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Comment by mepiethree | Hacker News Reader

> Who are these businesses?

Gas stations, parking meters, and ticket dispensers at most train/bus stations. They should replace them but I figure the problem is that they are built in to giant kiosks

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With gas stations, there is so much more to it than just replacing a card reader in the kiosk, or even just replacing the kiosk itself. You may have to even tear out all of the old networking equipment. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28207062

Thank you for this. How much of an impact is this having 1+ years on? I'm sure it's still substantial but wanted to ask if you had any current data.

Thanks, but the post you linked is making me irrationally angry. Why does a gas pump card reader need full internet connectivity?! It's outrageous! Just use the two wires to talk to a head unit in the building! Then it brings up the gas pump advertising screens which are already a sore point for me (two conveniently located stations have these, so I can't go there anymore because I find the accompanying audio intolerable).

The whole situation smells like it involves a lot of vendor lock-in, too (which I always hate to see).

EMV is a very very chatty protocol, basically.

They had literally more than 10 years to prepare for it.

Anyone who didn't think of providing a forward-compatible reader at any point in the last 10 yrs was driving into obsolence

> Who are these businesses?

Airline ticket counters…

Replacing is not as simple as sending a new terminal. Then you’d have to integrate it with the legacy software workflow and modify the existing furniture at the airport to support a pin pad.

Also, we have your ID and you are going to be cleaning security, so we’re pretty certain you say who you are. Regardless of the physical security of the credit card.

Why is the US a special case though? Every other country replaced these old card machines more than a decade ago. Every other country has airline ticket counters too.

My fruit stand at the farmers market figured out how to accommodate a credit card reader. They did not have to replace any furniture. They literally have no counter space, and managed to make it work. A portable card reader with a pin pad is a solution that can work in all the hard cases.

> > Who are these businesses?

> Airline ticket counters…

> Replacing is not as simple as sending a new terminal. Then you’d have to integrate it with the legacy software workflow and modify the existing furniture at the airport to support a pin pad.

The rest of the world figured this out long ago; this is already a solved problem.

Oh 100%. The problem is solved. The hard part is not solving it, it’s just work to do it.

I just do not goddamn care any more. The writing has been on the wall for years, and if your business is based around accepting credit cards and you continue to dig your head in the sand, that's on you.

So should all parking meters be replaced? Paid for by tax payers? How would you implement something like that?

In many European countries parking is paid with a mobile app these days. Very few use parking meters.

It’s relatively common in the US as well but having backup is important for visitors, when apps need a forgotten password rentered etc. Way too many ticketing and other systems are way too unfriendly for the occasional user as it is without requiring that an app has to be used.

I encountered this in the US a few days ago. It made me angry because it locks out those who don't have a smartphone or aren't willing to install Yet Another App.

I moved on and found a different lot.

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