"half-dollar"/"50 cent piece" Was: Recovering the ROM of an IBM 5100 using OCR

[Patrick Finnegan]

On Mon, Jul 1, 2019 at 8:01 AM William Donzelli via cctalk <
cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

> That is mostly the case here as well. Most under-40 people do not have
> a checkbook anymore. In my business, I get maybe two payments per year
> with checks - well under 1/10 of a percent of total payments.
>
> > My American friends and colleagues over here talk about US cheque
> > processing and sending _images_ of cheques to one another, and the
> > Czechs are incredulous. This is like hearing about carrying letters by
> > horse-drawn carriage in these parts; this is a technology that never
> > really happened here and that pretty much no living person has ever
> > seen.
>
> There are still a few institutions and older folks that still use
> checks (like the annoying people that hold up the line in a grocery
> store, writing out a check), so the image deposit system is just an
> effort to cut down the foot traffic to banks. More convenience for
> customers, and less labor costs for banks. It is handy to have, but
> really, not many people use it much, simply because getting a paper
> check is just a rare occurrence these days.
>

A few more thoughts from watching this conversation..

Checks can be relatively convenient and cheap compared to other options.  I
can (for free) send a check of any size to anyone I want by filling out a
form on my bank's website to pay someone (mostly limited by my account's
balance).  Running a business, I have to occasionally transfer more money
between my LLC and personal account that goes over the monthly limit I can
do, so I have them print a check, and go to the branch, pick it up, and
deposit it into the other account.  It's dumb, but reliable and
easier/cheaper than doing it electronically.  Plus, checks are easier to
deposit at home using a phone app than cash is. I'm still waiting for that
one to be figured out...

EFT costs money, have relatively low limits, and require you to know the
bank account # of the recipient. Personal "internet-based" electronic
payment systems fix the account number problem, but I've got accounts on
like five different ones to be able to send money to different people who
don't all use the same one.

At least in the US, card processing costs (usually) the recipient some
percentage of the transaction.  As a merchant, I just factor that into the
costs of doing business.  If I have to pay an extra 3% to send money to a
friend for a shared expense, that's annoying.

NFC-based tap-to-pay systems (Google/Apple Pay, etc) are nice where they're
adopted. I enjoyed using them pretty universally in Australia, and was sad
at now few seemed to exist in New Zealand.  The nicest part was that it
kept the terminal from asking me to sign a receipt.  There were a fair
number of situations where I tried to pay for things, but they refused
chip-and-signature cards, and had to find cash.

As an aside, coming from the US, it seems strange to pay
(business/strangers) for things and use a card that draws directly from a
bank account instead of credit.  If someone steals the account # or the
merchant screws me over, there's basically no protections on my debit card,
especially if I don't notice it right away.  If you have good enough credit
to get a credit card, it's easily worth the benefits.

Pat