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Cash_Machines_ATMs_Running_Mic.zip (312 KB)

There's a saying in tech departments around the world: "Nobody ever got fired for buying Microsoft."

I was reminded of this gem recently when I was depositing a cheque at a local bank machine after hours. Immediately after I finished the button pushing, and the envelope disappeared into the little slot, the screen went black, and the ATM rebooted. My jaw dropped. I looked up at the security camera and pointed accusingly at the darkened cash machine display.

Then I grabbed my camera phone.

Some interesting things I gleaned from the boot sequence information: the ATM was running a Pentium 3 processor (now over a decade old), and used the Microsoft Windows XP Professional operating system (released in October of 2001, last updated just over a year ago). Now you know why Y2K happened.

The ATM never completed its reboot; after several minutes of entertaining load screens, it went completely black. I was concerned, as I had just left several thousand dollars sitting inside its cold, dead belly. I called the bank the next day, and a couple weeks later, the money found its way safely into my account.