Vintage Deuces Wild 1931 Penny Arcade Coin-op Game

After the Depression, the demand was for non-electrical Arcade Games. In 1931, Deuces Wild became, one of the Most Popular, Ball Flip Arcade Games. Considered a game of skill. The winner, needed to have the best Poker Hand. Often found on a bar counter, an arcade wall, a hotel game room, or any establishment, providing a great penny arcade game!   To begin, insert a penny and turn the handle on the side. This will release the playing balls. Flip each ball, up into the Poker Hand Playing Field.  The balls will land, in one of the 6 card Chutes. The Ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace or The Deuces. Aim for the Deuces, because = they’re DEUCES. They serve as any card you desire. Making it easier to have the Best Poker Hand. At bars, sometimes people compete. The loser, buys the next round of drinks.  At your home, in the game room, the loser might wash the dishes.   Before video games, and pinball machines, there were non-electric, ball flip penny arcade games. This Deuces Wild, 1931 Penny Arcade Game is a treasure. Great graphics, with colorful playing cards and gambling chips. Made of painted heavy wood and a […]

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EMV Really Screwing Up Apple Pay

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when EMV data we receive. As more major retail chains fully accept EMV payments, Apple Pay is being dealt some serious experience setbacks, such as being asked twice for price verification and being asked for fingerprint biometric authentication and then, a few screens later, a signature. Neither of those steps were part of the Apple Pay process until merchants switched on EMV.

To be clear, those time-wasting moves are not part of the Apple Pay process at all, but are superimposed after the Apple Pay transaction is complete and customers think they are done. The reason this is now happening is due to very strict interpretations of EMV rules-and the fact that the nature of the payment mechanism (beyond that it’s contactless) is not always communicated to the POS. Hence, it must assume the worst. When two retailers-Trader’s Joe’s and Whole Foods–last week made the switch through upgraded Verifone POS terminals, customers used to speedy Apple Pay experiences were literally being called back to the checkout lane to complete the additional keystrokes. Before, once Apple Pay’s screen said “done” and displayed an animated checkmark, they were free to leave. Not so in an EMV world.

In Pizza Hut Asian Restaurants, A MasterCard Robot Takes Orders And Payments-With An Attitude

An interesting MasterCard experiment is going on now at some Pizza Hut restaurants in Asia, where life-size robots take orders and process payments, with the intent of letting more store associates perform more involved customer tasks. (If you’ll recall, that was the same argument made for early self-checkout systems.) But what makes this effort different is that these robots are designed to sense emotions and to react accordingly.

Beyond the obvious questions-such as “Is the world ready for empathetic creatures trying to sell you stuffed crust toasted s’mores cookie pizzas?”-there are the implications of emotion-detecting robots named Pepper. (“The name Pepper was chosen because it is a word that is easy to say and understand across many languages and cultures,” MasterCard said.) In this deployment, they are named Pepper. The company making these robots, SoftBank Robotics, has created a series of videos depicting their potential. The main video (in Japanese) is worth watching, but be prepared for some serious weirding-out, if my teen daughter will permit me to use that phrase.

Good Analytics Won’t Help If Your Data Sucks

At best, sophisticated analytics software can deliver good answers if the underlying data is accurate and-most critically-is the right data. For a lot of merchants, that is often not the case.

Ralph Dangelmaier, CEO of payment facilitator BlueSnap, is proposing what he sees as a better way, at least for extracting useful answers from payments data. From his perspective, there are two big mistakes that merchants tend to do. First, they give far too much weight to pageviews and site visits from a region, assuming that a lot of activity translates into a lot of sales. And secondly, when those merchants do wisely opt to isolate sales from a region, they neglect to go back and adjust those figures to account for refunds and chargebacks.

PBS Special On 3D Printing – Will 3D Printing Change The World?

Believers herald 3D Printing as a revolutionary and disruptive technology, but how will these printers truly affect our society? Beyond an initial novelty, 3D Printing could have a game-changing impact on consumer culture, copyright and patent law, and even the very concept of scarcity on which our economy is based. From at-home repairs to new businesses, from medical to ecological developments, 3D Printing has an undeniably wide range of possibilities which could profoundly change our world. Learn more about 3D Printing Business

With A New Mission, Walmart Pay Goes Live In Arkansas, Texas

Now that Walmart no longer has to pretend to be support CurrentC-thanks to its effective demise, courtesy of MCX’s concession to reality-the largest retail chain announced Monday (May 16) that it had rolled out Walmart Pay across 110 Walmart stores in Arkansas and 480 Walmart stores in Texas. Walmart Pay the concept was announced by the merchant back in December. Walmart Pay has been rolled out in a way very different than Walmart wanted to do a mobile payment, but it’s a model that has been obviously shaped by Apple Pay.

