My uncle was part of the team in Bank of America implementing new ATM software at the time they moved to somewhat customizing the interface so it had a quick button on the first menu to give you your favourite withdrawal amount quickly, let you choose what notes you wanted etc. He said it was written in java and his favourite bit was writing the method that would be called (after all checks were done to make sure you had the money etc) to issue the cash. It was called “dispenseWithoutQuestion()”.
You could call dispenseWithoutQuestion(someamount) and the device would spit that amount of cash out so it was obviously tremendously pleasing to test.
I remember the first ATMs I used back in the late 1970s. They were IBM machines with a red LED display, single-line, in a fairly heavily armoured, tiltable (to take into account people's different heights) slot.
These days we have big, full-colour LCD displays, without armouring. In Lincolnshire UK, where I live thieves just pull the whole ATM out of wall with a (stolen) JCB digger and take it away to be cut open at their leisure. That is if they can find one, of course. For both thief and bank customer ATMs are becoming increasingly rare - though not as rare perhaps as brick-and-mortar bank branches.
Some of our SF Peninsula bank branches now have two tiers of ATMs:
• The traditional through-the-wall machines that you can access from outside.
• Inside the branch, heavy duty standalone machines that dispense much more cash and more of a variety of bills. These are only accessible when the branch is open, unless you break glass.
In my hometown someone did this, take half the wall of the Nationwide branch out along with the ATM. Someone also tried to get a free standing one from inside a shop but just ended up destroying the frontage and not taking it home with them.
No mention of Walter Wriston and First National City Bank (later Citicorp)? Wriston is sometimes credited with the concept of networked ATMs, in the sense that he as an executive pushed the project forward.[1] He scaled up the technology, flooding New York City with ATMs. Then everybody else in banking had to install them.
Oh, I don't know. I quite like radioactivity. My Dad (RAF bomber pilot) had a pilots watch with radium luminous dials. I always fancied getting it after his death, about 12 years ago, but nobody could find it - my brothers denied all knowledge, and I have absolutely no reason to doubt them. So it must be somewhere irradiating the roaches that will become our inevitable successors.
In Japan, Omron developed early ATMs that looked similar to American and European machines. Though those early forms have changed significantly over time, Omron remains a top maker today (their ATM division later became a joint venture with Hitachi, so the Omron name is no longer used).
Unlike IBM, Omron specializes in ATM hardware, not bank internal systems. That difference in focus could have mattered.
My uncle was part of the team in Bank of America implementing new ATM software at the time they moved to somewhat customizing the interface so it had a quick button on the first menu to give you your favourite withdrawal amount quickly, let you choose what notes you wanted etc. He said it was written in java and his favourite bit was writing the method that would be called (after all checks were done to make sure you had the money etc) to issue the cash. It was called “dispenseWithoutQuestion()”.
You could call dispenseWithoutQuestion(someamount) and the device would spit that amount of cash out so it was obviously tremendously pleasing to test.
Why would this be tremendously pleasing to test?
You get money!
Of course you don't get to keep the money, but it is yours for a moment, even if just to count it.
And beyond that, you get to see your code operate a physical machine that you can touch.
How many of us get to do that?
Yeah exactly. The test lab had an ATM which you call the function and it spits out money (that you don’t get to keep, but still).
Wouldn't that be Monopoly money anyway?
Doubt it, the bill reader checks all the bills before dispensing, so it would be bypassed for monopoly money.
Maybe they used $1s or something.
I remember the first ATMs I used back in the late 1970s. They were IBM machines with a red LED display, single-line, in a fairly heavily armoured, tiltable (to take into account people's different heights) slot.
These days we have big, full-colour LCD displays, without armouring. In Lincolnshire UK, where I live thieves just pull the whole ATM out of wall with a (stolen) JCB digger and take it away to be cut open at their leisure. That is if they can find one, of course. For both thief and bank customer ATMs are becoming increasingly rare - though not as rare perhaps as brick-and-mortar bank branches.
Some of our SF Peninsula bank branches now have two tiers of ATMs:
• The traditional through-the-wall machines that you can access from outside.
• Inside the branch, heavy duty standalone machines that dispense much more cash and more of a variety of bills. These are only accessible when the branch is open, unless you break glass.
Our friendly Lincolnshire ATM thieves are using serious demolition equipment. A little thing like a brick wall is not going to stop them.
You might almost admire them if they were like Robin Hood, but they are coke dealing f*ckwits, as is obvious when they come to trial.
In my hometown someone did this, take half the wall of the Nationwide branch out along with the ATM. Someone also tried to get a free standing one from inside a shop but just ended up destroying the frontage and not taking it home with them.
No mention of Walter Wriston and First National City Bank (later Citicorp)? Wriston is sometimes credited with the concept of networked ATMs, in the sense that he as an executive pushed the project forward.[1] He scaled up the technology, flooding New York City with ATMs. Then everybody else in banking had to install them.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/21/obituaries/walter-b-wrist...
This is worth reading for the line "For some reason difficult to divine the radioactive ATM card did not catch on." alone.
Oh, I don't know. I quite like radioactivity. My Dad (RAF bomber pilot) had a pilots watch with radium luminous dials. I always fancied getting it after his death, about 12 years ago, but nobody could find it - my brothers denied all knowledge, and I have absolutely no reason to doubt them. So it must be somewhere irradiating the roaches that will become our inevitable successors.
In Japan, Omron developed early ATMs that looked similar to American and European machines. Though those early forms have changed significantly over time, Omron remains a top maker today (their ATM division later became a joint venture with Hitachi, so the Omron name is no longer used).
Unlike IBM, Omron specializes in ATM hardware, not bank internal systems. That difference in focus could have mattered.