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Can Your ATM Play Beethoven?

bpiltz writes "A funk band in Harrisonburg, VA, called Midnight Spaghetti, has posted a story with photos about a newly installed Diebold Opteva 520 ATM at Carnegie Mellon University that crashed, then rebooted. The Windows XP operating system initialized without the actual ATM software. The result was a public desktop computer, with only a touch screen interface, left wide open for the amusement of the students at the most wired university in the U.S. Interestingly, Diebold is one of the leading manufacturers of e-voting machines."

29 of 657 comments (clear)

  1. Clippy! by Black+Parrot · · Score: 5, Funny


    I see you're trying to extract free cash from a bolloxored ATM cum jukebox. May I help you?

    --
    Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
  2. minesweeper... by Polybius · · Score: 5, Funny

    So who got the fastest ATM minesweeper times?

  3. Sweet! by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 1, Funny

    Diebold's not only suppling votes to GWBush, but also campaign finance!

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  4. Obligatory play on words by Stopmotioncleaverman · · Score: 5, Funny

    Start --> Programs --> ATM --> Configure --> Flush Cash (sic)

  5. And this surprises you by OverlordQ · · Score: 3, Funny

    how? I mean given,

    A) It's based off of Windows
    B) It was made by Diebold.

    Adding A + B != C where C equals something that works correctly.

    --
    Your hair look like poop, Bob! - Wanker.
  6. Election Day... by myownkidney · · Score: 4, Funny

    The geek Jim goes to the election booth. Jim touches the opening screen. Jim watches while the screen BSoDs. Computer reboots. Jim is presented with the XP interface. Jim, finds the voting system back end. Jim "adjusts" the result:
    Bush 15%
    Kerry 15%
    Nader 70%
    Jim set's all Bush and Kerry votes to go to Nader.
    Jim runs the voting system front end. Sets it to full screen.
    Jim leaves.
    Nader wins

  7. Re:Not just a desktop computer by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 2, Funny

    more to the point, someone's going to make it run linux and play doom on it.

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  8. Its not just Midnight Spaghetti by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Its "Midnight Spaghetti & The Chocolate G-Strings".
    <homer-voice>chocolate g-strings.. argaaaahhhh</homer-voice>

  9. DIEBOLD Election Machine by myownkidney · · Score: 3, Funny


    Welcome to the 2004 Presidential Elections
    Brought to you by DIEBOLD

    Please select your new president:

    George W. Bush [x] (recomended)
    John Kerry [ ]
    Ralph Nader [ ]

    Submit Reset

    If you are an official, and if you would like to adjust the vote manually, click here


  10. Re:Insecurity and Paranoia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    No you fool! You pry the thing open, push the rectangular boxes of money aside and plug a USB keyboard into it and get hacking!

  11. The Rhyme Of The ATM User by pandrijeczko · · Score: 4, Funny
    Windows, Windows, every where,
    Why's getting out money so hard?
    Windows, Windows, every where,
    It's eaten up my card.

    The spirit deep within: O Gates!
    That ever this should be!
    Yea, buggy things did crawl with legs
    Within Windows XP.

    About, about, it must reboot
    My card's still held within!
    No beer to quench my thirst tonight,
    Blue screen, and wallet thin.

    And some in dreams assured were
    Of the spirit that plagued me so:
    The demon Gates had followed me
    From Redmond's deepest flows.

    And my poor tongue, through beerish drought,
    Was withered at the root;
    I could not speak, no more unless
    This teller would reboot.

    Ah! well a-day! what evil looks
    Had I from old and young!
    Instead of the cross, this penguin fine
    About my neck was hung.

    --
    Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
  12. Same in airport by dargaud · · Score: 3, Funny

    I got a retrospective scare at an airport in souther Italy last month. While waiting for my luggage, all the screens suddenly showed an error Windows popup in the middle. I wanted to click the [OK] button so bad...

    --
    Non-Linux Penguins ?
  13. similar story: in-flight entertainment system by linoleo · · Score: 4, Funny

    Reminds me of a couple of years back when by wiggling their god-awful pointer device too fast I managed to crash the in-flight seat-back entertainment system. BSOD, reboot, turns out it's a 90MHz Pentium running Win NT 4.0 Server Edition - no wonder the response was so sluggish (on the order of seconds).