Like Apple Pay, it supports “any major credit, debit, pre-paid or Walmart gift card.” But unlike Apple Pay, it works across iOS and Android devices. And unlike Apple Pay and every other NFC payment method, it can work on a far wider range of phones-especially older phones-that do not support NFC. All the phone needs is the ability to download an app and enough of a camera to scan a QR code. But Walmart Pay suffers a major weakness that Apple Pay doesn’t. As long as the shopper is willing to use the default card in Apple Pay, all that the shopper need do is hold the phone right above the card reader. It doesn’t need to be connected to any network, nor does the shopper have to launch an app, key in a password or manipulate the app in any way. Contrast that with Walmart Pay, which requires the shopper to find and then open the Walmart app, select Walmart Pay and then manually activate the camera and then scan a register QR code-which as many shoppers will confirm, isn’t always that easy to do on the first or second attempt.

MCX Concedes The Obvious: CurrentC Is Dead. Indeed, It Was Never Really Alive

When MCX on Monday (May 16) issued a statement that “MCX will postpone a nationwide rollout of its CurrentC application,” it was akin to U.S. presidential candidates who suspend their campaigns. It’s a polite way of saying “it’s over” without having to say those words outloud.

But for many reasons, CurrentC never had much of a chance, having been created in the most merchant-centric (OK, I’ll admit it: Walmart-centric) manner possible. It’s creation was to give retailers a way to sharply cut back interchange fees and it was being pushed by a merchant who was already paying among the very lowest interchange fee percentages of anyone.

Chase Makes The Right Security Move After Swift Breaches

A report Tuesday (May 17) that J.P. Morgan Chase “has limited some employees’ access to the Swift global interbank messaging service amid questions about security breaches at a pair of Asian banks that used the funds-transfer platform” raises some concerns, but it appears to be just enforcing a stricter “need to know” and “need to access” approach from Chase.

Although there have been other reports raising the possibility of an earlier Swift attack-with a major Bangladesh bank-being an insider job, it could just as easily be an attack where the bank employees were victimized. Employees might have had their credentials stolen via keystroke-capturing malware or being tricked into visiting a credential-stealing site designed to look like Swift’s access area.

Rare Bob Hope Caricature U.S.O.1971 Wrist Watch

Here is an opportunity, to wear a vintage Bob Hope museum piece. As rare, as it is timely. This Bob Hope, 1971 U.S.O. wrist watch, offers a moving golf club, for a second hand. Bob’s arms, are the minute and hour hands. The watch’s face, has a signature caricature of Bob Hope. Although, he was a mediocre golfer. This treasure, keeps perfect time !   Charlie Chaplin and Bob Hope, both born in Great Britain, became America’s most celebrated comedians. Chaplin, in films. Bob Hope, in films, radio, television and personal appearances. He even hosted, 19 Academy Award Shows. An accomplished actor, singer, comedian, dancer, and author of 14 books. Bob Hope, will be most remembered, for entertaining U.S Armed Forces from 1941, for almost 50 years.   He brought his show, of celebrities and beautiful women, to every corner of the globe. Happy to entertain U.S. troops, in harm’s way. Often a heartbeat, from enemy attack. His show went to Vietnam, for 8 years. Bob’s U.S.O. Armed Forces, Christmas shows were televised. He won several Emmy Awards, for these popular events.  His 6 decades entertaining audiences, made him a legend. Bob Hope found, putting a smile, on a war […]

Benefits of Medicinal Plants and Herbs in Traditional Chinese Medicine

The ABCs of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture

Traditional Chinese medicine is one of the oldest continuous systems of medicine in history, with recorded instances dating as far back as two thousand years before the birth of Christ.

Chinese medicine is quite complex and can be difficult for some people to comprehend. This is because TCM is based, at least in part, on the Daoist belief that we live in a universe in which everything is interconnected. What happens to one part of the body affects every other part of the body. The mind and body are not viewed separately, but as part of an energetic system.

 

Science Affirms Benefits of Chinese Herbs – But Not in the Way You’d Think

In TCM, medicinal plants and herbs are harvested, dried, and prepared according to traditional Chinese pharmacopeia methods, and either taken in small doses over time as preventive measures or consumed daily in the case of chronic illnesses. Many plants and herbs such as Ganoderma Lucidum, or lingzhi mushroom, are also incorporated into everyday cooking.

 

What Are The Benefits of Herbal Medicine?

Herbal medicine can be very useful for treating many different illnesses from minor scrapes and burns to serious diseases. Herbal medicines are mostly used for persistent illnesses such as migraines, arthritis, depression and PMS.

 

10 Benefits Of Traditional Chinese Medicine

The top benefit that comes from traditional Chinese medicine is that the medicine is all natural. Although the herbs that are used in the medicine may have some side effects, it is nothing compared to the side effects from modern medicine.

 

The Hub of Herbal Medicine in Hong Kong (China)

You can find many different types of Chinese remedies in this store. Various remedies are important ingredients for foods that improve your health. For example, this is swallow’s nest, which purifies and strengthens the body’s systems, and provide resistance to disease and premature aging.