The world’s first network-controlled toaster was demoed in 1991 at the Interop conference by Simon Hackett and John Romkey. It was a Sunbeam Deluxe Automatic Radiant Control Toaster which had been wired up to a computer, and with some extra software was able to be controlled by SNMP, a protocol for managing network devices. SNMP works over the internet, so this toaster could easily have been controlled by someone on the other side of the planet. However, getting the toast to them would have been a bit of a challenge.
The internet toaster was later updated to include a crane which loaded bread into the slots automatically, resulting in a fully-automatic internet toast experience.
Interesting fact: Simon Hackett later went on to create and manage Internode, one of the best internet service providers in Australia. This is obviously proof that being serious about toast leads to going places in the world.
This is beyond awesome. A clever hacker managed to take the insides out of his VCR and replace it with the insides of a toaster, hence making a VHS toaster.
That’s right, it even toasts the words VHS onto the toast just to reiterate that your toast was cooked using a VCR.
This is the video which inspired me to create this blog. It’s awesome to see Heywood Banks expressing lyrically his love of the best damn breakfast food invented, while utilising an actual two-slice toaster as a percussive instrument. Excellent!
Welcome to Epic Toast. Epic Toast is the definitive blog for toast enthusiasts. It’s a blog for those of us who laugh at the suggestion of cereal for breakfast. It’s for those of us who believe the only proper accompaniment for a poached egg is a piece of well-fried bread. It’s for those of us who cannot tolerate a simple sandwich without placing it in a grill for a few minutes until golden brown.
The internet was sorely lacking in a voice for those of us who worship this amazing breakfast food, until now. Epic Toast will act as an aggregator for all things toast-related, as well as a soapbox for toast-related world issues.
So, without further ado, let’s lift the lever, grab a knife and a plate, and sustain third-degree burns while pulling the Epic Toast blog from the toaster of the internet.
