Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport has a short story machine. You push a button, and it prints a story for you.

190 points · 15 comments · view on lemmy.world

15 Comments

EnsignWashout@startrek.website · 52 pts · 20d (1 reply)

I'm sad that I assumed this was a slop machine.

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Local authors. Excellent.

ickplant@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 20d

They had a little blurb about the author at the bottom. I was impressed with the whole concept.

ickplant@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 20d (3 replies)

The machine is on the right-hand side by the wall immediately after you pass through security. There is a button for Child, Young Adult, and Adult. You press the button, and the story is printed out on a sturdy, long piece of paper.

I freaking love stuff like this!

Canadian_Cabinet@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 20d (2 replies)

Is this by the TSA checkpoint right at the top of the stairs or the overflow one below?

ickplant@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 20d (1 reply)

I am not that familiar with that airport, I believe it’s the overflow one because it was super empty, and I had to go down the escalator to get there. It’s the checkpoint by the Southwest counter.

walden@wetshav.ing · 3 pts · 19d

That's Concourse D, which isn't attached to A or B/C. I wonder if they have one near those gates, too.

MonaySimpson@lemmy.ml · 10 pts · 20d (4 replies)

Looks like its this. https://short-edition.com/en/p/short-story-dispenser

Wish it was open sourced.

ickplant@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 20d

Yes, this is it! I didn’t have time to grab a pic, thank you for finding it.

blackbeans@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 19d (2 replies)

Do you want to open source the stories or the machine?

The concept is good but technically it seems dead easy: three buttons, a raspberry pi or similar and a thermal printer connect via usb.

a_non_monotonic_function@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 19d

Does sound like a fun little project. Probably a DB or two online with an API to fiddle with.

MonaySimpson@lemmy.ml · 1 pts · 19d

I just want instructions to follow. I can maybe for the hardware but finding the stories is another thing.

I see their site has links to all the stories but I'm not sure how to call one at random and format out only the story.

THB@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 20d

My local library has one of these as well! Super neat.

huquad@lemmy.ml · 5 pts · 19d (1 reply)

Have you ever heard the tale of Darth Plagueis the wise?

Hupf@feddit.org · 1 pts · 18d

Who hasn't? In fact, Anakin's thesis analyses the underlying dichotomy...

ShawiniganHandshake@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 19d

Came across one of these in the lobby of a hotel in Québec. My wife pressed the "English" button and got a cute little printout. Figuring this would be a good opportunity to practice my French, I pressed the "Français" button and the machine spit out a story the length of a CVS receipt.