This made "nuke it from orbit" the default repair strategy for complicated machine issues.
I can't imagine having to putz around with BitLocker keys with zero infrastructure designed to actually use them in a disaster scenario let alone just a major inconvenience like this. I'm glad we never put ourselves in a position to have to do that.
Once the membership was paid for, the admin would scan the receipt, making the membership live in under a second, by typing in that data in a web form on a different PC.
Why not have a direct linkage? Because in 2008 cash was still very popular, and we were working with legacy student ID system, so a direct linkage would have been difficult.
Before that change, students would fill out a paper form, and staff and students would type in all the data. It took months do to all 8000 memberships per semester, and most would be done around the halfway point of the semester. Madness.
It obviously does, but how did we get to a place where a cheap barcode scanner hack is the best? How does going digital -> analogue -> digital makes sense?
Should there be a generic USB device with storage where we can send all types of inputs to a PC?
Previous - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41073006 (27 comments)
Reminds me of someone experimenting with a public transport vending machine that had a barcode scanner (IIRC because you can scan an old ticket to purchase the same type of ticket, e.g. weekly ticket, etc), he made barcodes which encoded control keys to see how the computer behind it would react.
Crazy, I didn't think that was possible, turns out at least Code 128 can map all of US-ASCII [1]. Wonder how the control characters translate to keyboard keycodes internally.
One of my current Customers uses the UPC on the finished goods they make to "program" the PLC on their production line with the parameters of the finished good. The barcode reader is just "typing" the UPC and various commands into a serial-to-Ethernet gateway that's ultimately connected to a TELNET server on a PC w/ PLC software in it. Slick, if not a bit glue-and-tape (and kinda terrifying from a security perspective, albeit it is in a fairly well-isolated and filtered network segment).
I've seen an ERP system that printed command barcodes onto the paper "routers" accompanying physical parts around the shop. Workcenters scanned barcodes that "typed" the commands to drive the work-in-process job tracking into a PC running the client app. They used a prefix character as an attention sequence that could invoke menus then return the user back to the "screen" they were previously in. It was fun to type these on the keyboard directly.
I also supported a terrible application that used keyboard wedge barcode readers for "two factor authentication". Each user had a card with a code 128 barcode the vendor provided to scan as their "second factor". (The Customer showed the vendor how photocopies of the cards worked to "authenticate" after I pointed it out. The vendor replaced it with TOTP. It's all pointless because the app is based on shared-fike access to DBF files via a compiled Visual FoxPro application running on each client PC. I wish I was kidding. I also wish this application wasn't used for a very important and security-sensitive function, too... >sigh<)
