back to article Borklays soz for the ailing ATMs but won't say if fix involved a Microsoft invoice

Barclays, the McDonald's of banking bork, has put its hands up. Yes, there was a problem with some ATMs. A problem that The Register has been more than happy to share. Some of the pesky self-service devices were, as we have diligently been documenting, running an unsupported version of Windows 7. Indeed, as today's bork …

  1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    What makes you think it's Windows 7 ?

    The window icons on that command console look decidedly 95 to me. Or maybe XP, I can't really remember the difference between the two, icon-wise.

    In any case, those are not the icons I have on my Win 7 command console window.

    EDIT : it's XP, because of the gradient background at the top. 95 didn't do that, and 7 doesn't do it either.

    1. chivo243 Silver badge

      Re: What makes you think it's Windows 7 ?

      XP in Classic Mode?

    2. AIBailey

      Re: What makes you think it's Windows 7 ?

      Windows 7 with the Windows Classic theme does show a gradient across the window title bar.

    3. Tom 38

      Re: What makes you think it's Windows 7 ?

      Because its the same class of machine as in the original story, linked in the article, which were putting up screens saying "Your Windows 7 PC is out of support"

    4. Waseem Alkurdi

      Re: What makes you think it's Windows 7 ?

      A whole lot of Windows versions between 95 and XP existed that did do gradients.

      And it's definitely 7, based on the command prompt icon. That's the icon first introduced in Vista, and I sincerely hope this isn't Vista.

      The command line background is blue, so it's possibly PowerShell in a Command Prompt window.

  2. Korev Silver badge
    Coat

    Everything is now back up and running and we apologise for any inconvenience caused."

    Well done to the techies who worked so card to fix this...

    1. Kevin Johnston

      I suppose that having fixed the issue they will now be let go a la Maersk?

      1. NoneSuch Silver badge
        Mushroom

        Yes

        It's never the penny pinching VP who gets the sack for not investing in infrastructure. It's the PFY who gets the shaft.

        Sad, but true.

  3. NiceCuppaTea

    "While some of the ATM machines were unhappy, The Register understands that the rest of the bank's services were tickety-boo. No unsupported Windows 7 here, no sir, although some branches stayed open a little longer for customers unable to use a borked hole-in-the-wall."

    The the machine was almost s borked as this paragraph from the article. Almost as bad as saying PIN number. While some of the AutomatedTellerMachine machines were unhappy grrrrr

    1. Alister

      Both PIN number and ATM machine are accepted deviations from the rule, simply by reason of constant abuse.

      1. Waseem Alkurdi

        Does misspelling something over and over and again make it correct?

        1. Evil Auditor Silver badge

          And does abusing something (or someone) over and over again make it okay?

          Just wondering how much of an abuse "PIN code" is.

        2. Alister

          Does misspelling something over and over and again make it correct?

          well apparently...

          Certainly if you judge the amount of abuse I routinely get for pointing out that LOOSE is not the same word as LOSE.

          1. TimMaher Silver badge

            Upvote for that @alister.

            Perhaps if something were LOOSE you might LOSE it?

          2. JulieM Silver badge

            Lose and Loose

            Around these parts, in the local accent, "Lose" (opposite of "win") is pronounced to rhyme with "Nose" (smelling organ), and thus next to impossible to confuse with "Loose" (opposite of tight).

            "Orraight youth? Did Forest lose* Satdy?"

            "Aye, 14-nowt** Accrington Stanley. Astetten***? Cos I'm gunna guttut' chippy forra peas mix****!"

            * Rhymes with "nose"

            ** Sounds like "note" = Nothing.

            *** = "Have you eaten?"

            **** = a local delicacy

        3. Alan Brown Silver badge

          "Does misspelling something over and over and again make it correct?"

          Ask the Bard. William S was pretty creative with his spelling.

        4. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
          Coat

          "Does misspelling something over and over and again make it correct?"

          Apparently so. I give you color, center, tire, etc.

      2. John McCallum
        Devil

        Wrong spelling abuse

        Yes just ask a North American they constantly spell words wrong colo(u)r hono(u)r gas(petrol) etc.

        1. Zarno
          Holmes

          Re: Wrong spelling abuse

          Fibre.

          Why does everyone spell it fiber?

          And then there's Canadian English, where it gets even weirder.

          Icon, because it's a mystery.

          1. Thrudd the Barbarian

            Re: Wrong spelling abuse

            Canadian English is the Queens English infected with a case of American.

            Mind we have almost purged the place of Farenheit... damn HVAC.... as well as that imperial weights and measures for the most part.

            Who would have thought working in base 10 would be so difficult for some people.

            1. DJV Silver badge
              Happy

              Re: Wrong spelling abuse

              Ahem *Farenheit*

              Or, in a thread about spelling, was that deliberate?

              1. Alan Brown Silver badge

                Re: Wrong spelling abuse

                Ahem *Farenheit*

                Purging that is easy, just dial up to 451

      3. lglethal Silver badge
        Trollface

        Whats wrong with ATM machine? Automated Teller Malfunctioning Machine... It makes perfect sense...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Barclays are rubbish

    We use Barclays as a company, they won't continue to deal with us unless we have proved we have the extended support for Windows 7, or stopped using Windows 7 all together.

    In a previous life we used them to oversee and sign off our PCI DSS compliance. I have had it confirmed from friends working in Barclays that they are not PCI DSS themselves.

    They do like double standards at Barclays.

    1. Kubla Cant

      Re: Barclays are rubbish

      PCI DSS compliance

      Nice to know that the Department of Social Security is monitoring Peripheral Component Interconnect bus standards.

  5. John H Woods Silver badge

    "Take-home" lesson

    Have one ultra-resilient ATM on the network, then you cane always say we are sorry some customers had problems....

    1. jh27

      Re: "Take-home" lesson

      All is some.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Devil

    Don't know what the fuss is about

    It's not like you have to trust Barclay's with anything important, like your money.

  7. TRT Silver badge

    Ah. Digital eagles.

    Right. "We needed to make sure we had a digitally savvy workforce."

    They're good at that, I can tell.

  8. herman
    Devil

    Fortunately the ATM self isolated and did not spread the problem.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dunfermline

    There's a Barclays branch in Dunfermline? I'm quite surprised. The English banks have traditionally had virtually no presence in Scotland, apart from a handful of branches in the big cities. Ironically it was the building societies (or former ones) who actually had more of a genuinely nationwide network.

    1. dvd

      Re: Dunfermline

      They were starting to make inroads into Scotland but recently they have been closing their branches and have been maintaining a faux presence by keeping a lonely atm open in a few scottish towns.

    2. Uberior

      Re: Dunfermline

      Bit out of date with that surely?

      Barclays bought the Woolwich, who had a reasonably decent Scottish presence, in the 1990s. They were all rebranded to Barclays in the noughties.

      Nat West has a fairly large presence via their RBS brand, as does Lloyds via their BoS brand. It's just HSBC who are a bit limited.

  10. SloppyJesse
    Big Brother

    They're not alone

    It's not just banks, or even UK that suffer these issues.

    Travelling through Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris recently a number of the automated passport control gates were displaying a windows error dialog over the top of their normal UI.

    I would have taken a photo but didn't fancy extending my stay. Big brother icon because, well, passport control.

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