ATM... again



  • A friend of mine bumped into an ATM displaying the following error message:

     

    Nice to know that ATMs have detailed help available....



  • I like the user responses: the dents.



  • I've seen worse. Must live in a rough town. ;-)

    Does anyone if there's a Dutch bank that doesn't use Windows ATMs? (Not that I don't  want to use windows  ATMs or something like that, just curious).



  • A huge number of banks around the world use ATMs produced by NCR; those'll be Windows.  You'd have to find a bank that was using Diebold to have a shot at a non-Windows ATM, and I'll bet even Diebold uses Windows.  Maybe Wincor-Nixdorf doesn't, but I don't have any insight there.



  • Diebolds ATM's are a WTF all on their own.

     



  • @jonsi said:

    A friend of mine bumped into an ATM displaying the following error message:

     

    OUCH!!!

     

    Perhaps she should look where she's going? 



  • @jonsi said:

    Does anyone if there's a Dutch bank that doesn't use Windows ATMs?
     

    Dunno. I've never had ATM failure. 



  • @jonsi said:

    Does anyone if there's a Dutch bank that doesn't use Windows ATMs?

    Hm, I don't know.

    The one in the OP is PostBank I think, and I have seen a Rabobank ATM with a Win2k screensaver active.



  • I got a shell prompt from a bill-paying machine a few years ago.  Those things have full QWERTY keyboards, so it was actually possible to poke around.  The platform was pretty interesting: it was running some variant of DOS (the "C:\>" prompt was a dead giveaway), but with everything arranged in a *nix-like fashion, with files like "C:\bin\ls.exe".  Pretty stripped-down, too, with just a bare minimum set of commands available.  Definitely no Windows of any kind.  (Those machines do have a GUI, but it was obviously something custom-written for the application.)

    (And no, I didn't see any obvious way to make a fraudulent transfer or anything, not that I looked very hard -- I figured it was better to stop poking around and call the bank's service hotline before the mall cops started getting suspicious.  I suspect -- or at least hope -- they do PIN verification remotely, anyway.)



  • @vyznev said:

    I got a shell prompt from a bill-paying machine a few years ago.  Those things have full QWERTY keyboards, so it was actually possible to poke around.  The platform was pretty interesting: it was running some variant of DOS (the "C:\>" prompt was a dead giveaway), but with everything arranged in a *nix-like fashion, with files like "C:\bin\ls.exe".  Pretty stripped-down, too, with just a bare minimum set of commands available.  Definitely no Windows of any kind.  (Those machines do have a GUI, but it was obviously something custom-written for the application.)

    (And no, I didn't see any obvious way to make a fraudulent transfer or anything, not that I looked very hard -- I figured it was better to stop poking around and call the bank's service hotline before the mall cops started getting suspicious.  I suspect -- or at least hope -- they do PIN verification remotely, anyway.)

     

    Depending on its age, that could have been CP/M :)

     



  • @vyznev said:

    I got a shell prompt from a bill-paying machine a few years ago.  Those things have full QWERTY keyboards, so it was actually possible to poke around.  The platform was pretty interesting: it was running some variant of DOS (the "C:\>" prompt was a dead giveaway), but with everything arranged in a *nix-like fashion, with files like "C:\bin\ls.exe".  Pretty stripped-down, too, with just a bare minimum set of commands available.  Definitely no Windows of any kind.  (Those machines do have a GUI, but it was obviously something custom-written for the application.)

    (And no, I didn't see any obvious way to make a fraudulent transfer or anything, not that I looked very hard -- I figured it was better to stop poking around and call the bank's service hotline before the mall cops started getting suspicious.  I suspect -- or at least hope -- they do PIN verification remotely, anyway.)

    I'd bet on OS/2. One bank over here had most (if not all) of its ATM's running on OS/2. How do I know that? I once watched in awe when a power spike took down one of 'em, and rebooted into OS/2 WARP. (And ate the nice lady's bankcard in the process.)



  • @danixdefcon5 said:

    AWAKEN, OLD DEAD THREAD!
     

    Are you just on a mission to revive every thread you read or what?

    Stop beating dead threads.



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @danixdefcon5 said:

    AWAKEN, OLD DEAD THREAD!
     

    Are you just on a mission to revive every thread you read or what?

    Stop beating dead threads.

    Why not? Are you... personally offended, or something?



  • @Spectre said:

    Why not? Are you... personally offended, or something?
     

    Only as much as you were when you did the same thing...



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @Spectre said:

    Why not? Are you... personally offended, or something?
     

