Slashdot Mirror
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."
You know, I've been thinking for a few years now that ATMs (in the UK at least)
;-)
seem to be getting slower and slower to use. 10 years back, you'd insert your
card, be able to key in your pin number straight away and be straight into the
menu. Now, you insert the card, stand about while it thinks about checking it,
then you eventually enter a pin and wait around a bit more before using the
sluggish interface. Now I know that these machines have media player, web browser and
all sorts of other redundant crap installed on a full version of XP, I understand the
reason the queues are growing!
I don't need 24 million colours, animations and other crap just to take money out
of my account, dammit! It's staggering to think that the software has become so
bloated and slow that machines produced 10 years ago, with only a fraction of the
computing power of today were actually far more responsive to use.
I remember seeing an ATM reboot a few years back (brief power outage). It briefly
showed the OS2 logo before resuming normal operation
Code, Hardware, stuff like that.
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
So who got the fastest ATM minesweeper times?
Start --> Programs --> ATM --> Configure --> Flush Cash (sic)
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.
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
Indefinitely Detained US Citizen
COME ON!!!!!!!!!! Why in the world would someone waste a computer that's capable of running Windows XP (which probably means at least a Pentium with 64 MB RAM?) on an ATM? I mean, the thing is supposed to check your card, pin and then give you a load of cash... Last time I checked, that's a job for something less than an 8080, which could do the job faster, more securely, and cheaper. The right tool for the right job, people! /me rolls eyes
more to the point, someone's going to make it run linux and play doom on it.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
I got a chance to talk to one of my bank's IT people about this a few months ago, and basically, they don't know what's causing the crashes because analyzing the log files would just be too much trouble. So their SOP is to have some guy with a key come out, literally pull the plug on the machine and wait till it reboots.
He also told me that they were slowly migrating over to a "custom XP version", whatever that's supposed to mean. I probably should have told him that Windows machines can be prone to virus infections (cough cought).
Would it be possible to load data on
a swipe card so that the software reading the card
suffered some kind of buffer overrun ? (Depending
of course on how carefuly the software checked for
them).
Why are these things running WinXP and not something a little more secure ?
Aren't there any regulations about cash machine security ?
I had read it recently, and I found it on /. But it seems that this is not a dupe :-). This link was posted in the comments section very recently.
:-)
/. story is based, gains you karma too :-)
Here's the link.
It's good to look at comments, and submit stories. It gets you karma. Also, it's good to look around that comment, and then post comments in this story. That would gain karma too
Posting a comment about the comment on which the current
I see "ordinary" ATMs stuck at a Phoenix BIOS boot prompt all the time. While I've never gotten to the Windows part of an ATM, it happens at information kiosks a lot.
They should have used the "On-Screen Keyboard" under Accessibility. It is a little scary that this was connected to cash.
If you want a good read for the database schemas an ATM uses, read "Principles of Transaction Processing." One interesting bit of knowledge is that the entire table of valid account names and their card hashes is replicated to each ATM! (Obviously for your bank only.) It sends out a ping that records "Joe took $50" to the main bank but it's only sort of a summary, the "full details" is kept at the ATM and sync'd at night.
One crazy thing that happened to me was I tried to withdraw $1100 from Bank A at Bank B's ATM. I got into a "Distributed Transaction Rollback" -- it got all the way through, printed out out my receipt that said I got the money, and -- never gave me my money. When I checked at a Bank A ATM, it showed the "hit" on my account. In about 15 minutes the Transaction Processor rolled back the transaction.
It's not immediately evident how Windows XP opens a security risk on an ATM, nor how this means that Diebold voting machines are somehow hackable.
ATMs not connected to the Internet and without keyboard are pretty much unhackable unless you can pry open the case and attach a keyboard and/or wireless connection. And if you could do that, I suspect pretty much any ATM would be hackable. There is a reason why ATMs are built from heavy steel and anchored in concrete.
Diebold systems raise paranoiac hackles for another reason: control and oversight. You don't need to invoke security flaws and Windows XP to realize that ballot boxes represent power and money. Whoever controls the counting process controls billions, trillions of $, and this is a temptation that few, if any, people can resist.
