[HN Gopher] Cash issuing terminals
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Cash issuing terminals
Author : zdw
Score : 102 points
Date : 2026-02-28 05:21 UTC (17 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (computer.rip)
(TXT) w3m dump (computer.rip)
| cperciva wrote:
| This is worth reading for the line "For some reason difficult to
| divine the radioactive ATM card did not catch on." alone.
| zabzonk wrote:
| 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.
| cperciva wrote:
| Oh, I entirely agree. There are cool ways that radioactivity
| can be used entirely safely.
|
| But I also understand that a lot of people don't understand
| -- so I see why even entirely safe uses of radioactivity are
| concerning to the public, even though they shouldn't be.
| caseyohara wrote:
| There are still contemporary watches that use radioactive
| isotopes like tritium for illumination. I've always wanted a
| watch with always-on lume.
|
| Here is a good example, the Marathon GSAR. You can see the
| radioactive symbol on the dial.
|
| https://www.marathonwatch.com/products/arctic-edition-
| large-...
| eesmith wrote:
| Nor Niven's "Yet Another Modest Proposal: The Roentgen
| Standard" - make coins out of radioactive waste.
| (https://www.larryniven.net/?q=yet-another-modest-proposal-
| th... albeit with an SSL certificate error.)
| tl2do wrote:
| 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.
| Animats wrote:
| 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...
| seanhunter wrote:
| 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.
| neuroelectron wrote:
| Why would this be tremendously pleasing to test?
| Stratoscope wrote:
| 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?
| pwdisswordfishy wrote:
| Wouldn't that be Monopoly money anyway?
| qup wrote:
| 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.
| kotaKat wrote:
| Nah, they get 'test money' to load into the dispensers,
| and it's something banks will also buy for things like
| ATM demonstrators.
|
| https://shop.dieboldnixdorf.com/atm-demonstration-
| currency/p...
|
| (We haven't really had "ATM demonstrations" in a long
| time specifically, but there was a bit of time in the
| early adoption era to get a fake card into a customer's
| hand and let them play with a demonstration machine in
| your lobby or in an office to get to see how convenient
| it was to get the play money out. See also the tabletop
| demonstrator Triton built, the ATM Jr -
| https://triton.com/about-triton/innovative-history/)
| seanhunter wrote:
| 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).
| amluto wrote:
| I hope it returned how much it dispensed so that a dispenser
| failure would result in a refund.
| zabzonk wrote:
| 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.
| jonathantf2 wrote:
| 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.
| Stratoscope wrote:
| 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.
| zabzonk wrote:
| 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.
| chiph wrote:
| Many years ago, I worked on a project in Tennessee where the bank
| was installing computers in their branches (previously the
| tellers were using mainframe terminals). At the same time, they
| were consolidating the leased data lines to the branches to save
| money, as everything there was now a network device - including
| the ATMs.
|
| The IBM representative on our team was working behind the
| through-the-wall ATM, routing some wires when a customer walked
| up (you could see them via the camera). Being a prankster, he
| started talking to her in a robotic voice: "Please insert card",
| "Please choose a transaction", etc. After a few of these he
| couldn't hold back any further and started laughing. The customer
| got the joke and started laughing too: "I _knew_ someone was back
| there! "
|
| Briefly, he was their first (and only) talking ATM.
| mmastrac wrote:
| I'm on mobile so I can't check but damn the Univers font really
| calls back to the pleasant reading experiences of 70s technical
| documentation.
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(page generated 2026-02-28 23:01 UTC)