We never had these problems until Windows showed up
Sent from my iPhone No one said I could type with one thumb > On Jul 19, 2024, at 18:22, Paul Edwards > <00000676ab6435a5-dmarc-requ...@listserv.ua.edu> wrote: > > On Sat, 20 Jul 2024 06:46:40 +1000, Wayne Bickerdike <wayn...@gmail.com> > wrote: > >> Some kind of false economy to make the PC the entire tool of choice for >> certain routine tasks. >> >> In the 1980s we had proprietary banking terminals, private/leased line >> point to point communications and passbooks. > > This is a topic of interest to me. I still program in C90 too. > Still restrict myself to S/370 instructions too (quibbling aside). > > However - for what reason would a proprietary banking terminal > be more reliable than a PC? Isn't it more the automatic update > feature of the PC that is the issue? That won't protect against > a date-related bug in some component though. > > So perhaps 2 different PC solutions (e.g. the Amiga) - if we're > talking 1980s. > >> No way our branch network would be unable to perform front counter >> transactions. We had store and forward whereby local transactions would be >> kept until the network was back up and running. >> >> In those days we had 3 ATMs, preferring to let other banks provide that >> service and we would absorb the fees. >> >> I drew out $620 in cash from an ATM yesterday, just a few hours before the >> crash. Too many people are embracing the cashless world. Time to wake up >> and apply some common sense. > > Are you suggesting using physical cash because software and > hardware engineers are unable to create a reliable alternative? > > The cost of handling physical cash is likely hidden in taxes or > whatever. If it was properly costed, maybe IBM mainframes > would be part of the solution, and Amigas too? > > Note that I created PDOS because I didn't want to be dependent on > millions of lines of code that I didn't understand and/or didn't have > access to. Simplicity. For simple tasks. My wife didn't have access to > her bank account for about 6 months because she either wasn't > receiving SMSes at all (from this one bank), or they would arrive too late. > > No-one was able to do anything other than say "try again later". > > 6 digits could have been sent with a Commodore 64 and a 300 bps > modem to any spot on earth within 0.2 seconds in the 1980s. > > That was in 2023, but even in 2024 SMSes still get lost - and other > situations too - I think Discord lost a message of mine in 2024. > I don't remember a zmodem file transfer ever losing a file of mine. > > BFN. Paul. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
