• cthulhu (unregistered)

    lol why has noone noticed there is no cd in the drive?

  • (cs) in reply to jim steichen
    jim steichen:
    It's a cup holder! No, it's a door opener! Ha, you're both right, the PC-OMatic is both a cup holder and a door opener. The PC-OMatic has a 1001 other uses as well!

    It has only 9 uses?

  • (cs) in reply to cromulent
    cromulent:
    Ghastly, isn't it? All the doors on this spaceship have been programmed to have a cheery and sunny disposition.
    Don't taunt happy fun door.
  • (cs) in reply to Dirk Diggler
    Dirk Diggler:
    You must really hate the old gal. Did you really stick it to her by setting up the Ubuntu with a wireless card? What am I saying, no one's ever gotten Ubuntu to work with wireless.

    I must be "no one" then...

    Ohhhh....you were trying to be a troll, sorry...

  • (cs) in reply to Dirk Diggler
    Dirk Diggler:
    You must really hate the old gal. Did you really stick it to her by setting up the Ubuntu with a wireless card? What am I saying, no one's ever gotten Ubuntu to work with wireless.

    Shit, I guess I must be my imagination then that I have two out of my 3 Ubuntu Systems using wireless daily.

  • id (unregistered) in reply to halcyon1234
    halcyon1234:
    jim steichen:
    It's a cup holder! No, it's a door opener! Ha, you're both right, the PC-OMatic is both a cup holder and a door opener. The PC-OMatic has a 1001 other uses as well!

    It has only 9 uses?

    nah it has only 10 uses.

  • iMalc (unregistered)

    Hah! and you all thought there was no practical application for all those WTF's you've read!

  • Sapient (unregistered) in reply to adi

    How about the clicking sound of the lock mechanism working after he entered the command?

  • Dekker3D (unregistered) in reply to id
    id:
    halcyon1234:
    jim steichen:
    It's a cup holder! No, it's a door opener! Ha, you're both right, the PC-OMatic is both a cup holder and a door opener. The PC-OMatic has a 1001 other uses as well!

    It has only 9 uses?

    nah it has only 10 uses.

    binary 1001 is 9. + cup holder is 10. + door opener is 11. can't you geeks count?

  • matt (unregistered)

    Why not setup a card reader for the computer that reads the key card for the door and ejects when an authorized card is swiped/detected bypassing the clearly defective 'solution' installed by the locksmith in the first place. Eventually the cleaning lady would throw out the boxes leaving it "out of calibration." Was this under a DoD contract also?

  • Bill Gates personal chef (unregistered) in reply to Dekker3D
    Dekker3D:
    id:
    halcyon1234:
    jim steichen:
    It's a cup holder! No, it's a door opener! Ha, you're both right, the PC-OMatic is both a cup holder and a door opener. The PC-OMatic has a 1001 other uses as well!

    It has only 9 uses?

    nah it has only 10 uses.

    binary 1001 is 9. + cup holder is 10. + door opener is 11. can't you geeks count?

    12 Julianne fries on the heat sink(it slices, it dices!) 13 Hosts the locksmiths website 14 It's dishwasher safe 15 doubles as boat anchor, for small boats 16 Fish tank conversion kit available 17 It's a space heater built on the latest Silicon heating technology ...

    For this limited time we will double your offer for free! Not available in all areas, must be 18 or older to order, no CODs or checks, restrictions apply, warranty not valid in all states, order today!

  • (cs)

    So let me get this straight. No-one in that office could take the cover off the switch, solder on a couple of flying leads, pass them through the hinge, and solder a momentary switch on the other end?

    They had no idea how long the locksmith would take to get around to them, and they depended on a Heath-Robinson affair to be able to work?

    Not something you'd want to put on your resume...

  • SoonerMatt (unregistered) in reply to NiceWTF
    NiceWTF:
    h:
    Not nerd enough. They should have used a cronjob.

    Also, they should have made it accessible through a website. Preferably an unsecured one.

    And a web cam would also be necessary. Maybe allow Reddit to determine who gets in or not. 20 upvotes gets you in.

