MIT Students Love iPhone-Powered Doors, Hate Actual Keys | Hacker News Reader

MIT Students Love iPhone-Powered Doors, Hate Actual Keys

popsci.com

Seems like quite a logical jump between the article content (one MIT student decided to hack his door to be controlled by his iPhone) and the headline (all MIT students have iPhone-controlled doors and love them).

Popsci international redirect fail.

If you visit http://www.popsci.com/diy/article/2009-07/mit-students-love-... from Australia it directs you to http://www.popsci.com.au/

Go to http://www.popsci.com.au/diy/article/2009-07/mit-students-lo... to get the full article.

Which redirects me to popsci.com which redirects me back to popsci.com.au in an endless cycle. Ugh.

My boss' wife called him the other day in total panic, the battery in her car remote had failed and she had to get somewhere fast. Once she calmed down enough to listen she was really embarassed about the whole, you know, open the door with a key thing.

What about the alarm and the immobiliser? I know if I can't use my car remote - i've got serious issues - first the alarm will sound as soon as I turn it in the door - and then the engine wont start.. (And my car is 14 years old)

Maybe not with a 14 year old car, but most cars with keyless entry and an alarm will have an internal disable switch (as stupid as it sounds). Break into the car, the alarm goes off, disable the alarm. As for immobilisiers, if you have the microchip in the key, there's no reason it should immobilise?

:) The two alarm systems I have owned are both old Toyota ones. Both keys are normal metal - no microchip - it's the beeper that disables the immobiliser. I am wondering about if I have a

The point was more that the distraught caller might not want to look like she's breaking into a car out on the street.

"this bookworm can't remember"

bookworm seems like a vaguely perjorative term

I love the door hack. I would probably disable the knock though because your neighbor could overhear the secret knock and steal all your 2600 magazines or perform one of the fabled MIT pranks.

I remember when visiting a friend at mit 2 years ago, I at one point encountered a gal who had an RFID injected into her hand for easy entry to her room, and i was also shown a room where the door frame was decorated with bronze/brass leaves such that if you pressed them in the right order, you'd gain entry (sadly, i think it was only active several residents previously). Crazy / Beautiful ways to open doors are nothing new at mit

Perhaps the knock changes on a daily or hourly basis!

One-time-use knocking patterns?

This room is also reachable through a fifth-floor ledge (as long as you don't get run over by one of the shopping cart races up there).

Whats most interesting about this article is how they go from 'MIT student with iphone controlled door' ---> 'complete nerd' without any other prompting.

"bookworm can't remember" "taps into the dorm room sink (which no nerd needs)"

I think the strangest thing about this is that someone at mit would have an iPhone. (Rather than android, or palm based one.)

Maybe he jailbroke it.

Is it possible to write an remote(I should be able to use with my Sony TV, BOSE music system ...) application? I tried searching iTunes store didn't find any. Are there any technical limitations?

Yes, the iPhone doesn't have an IR transmitter, for one.

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