while true; do turn_on_all_lights $IPADDRESS; done
And why not do that to the entire block of addresses you can reach, of course?
It's no "steal identity, rack up tens of thousands of debt" level of nuisance, but it's enough that some basic security is definitely called for. Given the capability of the devices on both side (i.e. we're not dealing with "embedded" 1MHz processors here), client and server side validation of SSL certificates on an SSL connection, combined with some basic physical security to detect that someone's pried the Android off the wall (this can be something like "seal" stickers; we're going for detection here more than prevention), would have had a pretty good cost/benefit ratio.
(Remember, the goal here isn't to make the security "perfect", merely to make hacking it more expensive than what is being protected, which in this case still isn't that much. Nobody's going to risk being physically fingered as the room that pried out the Android tablet just to screw with lights.)
Your're not wrong, but the other point is they are swatting a fly with a sledgehammer. What wrong with a simple light switch for gods sake. Why would a hotel spend hundreds of dollars to do what a $2 device can do more reliably and securely?
Also, some hotels manage to have the tv showing a welcome message when you enter.
As a result, I can shut things down from my office or set up schedules to do the same. I can monitor usage and save resources (lamp hours on projectors and lighting, etc)
The idea of using a full-on tablet computer is just silly and sounds more like something I'd do while tinkering at home and was looking for a use for some old phone or tablet sitting in a drawer. It's not something I'd put in any enterprise or commercial space.
Though I wouldn't be surprised that the cleaning staff would "clean" it up if you weren't there. Might want to put out the Do-Not-Disturb sign too.
while true
level = 0
while level <= 100
set all lights to level%
level = level + 1
sleep 5
sleep 120
set all lights to 0%
sleep 1800
If that succeeds in waking the person, they will wake up in darkness, wondering what the heck woke them up.
More fun with lights: someone at Caltech once modified the wiring of a student's room and the adjacent bathroom so that the light switches in both rooms controlled the lights in both rooms. They they waited in the courtyard that the student's room and the bathroom both overlooked to watch the hilarity that they knew would ensue.
What happened was that the occupant of the room eventually went to bed, turning off his light. Then later someone went to use the bathroom, turning on the bathroom light (and so also the student's light). That woke the student, who got up, turned off the light, and headed back to bed. The guy in the bathroom shouts something, and a few moments later gets his pants under control and goes and turns the light back on and heads back to the stall to resume his business. Meanwhile, bed boy is shouting something and getting up to turn his light back off. What I'm told then happened is that the lights flipped on and off a few more times, with the time between flips getting smaller and smaller, until both guys are just standing at their light switch flipping it repeatedly, before they both go out into the hall to try to figure out what is going on, find each other, and figure it out.
Or a camera equipped drone.
It made Tron look technically accurate.
So, somebody is going to set up shop across the way, in what is probably another commercial building, commit a couple of crimes, all to take a picture of some random, likely unidentifiable person sleeping in a hotel bed?
Personally, I'm not very worried about that.
I mean, it's not like there aren't easier attack vectors for creeping on people in hotel rooms if you were so inclined.