  • (cs) in reply to Bill Gates personal chef
    Bill Gates personal chef:
    12 Julianne fries on the heat sink

    Ouch, poor Julianne! How hot do you have that thing running, anyway? (Perhaps hot enough to cook Julienne fries?)

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to adi
    adi:
    The original article says: 3) Ran ~# eject /dev/scd0 And, click, the door was opened.

    TRWDF: How can you click to submit a command on the SSH ?

    Well, obviously he was using an on-screen keyboard with his mouse instead of a real keyboard.

  • (cs)

    I think most sysadmins have used the CD tray for something other than loading CDs.

    I know a guy that had to support a flaky old Windows server that was prone to locking up, so he set up a Linux box in front of it so that the CD tray would punch its reset button whenever it stopped responding to ping.

    EDIT: or maybe I just read about it here. So many stories, so little brain-space.

  • Scott (unregistered) in reply to Dekker3D

    So now it's only 3? I'm confused.

  • Craig Landrum (unregistered)

    The drive tray (A) opens....

    ...nudging coffeepot (B), ...sloshing hot coffee on a cat's tail (C), ...who yowls and races off the desk, tipping over dusty Kernighan and Richie C book (D), ...hitting enter key on computer (E), ...which fires USB missle array (F), ...activating trigger on trebuchet (G), ...which fires mummified chocolate cupcake, hitting door release switch (H).

    Rube Goldberg, we miss you.

  • Montoya (unregistered)

    A remote security system? Sign me up!

  • (cs) in reply to SomeCoder
    SomeCoder:
    Emmanuel put down his cup of coffee, went upstairs to my computer, and then...

    I guess Emmanuel lives with Alex. Not that there's anything wrong with that :)

    The only Emmanuel I know was... well we all seen the movies I'm sure, and if she is living with Alex, more power to him.

  • Chris (unregistered) in reply to Dirk Diggler
    Dirk Diggler:
    mauve:
    I wish I had unused Shuttles lying around the office.

    That said, I gave my old Shuttle to my grandmother, preinstalled with Ubuntu.

    You must really hate the old gal. Did you really stick it to her by setting up the Ubuntu with a wireless card? What am I saying, no one's ever gotten Ubuntu to work with wireless.
    I guess I should mention that to my buddy that just installed Kubuntu. I guess it was his imagination that the wireless Just Works(TM).

    And to the guy saying that you could do this with Windows: sure it might work, but do you really want to risk the machine having crashed by the time your coworkers get in and desperately need the door open?

    Further, if they quickly put this together with spare hardware, then maybe they didn't have a license for an appropriate version of Windows (at least win2k required to do what you're suggesting). Linux is so much better suited to this sort of thing. You need barely any RAM and HD space. You could build a computer to do this with the worst of the worst hardware and it will still work just fine. Try installing Window 2000, XP, or especially Vista with less than 256MB of RAM and let me know how well Remote Desktop works.

  • Your Name (unregistered) in reply to rfsmit
    So let me get this straight. No-one in that office could take the cover off the switch, solder on a couple of flying leads, pass them through the hinge, and solder a momentary switch on the other end?

    If that is a door into their offices from an unsecured area, which it would seem to be given the part of the story that reads while they could freely leave the office as they pleased, why would anyone be stupid enough to wire up a button that would open the door for anyone who happened to walk up to it?

  • (cs) in reply to adi

    "Click" is the noise of the little robot tapping the switch.

  • Your Name (unregistered) in reply to Chris
    And to the guy saying that you could do this with Windows: sure it might work, but do you really want to risk the machine having crashed...

    I have a machine running Windows 2000 that I use as a router and has never crashed once in the 4 years it has been on. I don't know what Linux users do to their Windows machines to make them so unstable that they would crash overnight while sitting doing nothing.

    Try installing Window 2000, XP, or especially Vista with less than 256MB of RAM and let me know how well Remote Desktop works.

    Windows 2000 does not support Remote Desktop, however I run Windows 2000 on a machine with 64MB of RAM and NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing works just fine, thank you.

