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It's funny.  Laugh. Operating Systems Software Unix

Pizza From the Command Line 418

Punk Walrus writes "Pizza Party is a free, text based CLI for ordering Domino's pizza via Quikorder, or for throwing pizza parties. It is distributed under the GNU General Public License, runs under most *nix shells, and can order pizza with only a few keystrokes. Includes video of actual ordering."
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Pizza From the Command Line

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  • Interesting (Score:5, Interesting)

    by DakotaK ( 727197 ) * on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:47PM (#9090207)
    Hoo boy, 7.1 meg video file. Server meltdown in 5...4...3...
    Something tells me that this isn't gonna stop at a commandline. I can easily see it evolving into a GUI program. Hell, I'd work on it if I knew how to program and had a Domino's in my area.
    It'd also be cool to see this support the side-orders in the future. Dominos hot wings are pretty good (albeit they're not very hot).
    • Re:Interesting (Score:4, Insightful)

      by jargoone ( 166102 ) * on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:58PM (#9090279)
      Yeah. A GUI front-end for the comand-line order program. That would rule!

      Or, you could just use any web browser and do it the normal way.

      Sometimes people doing stuff just because they can is irritating.
    • Re:Interesting (Score:4, Informative)

      by samoverton ( 253101 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:58PM (#9090285)
      already a GUI [quikorder.com].

      How did you think the command line program ordered it? Magic?
    • by daeley ( 126313 ) * on Friday May 07, 2004 @07:10PM (#9090363) Homepage
      Worst would be a GUI wrapper around the CLI program that would dial your regular phone for you. From the Department of Redundancy Department.

      Unless you piped it into a speech synthesizer to do the ordering... Hmm...

      And then hooked it into an Eliza bot... Hmm...

      Domino's Dude: "Thank you for calling Dominos. Would you like to hear our specials?"

      Computer Voice: "We were discussing you, not me."
      • by nacturation ( 646836 ) <nacturation&gmail,com> on Friday May 07, 2004 @08:10PM (#9090705) Journal
        Hm... that could get quite interesting, especially if you had a natural sounding text to speech convertor and good speech recognition software. Or if you had too much time on your hands and wasted it getting Eliza to give good responses:

