🚀 go-pugleaf

>                ... He put in a non-participating bank's card and the
> machine cycled him through the whole validation sequence before
> spitting out the card with the message "invalid card" or something like
> that. So it looks like the ATM makes up a whole package of info before
> firing it off to the mainframe. I can just imagine the Cobol code, yuk!

It's a standard security practice--good policy.  Under other conditions,
though, it can be silly.  Example from my wife:

	1. Insert card.
	2. Type i.d. number, with an error.
	3. Select transaction.
	4. Transaction fails--wrong i.d. number.
	5. Go to 3 (!).

I won't embarrass her by telling how long it took her to get out of
the loop, but you get the idea.

==
	"We Spies, or Us Spies - for we call ourselves both - ..."

				--S. Leacock
-- 
Col. G. L. Sicherman
UU: ...{rocksvax|decvax}!sunybcs!colonel
CS: colonel@buffalo-cs
BI: colonel@sunybcs, csdsiche@ubvms