October 1, 2008 10:30 PM PDT
E-mail alert for petrolania buffs
Do you love the "ding-ding" sound of a service station bell, triggered by driving over a pneumatic hose. Milton Alberstadt of Houston, Texas, certainly does--he makes his living selling them at Milton's Bells.
But he's also a geek, so he has rigged an interface on his PC that is triggered by incoming e-mail rules in Outlook to ring one of his bells. The "merger of the Internet and petrolania," he says.
Milton sells all the distinctly analog parts you need to do the same (bells, hose, y-splitters, and so on.) but you'll have to cajole him by e-mail to get a copy of the little .bat file he wrote to make it all work. Make his bell ring and we bet he'll share it.
Brian Cooley is an editor at large who keeps his fingers on the pulse of consumers' attitudes toward tech. His specialty is CNET Car Tech videos, but, frankly, most people have seen him on the TVs at Costco (or in one of his '60s Fords or Fiats). 
We make several custom bells including Milton bells for very long driveways. The long driveway bells use a low-voltage wire connection to transmit the signal from the end of the driveway to the bell near the business or home. We have tested these bells on driveways up to a half mile in length.
These bells are described in greater detail and available for purchase on our website at www.miltonsbells.com.
These bells will announce any suprise visitor by acting as a monitor or patrol.
Milton
- by Flyin_Miata October 24, 2008 6:56 AM PDT
- I have one of Milton's Bells - and the sound is addicting. My kids jump on the hose just to hear the sound. It wasn't cool enough that Milton took apart the old pneumatic bells and made a low-voltage system, but to go and wire a bell to his computer?!?!? That is off the hook! What a great blend of the old and new!
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