When Irish screens are borking: Ticketing trip-up for Dublin-based Windows 10 IoT terminal, but at least it's not XP
- Reference: 1598949005
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/09/01/bork/
- Source link:
Spotted by an eagled-eyed Register reader, this Irish Rail machine is, in a very real sense, flashing its undergarments for all to see. It has revealed that lurking beneath the sheen of the usually byzantine range of ticketing options familiar to travellers lies the equally byzantine world of Windows 10.
Our reader reckons they befuddled the poor thing by popping their student card in upside down (as well as attempting to use it outside of the college semester).
Windows reacted with all the stability of blancmange flung from a carriage window and popped up a dialog requesting administration credentials before moving on to the defrocking shown here.
[1]
"There was a crowd that day, and I was trying not to touch public screens any more than necessary," our reader explained.
Good advice; nobody likes a screen-licker.
However, it did mean that they did not jab the folders on display in the hope of delving further into the poor thing's internals and the content of SCREADER , PROCDATA and TARDATA will forever remain a mystery.
Still, it is good to see Windows 10 IoT getting an airing rather than some of the slightly whiffier editions of the OS that grace these pages. Although what is hoovering up all that CPU is up for discussion. Windows Explorer is notable for chowing down on the cycles, or perhaps the sheer effort of relieving passengers of their hard-earned readies is just too much for the hardware?
Those planning a jaunt aboard Ireland's finest will be relieved to know that whatever borkage had been visited upon the ticketing terminals has now been resolved, thanks to the awe and splendour of Windows 10 IoT's remote management smarts. Or perhaps just a lack of student card holders poking their plastic where it doesn't belong.
Spotted Windows looking terminal, or a user interface misbehaving in a public place? Submit your sightings of technical slip-ups to the [2]Borkdesk . ®
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[1] https://regmedia.co.uk/2020/08/28/irishrailblack.jpg
[2] mailto:richard.speed@theregister.com
[3] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Dear God
As I've mentioned before, a lot of the common point-of-sale hardware only has drivers for Windows, so you don't have much choice, unless you can force the vendor to develop Linux drivers, which is unlikely.
"what is hoovering up all that CPU is up for discussion"
Windows. It's Windows doing that. It's what it does on my machine. A quick look at task manager now (with nothing but this tab open) shows me >10% of my 6(12) cores loaded up doing... something. It can't give me a clear answer as to exactly what.
Irish Gauge
Those planning a jaunt aboard Ireland's finest will be relieved to know may be interested to know that the Irish mainline track gauge is 5ft 3in compared to the 4ft 8 1/2in Standard Gauge.
[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_gauge_in_Ireland
"This unusual track gauge is otherwise found only in Australia (where it was introduced by the Irish railway engineer F. W. Sheilds), in the states of Victoria, southern New South Wales (via some extensions of the Victorian rail network) and South Australia, as well as in Brazil."
-->> I'll just get my anorak and head off to do some trainspotting
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_gauge_in_Ireland
Re: Irish Gauge
But not all of Australia, some of which has Cape Gauge of 3'6"
Re: Irish Gauge
[1]Obligatory XKCD
[1] https://xkcd.com/927/
Re: Irish Gauge
Given that Stephenson chose 4ft 8 1/2in as it was the width between the shafts of the colliery carts in use at the time, one can only assume Irish horses are fatter...
Dear God
Windows 1 0 on a point-of-sale thingy. What nincompoop approved that ?
Honestly, point-of-sale machines should be on Linux. I don't care which distro, but use Linux for Pete's sake.
Linux does not have customer-facing popups that ask if you want to update Now, or Now.