The Intelligent Timing Lock | Hacker News Reader

The Intelligent Timing Lock

twitter.com

185 pointsedward82 comments

Hey, I've seen this before! Lock Picking Lawyer did a video on it with a EMP device haha.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtNkUjQAHqY

That EMP generator looks nifty, does anyone have any schematics?

No idea on exactly that one, but basically all you need is a magnetron from any discarded microwave oven, a horn made from some beer can(s), some LV power for the magnetron heater and an electroshocker as HV pulse power supply.

And some presense of mind to not point the horn at any EM-reflective surfaces.

What happens if you do? Do you fry it?

ElectroBoom has a video on EMP generator that might give you an idea on how to make one

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5M6YKR7wUw

Thanks! Though he's a bit too quick to play with magnetrons for my liking...

Buy an electroshock "stun gun". Get some magnet wire. Make a coil. Hook the ends of the coil to the output of the electroshock device (scrape away the insulation enamel and solder it in place.) Ideally you'd heat-shrink those connections (slip the heat shrink around the coil wire before soldering, slide it into place, shrink it) and cable lace/tie to keep the coil formed nicely.

That's about it.

That's interesting, thank you! I'll research a bit more, it sounds like a nifty device.

The „Emergency Override“ (press two buttons for 10 sec) reminds me of the iOS „Screen Time exceeded“ message. Took me like two days to develop the habit of instantly hitting the „no limit for today“ button every single time.

I had the same experience. When given the option to override, the whole experience is ruined for me.

I’ve often thought of a lock out for investing. “I’ll buy this stock, and I’m not allowed to sell it for 5 years”. A hack is to invest in early stage startups, where you’ll often not have an option of selling early. Anything listed on a stock market is the opposite.

From what I can tell, it’s possible with scripting Bitcoin, to not allow a transaction for X years, but no one seems to offer this in an easy to use way

The lockout for investing is short term capital gains.

https://www.thekitchensafe.com/

has no emergency override!

I’ve had this for several years. It works. The lack of override is a HUGE plus.

From my understanding, if I really want to override I can email the company and ask for help, but that hasn’t happened in the 4-5 years I’ve had it.

The main uses I found for it are sticking my phone in there during pomodoros, and sticking cash in there on weekends that I can’t afford to spend.

One idea I’ve had that I haven’t implemented is putting a password on my computer or phone that someone else generates for me. For example, I might have my wife scribble a bunch of nonsense letters on a piece of paper, have her input that password on the device, then I would throw the piece of paper into the lockbox.

There actually is no override whatsoever. If you email them, they tell you how to break the plastic base without accidentally destroying the lid (since the bases are cheap to order replacements). Props to them for sticking to that mission statement.

That’s even better!

I've used this since 1.5 years for sweets (basically daily...). So I take out a few sweets and lock it for a few hours, so that I don't have to fear that I overeat. It works really well and I'm really happy about it. Also, I didn't have to change the batteries once (well, you put in 4 AA batteries but still nice that it's no energy sink).

Has anyone tried an EMP generator like the Lockpicking Lawyer did for the fingerprint lock?

Sleep for Android (a popular sleep tracker/analyzer) allows you to "pay in" a small amount of money, like $5-15 per user choice via in-app purchases, that is lost as a donation to the developers if the set goal wasn't reached and refunded otherwise.

I thought that was a pretty clever way to go about it, I know people do a lot for $5!

Isn't someone who feels the product didn't help their self control just going to hit the refund button?

I think the point is that there is no refund button.

If the app doesn't have a refund button, your card provider does. Actually, especially if the app doesn't.

Seems like a text-based password (and not a button) would solve this problem. Just make it a string of random characters, write it on a piece of paper, then keep the paper inside the box.

Set yourself as a child and let someone else be your "parent". Then the blocking will be enforced!

Only my dog knows my parental lock password.

Son of a bitch doesn't let go no matter how many treats I feed him.

Some years ago, I was at a coffee shop with free wifi, which had become fairly common, but it had a captive portal that required a login, which was an innovation at the time. I apparently looked pretty nerdy, and the fellow at the next table asked if I could help him figure out his login problem, since the folks at the counter were at a loss.

Turns out, he was running a piece of web-monitoring software, which wouldn't let him access the login page because it couldn't get permission from its server, because it couldn't reach the server, because he hadn't gotten past the login page. Pretty straightforward little Catch-22.

We turned off his wifi for a moment and I ended up MAC-spoofing his device to complete the login on his behalf, and all was well.

