Ticket Vending Machine screwing up



  • The other day, me and a friend were at a subway station in Antwerp, Diamant, it's at the central station. When she wanted to pay for a ticket, she got this message:

     

    Ticket Vending Machine screwing up

    She tapped somewhere on the screen, and the message disappeared, but the machine wouldn't respond anymore. I think she tapped next to the X so the window was blurred.  Luckily the coin slot didn't open so she didn't lose any money.

    Now, I'm not sure what is the largest WTF:

    - The fact that the machine runs NT 4
    - The fact that the software looks like it's made in 1992
    - The fact that the application is called 'testedit.exe'
    - The fact that there is no error handling-thingy to prevent these errors from happening

     

    O btw... when switching between screens, the entire application is repainted. At first, the background is grey, but then it's changed to yellow... blockwise, around the labels.



  • @Alex Media said:

    The other day, me and a friend were at a subway station in Antwerp, Diamant, it's at the central station. When she wanted to pay for a ticket, she got this message:

     

    Ticket Vending Machine screwing up

    She tapped somewhere on the screen, and the message disappeared, but the machine wouldn't respond anymore. I think she tapped next to the X so the window was blurred.  Luckily the coin slot didn't open so she didn't lose any money.

    Now, I'm not sure what is the largest WTF:

    - The fact that the machine runs NT 4
    - The fact that the software looks like it's made in 1992
    - The fact that the application is called 'testedit.exe'
    - The fact that there is no error handling-thingy to prevent these errors from happening

     

    O btw... when switching between screens, the entire application is repainted. At first, the background is grey, but then it's changed to yellow... blockwise, around the labels.

    I don't think a machine running NT4 is necessarily a WTF.  Nor is running an applicaiton written in 1992 (although you'd like to think they upgraded the app when they installed it on NT4).

    Reason being, this machine appears to perform a simple task.  Buy a subway ticket, enter money, dispense ticket.  It's not like it needs some Silverlight running on Vista or anything. Truth of the matter is, it is probably cost prohibitive to replace those machines just so they aren't running NT4 anymore.  It's like this Chinese restaurant that I used to go to.  They had a generic cash register.  Every worker knew how much ever meal was so they'd type in 4.99 etc.  That's all they needed.  They did a good job making chinese food, they didn't need to spend time and money on some fancy cash register that would have allowed them to do a touch-screen for "Beef and Brocolli"

    The testedit.exe and lack or error handling are WTFs though.



  •  @taylonr said:

    @Alex Media said:

    OP

    I don't think a machine running NT4 is necessarily a WTF.  Nor is running an applicaiton written in 1992 (although you'd like to think they upgraded the app when they installed it on NT4).

    Reason being, this machine appears to perform a simple task.  Buy a subway ticket, enter money, dispense ticket.  It's not like it needs some Silverlight running on Vista or anything. Truth of the matter is, it is probably cost prohibitive to replace those machines just so they aren't running NT4 anymore.  It's like this Chinese restaurant that I used to go to.  They had a generic cash register.  Every worker knew how much ever meal was so they'd type in 4.99 etc.  That's all they needed.  They did a good job making chinese food, they didn't need to spend time and money on some fancy cash register that would have allowed them to do a touch-screen for "Beef and Brocolli"

    The testedit.exe and lack or error handling are WTFs though.

    TRWTF is quoting the OP, image and all...



  • testedit.exe? Looks like an "evolutionary prototyping" project.



  • @H|B said:

    testedit.exe? Looks like an "evolutionary prototyping" project.

    Likely it also has no source control and practically no project management. I vote that this is the worst WTF of the 4 that Alex M suggested. The software is clearly of the variety that is impossible to hand off to another developer, or to revisit after 6 months of no active work being done on it. It's not likely something you can trust handling financial transactions.




  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

     @taylonr said:

    @Alex Media said:

    OP

    I don't think a machine running NT4 is necessarily a WTF.  Nor is running an applicaiton written in 1992 (although you'd like to think they upgraded the app when they installed it on NT4).

    Reason being, this machine appears to perform a simple task.  Buy a subway ticket, enter money, dispense ticket.  It's not like it needs some Silverlight running on Vista or anything. Truth of the matter is, it is probably cost prohibitive to replace those machines just so they aren't running NT4 anymore.  It's like this Chinese restaurant that I used to go to.  They had a generic cash register.  Every worker knew how much ever meal was so they'd type in 4.99 etc.  That's all they needed.  They did a good job making chinese food, they didn't need to spend time and money on some fancy cash register that would have allowed them to do a touch-screen for "Beef and Brocolli"

    The testedit.exe and lack or error handling are WTFs though.

    TRWTF is quoting the OP, image and all...

    QFT

     Didn't realize I included the pic till it was too late...:(



  • @taylonr said:

    @MasterPlanSoftware said:

     @taylonr said:

    @Alex Media said:

    OP

    I don't think a machine running NT4 is necessarily a WTF.  Nor is running an applicaiton written in 1992 (although you'd like to think they upgraded the app when they installed it on NT4).