The argument against paperless touch-screen voting systems comes from the fact that such systems open the way to serious internal fraud, rather than hacking through any hardware or software weakness. Election fraud is done by incumbent politicians, not by hackers exploiting BSoDs.
The nightmare scenario for future US elections is where after a largely electronic and unverifiable poll, the governing party gets 55% of the vote despite exit polls showing that it got 45%. What would happen after such an event is anyone's guess, but it would not be pleasant.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
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
Indefinitely Detained US Citizen
http://yogi.pdl.cmu.edu/~cgeisser/photos/
Video with audio of ATM in action
Is shoud think the RISCOS would be a better solution for an ATM than it ever was for a desktop.
;)
BTW, I'm not totally averse to Arc's etc, I have a 4000 series here somewhere that I hacked a NIC into and managed to get on the internet (how proud of myself was I?)
Ripping an new rectum in the fabric of spacetime.
>Finally, an annoyed faculty member in an adjacent office unplugged the machine and dispersed the crowd.
I remember back in the day, when faculty in a technical university would stop two wars before breakfast, and still have time to help with a hack before the toast popped.
Kind of sad to see the spirit of exploration being so ruthlessly crushed. Attention US Educators: creativity and free thinking is our only advantage over India and China. Ponder on who's going to be paying for your Medicare before you decide to quell your inquisitive students.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
"ATMs not connected to the Internet and without keyboard are pretty much unhackable unless you can pry open the case and attach a keyboard and/or wireless connection."
If you read the article you would find out that they managed to input text - but with charmap instead of a keyboard.. So having no keyboard is no insurance that noone will be able to input character data.
Take a look here
The moving cursor writes, and having written, blinks on.
Here is the Diebold specificaion PDF for the 520. It says the thing has a P4 in it, and I would assume this is because they designed some sort of software framework for the Optiva to be expandable in the future to do things like sell concert tickets.
Imagine if that CDR drive was usable to load programs onto it. Furthermore, I'm really hoping these things don't have bluetooth in them.
520 Spec PDF
-Steve
no, dont think so...
but I hear it can play metallica and pong.
It comes down to making the best of commercially available hardware and OS'es. And the available stuff is PIII or better, so you might as well run XP if you are an MS shop. DOS is more stable, but when it comes to Microsoft, the developer skill sets are weighted towards Windows. I myself haven't written an app for DOS in 10 years.
But you are on to something. Can we invent something that is the opposite of Moore's law? Something like: "Software will become nn% harder to write every two years due to steadily increasing complexity in hardware and operating systems."
If you got a $100 bill, put your hands up...
If I find out this particular ATM is Windows-operated, I will hunt down Mr. Gates, roll him in tar and feathers and chase him out of town with a stick. In the meantime I will file a complaint with Ulster Bank for taking away my sole source of cash until next pay-day.
I'd rather find the execs of the bank, and roll them in tar and feathers and chase them out of town with a stick. Any one can make an offer... I can offer to run their ATM network on Linux 2.6.4-alpha1-test4-pre2 too. If they're willing to buy it, that's their stupidity, not mine.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
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.
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 ?
Bank Fraud! Something that debits let's say a penny per transation is actually a moderatly simple program to design provided you actually have access to bank accounts and a bank network. It's difficult for your average joe to do without access to machines on the bank network. Well... a cash machine is indeed on a bank network, and has the ability to withdrawl sums of money, log bank cards / pin numbers, the lot! These things rebooting in a way that can actually be used like normal windows scares the hell out of me.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Why didn't they use the on-screen keyboard instead of the character map for entering text?
This sig under construction. Please check back later.
So if the money dispenser is connected via a serial port, maybe you could "echo tray1-4>COM1" and get 4 hundred dollar bills? obviously you'd need to know their system, but hey, if you knew someone who did know it, well then wikkid.
This machine is indeed massive overkill, but the economics are that a desktop PC is about the cheapest computer out there.
An 8080 computer set up in a config with USB ports, serial, parallel, video, etc etc will probably run you something close to $3,000 US, and spares will be difficult as they'll have to be single supplier.
Also, the drivers for things like printers and card readers are only going to be available for Windows (and increasingly Linux), so if you have an embedded device, the integration costs are going to be high.
