

ATM inventor John Shepherd-Barron dies - marklittlewood
http://thebln.com/2010/05/a-man-you-have-never-heard-of-died-he-changed-your-life/

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kilian
"...and cash machines have been largely the same ever since."

Cash machines are on of the things I desperately want innovation and
customization. If I go to an ATM more than twice and get the same amount of
money, _I want that as a quick select option_. Same with language selection.
The reason this isn't happening (as told by bank employees) is the regulation
and the way the infrastructure is set up. But some storage coupled with one-
way encryption on the machine itself (no protocols or data-transfer problems)
should be possible, no?

Also, I'd like big red warning stickers on ATM's that run Windows NT or 98
still, so I can avoid them at all cost ;)

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papercrane
Royal Bank of Canada has a quick selection option. You configure how much cash
you want, from which account, and if you want a printed receipt, then after
you've entered your PIN you have a 'My Quick Cash' button.

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RyanMcGreal
Not bad, but it should be implicit. Hell, even the Pizza Pizza IVR has an
option to re-order the same thing you ordered last time.

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lhorie
Implicit? I think having to explicitly press the "Quick cash" button is much
better than not being able to do a different transaction at all. Like, for
example, change the setting.

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btilly
Those of us who are old enough to remember having to work to get to the bank
before it closed may appreciate this more.

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jodrellblank
Yes. Being pedantic, he didn't really change my life since I was born well
after ATMs were widespread and have never known a world without them.

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dazzawazza
A little more detail and background here:
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/may/20/cash-machine-
invent...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/may/20/cash-machine-inventor-
dies)

~~~
andyjenn
My dad was involved in the network architecture of ATMs/cashpoints for UK
banks in the 80s.. not sure if this ever happened, but there was an urban myth
of some early installations where one ATM was distributing 200 pounds no
matter what was punched in on the keypad. No-one informed the local bank, but
the next day there was just this huge queue of people checking out this new
cashpoint thingy...

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junkbit
I heard an interview with him on Radio 4 a couple of years ago. The pin number
was going to be 6 digits but he tested it on his wife and all she could
remember was 4.

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powrtoch
Just think. Without this man's contribution, professors would have no way of
demonstrating threading/concurrency problems.