    Reason being, this machine appears to perform a simple task.  Buy a subway ticket, enter money, dispense ticket.  It's not like it needs some Silverlight running on Vista or anything. Truth of the matter is, it is probably cost prohibitive to replace those machines just so they aren't running NT4 anymore.  It's like this Chinese restaurant that I used to go to.  They had a generic cash register.  Every worker knew how much ever meal was so they'd type in 4.99 etc.  That's all they needed.  They did a good job making chinese food, they didn't need to spend time and money on some fancy cash register that would have allowed them to do a touch-screen for "Beef and Brocolli"

    The testedit.exe and lack or error handling are WTFs though.

    TRWTF is quoting the OP, image and all...

    QFT

     Didn't realize I included the pic till it was too late...:(

     

    The main point is that you really don't need to quote the OP at all.. we kind of all have to read it anyway...



  •  Another WTF is that software obviously HAS been updated to convert to Euro's...



  • My prediction is this:

    config.ini

    [money]
    CurrencySymbol=E

    [Coins]
    Coins=0.05,0.10,0.20,0.50,1.00,2.00
    CoinWeights=[weights of the coins]

    [Banknotes]
    AcceptedNotes=5,10
    BanknoteSizes=[sizes of banknotes]

    [tickets]
    TicketPrice=1.20
    10RideTicketPrice=8.00

     

    Or something like that.



  • @Alex Media said:

    My prediction is this:

    config.ini

    [money]
    CurrencySymbol=E

    [Coins]
    Coins=0.05,0.10,0.20,0.50,1.00,2.00
    CoinWeights=[weights of the coins]

    [Banknotes]
    AcceptedNotes=5,10
    BanknoteSizes=[sizes of banknotes]

    [tickets]
    TicketPrice=1.20
    10RideTicketPrice=8.00

     

    Or something like that.

    The coin and note validation is probably completely separate hardware (you don't seriously think that any piece of metal/paper the same weight/size is going to be treated as being the same - you do know that in some countries all banknotes are the same size right?)



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

     @taylonr said:

    @Alex Media said:

    OP

    I don't think a machine running NT4 is necessarily a WTF.  Nor is running an applicaiton written in 1992 (although you'd like to think they upgraded the app when they installed it on NT4).

    Reason being, this machine appears to perform a simple task.  Buy a subway ticket, enter money, dispense ticket.  It's not like it needs some Silverlight running on Vista or anything. Truth of the matter is, it is probably cost prohibitive to replace those machines just so they aren't running NT4 anymore.  It's like this Chinese restaurant that I used to go to.  They had a generic cash register.  Every worker knew how much ever meal was so they'd type in 4.99 etc.  That's all they needed.  They did a good job making chinese food, they didn't need to spend time and money on some fancy cash register that would have allowed them to do a touch-screen for "Beef and Brocolli"

    The testedit.exe and lack or error handling are WTFs though.

    TRWTF is quoting the OP, image and all...




  • @Mal1024 said:

    <entire previous post> with a tag that says "Irony"

    I don't understand what you're saying is ironic.  MPS didn't quote the entire OP.

    Or are you saying that the fact that you're quoting the entire thing without making a new comment is ironic?  I'm sorry, that's not ironic, that's assholic.   



  • I guess i'm tired.



  • @Mal1024 said:

    I guess i'm tired.

    Fair enough then.  We'll only sentence you to one day working on SSDS. 

    Hey, you can still get a whole lot done in that amount of time!  You only have to boot up Visual Studio when you want to create the executable.  You can write your code in Notepad.



  • @belgariontheking said:

    You only have to boot up Visual Studio when you want to create the executable.
     

    VB5 != Visual Studio



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @taylonr said:

    @MasterPlanSoftware said:

     @taylonr said:

    @Alex Media said:

    OP

    I don't think a machine running NT4 is necessarily a WTF.  Nor is running an applicaiton written in 1992 (although you'd like to think they upgraded the app when they installed it on NT4).

    Reason being, this machine appears to perform a simple task.  Buy a subway ticket, enter money, dispense ticket.  It's not like it needs some Silverlight running on Vista or anything. Truth of the matter is, it is probably cost prohibitive to replace those machines just so they aren't running NT4 anymore.  It's like this Chinese restaurant that I used to go to.  They had a generic cash register.  Every worker knew how much ever meal was so they'd type in 4.99 etc.  That's all they needed.  They did a good job making chinese food, they didn't need to spend time and money on some fancy cash register that would have allowed them to do a touch-screen for "Beef and Brocolli"

    The testedit.exe and lack or error handling are WTFs though.

    TRWTF is quoting the OP, image and all...

    QFT

     Didn't realize I included the pic till it was too late...:(

     

    The main point is that you really don't need to quote the OP at all.. we kind of all have to read it anyway...

     

     

    Don't mind MasterAsshatPlan.  He enjoys being wrong. 


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