The Internet Coke Machine refers to a Coca-Cola vending machine at Carnegie Mellon University that became the first ARPANET-connected appliance in 1982. Students and researchers developed a way to remotely check the status of the machine—specifically, how many bottles were left and whether they were cold—to avoid unnecessary trips to the hallway. In internet culture, this machine is revered as the 'grandfather of the Internet of Things' (IoT). The meme is typically used to celebrate early hacker culture, poke fun at the evolution of smart devices, or highlight the simplicity of early networking compared to the complex web of today.