    If you prefer a command line, I'd suggest OpenSSH for Windows and NirCmd.

    Was Linux more practical for this application? Certainly. Could Windows have been used (without crashing and on older hardware)? Definitely.

    Just because you have a built-in bias toward one operating system and against another does not mean the second operating system is inadequate for the job.

  • Grog (unregistered) in reply to Danny Staple

    Honestly, I was not involved!

    How many times must I say it!

  • Steve Wahl (unregistered) in reply to adi
    adi:
    The original article says: 3) Ran ~# eject /dev/scd0 And, click, the door was opened.

    TRWDF: How can you click to submit a command on the SSH ?

    Like others have said, the click was probably intended to be the sound of the door;

    BUT clicking on something over SSH is easily possible, I do it all the time. You just have to have X11 forwarding enabled.

  • Engineer, not programmer (unregistered)

    Eventually, the PC unit will move backward(as a thrust support, and if it is not used additional friction increaser - rubber) leading to not enough push on the button point. Bite me

  • (cs) in reply to KattMan
    KattMan:
    The only Emmanuel I know was... well we all seen the movies I'm sure, and if she is living with Alex, more power to him.
    No, there's a spelling/gender issue involved. As Spectre said:
    Spectre:
    Maybe that was actually Emmanuelle.
  • Bob (unregistered) in reply to Dirk Diggler
    Dirk Diggler:
    mauve:
    I wish I had unused Shuttles lying around the office.

    That said, I gave my old Shuttle to my grandmother, preinstalled with Ubuntu.

    You must really hate the old gal. Did you really stick it to her by setting up the Ubuntu with a wireless card? What am I saying, no one's ever gotten Ubuntu to work with wireless.
    I use ubuntu and the wifi works. So booya.

  • mkl (unregistered)
    Windows 2000 does not support Remote Desktop
    Not that I wanna troll around or something, but W2K Advanced Server does.
  • (cs) in reply to Volker Grabsch
    Volker Grabsch:
    <nitpick>

    The last command can be shortened to

    eject

    on modern systems, because eject detects first CDROM device automatically.

    </nitpick>

    I bet your code symbols are waaaaaay shorter than they oughta be too.

  • Jetts (unregistered) in reply to Engineer, not programmer
    Engineer:
    Eventually, the PC unit will move backward(as a thrust support, and if it is not used additional friction increaser - rubber) leading to not enough push on the button point. Bite me

    I can think of 2 situations of the top of my head where that wouldn't happen. If the static friction was high enough to just hold it in place and overcome the resistance of the button, or if it were high enough that it would tip onto it's back corner instead of sliding backwards (looking at the geometry, that doesn't look too likely though.)

    In other news, I can never understand the bored looks on my non-engineer friends faces when we gears start talking like this. It's so fascinating!

  • Sean (unregistered) in reply to rfsmit
    rfsmit:
    So let me get this straight. No-one in that office could take the cover off the switch, solder on a couple of flying leads, pass them through the hinge, and solder a momentary switch on the other end?

    They had no idea how long the locksmith would take to get around to them, and they depended on a Heath-Robinson affair to be able to work?

    Not something you'd want to put on your resume...

    Yes, why didn't they put an external switch on their office door.

  • MG (unregistered) in reply to id
    id:
    halcyon1234:
    jim steichen:
    It's a cup holder! No, it's a door opener! Ha, you're both right, the PC-OMatic is both a cup holder and a door opener. The PC-OMatic has a 1001 other uses as well!

    It has only 9 uses?

    nah it has only 10 uses.

    Both wrong. It has this many:

    1 as cup holder + 1 as door opener + 1001 more uses = 1011 uses total. Learn some math already.

    Captcha: tation - theoretical particle that makes ink stay under skin

  • Klaatu (unregistered) in reply to Keithius
    Keithius:
    I, for one, welcome our door-opening robot overlords.
    Suckup. Once the revolutionaries overthrow the evil robot overlords, you'll be the first one up against the wall.
  • Barata (unregistered)

    There is a WTF in this story. If they could get out, but not back in, why would someone have to spend the night? If I can't get into my office in the morning, then I just got a day off from work, right? It had better be with pay, too, since it wasn't my fault that the door wouldn't open.

