...

I wonder if anyone who has worked on the project dared listing it on their résumé. I would :)

Only if it's printed on toilet paper :)

The iLoo would take the meaning of zero-day exploits to a whole new level...

BTW patch your iLoo regularly! Reinstalling really is an unpleasant job :)

Reminds me of the time Nintendo came up with the world's stupidest name for a console, the Wii.

The jokes that came out then too.

I remember in the announcement they had a great tagline that completely changed my reaction from "lol, stupid name" to "OK that is good" - Wii will change everything

The name "iPad" was made fun of a lot too when it was first announced (being compared to tampons and stuff).

That aside, I think iLoo is a genuinely stupid idea and no amount of rebranding could've saved it.

iLoo - there goes my iPoo

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