Science Fiction
Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
 |
Diebold ATM Crashes, Dispenses Tunes - Not Money
A Diebold Opteva 520 ATM crashed on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University on Wednesday, and then rebooted without bringing up the ATM software, alarming financial institutions and Americans concerned about e-voting alike.
As it turned out, the resulting Diebold PC was not particularly functional, even though it had Windows XP running. The main criticisms that students had were 1) the lack of Internet connectivity and 2) lack of a keyboard. However, students were able to use the Character Map program to enter text, enabling the text-to-speech program to intone "What, do you think I'm made of money?" to potential customers. This fulfills the expectations raised for this device, which Diebold claims "will deliver the next generation of services to financial institutions and ATM users, including new opportunities to enhance customer relationship management (CRM), marketing and advertising applications" (news release).
The Windows Media Player was set up to loop Beethoven and Talking Heads for the further amusement of customers. Americans who would like to have secure, verifiable elections in their own country were less amused, since Diebold is also a leading proponent of electronic voting machines.
Clearly, these new ATMs, with their greater (dys)functionality are bringing us closer to the Lucky Dragon ATM of William Gibson's 1999 novel All Tomorrow's Parties. These ATMS really had a business attitude; if you messed with them, they would mist you down and then electrify themselves.
Thanks to ATM Media Player (Gizmodo) who brought us the original story Diebold ATM Crashes (Midnight Spaghetti). Don't forget to take a look at the Diebold Opteva 520 ATM website; it has a nice multimedia presentation that asks the haunting question "What if your ATMs were so smart that they could repair themselves?"
Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 3/19/2004)
Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |
Would
you like to contribute a story tip?
It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add
it here.
Comment/Join discussion ( 3 )
Related News Stories - (" Work ")
Swedes Get 'Chipped' With Vaccine Passports
'Employees above a certain level were implanted with advanced microprocessors...' - William Gibson, 1984.
Meetings To Be Recorded And Scored For Body Language
'Jedrik was reworking the simulation model of Broey which she carried in her head.'
Would You Get 'Chipped'? Michigan May Ban Employers
'Employees above a certain level were implanted with advanced microprocessors...' - William Gibson, 1984.
Workplace Monitoring Hell, I Mean, Tool For Safe Distancing
'And here is the weirdest part -- I never see another employee the entire day.' - Marshall Brain, 2002.
Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.
Science Fiction
Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's 1950's
1960's 1970's
1980's 1990's
2000's 2010's
Current News
Amazing Photonic Crystal Light Sail
'That sail will be twenty thousand miles at the wide part.'
Blue Collar AI Goes To Work To Mine Its Own Crypto
Blue collar bot.
Rogue AI Replicated Itself
'Sapiro’s computer just kept dialing at random, hanging up on humans, until it got a fellow computer of the same type as itself.'
HandelBot Helps Two-Handed Robots Learn Piano
'I request that you feed the correlation between those dots and the levers of the panel into my memory banks.'
Woven Fiber Electronic Skin For Robots
'... all the feel and appearance of human flesh and epidermis.'
When AI Takes Its First Breath
Any suggestions?
Chinese Aircar Light And Airy, Not For Blade Runners
Daytime version.
The Morphing Wheel And The Smartwheel
'If you surf over a bump, the spokes contract to roll over it.'
Transporting Antimatter
'...drawing plans for the magnetic tongs and bed plates and relays.'
Polish Turns Your Nail Into A Stylus
'He wrote on it, using the pointed fingernail of his right forefinger...'
I Wish This Plaudit Pin Was More Like A Wristpad
'Frank was cursing into his wristpad, switching between Arabic and English.'
World's Largest Teleoperated Arm
'...a pair so huge that Stevens could not conceive a use for it..'
Japan's AI Buddharoid Automonks
'...each of them is a neural mapping of the mind of a Tibetan monk who actually lived.'
MIT Computerized Bionic Leg Is Part Of The User
'The leg was to function, in a way, as a servo-mechanism operated by Larry’s brain, through the mediation of the electronic brain in the leg.'
The New Habitable Zones Include Asimov's Ribbon Worlds
'...there's a narrow belt where the climate is moderate.'
California Governor Candidate Calls For Voting By Phone
'... every veephone on the continent would display, over and over, two propositions.'
