One of my friends works at NASA, and he was talking about how there is so much bureaucracy and paperwork people have to go through in order to get anything done. I proceed to go off on a tangent about my lucky streak with vending machines giving me free candy, and the following conversation ensued:

Me: You know… I’ve been getting free candy from the vending machines recently
Friend: lucky you
Me: Yeah… the vending machines have this thing to prevent your money from getting eaten.
Friend: hmm….that would really be a neat feature at like….all vending machines
Friend: how does it work i wonder?
Me: It’s like the garage door safety sensors
Me: If the beam gets interrupted, the product is dispensed.
Me: It should be obvious where this beam is placed.
Friend: is it an infrared sensor?
Me: I think it is
Friend: aww….too bad it isn’t a laser so someone could use a mirror to defeat it
Me: haha
Friend: there is this vending machine at work where the drinks would fall but they wouldn’t come out once they fell
Me: hmm
Friend: it had this door thing that wouldn’t quite open so the bottle would be stuck behind that door
Friend: someone would have to buy another drink for it to be dislodged
Me: … and both of them would come out?
Friend: yep
Me: At least you don’t get screwed.
Friend: yeah…..i figured out just to get another drink instead and it hasn’t happened since
Me: mmm
Friend: there are some new vending machines that will grab the product from a shelf and then dispense it
Friend: those are fun to watch
Me: Yep
Friend: the candy machines we have at work are just like the ones at my high school that have a spiral metal wire that turns when you select what you want, and sometimes it won’t fall and you get to wrestle with the machine
Me: Yeah… those are the ones we have.
Friend: except in high school there were cameras placed right next to the machines watching your every move
Me: But we have the IR sensor.
Friend: you’d think at NASA we would use something a little bit more advanced
Me: hehe
Friend: like something that prints you a receipt everytime you use the machine
Me: Why would you want that?
Friend: i was being sarcastic
Friend: it would fit right in with the amount of paper we already use