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>which floors the elevators idle at... I recently spent 4 months in hospital which left me with an amount of time to kill in an attempt to stay sane. One of th

>which floors the elevators idle at... I recently spent 4 months in hospital which left me with an amount of time to kill in an attempt to stay sane. One of the games was trying to get places I was technically allowed but really shouldn't have been ("sod your 'no public access' signs, in not public, I'm an inpatient!"). Being confined to a wheelchair made the game a bit more difficult. One day one of the ward staff mentioned that the building used to have a 4th floor which got mothballed years ago. None of the elevators had a button for it and trying to get up a flight of stairs wasn't an option. After puzzling for a while, I finally realised that one of the elevators was still set to idle on the 4th floor. Get in the elevator, don't press any buttons, read a book for 10 minutes and bam - elevator returns itself to the 4th floor, opens the doors and goes ping. I wheel myself out to find I'm not just on the 4th floor, but also behind (on the inside of) the locked doors at the top of the stairs, which I counted as a double win ;)

lucb1e 5y ago
That's amazing. I'll be trying that trick next time I have some time to kill in a building! We also play the game sometimes of getting places we're not supposed to (as consultants). Walk around like you're from IT and are supposed to be there (technically both true), perhaps with a laptop under your arm, nobody will care what you do to any of the computers there. In schools and hospitals, and probably other places, try (variants of) the city you're in as password, perhaps combined with the postal code, and you usually get access to everything because of course the staff needs to actually help you. The username is pre-filled, don't worry about that (most of the time that's the field with more entropy). It's honestly terrifying and short of locking rooms (because some of the personnel needs fast access to computers, preferably faster than plugging in and out smartcards all day long) there just isn't really a solution. I'm pretty sure we could have walked into a surgery room, we steered clear of any place that looked like it might head us into places with patients under actual operation. Why those aren't locked I don't know, probably there is a good reason so probably they can't change that...
- spicybright 5y ago
  I'm sure for surgery rooms (at least), needing someone to rush in to help and having them fumble with ID cards outweighs a bad party trying to, I guess, muck up a surgery or something.
  - bombcar 5y ago
    “Men are better than gates” - Gandalf - the real security on the surgery rooms are those in them.
  - em-bee 5y ago
    in the hospitals that i have been for visits usually the whole intensive care area and other sensitive areas were access controlled. so while the door to the actual surgery room might have been open, you are often not even allowed anywhere near.
  - templeos3 5y ago
    Very rarely do you have people rushing in to surgery rooms. Despite TV dramas, most surgeries are not high risk, most surgical patients are not critically ill, and those that are tend to be pre-staffed for the risk. OR rooms are not usually locked but the surgical suite sure is. The bigger issue with the surgical suite is proper attire. ICUs are a different matter (where coincidentally I happen to be tonight). Generally all the staff you need is already on the locked side of the unit.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
bombcar 5y ago
Hopefully you don’t have to spend the time again - but if you do it’s very easy to buy the fireman’s key on eBay. You didn’t hear that here.
- wolrah 5y ago
  Relevant video discussing fire keys and other common keys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9b9IYqsb_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9b9IYqsb_U And since this thread is about elevators, I have to also mention another video of theirs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUvGfuLlZus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUvGfuLlZus
em-bee 5y ago
our elevator allows undoing pressed buttons. if no buttons are pressed, then the elevator will stop. now you could play a game where you try to get the elevator to stop at a particular floor without pressing that floors button. the only downside is that our elevator does not open the doors if no button is pressed, so any off-limit floors would remain inaccessible

lucb1e 5y ago

That's amazing. I'll be trying that trick next time I have some time to kill in a building! We also play the game sometimes of getting places we're not supposed to (as consultants). Walk around like you're from IT and are supposed to be there (technically both true), perhaps with a laptop under your arm, nobody will care what you do to any of the computers there. In schools and hospitals, and probably other places, try (variants of) the city you're in as password, perhaps combined with the postal code, and you usually get access to everything because of course the staff needs to actually help you. The username is pre-filled, don't worry about that (most of the time that's the field with more entropy). It's honestly terrifying and short of locking rooms (because some of the personnel needs fast access to computers, preferably faster than plugging in and out smartcards all day long) there just isn't really a solution. I'm pretty sure we could have walked into a surgery room, we steered clear of any place that looked like it might head us into places with patients under actual operation. Why those aren't locked I don't know, probably there is a good reason so probably they can't change that...

spicybright 5y ago
I'm sure for surgery rooms (at least), needing someone to rush in to help and having them fumble with ID cards outweighs a bad party trying to, I guess, muck up a surgery or something.
- bombcar 5y ago
  “Men are better than gates” - Gandalf - the real security on the surgery rooms are those in them.
- em-bee 5y ago
  in the hospitals that i have been for visits usually the whole intensive care area and other sensitive areas were access controlled. so while the door to the actual surgery room might have been open, you are often not even allowed anywhere near.
- templeos3 5y ago
  Very rarely do you have people rushing in to surgery rooms. Despite TV dramas, most surgeries are not high risk, most surgical patients are not critically ill, and those that are tend to be pre-staffed for the risk. OR rooms are not usually locked but the surgical suite sure is. The bigger issue with the surgical suite is proper attire. ICUs are a different matter (where coincidentally I happen to be tonight). Generally all the staff you need is already on the locked side of the unit.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

bombcar 5y ago

Hopefully you don’t have to spend the time again - but if you do it’s very easy to buy the fireman’s key on eBay. You didn’t hear that here.

wolrah 5y ago
Relevant video discussing fire keys and other common keys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9b9IYqsb_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9b9IYqsb_U And since this thread is about elevators, I have to also mention another video of theirs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUvGfuLlZus https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUvGfuLlZus

em-bee 5y ago

our elevator allows undoing pressed buttons. if no buttons are pressed, then the elevator will stop. now you could play a game where you try to get the elevator to stop at a particular floor without pressing that floors button. the only downside is that our elevator does not open the doors if no button is pressed, so any off-limit floors would remain inaccessible