On the other hand, you can get a robust PC from a major manufacturer for something under $1,000 US and it can be replaced by any manufacturer. There are drivers for everything, and software development will be cheaper because windows programmers are more available than embedded programmers.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
too honest
they had a machine that would give them money and all they did was use media player ? Diebold got off lightly!.
they [evil student] could of written a keylogger/pin reader/card cloner/data capture using the on-board vbscript/wscript language, (full access to filesystem and shell), build in a network check so as soon as the machine detects a network connection (as the students said it wasnt connected to anything presume at some point it will be connected to a network by an engineer or repairman) it trys to post the captured data to some.random.location.com, install it as a system service so it runs automatically in the background , even schedule it to run at specific times and you have one totally compromised machine
would of taken an hour max of programming time, maybe 15min if all you had to do was type it in and not compose it.
scary that not only is the software Windows but it has its own built in programming enviroment with access to every program on that machine including network access, and the only tool you need is notepad.
If they insist on using a Microsoft OS at least the could use Windows XP Embedded.
It's a componentized version of Windows XP with a set of tools to customize it, remove any unnecessary components and prepare system images. It also has tricks like running from read-only media and intercepting message boxes that end users should not see.
It's even cheaper (for a moderate number of licenses).
Stop worrying about the risks of nuclear power and start worrying about the risks of not using nuclear power.
The problem's not so much Windows as the lack of customization.
If those machines were locked down embedded Windows or something similar, then I wouldn't be so worried. But these things appear to be more like a normal Windows installation with an ATM program on top. That *is* scary.
Think of it, if so much care was taken on the design of the ATM, how do you know that your credit card number and PIN aren't in a text file that can be read directly if you manage to get to the Windows interface?
And what will happen when the virus of the week hits it because nobody bothered closing unneeded ports?
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
"Insert rootkit card, run program from card and voila. You can probably skim card numbers, PINs, everything. Figure out how the money dispenser works and simply have it dump all the cash on demand..."
Ha!! I can already do that to ATM's with my uber-modified Sega Game Gear...
Then my friend and I hop back on to my dirt bike, and go tearing through the L.A. spillways on our way to our favorite arcade.
"Name's Ash... Housewares."
"a network break-in waiting to happen"
Not really. You're not going to see ATMs directly connected to the public Internet. The typical connections are using frame relay or, very popular for ATMs, but now deprecated, SMDS (Switched Multimegabit Data Service) circuits from a telco LEC.
I've been told by a Vz test center old timer that the banks particularly like SMDS for the reason that it's trivial to switch the whole network over to an alternate head end/data center in an emergency or for maint. SMDS circuits have a cloud topology, similar to frame relay. Verizon was pushing SMDS for a few years as a less expensive alternative to PtP T1s (also was avail in other capacities from 56k up to 45mb). From what I understand, smds is no longer being provisioned due to the telco gear makers dropping it from their products; supposedly telcos now have to canibalize parts when something fails. The other downside of smds these days is in the event of a failure, you'll have to get lucky to find a Verizon tech who is familiar enough with it to get your trouble resolved anytime soon (tell 'em they need to reload the group addresses, that'll fix it usually, unless it's a catastrophic hardware failure at the CO).
Even without cloning the card, a lot of banks depend on your reporting the card lost/stolen to figure out what you did and didn't pay for. If you buy a big screen TV, the card gets back to the owner, and he goes a month without checking his balance for some stupid reason, it gets tricky.
I suppose they could make a little bank form that says, "Card missing from Date: XXX to Date: XXX", but I'm sure people would abuse the hell out of that...
...would be "greyed out".
Once more with the right tags...
Mignight Spaghetti
As a grad student who has their office in this building, I got more than a little kick when I saw the tech fumbling aimlessly to try and fix the thing later. He was there literally all day long and each time I walked by he was on the phone trying to get more info. Where is a good ole OS/2 ATM when you need one?
Anyway, some people on misc.market also posted some movies that you might find interesting.
My Slashdot account is old enough to drink...
About a month ago, all of the National City ATMs in Pittsburgh (where CMU is) got switched from ancient working machines to snazzy new Diebold touch screens. Aside from the one playing Beethoven, there has been at least another one that BSOD'd.
The one on this article was funny and everything until that night when I remembered that I have my life savings in National City.
I stopped at some competing banks in the area on Thursday to get some pamphlets and I will be switching banks on Monday.
