From: Nicholas Clark Date: 17:36 on 30 Aug 2005 Subject: Hotel room keys So I'm attending a conference, and I'm staying in a room in a hotel (as you do) and I'm sharing a twin room with a friend (as is not unknown) and we both know a lot of other people attending and might actually have two separate lives (shock horror). The room has a swipe card lock. Moreover, you need the swipe card to make the lights work inside. So with one key you generally have to stick together... Us: Can we have a second key for room [XXX] please? Receptionist: Sure. But when I make the second key the first will stop working. Us: Oh. But we haven't lost the first key. Receptionist: But you can only have one key for the room. Us: Oh, why? Receptionist: Security, you see We politely say that we understand and thank him and decline the new key. Hateful hotel software. Nasty evil thing. Security be bollocks. Given that we needed no proof that we were the legitimate residents of room XXX, it's because the sub-muppet software is too damn stoooopid to write two keys to have the same magnetic strip. Or if the keys have fixed stripes, then it's the firmware in the door is tooooo damn stupid to be programmable to accept more than one guest-issue key. Either way, it's software. And it's hateful. Nicholas Clark
From: Abigail Date: 10:31 on 02 Sep 2005 Subject: Re: Hotel room keys --Dxnq1zWXvFF0Q93v Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Tue, Aug 30, 2005 at 05:36:05PM +0100, Nicholas Clark wrote: > So I'm attending a conference, and I'm staying in a room in a hotel (as y= ou > do) and I'm sharing a twin room with a friend (as is not unknown) and we = both > know a lot of other people attending and might actually have two separate > lives (shock horror). >=20 > The room has a swipe card lock. Moreover, you need the swipe card to make= the > lights work inside. So with one key you generally have to stick together.= .. >=20 > Us: Can we have a second key for room [XXX] please? > Receptionist: Sure. But when I make the second key the first will stop wo= rking. > Us: Oh. But we haven't lost the first key. > Receptionist: But you can only have one key for the room. > Us: Oh, why? > Receptionist: Security, you see >=20 > We politely say that we understand and thank him and decline the new key. >=20 >=20 >=20 > Hateful hotel software. Nasty evil thing. Security be bollocks. Given that > we needed no proof that we were the legitimate residents of room XXX, it's > because the sub-muppet software is too damn stoooopid to write two keys to > have the same magnetic strip. Or if the keys have fixed stripes, then it's > the firmware in the door is tooooo damn stupid to be programmable to acce= pt > more than one guest-issue key. We have a cheaper hotel, and there having two hotel keys for the same room isn't a problem. That of course doesn't mean the keys don't suck. It's one of those locks where you insert the key, then remove the key, and then you get either a green light (and you can open the door), or a red light, and the door stays locked. But it's set up real tricky. Moving the card quickly in and out gives you a red light -- apparently, you did it too quickly. But if you leave the card for a second, you get a red light as well. It takes too long. Every time I enter the room, I have to try the card several times. If you have Parkinson desease you better find a different hotel. Abigail --Dxnq1zWXvFF0Q93v Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.0 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFDGBvUBOh7Ggo6rasRAmwlAKCs2wcu5Nv+BHw/75dFRA/BAYTmPACgvktL UuS7ZgkAdk0+zDIe5uAXC3Q= =Y6uf -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --Dxnq1zWXvFF0Q93v--
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