<p>I thought it was. It's what I get for being around guys for 6 hours straight.</p>
<p>What you sayin' about guys ;)</p>
<p>No innuendoes tonight, I'm too tired</p>
<p>haha canuck, i was just referring to the face that key cards don't fit in keyholes. like physically, they don't match. but you kept on talking about how it's hard to swipe the card the right way. haha you need to go to sleep.</p>
<p>I got it. Although, I may or may not have tried to stick my room key in the outside lock to the suite (keycard lock), and my key may or may not have gotten jammed in the outside lock (it came out eventually).</p>
<p>The first time I came to the IRC, the main door was (naturally) locked, and I thought I had to put my room key in the keyhole. It didn't hit me that mechanical keys were not like hotel keys and my room door couldn't be the same as the main door.</p>
<p>galoisien, I did the exact same thing. I just thought you had the option of using your room key or the keycard and code, since my room key was out, I didn't want to dig for the card. I guess the keyhole on the outside doors is for maintenance or someone.</p>
<p>Or the old days when keycards were probably thought of as little paper cards a key came on, or something dumb like that, and you really did need a key for the front door. I have no idea whether in the old days, prior to electronic keycards, if the front doors of the dorms were locked. We have enough alumni kiddies on here, so someone ask mom or dad (or, HooHopefulDad!!!) , I don't feel like calling my uncle ('64).</p>
<p>And Kellogg has keycard doors everywhere, and ac, and carpet, and leather couches, and everything :( phhh!</p>
<p>EZ-link-style card readers would probably be too expensive, wouldn't it?</p>
<p>Go figure, it's what's in use by transit in Singapore! But seriously, those would be pretty sick, let's push for some more public funding.</p>
<p>Or more from the endowment...? I mean for example, the IRC alone has $30,000 to spend for its budget. Perhaps the e-school could find a low cost solution. ;)</p>
<p>(And also, post 29 should say, "wouldn't they" ... damn 20-minute editing limit)</p>
<p>P.S. [url=<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Defaced_EZ-Link_Card.jpg%5Dthis%5B/url">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Defaced_EZ-Link_Card.jpg]this[/url</a>] should give you e-schoolers some direction .... are those big rectangles just inductance coils? I've always been amazed at how much distance those cards go through -- girls can have the cards deep inside their handbags, with makeup and other things, and the card still reads. Also -- no more long lines at Newcomb!</p>
![http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Defaced_EZ-Link_Card.jpg%5Dthis%5B/url">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Defaced_EZ-Link_Card.jpg]this[/url</a>](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Defaced_EZ-Link_Card.jpg%5Dthis%5B/url%22>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Defaced_EZ-Link_Card.jpg%5Dthis%5B/url</a>){kind=link}
<p>Perhaps they could give your $30,000 (which is a RIDICULOUS amount of money to give to a res-college) to the e-school to actually fund us. Don't lay your totally pointless ideas on us, we don't work magic. We're too busy getting slaughtered by Taylor series and bad Signals&Systems teachers (gack!!! freaking electromagnetic fields...none of you would ever understand)...also, we're quite busy eating smartasses.</p>
<p>PS- no. Those "big rectangles" are not inductance coils. They are heat sinks and ground connectors on the PCB , which are fabricated in PCB assembly plants, not in actually PCB plants. A PCB is a "Printed Circuit Board", which is the "green thing" in all of your nifty electronics, including that computer you keep abusing. The heat sinks are designed to prevent that little board from overheating, which can lead to the destruction of parts on the board, such as resistors, conductors, transistors, etc. All of those parts become very expensive in mass production (as in, 4 or 5 cents a part, instead of 1 cent). Anyways, the actual place where they will be placed is made during manufacturing, as solder mask (put down so solder can't flow) is put anywhere except where solder should be. Then, during assembly, a stencil is made where solder should go, and a solder paste is applied. This solder is often primarily lead, but with ROHS standards in place in Europe due to the EU, lead is not used for major products that could be exported to countries that have ROHS standards, or the ban of lead in electronics. Tin is used instead, but tin can also be mixed in with the lead in lead paste. The "pasted board" is then stuck in an oven, and the "paths" appear, connecting your components and producing your heat sinks.
And what you see there is so old school, the e-school would laugh at you. Nice "direction". It directs us back to the stone ages.