--------
It's OK to be social, just don't tell anyone about it.
We all at slashdot would like to bash MS for this. But somehow, it has a reciprocal effect that very few realize. Carnegie Mellon (CM) is highly recognized for software and quality. Now it gives me doubt over their institute for having a system that crashed. I know their not directly the cause or effect but the shadow somehow hovers over CM more than Microsoft. Years from now there may be an article about the first ATM to be hacked and it was at CM but probably no mention of MS.
Two articles about Viruses infecting ATMs.
u ri ty/story/0,10801,88028,00.html
t ml
http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/sec
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/34175.h
But does any one know why atm's here in the states have a decimal in the amount? So if I want to take out an amount (say $15) that isn't listed, I have to type:
1-5-0-0
to let the machine know I want 15 dollars instead of 15 cents. No atm that I've seen (granted, limited experience) will dispense change. I don't think I've seen any that even dispense dollar bills, so getting $17 is impossible. So why the decimals?
I'm not sure what issues they do or do not have, but I have actually used some additional useful features on Wells Fargo ATMs. Namely, printing out a copy of my bank statement from the ATM. There's some other stuff you can do as well, but I did find that handy on one occasion.
> The point is, banks will assume the worst when it
> comes to you no longer physicaly having your card.
As they should. Really, it is much simpler for the bank to just issue a replacement card than to bother returning the old one. Think about it: should they print a piece of embossed plastic that costs a few cents, or have the kindhearted finder send the old card in (37 cents) and remail it to the owner (another 37 cents + 15 minutes of somebody's time [or more, if Windows crashes]) all the while ensuring that no fraudulent transactions take place in the meantime (priceless)?
Does this remind *anyone* of the movie Hackers, in which Joey makes an ATM (in "Bumsville, Idaho") spit out a certain amount of cash?
;)
Something makes me think a next RPC vulnerability will do just that
XeeRz,
Jason
THSsMCHshrtrTHN160chrs -- And I don't even like to SMS!
Back in the day, bank ATMs were dumb 3270 type "greenscreen" monitors invariably hard linked via leased line running CICS to an IBM mainframe running some transaction processing application written in COBOL with DL/1 or VSAM storage. Something like that anyway. Such architectures were not everyone's cup of tea but they were tuned to be extremely efficient and to handle vast throughput hence the fast response times.
The old green screens were the ultimate thin clients. The only code physically at the client end was in the monitor's electronics. It never went wrong because, erm, there wasn't anything to go wrong with. New applications were simply installed centrally et voila. Again, not the sexiest, but super-reliable.
So, to an ex-mainframer like me, the idea of having an ENTIRE XP image at the client end for what is basically a EPOS terminal sounds totally OTT, not to mention hard work - thats a LOT of deployed systems to look after. It wouldnt be so bad if the XP image was stripped down to reduce entropy, or if Microsoft didn't get to dictate it's update/patch/retirement schedule.
Re your OS/2 observation, big blue's desktop disappointment was able to routinely run as a CICS client hence leverage the same fast network and TP applications. The XP ATM is probably using TCPIP via application servers before your data gets to the big iron. Add in the modern prevalence of online banking transactions and you start to see why latency might start to increase.
Also, I imagine modern back-end systems are doing more that just checking/amending your balance these days. Anyone who has had a credit card stopped because they had the temerity to use it on a foreign holiday without informing the credit card company first will know all about that.
I wish at was Friday, but I dont want to wish my life away. So I wish it was last Friday.
What is the financial regulatory authority in the States that acts as a watchdog on this sort of thing? Using Windows XP in an ATM instead of a hardened embedded system is criminal negligence, no two ways about it.
this may be a little off topic, but cell phones are full of the same damn bloat. Got a Samsung from verizon a couple of months ago and the damn thing has to boot, show a welcome scree, show the verizon logo, make a sound, "find" service, then finally you get access. God forbid if your phone is off and you need to make a call in a hurry.
Gives a new meaning to the term "microkernel".
Seriously, though, that wouldn't be cost-efficient. What's the point of including enough storage on every card to hold a kernel when you can still only use that card at an ATM? IMO, a credit card is more like a USB key than anything else: It's just a means of authentication used in accessing the ATM system.
