>
> It's more that even just the simplest of systems these days seem to be running on
> full blown PCs. Even the non-interactive onboard 'next stop' display on our buses is
> Win10 too (some of them got stuck in an endless reboot cycle recently - they're
> actually mounted upside down as all the boot screens were upside down) It's crazy to
> think just how much money must be going to Microsoft for licensing in cases where
> it's absolute overkill, it's almost the opposite to the 'MAME box' problem where
> manufacturers there try to pick the weakest hardware possible instead of using a real
> PC.
>
> There were no ads on the change machine I saw, but it's possible, it's a remote
> service (if the web connection drops, as I saw, you get the standard 'cannot connect
> to page' browser message)
>
> Subscription models / Software as a service / temporary licenses are 'popular' these
> days (with the manufacturers, it's a terrible idea for everybody else) so building on
> top of a PC architecture makes that easier too I guess.
>
> I imagine you'll find change machines that run on every type of hardware between tho,
> depending on what was available at the time.
Strip out most of the junk in windows and you can get it down to a fairly small size and they have an ARM version. Does not matter too much if they are just using it as simple frame display. I was a bit curious and apparently they sell it as a service at 30 cents per device per month to keep it up to date. Prob less if you buy a lot of them. Up to date is a big prob with IoT junk. Especially the connected stuff. I spent quite a large amount of time one one project doing just that. One proj I worked on they were talking 5$-30$ per copy of the xp version depending on volume. CE was usually much cheaper but total crap to work with. In the end it usually worked out about the same for any of the OS's for cost. As either way you had to manage it. Getting MS to do some of it would be very appealing business wise.
Wonder why the upside down screen. I have seen that a few times myself here and there. Maybe some technical thing for it? I can't work it out though. Could just be an option for easy install and they just flip it over if installed wrong?
But being the loony bin....
http://southpark.cc.com/clips/155590/i-dont-have-change
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