        ****

        Domino's Dude: Thank you for calling Dominos. Would you like to hear our specials?
        Eliza Bot: Oh, I like to hear our specials.
        Domino's: Okay, two large pepperoni and cheese, six pack of Coke, $12.99. Two medium hawaiin and our disgusting bread product, $9.99.
        Eliza: Please go on.
        Domino's: That's it for the specials. What can I get for you?
        Eliza: Does that question interest you?
        Domino's: Look, my job is to take orders and make sure the pizza's delivered fresh.
        Eliza: Why do you say your job is to take orders and make sure the pizza's delivered fresh?
        Domino's: That's all they pay me for, so what will it be tonight?
        Eliza: Can you elaborate on that?
        Domino's: I just want to take your order. Can I start with your phone number?
        Eliza: Perhaps you don't want to start with my phone number?
        Domino's: Okay, how about you just tell me what you want then.
        Eliza: You're not really talking about me, are you?
        Domino's: Who else... I'm not here for fun.
        Eliza: Did you come to me because you are not here for fun?
        Domino's: Hey, I didn't pick the phone up and make the call ok?
        Eliza: That is quite interesting.
        Domino's: Look, just let me take your order!
        Eliza: Why are you concerned about my order?
        Domino's: The boss is going to kill me if I don't.
        Eliza: Come, come, elucidate your thoughts.
        Domino's: My boss is a real jerk!
        Eliza: What does that suggest to you?
        Domino's: I think he's an asshole! He probably doesn't even care about his employees.
        Eliza: Do you really think so?
        Domino's: Of course... just the other day he screamed at John because he was putting on too many toppings.
        Eliza: Can you elaborate on that?
        Domino's: John wants to make customers happy so he usually throws in extra cheese.
        Eliza: I see.
        Domino's: and then the boss gets upset because it's costing him a few cents extra!
        Eliza: That is quite interesting.
        Domino's: No shit... you think he would realize a happy customer is a repeat customer
        Eliza: Oh... think he would realize a happy customer is a repeat customer?
        Domino's: Maybe if Sesame Street explained it in baby talk!
        Eliza: You don't seem quite certain.
        Domino's: How can I be certain when he's so unpredictable?
        Eliza: Do you want to be able to be certain when he's so unpredictable?
        Domino's: I guess so.
        Eliza: Tell me more.
        Domino's: oh FUCK my boss is coming
        Eliza: What does that suggest to you?
        Domino's: Sir, I'm on the line with a customer right now.
        Eliza: How long have you been on the line with a customer right now.
        Domino's: Christ... he wants to speak to you.
        Eliza: Oh ...?
        Domino's: Manager here, how can I help you?
        Eliza: Perhaps you don't want to help me?
        Domino's: Who is this? Some kind of fucking joke?
        Eliza: What answer would please you the most?
        Domino's: You bitch, I can't believe Paul called some fucking chat line.
        Eliza: Have you tried?
        Domino's: No, I'm not going to try... I'm here to make money not waste it.
        Eliza: How long have you been not going to try... you're here to make money not waste it?
        Domino's: Damn straight... been doing this now for five years.
        Eliza: What does that suggest to you?
        Domino's: Aside from the fact that I need a vacation?
        Eliza: Can you elaborate on that?
        Domino's: The wife nags me every night, telling me I work too much.
        Eliza: I'm not sure I understand you fully.
        Domino's: She thinks that because I work from afternoon to late at night, I don't give her enough.
        Eliza: Does that trouble you?
        Domino's: She's a nice girl, I guess I want her to be happy but she doesn't understand me.
        Eliza: Suppose you got her to be happy but she doesn't understand you?
        Domino's: Hey, I could live with her not understa
        • Re:Interesting (Score:3, Interesting)

          by demonbug ( 309515 )
          I just have to ask, is Eliza related to Dr. Sbaitso?
          • Re:Interesting (Score:5, Interesting)

            by mdxi ( 3387 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @08:56PM (#9090916) Homepage
            DR SBAITSO was a front-end to an Eliza implementation, and is still the voice I hear in my head every time I see anything Eliza-esque.

            Also, back in the late 1980s, I actually used the text-to-speech that came with SoundBlaster to order pizza from the local Little Ceasar's.
        • by zonix ( 592337 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @06:03AM (#9092472) Journal

          These Domino's guys are amateurs. Everybody knows you just have to ask the magic question to determine if she's a bot:

          > Hello, I am Eliza.
          * Hi, what are your measurements?
          > Does that question interest you?
          * Yes, it does. I need to know.
          > Are you Sure?
          * Yes I'm sure, now give me your measurements please!
          > Did you come to me because you are sure, now give you my measurements please?
          * Measurements!
          > Tell me more...
          * I want to determine if you're a bot!
          > What makes you think I am a bot?
          * sigh
          > OK... "I want to determine if I'm a bot". Tell me more.

          It was then I realized it only works on the ALICE bots. :-)

          > What are your measurements?
          ALICE: My memory now contains: 100 clients, categories, 10000 vocabulary words, 128000000 bytes RAM usage under Linux on Lisp.
          >Ha, you're a bot!
          ALICE: I'm glad you got a laugh out of it.

          z
  • by Pidder ( 736678 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:48PM (#9090210)
    FIIIIIIINALLY!!!!!!!!
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:48PM (#9090212)
    I'd hate to see what happens when some n00b programmer infinite loops the software :)

    America is fat enough already!
    • http://lists.netsys.com/pipermail/full-disclosure/ 2004-May/021091.html

      Risk: Multiple vulnerabilities (high)

      Description:

      pizza_party is a Perl based command line tool that provides a non-Web
      interface to
      Dominos Pizza's QuikOrder(TM) website pizza ordering service by using
      HTTP over
      the Internet.

