After exploring every option possible in the machine based list, I eventually got frustrated and used a few choice words that triggered something in the computer I was talking to.

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The Roominate website contains a growing list of ideas including a washing machine, fireplace and elevator.

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It then sifts through all the gadgets on its host machine until it has put together the required list of instructions.

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The final tally of equipment, which included an industrial sewing machine and a plasma cutter, became the definitive inventory list for TechShop, a 15, 000 square-foot tinkerer Toyland.

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We tried where possible to limit the list to handheld or easily portable objects, eliminating most heavy machine tools, like hydraulic jacks.

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Epstein predicted that this machine would take the industry by storm and change the dynamics of back-list sales and distribution, among other things (needless to say, the Kindle was the device that would eventually do those things and not the Espresso Machine).

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IBM, which dominates the annual list of the top 500 supercomputers, announced that it was building the machine in 1999 and, like the new Compaq-Celera collaboration, it will be ready by 2004.

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Apparently in a study done by the Deafness Research UK in conjunction with Dr. Brad Backus of University College London, 14 out of 15 toys tested produced noise levels above the recommended safety limit when held close to the ear. 8 of the 15 were just fine during normal use, but the three worst offenders -- a machine gun, a tommy gun and a cap gun -- are on the "avoid" list.

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Numbers that are on neither list will be verified by going through a CAPTCHA routine that to verify that a human, not a machine, is making the call.

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