Once he confirmed he was online successfully, I asked more about this monitoring software. Was it installed by his employer? No, turns out this was a religious thing, to avoid "temptation". Monitoring and approval was apparently done by another user of the software -- pairs of peers would agree to keep an eye on each other's browsing habits, the logic being that even just a little more visibility and accountability is all it takes to keep oneself on the straight-and-narrow.

What a fascinating little market I never knew existed!

I'm a simpler man, I keep hitting "15 more minutes" in an infinite loop. I'm also able to snooze my alarm for hours when I know I have to attend to something important, but not THAT important.

The most interesting self-control advice I got was to do the opposite. (And I tried it and similarly inspired things, with variations, on some stuff I need a bit of willpower).

Basically, if you want to stop doing something, force yourself to constantly do it – with a deadline. Can’t stop scrolling? Force yourself to only scroll social media for an hour. If you want to quit fast-food, force yourself to only eat fast-food every day for two weeks. If you want to stop doing something, force yourself to overdo it until you just can’t do it anymore. It works even to start doing things: if you struggle, e.g., to work on personal projects, (and you actually like them and sporadically do them), force yourself to not even touch anything like them for a few weeks, and you’ll be super eager. Forced vacations are also inspiring as hell.

Art students get a similar advice: “Every painter has a thousand bad paintings inside of them – get them out of yourself as soon as possible”. Whatever it is you crave and want to stop – just have at it, stuff yourself like a pig and you will look to make an actual change.

Doesn't work very well with controlled substances.

Or food, sadly.

Hey kids, don't try this with heroin

oh i'm sure the timed lock would help with that

It's provocative but for me personally I think it's terrible advice. Out of everything I've read about breaking habits I've yet to see this recommended.

Aliexpress is just a treasure trove for ordering so many different kind of useful and often useless novelty items.

Unfortunately my country has now forever banned it and now I have to pay anywhere from 10 to 20 times for these same chinese items on Amazon and other sites (which I believe are still shipped through china but through a proxy country just so the shipping label doesn't say china).

AliExpress helped me cut my addiction to buying random crap off them, by banning any account that used a VPN and putting you permanently behind a captcha trap even if you later turn the VPN off. I guess I should thank them but I do miss those 2am purchases of lighty uppy stuff I don’t need.

Which country, may I ask?

India, over security concerns and maybe to teach China a lesson over recent border disputes (1).

I am not in favor or against it personally since I don't understand economics or politics, but god do i miss ordering random stuff from this website for few bucks.

(1) https://indianexpress.com/article/india/china-apps-banned-in...

Isn't that just the app being banned? The website works for me.

No it will refuse to accept payments and even if you somehow pay for it, it will forever be stuck at customs.

The trick some sellers are doing is routing packages via Kenya etc so it doesn't look it's coming from China.

Dang, that sucks. Thanks for the response.

I've bought a reinforced travel bag similar to this one: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/images/images2500x2500/pacsafe_...

The original lock is absolutely puny so I decided to learn more about padlocks to find a suitable replacement. As far as I can tell the short of it is that almost all of these locks are trivially unlocked without having to use brute force:

- All mainstream combination locks are trivially decoded with a modicum of knowledge. You can teach yourself to do it in 5 minutes with a youtube video. It's annoying because not having to carry a key is definitely nice, but in terms of anti-theft measures you might as well put a "plz don't steal" post-it on your bag.

- Many small padlocks use a spring loaded mechanism to lock the shackle (similar to the one in this post). Mostly for convenience as far as I can tell, since it means that you can lock it without having to use the key. It turn that means that most of these locks can be bumped (like in this post) or shimed.

- Many (but not all) of these lock have a very poorly designed core that often allows bypassing the pins entirely (you insert a lockpick all the way through the keyway and you can trigger the unlocking mechanism at the back without having to actually pick anything). Even if that's not an option the vast majority of small padlocks out there are not hugely pick-resistant.

Basically a semi-competent locksmith will be able to get them open in less than a minute. And of course at this size you don't even need any skill if destructive entry is an option, you can break them open with two wrenches.

My conclusion is that these small locks are really about keeping honest people honest and preventing opportunistic theft, but if you want to go beyond that you'll have to take a big leap in size and cost.

I never thought that a luggage lock is a great theft deterrent.

It's useful that your luggage can't just be opened up quickly and on the sly. For example when you check a suitcase in by baggage handlers [1]

Same goes for hotel room safes. I would certainly not store anything very valuable in there. But to lock away a couple hundred euros, some equipment and your cards, which you don't need to carry on your person it's good enough.

Certainly much better than just having your valuables lying around openly.