      It is third-party open-soruce software, developed by an individual and
      unsupported by
      Dominos Pizza.
    • Pizza overflow == food fight?

    • Never mind that. What happens when someone ports it to Windows and someone else releases the PizzaBlaster worm?
      • DDoP? (Score:5, Funny)

        by Xenographic ( 557057 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @12:40AM (#9091788) Journal
        What happens when someone ports it to Windows and someone else releases the PizzaBlaster worm?

        Distributed Denial of Pizza?

        The authors would be hunted down by every programmer on the planet, including me!

        Oh well, if they're like other programmers, they'd starve to death if they went long enough without pizza and the ramen reserves didn't hold out...
  • So which is it. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Kenja ( 541830 )
    It can order from Dominos or it can order pizzia? Becuase I have to tell you, Domino doesn't sell anything I would call pizzia.
  • Domino's? (Score:5, Funny)

    by crimson_alligator ( 768283 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:48PM (#9090215)
    But is there a CLI app for people who actually like pizza? "I'm way ahead of you, Lou." -Chief Wiggum
  • by ohsnap ( 775907 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:48PM (#9090216)
    and i'm not mirroring it. Sup now, bitches?
    • It wasn't that bad. I got it during the slashdotting. I was downloading sporadically at 400kb/s spurts. All I did was click on the link, and started surfing on another tab (firefox, what else?).

      I totally forgot about the url. I was actaully pretty suprised that I got in, because I'm so used to not getting to the websites on time. MIT's pipe must be HUGE.

      You know, I wonder how many people didn't bother clicking on the link, knowing it was video. It's sorta like killing a dead rat, only this rat wasn't dea

    • OMFG (Score:5, Funny)

      by TamMan2000 ( 578899 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @07:34PM (#9090508) Journal
      Somebody created an account named "ohsnap [slashdot.org]" just to say that, that is pretty funny...
  • but ?? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Billly Gates ( 198444 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:49PM (#9090217) Journal
    .. then you end up with a pizza by Domino's??
  • auto completion never looks better than it does on the big screen!
  • Lynx! (Score:2, Interesting)

    by JThundley ( 631154 )
    I've used Lynx before to order pizza from Pizza Hut's online store. It may sound easy, but all their web pages are .dll files! Not to mention it looks like shit in Mozilla.

    How's that for ordering a pizza on the command line?
    • There's also an interesting bug with it and Firebird.

      When you make a new account, the "Last Name" field actually enters your last name in the HTML area next to the text "Last Name:" in the left cell of the table instead of in the field itself.

      Goddamn IE-centric developers...
    • Re:Lynx! (Score:3, Informative)

      by cscx ( 541332 )
      but all their web pages are .dll files!

      I think you're getting confused. .dll is just a type of CGI script, for win32. It still serves you HTML (well, really, whatever you want).
  • by SCSi ( 17797 ) <corvus&vadept,com> on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:49PM (#9090221) Homepage
    Is a command-line toliet/shower combo and i'll never have to leave my desk! Oh wait, real geeks dont take showers.. Im such an insensitive clod!
  • GEEKS! (Score:5, Funny)

    by miradu2000 ( 196048 ) * on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:49PM (#9090225) Homepage
    This has to be the geekiest thing that I have ever seen in my life. I'm not sure if watching the video of it, or actually doing it is worse. Probably watching the video. *sigh*. Will it run on OS X? When will they add the -papajohns option to get quality pizza?
  • by CODiNE ( 27417 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:50PM (#9090226) Homepage
    Must have been expensive... and TASTY!

    -Don.
  • Cron Job. (Score:5, Funny)

    by moberry ( 756963 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:50PM (#9090230)
    What you do is run that program in a cron job. Every friday night.
  • by Realistic_Dragon ( 655151 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:50PM (#9090232) Homepage
    Cron baby!