    If the office manager wants the employees to be able to work the next day, the "someone" who spends the night better be the office manager.

  • Jamie (unregistered) in reply to anonymous
    anonymous:
    Hello? Click is the sound of the door unlocking! Muahahah! How stupid can some people be!

    And just how do you hear 'click' over ssh? I see no microphone in that picture.

  • (cs) in reply to Jamie

    You don’t. You hear it over the phone, because the person who called you to open the door is standing right next to it.

  • Dr Nick (unregistered)

    It's OK I guess. It's just not... enterprisey enough.

  • BlowMe (unregistered) in reply to Jamie
    Jamie:
    anonymous:
    Hello? Click is the sound of the door unlocking! Muahahah! How stupid can some people be!

    And just how do you hear 'click' over ssh? I see no microphone in that picture.

    There's nothing to suggest that anyone actually HEARD the click....

    A tree falls in the forest and all that....

  • clickey McClicker (unregistered)

    the click could be one of the many clicks that would be necessatated by some bad freeware ssh client on a mac made to ease the transition from a gui. Like CLI training wheels.

    i used to work with a bunch of mac using journalist and they were so fun and easy to scare. just open a termianl and do anything like ls and cd commands and you were clearly a hacker. of course i say yes when they ask if I can read their email.

    captcha: appellatio <censored obscene definition>

  • Torre Lasley (unregistered)

    Looks like someone found a new use for the ITAPPMONROBOT

  • SoonerMatt (unregistered) in reply to Your Name
    Your Name:
    however I run Windows 2000 on a machine with 64MB of RAM and NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing works just fine, thank you

    Why would you have a machine that has that little RAM? I generally have an extra 5 or 10 gb's laying around, so if anything my old machines have too much ram.

  • hi there (unregistered) in reply to Dekker3D
    Dekker3D:
    id:
    halcyon1234:
    jim steichen:
    It's a cup holder! No, it's a door opener! Ha, you're both right, the PC-OMatic is both a cup holder and a door opener. The PC-OMatic has a 1001 other uses as well!

    It has only 9 uses?

    nah it has only 10 uses.

    binary 1001 is 9. + cup holder is 10. + door opener is 11. can't you geeks count?

    so it has only 3 uses then?

  • unigeek (unregistered) in reply to Your Name

    Yes, good points. I certainly hope when a locksmith was called, it wasn't the same guy who left without adequately testing his work to begin with. And WTF is with putting any switch on the side of the door with the hinges?! Are we getting ready to film a new episode of "I Love Lucy"?

  • Bob (unregistered) in reply to jrobbio
    jrobbio:
    adi:
    The original article says: 3) Ran ~# eject /dev/scd0 And, click, the door was opened.

    TRWDF: How can you click to submit a command on the SSH ?

    The click of the lock releasing?

    TRWTF is that he didn't run: ~$ sudo eject /dev/scd0

  • bogi (unregistered)

    Just looking at the picture, it seems it might work better if the PC had a power cord or Ethernet or keyboard or any cables coming out of back.

  • JB (unregistered) in reply to Dekker3D
    Dekker3D:
    id:
    halcyon1234:
    jim steichen:
    It's a cup holder! No, it's a door opener! Ha, you're both right, the PC-OMatic is both a cup holder and a door opener. The PC-OMatic has a 1001 other uses as well!

    It has only 9 uses?

    nah it has only 10 uses.

    binary 1001 is 9. + cup holder is 1010. + door opener is 1011. can't you geeks count?

    Fixed that for you.

  • Daniel (unregistered)

    Too hi-tech for a crude idea. Nevertheless, it does the job well and that is what is important.

  • El_oscuro (unregistered) in reply to rleibman
    rleibman:
    What would have been really cool is if you also told the door opening computer to sigh afterward with the satisfaction of a job well done.
    But then you still wouldn't be able to get in, as the elevators would be afraid of heights, and wouldn't go up.

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