Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations • Hacker News Board

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#71

Post by lotharbot » Fri, Oct 26, 2012, 3:00 AM UTC

ChuckMcM wrote: post #26

gggaaahhh wrote: post #13

So now instead of carrying my keys around I get to carry a phone charger...terrific?

I always wonder about drive-by trolling. Suggestion to pg, make it so that accounts cannot post their first comment for 24hrs. That said, this sort of complaint is not uncommon, I saw a lot of "Gee why not use a hidey hole? or a camo-rock?" and the answer is, of course, that for the use case these folks are targeting divulging the secret hiding space to a temporary renter means you need a new hiding space for the nex…

> " Suggestion to pg, make it so that accounts cannot post their first comment for 24hrs."

Two problems with this approach:

1) if someone's post happens to make it big on HN and they discover us through their logs, they can't give feedback while their posts is still on the frontpage.

2) HN has a long tradition of throwaway accounts [0] being used to give valuable input in sensitive discussions (abuse, corruption, medical, financial, family/social, or legally dangerous.) A waiting period means those contributions won't be made, or at the very least, won't be seen by the majority of readers.

The price of getting rid of drive-by trolling is that we lose these contributions. Seems better to just downvote or flag the trolls, and keep the really excellent stuff.

[0] There are some real gems among http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/all&q=throwaway&#...

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#72

Post by Firehed » Fri, Oct 26, 2012, 3:09 AM UTC

lessnonymous wrote: post #36

majormajor wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider everyone who lives in an apartment who doesn't have the option of replacing their lock (and I wouldn't really want to anyway... I rather prefer the unchanged external appearance of this product). IIRC, you can also easily deauthorize users, so it's also the cheapest way I can think of to retrofit something into being a shared space where you want to be able to control access going forward. It's not the perfe…

So .. it stops physical keys from working?

No, you just don't give them out in the first place.

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#73

Post by balabaster » Fri, Oct 26, 2012, 3:10 AM UTC

lessnonymous wrote: post #38

zacharycohn wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To answer your questions: 1) Why? Faster than keys. And I might forget my keys, but I won't forget my phone. Also, if a neighbor wants to borrow something, I can let them in remotely and lock the door behind me. 2) No, but I often am not sure if I locked the door or not. Or see the above example with a neighbor. 3) I don't see how that's relevant. If I'm home, I'll walk over and open the door. Or if they yell "It's J…

1. Faster than keys? Wow .. you need faster keys .. it's WAY faster for me to pull my key out of my pocket than my phone. And I don't have to unlock my phone, find the app, launch it and anything else the app needs me to do (PIN?) 1b. That's the most expensive let-in-a-neighbour idea ever. My neighbours have a spare key to my place. If you're going to trust them once, why not just trust them? 2. Again .. a really exp…

The biggest use case for me is the proximity lock/unlock feature so that when I approach the door, it detects (via bluetooth) my phone and unlocks for me without me needing to go in my pocket for my keys... I just approach the door and walk in as if it were unlocked... just like my car.

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#74

Post by krapp » Fri, Oct 26, 2012, 3:15 AM UTC

lotharbot wrote: post #71

ChuckMcM wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always wonder about drive-by trolling. Suggestion to pg, make it so that accounts cannot post their first comment for 24hrs. That said, this sort of complaint is not uncommon, I saw a lot of "Gee why not use a hidey hole? or a camo-rock?" and the answer is, of course, that for the use case these folks are targeting divulging the secret hiding space to a temporary renter means you need a new hiding space for the nex…

> " Suggestion to pg, make it so that accounts cannot post their first comment for 24hrs." Two problems with this approach: 1) if someone's post happens to make it big on HN and they discover us through their logs, they can't give feedback while their posts is still on the frontpage. 2) HN has a long tradition of throwaway accounts [0] being used to give valuable input in sensitive discussions (abuse, corruption, med…

In this particular case, keeping track of the similarity between posts might have helped. There's no legitimate reason to post the exact same content several times that I'm aware of.

Post quoting might end up being an issue though.

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#75

Post by lessnonymous » Fri, Oct 26, 2012, 3:16 AM UTC

paulgerhardt wrote: post #41

lessnonymous wrote: post #29

This is bananas! Please, someone who has reserved one .. WHY do you need to open your deadbolt from anywhere other than your front door? Do you often find yourself down the street / at work / in an overseas hotel with the need to open the deadbolt? Don't you want to see who's there? Don't you have a second lock built into the knob? It's an interesting idea to control a mechanical object (lock) with an internet connec…

Founder bias here, but... As someone who lives with three adult roommates who all have S.O.'s we have people in and out all the time. As someone who lived by himself in college it was nice to know when the landlord came by. As someone who runs a startup, it provides more benefit than a typical modern access control system without the $3000 price tag. For American locks, the deadbolt provides most of the security. The…

Hi Paul, thanks for your reply, and congrats on the campaign! Forgive my scepticism around the product, instead take it as a sign of respect from someone in marketing ;-D

> As someone who lives with three adult roommates who all have S.O.'s we have people in and out all the time.