    Only as much as you were when you did the same thing...

    Did what? I don't remember either bumping old threads or berating someone for doing it.



  • @Spectre said:

    Did what? I don't remember either bumping old threads or berating someone for doing it.

    By your logic, I must have offended you for you to be complaining about my post.

     

    Also, you assume I berated someone... Perhaps your reading comprehension could use some work?

    Maybe you are just assuming everyone is as angry as you seem to be?



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    Also, you assume I berated someone...

    I think "Stop beating dead threads." counts as berating.

    @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    Maybe you are just assuming everyone is as angry as you seem to be?

    I'm not angry — I'm curious. See, Internet transmits intentions badly.



  •  @Spectre said:

    @MasterPlanSoftware said:
    Also, you assume I berated someone...

    I think "Stop beating dead threads." counts as berating.

    It seems you and I go by different definitions of the english language.

    @The Dictionary said:


    be·rate 

    tr.v.  

    be·rat·ed, be·rat·ing, be·rates

    To rebuke or scold angrily and at length. See Synonyms at scold


    Perhaps I am missing something but I fail to see the connection.

    I might add that your posts seem to be coming really close to living up to that definition though.



  • @Spectre said:

    I'm not angry — I'm curious. See, Internet transmits intentions badly.

    <reply>

        <intonation>instructive</intonation> 

        <props>

            <prop>blackboard</prop>

            <prop>pointer</prop>

            <prop>chalk</prop>

            <prop>overhead projector</prop>
     

        </props>

        <thesis>Open web standards improve communication.</thesis>

        <argument>

            <support>Misunderstandings of intent have long plagued discussions on the Internet.</support>

            <support>FML (Forum Markup Language) provides a structured way to construct responses intended for a public message board.</support>

            <support>Endorsed by a consortium of leading technology companies.</support>

            <caveat>Will not work with Internet Explorer.</caveat>

        </argument> 

     </reply>



  • You're nitpicking words. I could've used "reprimand", "scold", "criticise", but the point's still the same.

    @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    I might add that your posts seem to be coming really close to living up to that
    definition though.

    Why do you keep shifting blame on me? I didn't say "Stop doing [i]blah blah blah[/i]", or "I don't like that you [i]blah blah blah[/i]". I try to keep the discussion intelligent, there's no point in yet another flamefest.

    <sigh> Guess it's Point Restatement Time. My point is: Situation A. You post a comment (like the one which sparked this discussion) that's likely to generate flames. You get flamed. You either: a) like it; or b) not like it. If you like it, then you're a troll, pretty much by definition. If you don't like it, why did you post it? Situation B. You post a sarcastic comment that can be interpreted as offensive. You get flamed. Again, a) or b). If a), see above. If b), Why didn't you save youself trouble by specifying an appropriate tag?

    And thanks, [b]morbiuswilters[/b], but I use raw mode, and escaping all the angle brackets is too painful.

    ([url=http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/]Nitpicker's corner[/url]: The above "why"s were not requests, nor insults, nor complains. They were questions.



  • @morbiuswilters said:

            <caveat>Will not work with Internet Explorer.</caveat>

    yeah, fuck Internet Explorer.

    Post of the week, btw 



  • I should probably not have hosted the images on my own site. It's kind of killing my bandwidth for march.

     Oh well.

    [wasn't expecting the thread to be zombied]



  • @jonsi said:

    I should probably not have hosted the images on my own site. It's kind of killing my bandwidth for march.

    Or maybe you should've properly resized the images instead of displaying fake resizes of the original 1,600x1,200 versions. 600+KB is a bit much for us to load when it could've easily been done in 60KB.



    Also, there are hosting sites such as ImageShack. I never put forum images on my own site (although I'm sure it wouldn't come close to taking up 1.5TB/mo).



  • @Spectre said:

    I try to keep the discussion intelligent, there's no point in yet another flamefest.
     

    Yeah good job on that.



  • @AbbydonKrafts said:

    @jonsi said:
    I should probably not have hosted the images on my own site. It's kind of killing my bandwidth for march.

    Or maybe you should've properly resized the images instead of displaying fake resizes of the original 1,600x1,200 versions. 600+KB is a bit much for us to load when it could've easily been done in 60KB.



    Also, there are hosting sites such as ImageShack. I never put forum images on my own site (although I'm sure it wouldn't come close to taking up 1.5TB/mo).

    Or for that matter, they could still be changed to be smaller images.  TDWTF would never care, and neither would my browser. 