[1] Sure, a baggage handler with a set of TSA master keys can open it very quickly and possibly discreetly. Who has ever thought about anything which can go wrong with that implementation?

e: clarification

> Same goes for hotel room safes. I would certainly not store anything very valuable in there. But to lock away a couple hundred euros, some equipment and your cards, which you don't need to carry on your person it's good enough.

For stuff like that I usually just try and find a good hiding spot.

The hotel safes are trivial to open (most don't even bother changing the factory master password...) and that's the first place anyone is going to look for stuff to steal.

It's kinda like if the hotel room had an open wicker basket with a sign saying "STORE VALUABLES HERE"--you'd probably keep them literally anywhere _but_ there.

From what I've seen on youtube, pretty much every lock you see on a day to day basis is trivially bypassed. Unless you buy a fancy lock (and even then there is probably a way around it if you work hard enough), they act as a deterrent but if someone wants to break in or steal something they can whether it is a padlock or a door lock.

I wonder if they built it without overrides to start with and then their lawyers got skittish and told them to put them in.

I can see all sorts of potential for awful behavior with this lock (child abuse, etc.) that company counsel would be afraid of.

> I can see all sorts of potential for awful behavior with this lock (child abuse, etc.) that company counsel would be afraid of.

I mean. Anything this lock can do can be done with a regular lock too, so I don't see why any lawyers would get skittish about that.

Also, I seriously doubt that Chinese companies that produce cheap products like these ever consult with lawyers.

But a normal lock you can open any time you want when you realize that you have made a mistake. This is a notable difference in a lot of circumstances because humans often make poor decisions, so the ability to correct them is important.

Looks like you can open this lock any time you want, too.

If lawyers are involved, they are concerned with the fact that they ship a 150mWh battery, labelled 200mWh.

This barely being a lock in the first place, though

Shady chinese manufacturers on Alibaba don't have a company counsel.

In my experience supporting anti-procrastination software, the number 1 risk is the user will mess up configuring the time.

You know, aiming to lock for a day but accidentally locking for a year and a day.

Since it says "A new way of self-discipline" on the side, I imagine it's marketed for self-bondage and no overrides might be fatal.

These were a thing back in the 70's. Except it was mechanical instead of "self developed chip."

The 70's version probably worked better because with the incessant ticking off the timer, you'd put it in the garage or a shed or somewhere else inconvenient.

Interesting that aliexpress is now the yard to find the weird stuff

Wait till you see their ads. Start with a generic tag line like 'From house to home' or 'Everything for beautiful women'. Then put any random thing under it. Like 10 different vendors of the same box of 500 screws I just bought.

Another time I bought an antistatic rubber mat for electronics. Ali express ads have only 1 reaction for the keyword rubber, so for 6 months I got ads for all kinds of rubber ... things.. for, you know ... hobbies...

Indeed: https://m.aliexpress.com/item/1005001926801581.html

or buy and old Bank Vault Time Lock

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_lock

https://gaslampantiques.com/shop/historic-bank-vault-time-lo...

Well, they made sells.

I love foone's threads, and the tweet format gives them a great sequential format.

I've never heard anybody say they like these kinds of threads before. Maybe it's better on mobile, but Twitter makes it very difficult to browse on desktop.

How do they show up for you?

For me (on desktop) it looks like a list of tweets, one after another, sometimes with a "Load more of this thread" link in the middle.

For me they show up like that as well. But I still find that the format gives a weird stuttering to the conversation and adds so much "chrome" noise around the actual content.

In general I don't click twitter links on HN because I find the format painful for anything but short content. However I do make an exception for Foone as they have a lot of interesting stuff.

Can we just have a sticky on every foone post on HN to tell people to stop complaining about it being a Twitter thread? Maybe then Foone himself [wouldn't hate being featured on Hacker News so much][0]. Not to mention he has a perfectly good reason to use Twitter threads (which he explains over and over): he has ADHD and it's a way to cope with it.

[0]: https://twitter.com/Foone/status/1372945388664066061?s=20

And unrolled:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1372945388664066061.html

*themself

*they have

Thank you from another they/them!

my bad, sorry about that. I think it's too late to edit? The button's no longer there.

I don't really see how typing into Twitter's UI is any different than typing into a Notepad file. Just type the thought and hit <enter>. Any editing beyond that might be appreciated but isn't required.

I love his stream of consciousness threads, but I always "unroll" them:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1387999563382857729.html

I mainly don't want the rest of Twitter added into my experience or life, so this helps immensely.

That is fascinating, genuinely!

I would've assumed that's the one universally reviled thing in the world (awkward stuttery twitter threads, as opposed to just an article/blog), but my assumptions are challenged again (always a good thing :).

Foone’s brain is a fascinating one.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com