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Just received a gift - Need Suggestions

J

jer446

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Dec 28, 2004
826
0
One of my friends aquired several of the touchscreen computers used in verizon wireless stores. It is made by a company named ncr, and basically, is just a computer attatched to a touchscreen monitor. He had no use for them, so he gave one to me because he knows i love computers.

It runs windows 2000, and i havent played around with it enough to get the specs, besides a p3, but i would like to get some suggestions on what i should do with it..

The computer even has the credit card swiper on it, and runs windows 2000. Ill post some pictures later, but i would just like some suggestions on what i should or could do with it.
 
Sounds like a perfect way to set it up a home a/v control system with your very own touchscreen remote control.
 
that would be cool, to control my theater in the basement... How would i do that??
 
Swipe your various cards and see what is stored on the magnetic strips.

One guy carries a reader around with him when he travels and discovered that some hotels store your credit card number in plain text on the door keys...how scary.
 
i have been playing around with this thing, and it is pretty sweet. Does anyone know of any projects people have done with touchscreen monitors? I would like to do something useful with it or fun.
 
first step is to set up your home entertainment center through a central server like computer, simple way to start is to just do audio through itunes. Then the quick and dirty way is to remote desktop across your network to your music server to start up the tuneage. Then experiment from there. There are some cool, reasonable, devices out there that you can buy that you can wire your whole house into one unit and control it from the tips of your fingers with that nifty machine you have.

by the way how big is the screen, and how many do you have?
 
You could get software like Indigo and get a few USB controllers to automate your home...
 
:eek: NCR is a local company here. That definately sounds like one of their products, craziness.

Very cool item.
 
jer446 said:
i have been playing around with this thing, and it is pretty sweet. Does anyone know of any projects people have done with touchscreen monitors? I would like to do something useful with it or fun.
Click to expand...

buy a cheap mac mini, an external HD and a TV tunner. then put them together and hook up to your TV. hook up all other home theater stuff to the mini, like music. then use the touch screen computer to connect to the mini through VNC and use it as a cool controler for your home theater set up!

that, or like the other sugestions to set it up as a home control device with web enabled light switches etc.

and or build it into a huge cabinet, add speakers, and have your very own digital juke box!
 
Im looking for software that would make a good interface for the jukebox or something.. And i believe the screen is about 12 inches.. Im going to play around with the credit card swiper.. it looks like fun..
 
The possibilities are endless...

i215-front-floorplan+hand.gif


Have fun! :)
 
That program seems awesome, but i dont have the money to invest in home automation stuff.. is there anything else i can do?
 
Add a wireless card and connect to http://magic8ball.luggle.com/ (mattel used to have a better official one...but now it just redirects to their store...how sad) and use it as a high tech overly complicated Magic 8 Ball. Nerd Status +10.
 
jer446 said:
That program seems awesome, but i dont have the money to invest in home automation stuff.. is there anything else i can do?
Click to expand...

Keep an eye on yard sales and business close outs and slowly collect the stuff you need to build your own.

You'll need relays, rheostats, and various other kinds of electronics that can be salvaged from many places.
 
where can i get software to read stuff on credit cards.. there is many different programs on the machine, but most i have no idea what they are or what they do, but im sure if some little hacker got their hands on it, it would not be good lol.
But what is some software so i can just have fun swiping my old credit cards and seeing whats on there?
 
jer446 said:
where can i get software to read stuff on credit cards.. there is many different programs on the machine, but most i have no idea what they are or what they do, but im sure if some little hacker got their hands on it, it would not be good lol.
But what is some software so i can just have fun swiping my old credit cards and seeing whats on there?
Click to expand...

It probably depends on the connection between the credit card reader and the machine. It might be USB or serial or something, I don't really know. At any rate, you could boot up a Linux LiveCD on it and see if you can <cat> the information from that port.

For instance:
Code: 
# cat /dev/creditcardthingy

and then the credit card thing waits. You swipe the card, and it displays

Code: 
20430257-g09rfg9e08473029g8rgwf9dsg9fdsgpfyglk5y4l3j65;l3kjt2

or something like that. I don't know if it'd work (it might require a driver in order to decode the information properly, or just to have the thing show up at all), but it'd be a good start.
 
ok i think the best thing that i could do with it is make it into a digital picture frame. Im going to look for some slideshow software, and then i will look for a scheduler to automatically shut down and start up the computer, so it would be on during the day. Any suggestions for this?
 
jer446 said:
ok i think the best thing that i could do with it is make it into a digital picture frame. Im going to look for some slideshow software, and then i will look for a scheduler to automatically shut down and start up the computer, so it would be on during the day. Any suggestions for this?
Click to expand...

Turn it into a touchy-feely porn viewing station....
 
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