PPS- don't try to act smart with electronics when an EE major, who worked at Texas Instruments under some of the brightest minds in this kind of stuff and saw all of this/production first hand. She'll own you.</p>
<p>PPPS- RF signals penetrate anything, including you. Hence why we use them. It's not that surprising with the distance.<br>
PPPPS- do you realize how expensive this would be? And, again, don't lay it on the e-school. It's a waste of time, and money we don't have, because you can't stand in line for 3 extra minutes.</p>
<p>
[quote]
don't try to act smart with electronics when an EE major, who worked at Texas Instruments under some of the brightest minds in this kind of stuff and saw all of this/production first hand. She'll own you.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Ehh I'm a total layman here. Consider me a "dabbler". I just wanted to know kthx. In fact, I thought it was a rather silly suggestion, but that's what they first came to mind for. :p </p>
<p>Re: old school -- um, I was just having a wild suggestion. Also, I didn't mean to jump to conclusions about anything -- I have no idea how you fit an RF transmitter in a flat <em>card</em> .... It's amazing to me. Not to you. I had no idea if the mechanism was that simple or not.</p>
<p>And if it's old school, why would it be that expensive? In Singapore the cards have an inbuilt-cost of 3 Singapore dollars ... it doesn't look much more expensive than a magnetic strip card.</p>
<p>
[quote]
including that computer you keep abusing.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>?????</p>
<p>Well, I'm happily using UVA's PUBLIC computer facilities, and I also have homework to type, so forgive me for abusing YOUR school's computers. ;)</p>
<p>P.S. Convenience is convenience. It means a less chances of getting locked outside, fumbling with your card to pay to turn on the washing machines, WHILE you are doing laundry with spilled detergent on your hands, or getting stuck in say, the Munford-Gwathmey breezeway (which has card-locked doors at both ends, and the other exits are emergency exits). I've gotten myself locked in that breezeway at 3 AM after finishing a report at the Munford computer lab and I had to escape through a window, then knock desperately at a first-floor window that had its lights on so I could be let back in (I had apparently dropped my card somewhere). And since I've only been a few weeks at this school, well ... that should say something. All that taking your card out and putting it back in (or forgetting to put it back in, especially when the door locks back after a few seconds so you have to rush through it) means a higher chance of dropping your card or leaving it somewhere. Take for example, a card I found the other day on the floor of O'Hill. The guy probably lost it in the swiping rush.</p>
<ol>
<li> Didn't say it was expensive. You didn't read what I wrote. I said that the heat sinks keep the board from overheating, because otherwise you would have to use more expensive parts that can withstand the heat. Hence why they make the heat sinks: so it's cheap.</li>
<li>Don't go saying stuff along the lines of giving e-schoolers a boost in something, because we have a heck of a lot of better things to be doing with out time. That's what I was saying, not just pointing out it's old school</li>
<li>I never locked myself out. You should learn to carry a wallet with you with ID and money, and you can stick your room key in it too. And I did my laundry perfectly fine with a card. Wash your hands if they get messy. And your forgetting your card does say something: you're absent-minded. You sort of deserve to be locked out at this point. Who says you won't lose your transmitter? People get by with the card system all over the country. Two seconds of convince here and there isn't worth the trouble and expense. You have a higher chance of ruining the transmitter, and most likely, it won't be the size of a card. The normal world would think of it as a pain in the butt.</li>
</ol>
<p>
[quote]
do you realize how expensive this would be?
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I am getting confused.</p>
<p>Probably you, an advanced student, would have better things to do, but why not as a first-year project? Because I know that if I were an e-schooler (which you have in the past discouraged me from), in my first-year at least, I might be interested in tinkering with stuff. P.S. Is it any less frivolous to have automatic laundry alerts?? </p>
<p>Okay okay so contactless cards are NOT a good suggestion. But OMG I wasn't trying to be a smartass. I was just speculating. All-theory-no-action folks like me tend to be like that. I have no idea what goes into smartcard production, and I assume most of my peers EXCEPT engineering students would be likewise, and lastly, my suggestion wasn't serious. </p>
<p>And I am obviously distracted because I've encountered a mental block with my composition so where people might crack out a beer or watch television or maybe take a jog at midnight I have decided to do online forumming. It's about as enjoyable as cheap moonshine, but it is probably more compulsive. </p>
<p>
[quote]
You should learn to carry a wallet with you with ID and money, and you can stick your room key in it too.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Well I do. Nevertheless, the ID card finds frequent detachment from the cardholder. Somehow. And getting locked out at the IRC is a common affair, so it's not just me. </p>
<p>Anyway since we need to get off this topic, let us turn to more fruitful affairs. Did anyone here attend the "Hoos Against Single Sanction" event? Thoughts?</p>
<ol>
<li>A first year project? I think that would be called slavery. And, there's no way a first year could build something like that. Electronics is not just arts and crafts. That's what college kids do (;))</li>
<li>Cheap moonshine isn't enjoyable. Trust me.</li>
<li>Buy a better cardholder. I've never lost mine in my wallet. DB and Powderpuff probably know what I'm talking about when I say "zip wallet in Hoile Toile"</li>
</ol>
<p>
[quote]
Cheap moonshine isn't enjoyable. Trust me.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Exactly. I don't know if you've ever felt compelled to watch television when there's nothing on, have due dates and though you hate the stupidity of it. But it's like that. Only you substitute "television" with "online forums". </p>
<p>Anyway ... why are YOU up on CC? You seem just as equally guilty.</p>
<p>
[quote]
A first year project? I think that would be called slavery. And, there's no way a first year could build something like that.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>So it's too hard for first years, but beneath a third-year like you.... well, maybe we will have better luck with second-years.**</p>
<p>
[quote]
That's what college kids do
[/quote]
</p>
<p>:(</p>
<p>** Not that I am still suggesting using contactless cards. I refer to the general effort of trying to make "public solutions" out of hacks.</p>
<ol>
<li>Um, it's my life. I finish stuff early and can stay up on CC into the night and not worry about forgetting crap due the next day. Nor do I complete assignments at the last minute and therefor forget stuff and try to blame it on something else.</li>
<li>YOU NEED TO LEARN TO READ. Designing difficult electronic circuits like that is hard for anyone. I couldn't even do it. Soldering is not just picked up overnight, either. I'm pretty good at it, but only because it was a huge part of my job this past summer, and my dad has taught me before. But forcing first years to produce something for the university is basically slavery. I never once said it was below me or above them just because they're first years. It's post-college work.</li>
<li> I won't even comment on the "public solutions out of hacks".</li>
</ol>
<p>I don't quite understand why you want students to do all this stuff. Design a new COD, make new door locks...you're paying $40 000/yr to study, not build useless stuff.</p>