Cash Machines In Windows Seize Up!

[piratePenguin]

Last week I was out with a friend when he was trying to draw money out of a machine and it just rebooted swallowing his card. I wasn't suprized to see the Microsoft Windows NT 4.5 logo when it rebooted, "fuck Bill Gates and Micro$haft Winblow$" I cursed to which my friend replied "you're just jealous of him for his sucess", so I told him why MS are bad and he said "everything crashes and besides there are far worse companies around like the oil companies. I give up MS are  part of our culture now and it's getting worse. :rolleyes:

Therefore we should fight our "culture", for it is evil.

[worker201]

he said "everything crashes" :rolleyes:

I can't believe how ridiculous people are.  If your apartment "crashed" on a regular basis, you'd be all over the landlord, possibly suing him.  If your car "crashed" on a regular basis you'd be leaving shoe prints all over your mechanic's ass.  But if a computer crashes, well, that's just how it goes.  What bullshit!  Stand up for your rights as a consumer!

[Aloone_Jonez]

Yeah I know tell me about it, people just assume computers are unstable and they don't even consider that the software is more of a problem.

Windows won't run natively on anything that isn't an x86 PC (maybe untrue for Windows CE).

Windows NT ran on other platforms up until Windows 2000 where it became x86 only.

And it's running Win98. Thank god it's not ME. I still have horrible memories of that.

No it was Windows NT 4.5 which is actually the better and more stable from of Windows, so I was suprized to see it crash.

[davidnix71]

I've seen a bank atm reboot on a Saturday following a power outage, but they were using OS 2. If the cameras wren't on me I could have held down some keys and gotten into the bios. It was Phoenix 6.02, same as my eMachine. It would have been fun to see if the bios has test features like money dispensing.

I went into the bank a few days later and told the teller they should fire whoever was in charge of security, because they failed to suppress the boot screen. I stood there for almost 5 minutes watching all the stuff go past. When I mentioned that they used Warp for an OS the woman behind me in line laughed, because she knew how old that was. It's so old, IBM is has since dropped support for it.

Bank of America used to have an attached atm in a branch near here that ran Win2000 and had a touch screen. That thing had a mind of it's own. I complained to a teller that it did things on it's own sometimes and she said she knew. She said it was "hateful." Maybe there really was a Ghost in the Machine.

[worker201]

Bank of America used to have an attached atm in a branch near here that ran Win2000 and had a touch screen. That thing had a mind of it's own. I complained to a teller that it did things on it's own sometimes and she said she knew. She said it was "hateful." Maybe there really was a Ghost in the Machine.

Totally bizarre:

I was just watching season 1 of "X-Files", and there's an episode called "Ghost in the Machine", about some operating system that is so intelligent it becomes AI.  But also, there was an episode called "Shadows" which featured a ghost that got photographed by an ATM security camera when it was killing somebody.  Man that show is kinda freaky sometimes, especially the episode "Eve" - I had nightmares about that one.

Anyway, back to your regularly scheduled program.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

I've seen a bank atm reboot on a Saturday following a power outage, but they were using OS 2. If the cameras wren't on me I could have held down some keys and gotten into the bios. It was Phoenix 6.02, same as my eMachine. It would have been fun to see if the bios has test features like money dispensing.

That's why you should always carry around a can of shaving cream or other opaque substance that can be sprayed

P.S. The only real reason to watch X-Files is for Gillian Anderson :thumbup:

[Orethrius]

well, that's four days and counting it's been out of order like this (possibly longer, i didn't look there before saturday afternoon). now it's opened up some windows and thrown up an error message since yesterday but that's about it.

More Images:
http://www.polytheism.org.uk/pix/easter-road-cash-machine-3.jpg
http://www.polytheism.org.uk/pix/easter-road-cash-machine-4.jpg

people think i am really weird when i photograph this cash machine. i think i am going to stop unless it does something really bizarre.

 I would definitely inform them that they have a broken ATM outside with an active screen displaying what appears to be a list of account-transaction numbers.  Either kill the screen, or - preferably - have a tech rebuild it for Linux or possibly HP/UX.  When did banks start getting the idea that it'd be SMART to route sensitive financial transactions through Windows, anyway?

[piratePenguin]

Windows NT ran on other platforms up until Windows 2000 where it became x86 only.

...So what does that mean? The kernel works? The kernel's no good without everything else, has everything else been ported to other platforms? What platforms?

EDIT: whoops... WINDOWS NT is the whole of the OS. Nevermind.

[WMD]

There was NT 4.0 for PowerPC.  It ran pretty well on some pre-G3 Power Macs.  Not sure about other computers.  Oh, and there was NT4 for Alpha, too.

[worker201]

That's why you should always carry around a can of shaving cream or other opaque substance that can be sprayed

A piece of transparent tape works just as well, and fits easily into the pocket.  Even a small piece will do - the camera will focus on the tape across its lens, making anything else an incoherent blur.

P.S. The only real reason to watch X-Files is for Gillian Anderson :thumbup:

Not the only reason, but definitely high up on the list.

[H_TeXMeX_H]

A piece of transparent tape works just as well, and fits easily into the pocket. Even a small piece will do - the camera will focus on the tape across its lens, making anything else an incoherent blur.

Yeah, it might work ... the only problem is taping the camera without being seen ... and without leaving fingerprints on the area near the camera. Fingerprints on the keys are probably ok cuz so many people used them ... but hardly anyone touches the camera. Or you can wear gloves.

[Calum]

i haven't been back since to check if it's done anything else. will pop up later this evening.

i never thought of telling the bank. do you think i should?

[piratePenguin]

i haven't been back since to check if it's done anything else. will pop up later this evening.

i never thought of telling the bank. do you think i should?

Yea, give them an Ubuntu CD while yer at it.

[Calum]

this is all getting very boring:

http://www.polytheism.org.uk/pix/easter-road-cash-machine-5.jpg
http://www.polytheism.org.uk/pix/easter-road-cash-machine-6.jpg

nothing's really happened since 2 days ago, the error message has gone away or been covered by a window.

the most odd thing is that on these pictures you can clearly see the word "business" superimposed onto the screen! now i SWEAR this was not there when i took the picture! maybe there really is a ghost in this machine!

edit: and while we're at it, i haven't actually touched this machine. i have no idea if pushing the buttons will do anything. i am sure other people have been trying it though.

you'd think the bank would have some sort of remote admin console telling them their applications not running, or at the very least they should be able to see that nobody's been drawing any money out. surely this very tool is what triggers them to go and fill it up with more money again!

[H_TeXMeX_H]

the most odd thing is that on these pictures you can clearly see the word "business" superimposed onto the screen! now i SWEAR this was not there when i took the picture! maybe there really is a ghost in this machine!

It could be just a shitty old CRT screen that has displayed the word BUSINESS for so long it has burned-in to the screen ... it's rare, but not improbable considering the fact that it has been there forever. Or it could be some type of security watermark to prevent you from redistributing pictures taken of the machine's screen (I know, this is probably not the case ... so go with the burn-in theory)