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Re: ibutton door access control



Good, passionate, lively, interesting debate :-)
 
This list gets better and better.
 
M.
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, April 01, 2000 11:05 AM
Subject: [ukha_d] Re: ibutton door access control

> >
>
>This could run for ever ;-)

Lets agree to call it a draw then shall we?...  :-)
>
>I am still not convinced.
>
>iButton - simple, low power consumption, nothing to vandalise, easy to
have

Biometric - even simpler from the end user perspective,  NO power
consumption at all (for the portable token that is), nothing more to
vandalise that what many people will already have in their front porch,
AND,
concealed microphones & cameras are very easy to vandal-proof (look at
the
comfort one, that's pretty tough...

>long term battery operation (and I mean 1 week +), low complex ability,
one

battery operation?? - excuse me, but batteries are PANTS and any system
which relies on them as the primary power source is therefore prone to
failure and inconvenience. - even if if the batteries do last 2 years, I'll
still bet that in 2 years time they'll run out just at the most inopportune
moment, causing inconvenience and embarrasment!

>box does it all, easy to exclude & include buttons, very cheap (by
>comparison), no PC needed
>

Biometric - easy to include & exclude people, also cheap by comparison,
and... OK, you got me on the PC bit, (for now) - but this absolutely does
not have to be a WINTEL platform (if you're a Microsoft hater, use LINUX or
similar). And like I said earlier, biometrics is where it's going to happen
in the future, the R&D is already hapenning now, and I totally expect
that
in a few years time, when HA comes into the mainstream (as is already
beginning to happen - slowly), biometrics will be there as well as a
mainstream technology, everybody will be used to it and comfortable with it
- 'cos their cash machines are going to use it! Also, I would not be at all
surprised to see Comfort Mk.7 or Homevision Mk.9 or some other such
dedicated hardware box providing this in the future, thereby removing the
need for a PC.

And anyway? what's so bad about using a PC? (serious answers only please) -
is it a BAD thing to utilise a technology which is mature, which is cheap,
which is a worldwide standard, and which is a commodity item? - I Know the
Microsoft-haters will now flame me with woeful tales about how ill-advised
it is to run your home security on Windows, and I'd probably agree! - SO
like I said above, use another OS - there are plenty to choose from, and
plenty of them are perfectly reliable. (and anyway, only a fool would
design
a system around a computer without designing-in a failsafe or a backup
operation).

What, currently, are you using to program an ibutton-based system?

So, I still think its biometric 4, ibutton 3, and the future looks bright,
the future is biometric ID systems.

Like you said, I think this one could run and run, 'cos everyones got their
foot firmly planted in whatever camp they're in, and they ain't budgin' !!

Cheers.

Paul G.


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