  • @jonsi said:

    I should probably not have hosted the images on my own site. It's kind of killing my bandwidth for march.

    Heh. I hope I wasn't the only asshole who saw this and clicked refresh a few times... (yeah, probably cached, but it felt good anyway).



  • @belgariontheking said:

    Or for that matter, they could still be changed to be smaller images.  TDWTF would never care, and neither would my browser.

    True. Hey, jonsi: How about you resize the images to match the dimensions you used above, then replace the originals on your site with them?



  • @AbbydonKrafts said:

    @belgariontheking said:
    Or for that matter, they could still be changed to be smaller images.  TDWTF would never care, and neither would my browser. 

    True. Hey, jonsi: How about you resize the images to match the dimensions you used above, then replace the originals on your site with them?

     

    Refresh Refresh Refresh 



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    Refresh Refresh Refresh

    You're evil. Heh.



  • @jonsi said:

    I should probably not have hosted the images on my own site. It's kind of killing my bandwidth for march.

    Man, how much does your hosting plan suck?  I think the images I've posted to the forums have used less than 100 megs a month.  Is your cap really that low? 



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @jonsi said:

    I should probably not have hosted the images on my own site. It's kind of killing my bandwidth for march.

    Man, how much does your hosting plan suck?  I think the images I've posted to the forums have used less than 100 megs a month.  Is your cap really that low? 

     

    I wonder what it could be... 

    *Refresh* *Refresh* *Refresh* *Refresh* *Refresh* *Refresh* *Refresh* *Refresh* *Refresh* 



  • No it's not, problem was that I was a bit silly and used the multi-megabyte versions of the images... ahem. I put them up at work and didn't have time to resize them. And all was fine until someone decided to post in an old thread...

    Now, masterplan, refresh all you like - although you can't read the text anymore. Oh well, at least it's dial-up friendly now :)



  • @jonsi said:

    Now, masterplan, refresh all you like - although you can't read the text anymore. Oh well, at least it's dial-up friendly now :)

     

    For the recored, I am not actually refreshing, just messing with you. Although I load the page everytime someone posts (as do many other people, I suspect).

     

    But of course I am just the dick who mentioned that bringing this thread back from the dead was kind of dumb, so what do I know?

    @jonsi said:

    And all was fine until someone decided to post in an old thread...

    Hmmm.

     



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    I wonder what it could be... 

    Refresh Refresh Refresh Refresh Refresh Refresh Refresh Refresh Refresh

    I'm having to hold back the laughter.

    @morbiuswilters said:

    Man, how much does your hosting plan suck?  I think the images I've posted to the forums have used less than 100 megs a month.  Is your cap really that low?

    It's amazing how many people use no-name hosting when the name brand stuff is actually really cheap with much better benefits. I use GoDaddy.com. I paid for 2 years in advance (due for renewal in Sept) for less than $7/mo for the Deluxe plan. It comes with 150GB space and 1,500GB bandwidth.. among other things. The only thing I don't really like is having to use web-based DB tools instead of remotely connecting with a client-based tool such as MySQL Query Browser. My previous host allowed it, but their support suuuuuucked. I couldn't phrase anything in a way that the overseas support could understand.



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    Although I load the page everytime someone posts (as do many other people, I suspect).

    Aye. That we do, mate. The star beckons us.



  • @AbbydonKrafts said:

    It's amazing how many people use no-name hosting when the name brand stuff is actually really cheap with much better benefits. I use GoDaddy.com. I paid for 2 years in advance (due for renewal in Sept) for less than $7/mo for the Deluxe plan. It comes with 150GB space and 1,500GB bandwidth.. among other things. The only thing I don't really like is having to use web-based DB tools instead of remotely connecting with a client-based tool such as MySQL Query Browser. My previous host allowed it, but their support suuuuuucked. I couldn't phrase anything in a way that the overseas support could understand.

    I have a dedicated host that handles mail, DB, dynamic web, etc..  I use Dreamhost to store large multimedia files and for backing up the dedicated box.  For something like $9 a month I get 500GB of disk and 5TB of bandwidth from them.  They allow full ssh access which I use in conjunction with rsync to handle the backups.  When I need more space, I just add another account.  I only have a laptop at home so I store a lot of multimedia on Dreamhost and just stream it.  I don't want a dedicated storage server or external hard drive at home and considering I can get 1TB of remote storage for only $200 a year, it's actually quite economical.  My cable at home is more than fast enough to handle the traffic (although uploading new multimedia files can take some time, but I just let rsync do its job in the background).



