The package wouldn’t be complete without the entire process being much slower than the old card swipe. What took a second or two before now seems to take millennia. Most of this time is spent waiting for the machine, without any indication of progress (apart from the flickering, lest we forget), which makes it seem even longer and more annoying. In an age when we are used to machines responding instantly, the awardee reminds us that complex operations are happening that require time and care.

zebra2:

I love that this lists all the reasons I hate those things. It's one of those devices that annoys you by the virtue of it being clearly poorly designed, rather than by the actual inconvenience of it. Why does the screen change so many times when nothing changes? Why is the error sound the same as the success sound? I mean, holy crap.

posted 2675 days ago