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Lock-Picking Robot

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Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#111

Post by Dilettante_ »

cush wrote: post #80
pipes wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yet, if I said my wife belonged to me I think I would get a few rebukes.

Why not just have a conversation in good faith? Instead of assuming the person you're chatting with is talking about slavery, and then when they clarify they're not talking about slavery, and you saying that it could be about slavery, you could just as easily say, "oh I misunderstood you". Sometimes humans have misunderstandings. Languages are messy. Just let it go.

They didn't misunderstand, they challenged the phrasing. Some people believe that words have power and language matters(or at least are entertaining the idea).

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#112

Post by ImPostingOnHN »

dec0dedab0de wrote: post #53
ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And once the distinction is made?

pay people who are victims of excessive damage, and punish the people responsible.

Ah, that leaves us where we are now: able to recognize excessive force and excessive damage, but lacking the ability to punish the people responsible, who also decide not to pay victims anything.

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#113

Post by BrandoElFollito »

cush wrote: post #23

The number of comments in here slandering the developer’s morality for picking locks is actually pretty surprising for a site literally called Hacker News. Every day there’s a story on the front page of some grey/white-hat showing off an exploit they found to infiltrate a site we all use. It’s an odd double standard.

Picking locks is a tradition in hacking. So morality is already off the table. Except if this is to save a cat - the offical reason for lockpicking in the 90s.

Now, the robot is hardly something you put together between dessert and coffee. Someone building this must have a live for hardware and lockpicking is just a pretext.

And think about the cats!

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#115

Post by cloudfudge »

keybored wrote: post #28
cush wrote: post #23

The number of comments in here slandering the developer’s morality for picking locks is actually pretty surprising for a site literally called Hacker News. Every day there’s a story on the front page of some grey/white-hat showing off an exploit they found to infiltrate a site we all use. It’s an odd double standard.

The title of this website is literally in another sense than white/grey/black hacker.

If I never hear nerds bicker over the various meanings of the word 'hacker' again, it will be too soon.

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#116

Post by huflungdung »

fencepost wrote: post #103

I feel like developing something that could actually pick locks including detecting binding pins, etc. is in the category of "not actually that hard if you devote the resources to it." On the mechanical side there would certainly be some challenges (having to work within a key that's all the deepest cuts, using something that could push up to "shallowest cut" level without deforming, general structural strength probl…

[dead]

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#117

Post by cloudfudge »

fencepost wrote: post #103

I feel like developing something that could actually pick locks including detecting binding pins, etc. is in the category of "not actually that hard if you devote the resources to it." On the mechanical side there would certainly be some challenges (having to work within a key that's all the deepest cuts, using something that could push up to "shallowest cut" level without deforming, general structural strength probl…

I think the biggest problem is that the amount of tension you need to apply to hold the binding pins can vary quite a bit, and it's hard to build a mechanical device that can feel with enough fidelity to figure it out.

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#118

Post by johnfn »

cloudfudge wrote: post #115
keybored wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The title of this website is literally in another sense than white/grey/black hacker.

If I never hear nerds bicker over the various meanings of the word 'hacker' again, it will be too soon.

Literally from the horse's mouth, 15 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1648199

> In the sense of the word that means people who write code, not people who break into things

It would be like if you were going over a list of pros and cons and when you got to the cons some guy was like "wow, you work with criminals, huh?" Then you tell him not that sort of con and he says "yeah, typical nerd bickering".

C'mon.

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#119

Post by johnfn »

cush wrote: post #23

The number of comments in here slandering the developer’s morality for picking locks is actually pretty surprising for a site literally called Hacker News. Every day there’s a story on the front page of some grey/white-hat showing off an exploit they found to infiltrate a site we all use. It’s an odd double standard.

But that isn't what "Hacker" means. Take it from pg, who named the site, 15 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1648199

> In the sense of the word that means people who write code, not people who break into things

Re: Lock-Picking Robot

#120

Post by Alive-in-2025 »

BrandoElFollito wrote: post #113
cush wrote: post #23

The number of comments in here slandering the developer’s morality for picking locks is actually pretty surprising for a site literally called Hacker News. Every day there’s a story on the front page of some grey/white-hat showing off an exploit they found to infiltrate a site we all use. It’s an odd double standard.

Picking locks is a tradition in hacking. So morality is already off the table. Except if this is to save a cat - the offical reason for lockpicking in the 90s. Now, the robot is hardly something you put together between dessert and coffee. Someone building this must have a live for hardware and lockpicking is just a pretext. And think about the cats!

Does anyone even know about the classic MIT Guide to Lockpicking? Back in the day, it was so entertaining to come across this while in grad school and enjoying reading it instead of working on actual work.

We are made to be technical tinkerers, playing with tech, seeing if sending that input to that program will crash it. I see it not as a moral issue but as a technical skill, to understand how to work with systems, explore what doesn't work. That way you gain skills in how to make things work better.

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