An apparatus and method for dispensing a frozen alcoholic beverage in which an alcoholic beverage component is mixed with at least one other liquid component prior to freezing and dispensing as a frozen beverage product. The wires consist of a metallic amorphous or nanocrystalline core with diameters by the order of 106 m having compositions based on transition metal-metalloids and other additional metals and a glass cover having a thickness of the wall by the same order of magnitude. The hinge is assembled to the liquid crystal panel. The systems and methods of the invention allow for real-time monitoring of request activity for potentially unauthorized or fraudulent use of stored-value instruments. Intelligent-agent software can automatically search for and store information that would be of interest to the user and can alert the user that more detailed information is available. The edge processor is coupled to the edge buffer, determines an average phase of the detected edges and outputs a data signal and the average phase.