September 21, 2025, 05:30 PM
wrightdWhy is there no uniformity among credit card readers
I see the same problem in modern application software systems and tools. Sometimes the most important functions are Login and Logout. But you can't easily find them. Long time ago there was an effort in the software development industry to attempt to standardize the essentials, so to speak, for those most important functions. That effort came about when modern gui technology took off in a big way (before Web application guis), and it fell flat on its face. Today you're lucky to find the login and logout functions in any modern applications. To me it's a mystery. I still work full time in IT, and when I design and write apps to support developers and database pros, you can always find the important buttons, because I put them in obvious places with obvious labels, aka, "Login", "Logout" etc. How difficult is that. I know at some point that modern authentication methods will outgrow the need for and inherent weakness of passwords, but until then, make the most important stuff obvious please, especially for us old folks who don't want to ask the vendor how to do very basic stuff.
So it seems that damn credit card machines designers are just as stupid as the folks who build otherwise incredibly sophisticated enterprise class application frameworks and applications. But it's worse for the credit card machine makers, because those machines should be designed to help customers spend their money. So those guys must be more stupider than the others.