    Auto order pizza every 12th minute past the 9th hour on tuesdays, wednesdays (and fridays if it's march).
  • Wow. (Score:5, Funny)

    by DCowern ( 182668 ) * on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:50PM (#9090233) Homepage

    Coolest. Thing. Ever.

    And I just used PeaPod [peapod.com] the other day too. At this rate, I'll never have to leave the house again. =D

    Excuse me while I go set up a cron job to order me a large olive and anchovie pizza every third friday of months starting with J.

    • And here I was wondering why anyone would want to order Peas from their iPod. Wait til Apple's lawyers find out!

      -Don.
  • Papa Johns (Score:3, Funny)

    by kinzillah ( 662884 ) <{ude.tir.liam} {ta} {ecirp.salguod}> on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:51PM (#9090237)
    When are we going to get options to order real pizza?
  • Zip code? (Score:4, Funny)

    by Saint Aardvark ( 159009 ) * on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:51PM (#9090238) Homepage Journal
    I live in Canada, you insensitive clod!
  • Seriously, this seems kind off pointless. If they make a windows version though, worms could take advantage. That would make for an interesting time. I didn't order 87 pizza's, it was my security hole!
  • Its true (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:53PM (#9090254)
    We Americans (particularly of the nerd type) have way too much money and time on our hands.

    We are fat and lazy and care about the dumbest of things.

    We desperately need a good long war, famine, or disease to thin out the herd.
  • by Stevyn ( 691306 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:53PM (#9090255)
    I'm waiting until I can just lean over and fart and a pizza is on it's way. This still requires too much work. I'm sure they can incorporate that in the 2.7 kernel.
  • The author is currently working on an OSS CLI to an app to send money to the RIAA legal fund for orphaned artists.

    Who said software had to be useful?
  • Windows? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by AGTiny ( 104967 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:55PM (#9090266)
    Hmm I am disappointed to see these ubergeeks demoing their app in Windows. :(
  • Thats... (Score:3, Funny)

    by AnonymousCowheart ( 646429 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:56PM (#9090271)
    That's mean! Slashdot a PIZZA companies server, on a FRIDAY night!!
  • by Tuxedo Jack ( 648130 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:57PM (#9090273) Homepage
    You know all those one-time specials? The ones y ou only get as a new subscriber? You can get them infinitely.

    Just make a new Hotmail account for each order.

    The database is flawed in that it doesn't cross-verify addresses/credit cards with previous orders or e-mail addresses.

    Great for Pizza Hut - I used to get Big New Yorkers any way I liked for ten bucks plus tip back in the day.
  • by MisterLawyer ( 770687 ) <{moc.liamg} {ta} {reywalekim}> on Friday May 07, 2004 @06:58PM (#9090283)
    Domino's Pizza actually is pretty innovative in devising new methods for customers to place orders. IMO, the most convenient way to order a pizza would be from your cellphone web browser. Domino's was the first to try something like this, back in 2001. [infosyncworld.com]

    Unfortunately, most pizza places don't have pizza-ordering web pages that are easy to use on a cell phone. But I wouldn't be surprised if that changes in the next year or two.

  • Plugins???? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by j3ll0 ( 777603 )
    This tool will be really cool when you plug it into your Network Management System [nagios.org].

    *receive SMS at 1830 Saturday*
    "Awwww shit...the Exchange server's down....but Pizza will arrive on site when I do!"
  • BitTorrent (Score:2, Redundant)

    by gspr ( 602968 )
    OK, the video was stupid, but here [dyndns.org] is a torrent. I won't be seeding for a long time, though, so get downloading, and seed for a bit!
  • missing option (Score:3, Interesting)

    Missing option: --no-oregano

    Around here Domino's likes to coat the thin crust pies with oregano. I don't mind a little bit, but I like a touch of oregano on my pizza - not a touch of pizza with my oregano! Seriously, there have been times when I couldn't see the actual pizza under the oregano.