Do standard keys not work for this? Or do you often have bad breakups that would mean physical danger if someone didn't give their key back and the landlord couldn't replace the lock?

> As someone who lived by himself in college it was nice to know when the landlord came by.

Interesting .. it's illegal here in Australia for a landlord to enter a rented property without seven days notice and they can only do that (twice?) per year for an inspection. It's possible that it does happen to some people, but there's fairly clear laws about it.

> As someone who runs a startup, it provides more benefit than a typical modern access control system without the $3000 price tag.

Again .. keys aren't that expensive if you're not using serviced office space.

> For American locks, the deadbolt provides most of the security. The handle can usually be loided and is kind of only useful if you're stepping out for a minute to grab the mail and want to shut the door behind you.

Interesting .. is "loiding" really a common problem that causes most break-ins? Around here, nobody bothers with locked doors. They either find a window that's open (or can be forced) or they move to the next house. (Or they're meth heads who'll just break shit and nobody's lock would stop them). Basically, nobody breaks into anywhere via the front door.

> For letting someone in remotely, you usually have an idea that they're coming over first. If they were to show up unsolicited, you would likely call first.

I'd never let anyone into my house that I wasn't expecting and had therefore not provided a key for. If a friend arrived at my home unexpectedly I'd .. actually, that's never happened.

Thanks for your response and entertaining my scepticism!

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#76

Post by jessaustin » Fri, Oct 26, 2012, 3:17 AM UTC

lessnonymous wrote: post #36

majormajor wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consider everyone who lives in an apartment who doesn't have the option of replacing their lock (and I wouldn't really want to anyway... I rather prefer the unchanged external appearance of this product). IIRC, you can also easily deauthorize users, so it's also the cheapest way I can think of to retrofit something into being a shared space where you want to be able to control access going forward. It's not the perfe…

So .. it stops physical keys from working?

No, it doesn't. Presumably the parent is describing a situation in which a temporary guest wouldn't receive a physical key at any time, but would have temporary access through the app.

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#77

Post by lotharbot » Fri, Oct 26, 2012, 3:22 AM UTC

krapp wrote: post #74

lotharbot wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> " Suggestion to pg, make it so that accounts cannot post their first comment for 24hrs." Two problems with this approach: 1) if someone's post happens to make it big on HN and they discover us through their logs, they can't give feedback while their posts is still on the frontpage. 2) HN has a long tradition of throwaway accounts [0] being used to give valuable input in sensitive discussions (abuse, corruption, med…

In this particular case, keeping track of the similarity between posts might have helped. There's no legitimate reason to post the exact same content several times that I'm aware of. Post quoting might end up being an issue though.

The software auto-kills duplicate posts.

You're probably seeing them because you've turned on showdead.

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#78

Post by krapp » Fri, Oct 26, 2012, 3:24 AM UTC

lotharbot wrote: post #77

krapp wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In this particular case, keeping track of the similarity between posts might have helped. There's no legitimate reason to post the exact same content several times that I'm aware of. Post quoting might end up being an issue though.

The software auto-kills duplicate posts. You're probably seeing them because you've turned on showdead.

You're right, I did. My mistake then. Still a newb.

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#79

Post by adgar2 » Fri, Oct 26, 2012, 3:49 AM UTC

kami8845 wrote: post #42

dchichkov wrote: post #11

It really pays to check how ones company name sounds in different languages. Because in some cases connotations could be not even funny :( For example in russian, lockitron sounds very similar to 'lohotron' which translates as con game, scam etc.

This is a non-issue. Look at MongoDB. If you want to say "You're a retard" in German you'd say "Du bist ein Mongo". Mongo being short for mongoloid and just as `politically incorrect` as retard is in the English speaking world. If anything the name made the product more memorable for me (and I use it almost every day now)

MongoDB is considered a complete joke by most who've programmed a distributed system.

So.... poor example.

Re: Lockitron exceeds $2,000,000 in reservations

#80

Post by krapp » Fri, Oct 26, 2012, 3:50 AM UTC

jontas wrote: post #62

lessnonymous wrote: post #29

This is bananas! Please, someone who has reserved one .. WHY do you need to open your deadbolt from anywhere other than your front door? Do you often find yourself down the street / at work / in an overseas hotel with the need to open the deadbolt? Don't you want to see who's there? Don't you have a second lock built into the knob? It's an interesting idea to control a mechanical object (lock) with an internet connec…

I have not ordered one, but here is how I see it: It is a step towards what the world will be like at some future point, when everything about your home (and life) is managed from your phone (or some kind of device). I'm not trying to sound futuristic and sci-fi, but I'm sure we will reach a point where there are no keys, just doors that unlock automatically and open for you based on proximity and identity verificati…

> I see it as an intermediary step on the path to totally rethinking doors and physical access in general.

I don't believe doors and physical access in general need to be rethought, except maybe to improve the security of physical locks themselves. The 'big dumb thing between you and my stuff you'd need a sledgehammer to get past without a key' model has mostly worked for a good long while. (Or, fine, a crooked bit of wire if you're clever.) Why does that need to be disrupted?