ALL Diebold machines in florida booted BY DEFAULT to the windows screen not to the voting system software. You have to hold F10 to force them to boot in kiosk mode. Thus You could get back to the windows screen simply by forcing a reboot, no special passwords needed.
To top it off the central database that is used is not protected by an obligatory password. That is the data base has no pasword but the access software has a password. If you use your own non-customized version of Micro soft access you can access it directly. This too happens and is documented. See blackboxvoting.org. search for the King County and GEMS. King count found the diebold software cluymsy so they bypassed in in a real election leaving no password controls and no entry logs and open to all employees with physical or network access
Finally, as was reproted on slashdot a while back, two banking institutions had their XP based diebold machines get the blaster worm. Which is theoretically impossible since they technically are on isolated netowrk not connected to the general network. And yet...
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Oops, I boofed that link. here it is again
While I can agree there are probably simpler ways than using Windows to accomplish what ATMs need to do, the impetus for multimedia capable ATMs appears to be the Americans with Disabilities Act:
The Americans With Disabilities Act and ATMs:
Accessibility for Blind Users
In recent years, blind representatives have been approaching banks and other ATM owners about improving blind users' access to ATMs, relying on the 1992 Americans With Disability Act Accessibility Guidelines ("ADAAG") requirement that ATMs be "accessible to and independently usable by persons with vision impairments." ADAAG provides the technical requirements for making facilities accessible. The related regulation, which interprets the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), is promulgated by the Department of Justice and dictates which facilities must be available.
Unavailable in 1992, blind representatives have in recent years been demanding that ATMs provide audio output in some fashion in order to make them "accessible to and independently usable by persons with vision impairments." In addition, the Access Board in November 1999 proposed to amend ADAAG to specifically require audible "verification of user input," displayed text and labels, as well as receipts. The proposal also includes requirements related to keyboard layout and cash disbursement.
The Access Board released "draft final" changes to ADAGG in late April 2002. It made those changes final 10 September 2002 and will send them to OMB, which has 90 days to review before the final guidelines are made public. However, the Access Board's revised ADAAG has no legal effect until the Department of Justice adopts it as part of its ADA regulation. The Department of Justice must put out for public comment proposed changes to its regulation, along with the ADAAG appendix, review comments, and adopt the regulation as final before any revisions become effective. It has not yet released proposed changes to the regulation.
The new requirements are not expected to be mandatory until at least 2004, if not later. This should give ATM owners ample time to implement if they take advantage of the advance notice and begin plans early.
As expected, the "draft final" requires that ATMs be speech enabled, but it also reflects changes to the proposal that respond to many of the industry's comments. For example, it recognizes the technical difficulties in providing "dynamic" information in an audible format and provides appropriate exceptions for dynamic alphabetic information "where voice synthesis cannot be supported." It also specifically provides that certain information on receipts as well as statements and checks need not be provided orally. The draft final also eliminated many of the keyboard specifications as well as the proposed requirement to provide bills in descending order. The Board at this time is also not applying the requirements to POS terminals. The final guidelines are expected to be virtually identical to the draft final.
It is not clear how any modified new regulation will apply to existing ATMs. The general rule under ADA is that facilities existing in 1992 had to remove barriers if it was "readily achievable" and provide auxiliary aids and services if not an "undue burden." The Department of Justice must address how any modified requirements will apply to existing facilities. In discussions with Department of Justice staff, staff is sympathetic to the costs and burdens of retrofitting technologically-based facilities that depreciate over a short period relative to other facilities such as buildings.
ABA has been actively involved in this issue. It submitted comments to the Access Board on its 1999 proposal and testified at Access Board's hearings. In addition, it brought together the various interested parties, including ATM owners, vendors, networks, software vendors, as well as blind representatives, to attempt to agree on technical as well as
Because most moderators just scroll down the page and anything that is not to 5 yet they moderate it up, because most moderators play it safe instead of looking for that gem in the rough.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
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
I once had a Crocker Bank ATM in California give me $40 and a receipt, and the withdrawal never showed up on my account. The bank staff ABSOLUTELY REFUSED TO BELIEVE the transaction had occurred, even when sent a copy of the receipt; they claimed that all the balances on the ATM machines added up properly, everything was consistent, nothing was missing or mislaid (hence implying I was mistaken. Would that I were thus mistaken more often.) I eventually closed that account, and Crocker later went under. Gee, I wonder why?