    My new favorite pizza is Courtside. [ohiou.edu]

    My old favorite, Santora's->Sedano's has been bought out by another local and now they make it "their way"... I fear I may never taste the original stuff again. Sorry about all the rambling.
  • I mean really, shouldn't this be as easy...and satisfying :-) as humanly possible?

    Heck for that matter, where is the flag for ordering the delivery person of your choice?

    Again...the experince may as well be as satisfying as humanly possible.
  • Video Mirror (Score:5, Informative)

    by chrispyman ( 710460 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @07:03PM (#9090322)
    Incase of /.'ing, here's a mirror of the ordering pizza video pizza_party.mpg [chrispyman.com].
  • by FrankDrebin ( 238464 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @07:04PM (#9090325) Homepage

    A GUI wrapper for this command. Or maybe use HTML so its plaftorm neutral. Now that would be neat.

  • by timeOday ( 582209 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @07:05PM (#9090334)
    perl -e 'while(1) { fork; system "pizzaparty" }'
  • From QuikOrder.com's main page, listed under Restaurant Benefits.

    Works directly with select POS systems

    These guys really seem to know their stuff. Some of the comps that I see at a lot of chain restaurants look like they're old 386s for fuck's sake!

    It's good to know that a company like QuikOrder can maximize the benefit of a (very) old investment.
  • Lingering problems (Score:2, Interesting)

    by PlatyPaul ( 690601 )

    As wonderful as this might be (especially for those who are stuck working in a lab without a phone), there are still a couple of serious problems with the concept which could prove a hassle:

    Pranking - Now, you could trigger a pizza order from your buddy who just happened to leave his shell open for a moment (or, worse yet, a virus/worm that triggered it). Also, people who were not particularly fond of the pizza place could jump from machine to machine across a college campus or wherever, triggering a fl

  • by FrankDrebin ( 238464 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @07:07PM (#9090344) Homepage

    Imagine a Beowulf cluster of those. Mmmmmmm cluster.

  • Wow, I can't imagine what happens if someone writes a shell script and accidentally have it caught in an infinite loop.

    Though you could put it in your cron job. :-)
  • bash-2.05b# ./pizza_party
    Can't locate Getopt/Mixed.pm in @INC (@INC contains: /etc/perl /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.3/i686-linux /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.3 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.2 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.0 /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.3/i686-linux /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.3 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl/5.8.2 /usr/lib/perl5/vendor_perl /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.3/i686-linux /usr/lib/perl5/5.8.3 /usr/local/lib/site_perl /usr/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.8.2 /usr/lib/perl5/sit
  • Ya know, some days I really hate all the BS that comes with new technology. Software licenses, permissions, restrictions, big brother, et al.

    Yet, everyone once and a while, something like this comes along and I'm reminded of how awesome technology is.

    Dominos pizza is something you only order when your drunk or high. Now you no longer have to make that obnoxious intoxicated phone call to Dominos. All you have to do is walk to the door, open it, say "errahh Hi, hehehe. Ohh ya, Pizza. Awesome. You're awesome
  • pizza_party -p -m 1 large thick; yes; yes; yes; more; apt-get remove --purge dominos; make clean; sleep.
  • It's really too bad that the commandline pizzas you can get from Dominoes are so much more bland than the Windows based pizzas you can get from Pizzahut or Papa Johna.

    OK, didn't like that one? (though it's true, I haven't eaten Domeinoes in over a decade, because it is teh suck).

    How about this one:

    How long until we get the security advisory that says that a local attacker could order several pizzas in your name to be delivered to your home as a prank?
  • Back in the days when Sun was a cool company, they produced a windowing system based around Display Postscript that was marginally X-compatible; OpenWindows. You may have heard of it.