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    For something like $9 a month I get 500GB of disk and 5TB of bandwidth from them.

    Unfortunately, it's Linux only. My primary site is ASP.NET. However, I'll look at using Dreamhost once I really get going with PHP.



  • @AbbydonKrafts said:

    Unfortunately, it's Linux only. My primary site is ASP.NET.

    Mono.

    We work with a bunch of ASP.NET projects, and my development/test servers are all running Ubuntu Server, Apache and Mono.



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @AbbydonKrafts said:

    Unfortunately, it's Linux only. My primary site is ASP.NET.

    Mono.

    We work with a bunch of ASP.NET projects, and my development/test servers are all running Ubuntu Server, Apache and Mono.

    That's a good suggestion.  I don't really use Dreamhost for any dynamic content or PHP, just as a big static host because my dedicated box doesn't have the disk space. 



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @AbbydonKrafts said:

    Unfortunately, it's Linux only. My primary site is ASP.NET.

    Mono.

    We work with a bunch of ASP.NET projects, and my development/test servers are all running Ubuntu Server, Apache and Mono.

    That's a good suggestion.  I don't really use Dreamhost for any dynamic content or PHP, just as a big static host because my dedicated box doesn't have the disk space. 

     

    I have no idea if they have or would allow mono_mod on their apache server, but worth a shot. 

    I just really enjoy our setup, and I figure I need to pimp Mono any chance I get. (Almost makes me feel ok about never contributing anything to their project.)



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    I just really enjoy our setup, and I figure I need to pimp Mono any chance I get. (Almost makes me feel ok about never contributing anything to their project.)

    I love it that Mono is around. I plan on making sure all of my personal projects run against Mono and Linux without any problems. I'll have to investigate later whether or not Dreamhost has Mono available or not. If not, I need to learn PHP anyways. I'm sure they have all the major libraries considering how many other features they provide. I need to check GoDaddy and see if they have any framework limitations (I need the ability to generate images).



  • @AbbydonKrafts said:

    (I need the ability to generate images)
     

    Dynamic porn huh?

     

    Kind sir,

    Plz send teh links!

    kthxbye



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    Dynamic porn huh?

     

    Kind sir,

    Plz send teh links!

    kthxbye

    Haha! I can't even fathom how one would go about doing that. Nah.. it would be used mostly for automatic resizing of uploaded images and thumbnail creation. Also, many sites don't allow JavaScript or embeds (such as Wordpress.com), so I need to be able to generate image "widgets" containing statistics. Nothing fancy, really, but it would definitely limit my options if that functionality was locked out.



  • @AbbydonKrafts said:

    Nah..
     

    Damn. The possibilities!



  • DAMN! I just refreshed the page because my previous reply didn't show up. Those pictures are destroyed! What compression did you use -- 100%?!! 3KB is friggin' tiny. You know that 15% would've been fine, right? I'm sure even a 256-color PNG would've worked since there are so many shades of blue in there.



  • @AbbydonKrafts said:

    DAMN! I just refreshed the page because my previous reply didn't show up. Those pictures are destroyed! What compression did you use -- 100%?!! 3KB is friggin' tiny. You know that 15% would've been fine, right? I'm sure even a 256-color PNG would've worked since there are so many shades of blue in there.
     

    *Refresh* *Refresh* *Refresh* *Refresh* *Refresh* *Refresh* *Refresh* *Refresh* *Refresh* *Refresh* 



  • @AbbydonKrafts said:

    DAMN! I just refreshed the page because my previous reply didn't show up. Those pictures are destroyed! What compression did you use -- 100%?!! 3KB is friggin' tiny. You know that 15% would've been fine, right? I'm sure even a 256-color PNG would've worked since there are so many shades of blue in there.

    OTOH, he was right.  You cannot read the words anymore. 



  • I know the little teeny pictures are horrible now - that's the whole idea. Anyway, if you're clever you can get the mega-super-amazing high-res version.

     

    almost put up a 12000x10000 single colour gif ;-)



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    @Spectre said:

    I try to keep the discussion intelligent, there's no point in yet another flamefest.
     

    Yeah good job on that.

    You know, if you don't want to answer, just say it.
    Uh oh, I think I'll be added to MPS's list of trolls after this.

    On a side note, it's rather amusing how far the discussion strayed while I was sleeping...



  • @Spectre said:

    You know, if you don't want to answer, just say it.
     

    There is nothing to answer. I made a simple statement, you are flaming it.

    Just grow up and let it go already.


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