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The parking ticket machine might make things deliberately slow because the printer needs to warm up or something. Maybe it needs up to 5 seconds to warm up if

The parking ticket machine might make things deliberately slow because the printer needs to warm up or something. Maybe it needs up to 5 seconds to warm up if it's in deep sleep, so splitting this into three 2s periods provides the least frustrating user experience. As soon as you need to deal with real hardware things always start to get complicated.

pjc50 2y ago
More likely it's warming up the mobile comms state machine, without checking if it's actually needed. Unlike mobile phones which try to keep their data connection somewhat live, IoT things often drop back to the lowest state to save power (and possibly SIM cost) https://www.sharetechnote.com/html/Handbook_UMTS_RrcStateChange.html https://www.sharetechnote.com/html/Handbook_UMTS_RrcStateCha...
- actionfromafar 2y ago
  And programmed on BASIC Stamp on some godforsaken discontinued hardware. :)
- yetihehe 2y ago
  More likely it was written by some cheap interns and requires getting unique ticket id from server for "controlling" purposes. Then there is one part time employee (met him, small talked a little) who goes from car to car with terminal and checks if those tickets are valid. I have some experience with gprs systems here, so probable flow: - press button - gprs roundtrip about button press with "no payment, free ticket" (2s) - machine shows "printing ticket", asks server what to print (aka the idiotic unnecessary step) - gprs roundtrip (2s) - printer warmup? (?s) - prints ticket > to save power (and possibly SIM cost) Nope, costs per sim are monthly per card, until you hit the data limit, then per MB. Those machines typically have enough power to keep connection alive.
  - anal_reactor 2y ago
    More likely a parking machine needs to be accessible to all users, and some people get confused when technology works too fast.
    - desiderantes 2y ago
      Perhaps if you get confused by fast things you shouldn't be driving?
      - inetknght 2y ago
        Perhaps if you're driving, the things around you need to give you time to react to other things around you. Fewer things are more frustrating than getting honked at because you pressed a button, then got distracted by a car pulling up which you needed to look at to be aware of, then missed the printer asking if you want a receipt, and then having to press another button to talk to someone to ask for a reprint which, of course, holds up the line of cars growing behind you while someone gets paged to come to the kiosk.
        desiderantes 2y ago
        So you wrote this new scenario where the parking ticket machine does NOT print a ticket unless you confirm it (after you already pressed the button)? And you get... mildly inconvenienced by some honking. Yeah you shouldn't drive.
        inetknght 2y ago
        No, not printing the ticket isn't the scenario. Not printing the receipt for payment is the scenario. It's not a new scenario. It happened to me. I'm not mildly inconvenienced by some honking. That's just aggravating. I'm inconvenienced by having to call to get a receipt.
- dmonitor 2y ago
  The cell providers also get really opinionated about how much / how often your IoT device talks to the cell towers when they seek to approve your device.

pjc50 2y ago

More likely it's warming up the mobile comms state machine, without checking if it's actually needed. Unlike mobile phones which try to keep their data connection somewhat live, IoT things often drop back to the lowest state to save power (and possibly SIM cost) https://www.sharetechnote.com/html/Handbook_UMTS_RrcStateChange.html https://www.sharetechnote.com/html/Handbook_UMTS_RrcStateCha...

actionfromafar 2y ago
And programmed on BASIC Stamp on some godforsaken discontinued hardware. :)
yetihehe 2y ago
More likely it was written by some cheap interns and requires getting unique ticket id from server for "controlling" purposes. Then there is one part time employee (met him, small talked a little) who goes from car to car with terminal and checks if those tickets are valid. I have some experience with gprs systems here, so probable flow: - press button - gprs roundtrip about button press with "no payment, free ticket" (2s) - machine shows "printing ticket", asks server what to print (aka the idiotic unnecessary step) - gprs roundtrip (2s) - printer warmup? (?s) - prints ticket > to save power (and possibly SIM cost) Nope, costs per sim are monthly per card, until you hit the data limit, then per MB. Those machines typically have enough power to keep connection alive.
- anal_reactor 2y ago
  More likely a parking machine needs to be accessible to all users, and some people get confused when technology works too fast.
  - desiderantes 2y ago
    Perhaps if you get confused by fast things you shouldn't be driving?
    - inetknght 2y ago
      Perhaps if you're driving, the things around you need to give you time to react to other things around you. Fewer things are more frustrating than getting honked at because you pressed a button, then got distracted by a car pulling up which you needed to look at to be aware of, then missed the printer asking if you want a receipt, and then having to press another button to talk to someone to ask for a reprint which, of course, holds up the line of cars growing behind you while someone gets paged to come to the kiosk.
      - desiderantes 2y ago
        So you wrote this new scenario where the parking ticket machine does NOT print a ticket unless you confirm it (after you already pressed the button)? And you get... mildly inconvenienced by some honking. Yeah you shouldn't drive.
        inetknght 2y ago
        No, not printing the ticket isn't the scenario. Not printing the receipt for payment is the scenario. It's not a new scenario. It happened to me. I'm not mildly inconvenienced by some honking. That's just aggravating. I'm inconvenienced by having to call to get a receipt.
dmonitor 2y ago
The cell providers also get really opinionated about how much / how often your IoT device talks to the cell towers when they seek to approve your device.