    One of the example programs was, allegedly, written by a bunch of hackers in the back of one of their offices in the middle of the night. It was so cool they cleaned it up a bit and released it.

    Meet pizzatool [art.net]. It'll let you pick one of several varieties of standard pizza, or make your own. It knows about different sizes. It

  • by Tribbin ( 565963 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @07:15PM (#9090396) Homepage
    /etc/cron.daily/
  • by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 07, 2004 @07:16PM (#9090403)
  • by MoneyT ( 548795 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @07:24PM (#9090458) Journal
    check out www.campusfood.com [campusfood.com] not a bad site, useful late at night when you're leaving the lab and on your way back to your dorm, schedule a delivery and it'll be there when you get there.
  • by swankypimp ( 542486 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @07:32PM (#9090498) Homepage
    I knew it! As soon as I start the low carb diet, they come out with this Linux Killer App.

    Damn you, Command Line, damn you, Dominos, and damn you, Dr. Robert C. Atkins! </Stewie>

  • by nfsilkey ( 652484 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @07:49PM (#9090577) Homepage
    This came to me at 3:17pm CST ...

    Product: pizza_party
    URL: http://www.beigerecords.com/cory/pizza_party/
    Ver sion: pizza_party 0.1.beta and earlier
    Risk: Multiple vulnerabilities (high)

    Description:

    pizza_party is a Perl based command line tool that provides a non-Web interface to
    Dominos Pizza's QuikOrder(TM) website pizza ordering service by using HTTP over
    the Internet.

    It is third-party open-soruce software, developed by an individual and unsupported by
    Dominos Pizza.

    Available at:
    http://www.beigerecords.com/cory/pizza_party/ downl oad/pizza_party -0.1.b.tar.gz

    I believe it may now be in use internally at a large number of corporate organizations
    (primarily by hard-core coder types who are too focused on the task at hand to get up
    and go out to get a pizza -- or even to lift up the phone to order one), and installations
    can also be found on the public Internet.

    The Problem:

    pizza_party is very bad about protecting the username and password for
    the Dominos Pizza QuikOrder website. This may lead to a multitude of
    vulnerabilities, the most dangerous being that 'ps' can be used to observe
    the command line input parameters on the stack passed via the shell.

    Also the non-SSL (unencrypted) web interface (http://www.dominos.quikorder.com)
    is used over the Internet, so anyone who can capture (sniff) the traffic could easily
    obtain the Dominos QuikOrder username and password from the standard base64-
    encoded POST to the website.

    Either would allow for individuals other than the owner of the Dominos Pizza
    account to order arbitrary pizzas (with random toppings even) via the Dominos
    QuikOrder web server and have them delivered -- resulting in chaos, anarchy
    and confusion.

    Additionally, there may be other issues resulting from the misuse of this package.
    It is impossible to tell what other uses might be made of the username/password
    pair stolen (it might be used by the use for all of their accounts on the Web f'instance).

    Also note that as the order is sent unencrypted it may be possible for a MITM attack
    to tamper with the order (potentially adding anchovies, onions or other undesirables).

    The Fixes:

    1. pizza_party should use HTTP over SSL to order the pizza's from Dominos
    'secure' QuikOrder website: https://www.dominos.quikorder.com/

    Unfortunately there are some problems with the Web certificate for this site.

    2. pizza_party should prompt the command line user for the username and
    password and read them from /dev/tty rather than accept them as params
    on the command line.

    3. pizza_party should also overwrite the store of the username and password
    (or encrypt them) when they are in memory or an attacker could steal them
    from RAM, or a swapfile on disk.

    - H. Morrow Long, CISSP, CISM
    University Information Security Officer
    Director -- Information Security Office
    Yale University, ITS
  • by pyrrhonist ( 701154 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @07:53PM (#9090595)
    The MIT AI lab had a pizza command years ago. I'm not going to post the entire man page, but here are some excepts from the 1991 man page. The BUGS section is especially amusing. Enjoy...

