Cart Locking System Released as Open Source

An anonymous reader writes "You may have noticed that over the past few years it has become increasingly common to find supermarket and large retail store shopping carts equipped with 'boots' designed to lock up if you try to take the cart outside of the store. Now, someone has discovered through some clever analysis the signal used to both lock and unlock carts, and has designed a portable system that locks up all carts within 20 feet of the emitter! They have released the schematics, software, and detailed instructions for assembling the systems on Instructables, an online magazine dedicated to releasing howto's for everything from rat taxidermy to Shopping Cart EMPs under a Creative Commons License."

Comments

I'm not big on security by obscurity, but...

[UbuntuDupe]

Is it really a good idea to show all pranksters in the world how to lock up a bunch of innocent people's carts in a store?

I'd much prefer if supermarket pranksters stuck to less annoying pranks, like hiding a speakerphone and ketchup bags in a baby-less baby-holder, having it play "crying" sounds, and then publicly "beating" the "baby" until it "bleeds".

Re:I'm not big on security by obscurity, but...

[spoco2]

"If enough people do it, the supermarkets will realize shopping cart DRM is a bad idea."

What the crap are you talking about?

Having shopping carts lock when you try to take them outside the designated area is a perfectly FINE thing for a store to want to do... how many times have you seen shopping trolleys dumped in the most odd places? There's nothing wrong with them trying to stop people stealing their property, they cost a lot of money and should only be used in that area anyway.

My god some people just like to jump up and down whenever anyone is doing something to protect themselves, no matter how just it may be.

Bah to you sir, bah indeed.

I felt a great disturbance in the force

[PeeAitchPee]

As if millions of homeless suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. ;-)

Creative Commons is not Open Source.

[Anonymous Coward]

Creative Commons is not Open Source. Creative Commons is not Open Source. Creative Commons is not Open Source.

Funny or sick? You decide.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd much prefer if supermarket pranksters stuck to less annoying pranks, like hiding a speakerphone and ketchup bags in a baby-less baby-holder, having it play "crying" sounds, and then publicly "beating" the "baby" until it "bleeds". It's all fun and games until some public-minded guy hauls you off the "baby" and beats you to within an inch of your life...

Reminds me somewhat of this quote from bash.org-

cag URL tara: When I was in high school, the school board decided that the biology students had to pay for the fetal pigs that were being dissected. After the course was done, my friend Amy demanded that she be allowed to take the pig, since she had paid for it. There was some WTF from the school, but she got her pig. That weekend, she and her brother dressed the pig up in some baby clothes and a blanket, drove down the street and lit a smoke bomb in the car. They were passing a couple walking down the street when Amy leaned out of the car and yelled "Save my baby" and tossed the pig at the couple. They were doing about 50 mph so she missed the couple. The baby/pig hit the sidewalk, skidded along the concrete, shedding parts and limbs before it impacted a mailbox.

She said she had never seen such a horrified look in her life. I mean, yeah, it's funny, and I hate to say that I laughed at it a lot (and still keep doing so whenever I read it), but at the same time I'm thinking that they should have been locked up for doing something that would have been quite the opposite of funny- if not downright traumatic- for the pedestrians.

Re:Messing with the security barrier alarms

[poopdeville]

I did that to a friend of mine when I was in college. The library had an alarm system in place so that books couldn't be taken out of the library without checking them out. A friend of mine worked at the library and gave me a bunch of active strips.

So I carefully unsewed part of my friend's back pack strap, inserted a strip, and sewed it back together. I also threw some strips in random pockets, just so he'd think it might be over once he found them.

You could always tell when he was leaving the library. The alarm would go off and he'd yell "FUCK! EVERY FUCKING TIME!"

I also put one in a friend's shoe. He became quite neurotic.

A Better Target

[iamnafets]

I think a better target would be the vibrating coasters that signal "your table is ready". If you could somehow set up all of those to go off at the same time on a Friday night you might...have them all going off at the same time on a Friday night! Drive-by mayhem!

Charming

[Le Marteau]

Senseless vandalism. Swell. How laudable. Life is tough enough, but how about locking up some wage-earner's cart, after he has suffered under the hands of a sadistic boss, just wanting to get some grub and go home. Delightful.

Re:Oh Great

[brian.gunderson]

Best.Troll.Thread.Ever.

Shopping carts are parts of the culture!..

[mi]

The carts are part of the culture.

The system is grossly skewed towards the interest of the cart-owners, who abuse their control over the implements.

We have the right to take the carts away for our convenience (fair use) — and it is not "stealing", because we always plan to bring them back some day. It is stupid and unethical for the supermarkets to fight their customers over this, especially the single mothers (who have never gone shopping) among them.

SMAA (SuperMarket Association of America) and similar oppressive institutions world-wide will, no doubt, try to suppress this new invention, so all freedom-fighters must start mirroring the just released information on their computers.