Rebirth 79: I opened a bank in the United States

Chapter 168 The arrival of the goods is a disaster!

Seattle, or Washington State, is a well-known straight-male polytechnic area in the United States.It is not easy to find a few contemporary "Internet addicted teenagers" and "Internet addicted youths" who are addicted to computers and cannot extricate themselves.

Hearing that Carter needs someone who can operate a computer, he immediately patted his chest and assured that he would be able to handle it properly for Carter.The sound of assurance, which was comparable to a poisonous oath, forcibly knocked back the words that Carter was about to talk about the compensation issue.

When it came to small computers, Paul strongly recommended Apple's Apple II to Carter.With the recommendation of current professionals and the endorsement of Apple's glory in the future, Carter nodded and agreed to purchase Apple II without hesitation.

But when he called Apple, his expression changed again
The Apple II, which went on shelves in June 1977, is undoubtedly the top seller in the field of personal computers this year.After receiving a call from Carter, Diana Melton, a salesperson for Apple's personal pc business, fluently reported the various parameters of the current Apple computers and the prices of the models on sale.

The Apple II models on sale at this time are mainly divided into: 1298kb memory version for $4 and 2638kb memory version for $48!

After introducing the product information, Melton heard the silence on the other end of the phone as usual.She knows that this is the customer thinking, comparing the pros and cons of the two models, or worrying about Mane
After all, the other party's voice didn't sound too loud, maybe a high school student?Or a college student?
I made some money by working part-time during the holidays, so I wanted to buy a computer of my own or something.Hey, another engineering dead house
Melton propped his chin with one hand while waiting for the answer from the other end of the phone, while silently imitating Carter's appearance: a head of curly hair, black or brown, it's not likely to be brilliant blond hair anyway; stomach, maybe not Big, but probably won't have abs; plus a thick spectacle lens that doubles as a bulletproof plate.
"I'm going to order five Apple II's with 48kb of memory. Also, don't you have more memory?"

"How many 48kb Apple IIs? Sorry, Mr. Black, did you just say five?"

Melton's hand supporting her head trembled, and she almost lost her neck, she immediately listened to the voice on the phone with high concentration.What a fat house, this is obviously a young and wealthy father!
The sales volume of Apple II is very high, but a large number of orders are purchased from the federal government, such as the standard teaching computer in the American education system, and so on.In terms of individual customers, orders are not many to say the least.
And there are not many individual users, most of whom purchase the 4kb basic version. The 48kb ones are not sold much, and the ones that cost five at a time are even rarer.
"Yes, I want five. Can you deliver to Georgia?"

The voice of the gold master's father is still so beautiful, Melton suppressed his excitement, quietly cleared his throat, and replied softly:
"Of course no problem! I will arrange the most professional transportation vehicles and personnel for you, and ensure that the computer you need will be delivered intact. In addition, you seem to have a problem just now? Can you please say it again?"

"I want to ask, do you have a model with larger memory? This 48kb is a bit too much, it can't even fit a seed!"

It is the very familiar distinction between versions and models by memory size, which is the same as the future iPhone release.While reminiscing about the past, feeling that everything seems to have a frontier, Carter can't help but feel pain for this exaggeratedly small memory.

The highest memory version is only 48kb?Noisy. Any random high-definition, 1080p "Eight Time" seed can't hold it.
With an archaeological mentality, Carter added an extra computer to the originally planned 4 computers, intending to keep it for himself.
"I'm sorry, sir. 48kb is already the maximum memory capacity that our current processor can carry"

"Okay, that's it, my address is."

After ordering the computer and finalizing the recruitment of computer operators, Carter took out a pen and paper while he still had time to prepare his speech.

It was the first time to give a speech in the United States, which was really a fresh experience for Carter.In order to ensure a successful start, Carter prepared the manuscript very carefully this time, and during the period, he did not trouble Goodman to help revise it.

Another five days passed quickly, and on this day, the goods arrived!
But when he actually opened the box, Carter felt that it was a disaster!

Not to mention the size and capacity, the key point is that this computer does not have a mouse!What is this Nima doing?
However, after turning on the power, Carter was a little surprised that the screen was displayed in color, instead of the blue and white or black and white single tone that Carter imagined.

Naturally, the operating system will not be the future macOS, but a. Carter has no idea what it is. The UI interface is not as refreshing as the future macOS, but it always feels a little bit subtle
It is a template that looks older than the box button in Windows 98 that has been pushed forward for a while.

The above are all the research results obtained by the pseudo-archaeologist Kamou after an hour.Based on the above conclusions, Carter easily deduced the next conclusion: his more than two thousand dollars was wasted!

Carter, who looked like a wronged species, turned off the phone angrily, and then continued to open the remaining boxes together with Goodman.

Check sorting readers, and magnetic ink character printers for making new, MICR-encoded checks, and the required materials.Carter understands these two things better.

Although the appearance looks quite old-fashioned, at any rate, he can understand the approximate operation process of this thing at a glance.

"Hey, what is this?"

After rummaging through the box, Carter suddenly found a bunch of strange objects that looked like splints.After thinking about it, after removing the possibility of "this thing is a curling iron", Carter really can't think of what this thing is for.
So, after finding one of them and holding it in his hand, Carter asked Goodman.

"This is for merchants that support credit card services! Put a purchase form made of pressure-sensitive paper under this thing, and then put a credit card on it, and then use this thing to press it, and the credit card number, cardholder The name and other information are copied on the purchase form!"

Smilingly, he took a piece of order-pressing equipment in Carter's hand. Goodman took it to the other side and put it away, while explaining:

"Then the cashier of the merchant fills in the date, transaction amount and other information, and then calls our credit card authorization line to confirm whether the customer's credit card limit is sufficient to pay for the commodity transaction."

"If it is enough, we will report the authorization code to the cashier. After he fills it in, he will ask the customer to sign for confirmation. Finally, return the receipt slip and credit card to the customer, leaving the bottom slip. Finally, take the bottom slip and send it to the bank settlement."

"At the same time, when we issue the authorization code, we will also reduce the credit limit in that card accordingly. I guess no merchants are willing to pay for these order-pressing devices at the beginning, so we can only buy them back first. Let them use it for free. When the transaction volume rises, sell them or collect rent.”

(End of this chapter)