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Learn by doing
Sitting in Mike McCormick's walk-out basement at his home near Rochester, N.Y. is proof that just about anything -- barring a kidney, perhaps -- can be purchased on eBay, the Internet auction giant. McCormick, a designer of wide-area IP networks for a major IT company, indulged a longstanding personal interest in ATMs with his purchase of an NCR 5070. "I'd always wondered how they worked, and I thought what better way to really figure it out," he explained. He purchased the machine from Richardson, Texas-based Apex Equipment Corporation for just $500. NCR ran diagnostics on the unit before it was pulled from a branch of Banamex (Banco Nacionale de Mexico S.A.), so it is "fully functioning," McCormick said. "There's nothing wrong with it." He spent another $800 to have it transported. At the request of the shipping company, he prepared sketches and provided physical details about his home. Some "floor-loading math" dictated the machine's location; he determined that the upper floors wouldn't bear its 1,400-pound weight. Three movers needed three hours to get it into the house. McCormick said it "raised some eyebrows" among his neighbors. He contacted NCR several times in an attempt to buy demonstration software, but he said, "I could tell they didn't know what to make of me." Instead, he purchased the software from Texas-based LD Systems. With a price tag of $300, it meant McCormick's hobby was starting to get expensive. After encountering a technical snag, he hit the ATMmagazine.com Message Boards looking for an answer. Robert Revens, a third-party service provider in the UK, identified the problem -- which involved a "low notes" message -- and told McCormick how to solve it. The men have since exchanged several emails, and McCormick said Revens seems to envy his home ATM. "He's indicated he would like one, but his wife won't let him." McCormick also heard from the president of an East Coast company that trains ATM technicians. McCormick has rigged the machine to dispense cash on demand and enjoys showing it off to family and friends. "They usually have one of two reactions," he said. "They completely ignore it, or they want to see every nook and cranny of it." Two unexpected fans were his parents, who are "not of the computer generation" he stressed. "They were fascinated by it." His next challenge, he said, is to design custom software that will use a home PC to authorize transactions. After several weeks of tinkering with his new toy, McCormick has concluded that ATMs aren't all that complicated, at least for an IT professional like himself. "I learned way more than I thought I would about it." An added bonus: it's a "great conversation piece," he said.
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