The Vent and Rant Thread

[issybird]

Originally Posted by KevinBurke

Ok, here goes my poor attempt at a rant.

I think people read too much fiction, and not enough non-fiction, on their devices.

If this is a one-off rant, that's fine. But if you'd like a discussion, it would be better to start a dedicated thread in the General Forum.

[Rumpelteazer]

I just wanted to update our paper money scanner so that it also recognizes the new €20 bills. I tried before with the old laptop, but it didn't work for whatever reason. I downloaded the zip file and opened the instructions. The first step was to install a driver, which should be included in the zip file but isn't (I know that it was there before when I tried with the old laptop).

I emailed the manufacturer, asking whether they can point me to where I can download the driver or email it directly to me. Hopefully they'll answer soon next week.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

I just wanted to update our paper money scanner so that it also recognizes the new €20 bills. I tried before with the old laptop, but it didn't work for whatever reason. I downloaded the zip file and opened the instructions. The first step was to install a driver, which should be included in the zip file but isn't (I know that it was there before when I tried with the old laptop).

I emailed the manufacturer, asking whether they can point me to where I can download the driver or email it directly to me. Hopefully they'll answer soon next week.

Money scanner? I've never heard of such a thing.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Money scanner? I've never heard of such a thing.

Sent from my Nexus 7

Have you ever fed a dollar (or two) into a Coke machine? That's a money scanner.

[PeterT]

I expect it's a device to detect counterfeit currency

[Rumpelteazer]

Originally Posted by Blossom

Money scanner? I've never heard of such a thing.

Sent from my Nexus 7

It checks if bills are genuine or fake. A lot of our customers are cafés and many of them pay with cash. For people with fake bills spending them in cafés is the best chance of not getting caught because they often, especially when it's busy, don't check if they're real. We don't want to get caught out with fake bills, so we have the machine to check them. In the past a little blacklight worked well enough, but the machine checks for more security features. We feed all bills through it, no matter if it's only a €5 bill or a €100 bill. I recently heard that counterfeiters are now focussing on lower denomination bills because they are not often checked. It also works as a deterrent, if someone wants to spend a fake bill they're unlikely to do so when they see we check all bills.

However, the European bank is releasing new bills (we already have a new €5, €10 and €20) and the machines need to be updated for the new security features.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by wodin

Have you ever fed a dollar (or two) into a Coke machine? That's a money scanner.

Nope. I do however put money in a kiosk machine to pay my internet bill.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

It checks if bills are genuine or fake. A lot of our customers are cafés and many of them pay with cash. For people with fake bills spending them in cafés is the best chance of not getting caught because they often, especially when it's busy, don't check if they're real. We don't want to get caught out with fake bills, so we have the machine to check them. In the past a little blacklight worked well enough, but the machine checks for more security features. We feed all bills through it, no matter if it's only a €5 bill or a €100 bill. I recently heard that counterfeiters are now focussing on lower denomination bills because they are not often checked. It also works as a deterrent, if someone wants to spend a fake bill they're unlikely to do so when they see we check all bills.

However, the European bank is releasing new bills (we already have a new €5, €10 and €20) and the machines need to be updated for the new security features.

I see. It's not a common thing here in the states. They still hold up big bills to the light. Most is done by the naked eye. Lower bills are seldom glanced at.

I've had cashiers before hand me coins that were not US currency. One was a casino coin. The other time a foreign coin.

Sent from my Nexus 7

[DiapDealer]

They still use a special pen to mark on $20s to test for counterfeits in my neck of the woods. But they don't seem to worry much about other denominations.

[Cinisajoy]

Hi all. On pizza, we finally found good pizza. Bad news, it is 400 miles from my house.

Other news, my mother is in the hospital and my overly intelligent 40 something year old brother is acting like a toddler. Her kidneys failed due to dehydration.
When she gets well, there will be a family meeting.

We have been on vacation. Back home now.

[badgoodDeb]

Oh ugghhh. I hope the vacation was better than this is.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Oh ugghhh. I hope the vacation was better than this is.

It was pretty good. The highlight was the museum at Grand Saline. If you use table salt, there is a 99% chance it comes from there.
Oh and fabulous pizza in Mineola. We stayed at Lake Tawakoni.

And I hope jswinden saw me waving when we went by his exit on 20.

On the pizza, we were looking for a buffet restaurant we had eaten at years before. Turns out, it had burned down 2 years ago so the owner just opened a pizza place.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Hi all. On pizza, we finally found good pizza. Bad news, it is 400 miles from my house.

400 miles!!?? Why, I'd ave to drive all the way around the island FOUR TIMES to go 400 miles. Musta missed it on the first three passes.

[Rumpelteazer]

I got an email back from the manufacturer of the money scanner early this morning, with a link to the driver. There are two drivers, one for Windows XP, Vista and 7, and one for Window 8 and 10. Which is probably why no driver is in the zip file for the firmware update. However, IMHO they should either add both drivers to the firmware file and change the manual to say that you should install the driver appropriate for your OS. Or they should change the manual telling you to download and install the correct driver and list both drivers when you go to the download page for the scanners.

I installed it and ran the firmware upgrade and now we can check the new €20 bills. I did put a copy of the driver in the dropbox just in case I need it in the future.

[CRussel]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

I got an email back from the manufacturer of the money scanner early this morning, with a link to the driver. There are two drivers, one for Windows XP, Vista and 7, and one for Window 8 and 10. Which is probably why no driver is in the zip file for the firmware update. However, IMHO they should either add both drivers to the firmware file and change the manual to say that you should install the driver appropriate for your OS. Or they should change the manual telling you to download and install the correct driver and list both drivers when you go to the download page for the scanners.

I installed it and ran the firmware upgrade and now we can check the new €20 bills. I did put a copy of the driver in the dropbox just in case I need it in the future.

Or do it right and have a single installer that loads the correct version. This is, frankly, trivial.


Sent from my Amazon Fire with Tapatalk. Blame autocorrect for the spelling.