About a month ago my ATM card finally cracked in half. I stopped to order a new one and while I was there asked if there was a way that I wouldn't have to select 'English' for my language and select 'Yes' after every transaction for a receipt. I was told "No we cannot do that." It's a stupid waste of time but what are ya gonna do if you want to use their ATMs you enter wasted keystrokes during every transaction. Since they were being inflexible I also asked when they were going to stop using the buttons on the LEFT side of the CRT when the right side buttons were open. In case you haven't used a drive up ATM, driving far enough forward to reach the slots for your card and the receipt printer makes it difficult to press the buttons on the left of the screen. The lady said she had no control over that. (OK I knew that but I was being cranky just then.)

Today I went to deposit a check at a recently remodeled branch with my new card. They have yet another ATM version at this branch (standard machines is something they don't have!) Something else to slow me down as everything is moved around again. However since I had to look around I discovered a new menu option: "Preferences." Hey, now that could be interesting, so I checked it out. Sure enough I was able to select English as my language. I was also able to select 'Always print a receipt', and not to print the balance on the receipt. Very nice.
After saving my preferences I went on to my transaction. Deposit…. to checking…. enter the amount…. and then (are you ready?) the thing asks me "Do you want a receipt for this transaction?" AAAAARGH! I truly laughed out loud and muttered at the machine. If the bank has audio with their video I hope they watch it.

So the upshot is that they ask for my preferences to waste my time entering them, but use them? No. But then what do you want from a bank at the corner of 5th and 3rd. (I DO NOT want to see that map . :)

The point here is that just having information doesn't help you; you have to do something with it. Knowing that IBM's System i is the best server solution on the planet doesn't help you if you don't do anything with this information. If you continue migrating applications to WinDOHs, continue adding administrative staff to manage them, continue to add more racks and power and A/C to support them, what ARE you thinking? You continue to invest in anti-virus products, security products, backup products etc etc even though you know that System i doesn't require much if any of that. You keep rebooting your windows servers nightly because "a therapeutic reboot is a nice thing' while your System i runs months at a time blissfully ignorant of all the turmoil in the rack next door.


Do you have data in your head that you ignore? What a waste.

- DrF