Going down?

I am concerned, I am very concerned. First it was computer code breaking, then it was phone phreaking. Next came spamming and computer 'conning' but now as I trawl through the wonderful www, I have been shocked, no stunned; to find a new type of mechanical exploitation which is gaining popularity. Move over cash machines! Here comes elevator 'hacking'.

Picture this, you are on the top floor of your hotel and its checkout time. You can't really use the stairs with your luggage but you know that the lift will need to stop several times on its journey from the top to the ground floor... What a pity!

Now imagine you are on the 20th floor, Halfway down. You too need to check out and you also have luggage. You notice that the elevator is on the top floor so you press the call button, expecting the elevator to stop and pick you up as part of its journey. The numbers decrease 30, 29,28... You grab your bags 23,22,21. You step forward and wait for the reassuring ping accompanied by door movement but what's this? It just sails past.... Swwiisshhh! 19,18,17......1

The elevator has been 'hijacked' by some unscrupulous 'easy rider' who has 'expressed' his way from the top floor to checkout in time. This vertical 'joy rider' has circumnavigated the circuitry and broken the elevator code of ethics to save his skin while you have to wait 10 mins for the lift to go back up then pick you up on the way down again but how can this be?

It amazing what bloggers write about...

Allow me to quote from an unnamed source. "You can 'hack' the elevator quite easily. This will work on early all the lifts, even those with a key for service mode. The only lifts that this won't work on is the 1992 Otis models along with the Desert Elevators ELD5433 and ELF3655.

Now at this point, I'm not sure what is most disturbing, the fact that there are people who are prepared to actually do this, or that there are people who have taken the time to research lift model numbers and specifications. Frankly I'd rather 'save face' and visit a few more floors on my journey, but hey!

The blogger continues "your 'laughing' if its the Dover (Model Numbers: EL546 And ELOD862), cos I've tested this personally" He finishes with "This is a rather fun hack, so the next time you are on an elevator, give it a try, you have nothing to lose, And this concludes Hacking Elevators 101!"

Beating life's ups and downs?

So what's the secret to squeezing those seconds from your journey time while thoroughly frustrating the other 27 people left standing? We'll I'm not actually going to say. The reason for my post here is to write about what others have written, it isn't to 'spread the good news'

Suffice to say, what next? Will we be overclocking toasters or maybe hacking precise medical instruments to see if theres a hidden 'game' in there somewhere? It seems to me that wherever technology is concerned, there's always someone (usually with a blog too) to exploit and manipulate the rules either for fun or in this case, for that ultimate 'high'.