Decoding the MetroCard, Part 2: Research and Past Attempts

Re:Decoding the MetroCard, Part 2: Research and Past Attempts by busterarm on Monday July 18, 2016 @04:32PM (#12117893)

I think they'd have to get around to replacing the Token Ring network that sends this data between stations first.

The MTA spent a lot of money in the very early 90s getting the system installed only for Ethernet to take over pretty much immediately.

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Re:Decoding the MetroCard, Part 2: Research and Past Attempts by kevin_thibedeau on Monday July 18, 2016 @08:36PM (#12118810)

At least the MTA kiosks are fast and reliable unlike the VB6-ish crap running on the NJT TVMs that can't do anything but display a spinner animation if the network is degraded.

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Re:Decoding the MetroCard, Part 2: Research and Past Attempts by woodruffw on Monday July 18, 2016 @08:54PM (#12118867)

Fun fact: The MVMs (MTA Vending Machines) run OS/2 Warp/EComStation (or did until a few years ago). I've also seen some running what looked like NT 4, although I'm not certain.

Considering how old that software stack is, it's remarkable how well the MVMs run. In 19 years of buying MetroCards and riding the subway, I don't think I've ever had one break down on me. I've had my fair share of scanning errors and bad cards, but I'm more inclined to blame that on the quality of the magnetic strip and normal wear.

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Re:Decoding the MetroCard, Part 2: Research and Past Attempts by nycdotnet on Monday July 18, 2016 @08:56PM (#12118880)

I don't know the language used by the kiosk software itself, but the OS used by the kiosks is definitely still Windows NT 4 - predating VB6 by several years.

Here's a recent bluescreen - only the second I've ever observed.

https://twitter.com/nycdotnet/status/750737744356319232

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