    I got to the desktop for about 5 seconds before their entertainment app autostarted again. I then spent a fun hour or two re-crashing the blasted thing and trying to defeat the autostart. Never managed it though - that's the only time I recall that I wished I knew more about Windows. :-)

    Eventually I had to stop because it turned out that poor old Pentium wasn't my in-seat client but actually the server for the entire cabin, and a lynch mob was starting to form... 8-O

    --
    Be faithful to your obsessions. Identify them and be faithful to them, let them guide you like a sleepwalker. JG Ballard
    1. Re:similar story: in-flight entertainment system by linoleo · · Score: 4, Funny

      Well this was before 9/11, and I sincerely hope they weren't *flying the plane* off the same overburdened Pentium... I can just see it, next time they dig up the cockpit voice recorder from a crashed airliner:

      Pilot: "The flight control app is not responding! Quick, try to kill it!"
      Copilot: "The mouse is frozen... must... use... three-fingered salute..."
      Pilot: "Still no response... okay, I'm gonna power-cycle the bastard."
      Plane: (plummets 20'000 ft while they wait out the boot sequence)
      Computer: All Your Boot Are Belong To Us.
      Pilots: "Somebody has sent us up the virus! Aiiieeeee!"
      Plane: *crash*

      --
      Be faithful to your obsessions. Identify them and be faithful to them, let them guide you like a sleepwalker. JG Ballard
  14. Re:Boy, times sure change by phiwum · · Score: 2, Funny

    I think that the ATM is in Baker Hall. This probably means it's near the philosophy department (but it might be near the civil engineering department).

    As philosophers go, it's a technical department. But that doesn't mean they want to hear a loop of Beethoven and Talking Heads all day long. It's not really in the job description.

    --
    Phiwum's law: anyone that names an obvious law after himself and then puts it in his own sig is just pathetic.
  15. Re:"Progress"? by swaic · · Score: 2, Funny


    Hey I remember those old ATMs, here in Australia (And I'm only 23...)

    Of course you remember those. Isn't Australia where the UK sends all it's unwanted junk. You know, old computers, ATMs, prisoners, etc.. :-) (Just joking)

  16. Re:Video of the ATM in action by Zaffo · · Score: 1, Funny

    Oh, it's a sad, emasculating day when you discover that an ATM machine can render Media Player's full-screen visualizations much more smoothly than your own rig. :(

  17. And the last two options by ronmon · · Score: 2, Funny

    ...would be "greyed out".

  18. Bush Voter by madchris · · Score: 1, Funny

    Yes, Diebolt makes Vote for Bush machines.

  19. Re:Mirror? by DrPepper · · Score: 3, Funny
    the most wired university in the U.S
    ...but they couldn't find somewhere with enough bandwidth to host their site?
  20. Re:"Progress"? by macdaddy · · Score: 4, Funny

    A friend of mine asked for $20 once and got $40. The bills stuck together. Cheap bastard wouldn't even buy supper that night. ;-)

  21. Re:ATMs by red+floyd · · Score: 2, Funny

    And the Department of Redundancy Department strikes again!

    "ATM Machine".

    --
    The only reason we have the rights we have is that people just like us died to gain those rights. -- Cheerio Boy
  22. Re:ATMs by RichardX · · Score: 3, Funny

    And the Department of Redundancy Department strikes again!

    "ATM Machine".


    But of course...
    Where else would you use your PIN Number...

    --
    Curiosity was framed. Ignorance killed the cat.
  23. Re:"Progress"? by No_Weak_Heart · · Score: 2, Funny

    Darn, sure wish my ATM gave me "cash, and viola," then we could play Beethoven together.

  24. Re:"Progress"? by minusthink · · Score: 2, Funny

    "But it actually does not work with a severed finger these days."

    So I've been cutting off fingers for nothing? That's great, what am I gonna do with all these things?

    --
    "when life gets complicated, I like to take a nap in a tree and wait for dinner" - Hobbes.
  25. Re:"Progress"? slightly OT by macdaddy · · Score: 3, Funny

    I was on a family vacation many moon ago in Tulsa. I was probably in 3rd or 4th grade. The hotel we were staying at had a couple candy and pop machines. I went to load up on sugar one night and found that one of the candy machines was spitting out candy non-stop for free. I had one of those "The Way Things Work" books at about that age and remembered reading about coined-operated machines. I assumed one of the coins got lodged in one of the various types of coin-detecting mechanisms. I had waaaay too much candy that night. Nearly made me sick.

  26. Re:"Progress"? by number11 · · Score: 5, Funny

    let's say you doused the [credit] card in some poison that is absorbed through touch, and will stick to the card long enough. What kind of liability does the bank accepting and transferring this object open them up to?

    Even better, let's say you doused a $20 bill in poison and deposited it in the bank. You know, they don't burn all the cash that's deposited, they reuse it and hand it back out, without even cleaning it first (due to short-sighted laws against laundering money). Shocking, isn't it?

    And I daresay paper currency will absorb your poison better than plastic credit card, too. Where it will mix with the cocaine residue, the gasoline contamination from people who've just filled their car, and the bacteria from people who didn't wash their hands after scratching that hemorrhoid itch, forming a lethal brew.

    Your best bet for survival is to only accept coins, and to carry a blowtorch to sterilize them with before handling them.

  27. Re:"Progress"? by yRabbit · · Score: 2, Funny

    1) Shove them up your nose
    2) Repackage them as chicken fingers
    3) Mugger Supply Depot

  28. Re:OT: Department of Redundancy Department by TheScogg · · Score: 2, Funny

    We should thank God that the phrase "pin number" has a built in redundancy. I, personally, know many a Slashdot reader who, when prompted for a four digit "pi number", would punch in 3.141.