It boggles the mind how bankers could be so indifferent to their money going missing like that. As a programmer, I know that ANY (memory / money) leak of whatever size is trouble on the wing and must be tracked to its source, and it ought to be a matter of course for bankers to think likewise. Competent, honest ones, anyway...
"My strength is as the strength of ten men, for I am wired to the eyeballs on espresso."
Actually, in Pittsburgh, my old PNCBank branch (just across the busway from Shadyside, I can't remember the street address) had both a single-dollar dispenser, as well as a change cup. It was fed in the same way that I believe those automated change dispensers you sometimes see in banks and at ticket booths get fed - a single slide down which coins fall. I think the manufacturer was NCR, but I'm not sure.
It didn't ever seem to be filled up, but at least one ATM has been designed that could dispense change! I used to withdraw $19, just because I could put the 4 $1 and the $5 into the change machine for the washer and dryers.
The machine also could accept deposited checks WITHOUT AN ENVELOPE. It would scan the front of the check, show you an image and ask you if the scan was valid. If you deposited a check this way, it got into your account a full day faster than if it was in an envelope. I think it must have OCRed the text, as well as read the magnetic information from the bottom. Plus I imagine the workflow for the ATM operator was speedier. Of course, this all ran under OS/2 1.3, as I confirmed later.
Ahh, Pittsburgh, land of the oddball ATMs.
"But always she's the spectre of uncertainty I first endured, then faded, then embraced..."
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.
Actually you really dont need much of an OS on an ATM, infact i bet some of the earlier ones running on a calculator were 10 times more reliable and secure in their day!!
An ATM has only afew simple requirements
The GUI
Dont even start about "windows gui" all ATMs use a custom designed GUI! theres no need for a graphical OS behind it!
Network Connection
This aint rocket science, you dont need a big OS to send an encrypted message.
Reliability
The ideal machine would simply have a ROM for the software and a small ammount of RAM, no hard-drive is required. You should be able to do a full reset and have the machine running in seconds. Does this idea fit well with a large windows installation? no.
Infact i would go as far as to say an ATM doesnt even need multitasking! think about it, you do your stuff, it says please wait, that stays in the video buffer while it does its transaction. All this over complexity is very bad KISS.
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
Found an ATM here in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, last january. It still ran Windows NT. See picture(s) at http://o.sessink.nl/~valentyn/postbank/ (there's a single picture there, will try to upload more from my photo album)
my other sig is a 500 page novel
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.
From the person behind the counter? Thats a good one, and how do you propose that people who work 9-5:30 every day get to a bank? It`s simply not practical, we dont get enough lunch break as it is.. and i lost count of the amount of times i have wasted my entire lunch break standing waiting in the bank.
Perhaps if banks would open usefull hours, say evenings and weekends, like supermarkets do.. it would be more practical to go to the counter, however the banks wont do that.. since theyre trying to force people into using the machines.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
An ice cream machine was recently installed at my high school. (It uses a little vacuum dealie to retrieve the ice cream bars, which is really neat, but that's beside the point.) Ice cream bars cost anywhere from $1-$1.50, but the machine accepts up to five dollar bills. The machine, however, does not give paper change - only coins. So pay for a fudgecicle with a five-dollar-bill and the thing starts churning out nickels and dimes like a slot machine. Problem is, the coin-counting mechanism isn't exactly accurate if you use way too much money to buy an ice cream bar (like ten bucks for a $1.50 popsicle.) On several occasions, I have recieved more change than the cost of the ice cream bar itself. I'm not one to promote embezzling money from ice-cream companies, but a free popsicle and a couple of bucks in profit isn't bad... (Note: since this incident the machine has been fixed)
It was well known amongst the students that one particular vending machine was slightly mis-adjusted: if you were careful, you could pull a bottle through that area without triggering the coin drop, hence letting you get two or more bottles for the price of one.
My father's record was around 20 or 30 bottles on one payment.
The more things change...
We've got what they call "MAC Check" machines here - i dunno what they're called now that MAC got bought out, but they are pretty chill. They can cash checks (scanner built in), and they can give you ANY denomination. If you want $0.01, you can get it.
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.