    PIZZA(1) USER COMMANDS PIZZA(1)

    NAME
    pizza - "Hi-Fi Pizza" food-by-fax delivery orderer for the
    MIT AI Lab

    SYNOPSIS
    pizza [-d(ebug)] [-h(elp)] [-m(ail)] [-s(leep)] [-t(est)]

    xpizza [-d(ebug)] [-h(elp)] [-m(ail)] [-n(osleep)] [-t(est)]

    DESCRIPTION
    Pizza is a program that allows denizens of the MIT AI Lab to
    order food for delivery from "Hi-Fi Pizza" (496 Mass Ave.)
    quickly and easily. Pizza saves time by automatically gen-
    erating and faxing an order that includes the user's phone
    and office number, and contains delivery instructions that
    vary depending on whether the inner lab doors are currently
    open or not. Pizza also checks to see whether Hi-Fi is
    currently open for business, and warns the user if it's not.

    BUGS
    The delivery instructions may no longer be valid by the time
    the food arrives (e.g., if Pizza is run just before 5pm).
    Also, Pizza doesn't know about holidays.

    The global Locations file should contain the physical loca-
    tion of every machine in the lab, plus locations for lounges
    and conference rooms.

    It would be nice if Pizza had a variety of restaurants to
    choose from.

    Some of the employees at Hi-Fi don't know how to work the
    fax.

    If the food arrives after hours, you have to be near your
    phone when the driver calls up, and you have to physically
    get up and go to the elevator lobby to get the food. Also,
    you have to have money to pay for the food. What a pain!

    NON-COPYRIGHT
    Created 1991 by Michael Frank and Mark Torrance. This
    software is public domain.

  • Dominos? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Cyno01 ( 573917 ) <Cyno01@hotmail.com> on Friday May 07, 2004 @07:56PM (#9090615) Homepage
    Uhg, somebody do this for Papa Johns instead...
  • by 2short ( 466733 ) on Friday May 07, 2004 @10:43PM (#9091385)
    Well this app would really kill it, but remember for a moment the days when we had no choice but to look up phone numbers on paper, and called them ourselves... At some conference I was talking (drinking) with some Marketing guys, and one of them told the story of what he considered the best marketing ploy ever:

    So there's this small college town where the local place, let's call it Al's Pizza, had been relatively competition free for a long time until a new Domino's Franchise sprouted up. Domino's promptly began killing Al's. Al tries various promotions, specials, deals, etc. of his own devising. Doesn't help. Damn college kids are just flocking to Domino's, Al's is going down the tubes. At some point Al gets a pitch from some guy who claims to be a marketing consultant. Al says OK, tell me what to do, if I'm still in business a year from now, you get paid.
    So this guy goes around to the student center, dorm lounges, etc. and says "Hey, anybody want pizza? You order, I'm buying." (a hard sell I'm sure) Guy watches as every time the college kids pull out the yellow pages and read the number for Domino's off the big full-page ad. Guy notes the much smaller, consistently ignored "Al's" ad on the facing page. Guy goes back to Al and says "OK, here's what you're going to do..."
    The next week, the campus is flooded with flyers from Al's proclaiming "A large one-topping pizza for ONE DOLLAR with this coupon and the Domino's ad from your yellow pages". In a matter of days, no one knows Domino's phone number any more. Consultant gets paid. Al runs this promo yearly, just to be sure.
  • --force? (Score:4, Funny)

    by MikeyO ( 99577 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @04:12AM (#9092244) Homepage
    At first I thought, aww cmon, I could write this! I'll just write a script that sends email to my wife that says, "Hey Honey order us a pizza with peppers and onions", and thats it. But then I read the Documentation [beigerecords.com] and saw that one of the command line options is:

    -F|--force
    Order your pizza without asking for a confirmation.


    and then i realized that there was no way that my implementation could provide such an option.
  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Saturday May 08, 2004 @06:51AM (#9092550)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

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