Tech

Cash machines

Today I watched a cash machine boot up. (You can tell I'm a geek not a girl: anything half-techie distracts me from shopping.)

More interesting was watching the reactions of startled shoppers. Instead of being politely asked to "insert card" they were blasted with bold jargon:

  OS/2 Warp
  Loading 00020
  System Ready

I started daydreaming about borrowing an ATM for a day so I could greet strangers. "You're looking fine today," would be one message, swiftly followed by "have you lost weight?"

Personally I'd rather do that than run the more traditional subvertisements:

  buy nothing
  greed is good
  watch more tv

(By the way you are looking fine today, but nobody loses weight over Christmas.)