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So I'm attending a conference, and I'm staying in a room in a hotel (as you do) and I'm sharing a twin room with a friend (as is not unknown) and we both know a lot of other people attending and might actually have two separate lives (shock horror). The room has a swipe card lock. Moreover, you need the swipe card to make the lights work inside. So with one key you generally have to stick together... Us: Can we have a second key for room [XXX] please? Receptionist: Sure. But when I make the second key the first will stop working. Us: Oh. But we haven't lost the first key. Receptionist: But you can only have one key for the room. Us: Oh, why? Receptionist: Security, you see We politely say that we understand and thank him and decline the new key. Hateful hotel software. Nasty evil thing. Security be bollocks. Given that we needed no proof that we were the legitimate residents of room XXX, it's because the sub-muppet software is too damn stoooopid to write two keys to have the same magnetic strip. Or if the keys have fixed stripes, then it's the firmware in the door is tooooo damn stupid to be programmable to accept more than one guest-issue key. Either way, it's software. And it's hateful. Nicholas Clark
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