Dial-a-Door technology to appear at DorkbotPDX tonight

by MarkDilley on 27 October 2008 · 3 comments

in AboutUs.org, Community

AboutUs CTO, Ward Cunningham and his college roommate Rick Wartzok, had better than average audio/visual and beverage capability in their dorm room, at least for 1968. While happy to share with fellow residents, they then faced a dilemma. What about keys? They wanted some kind of combination lock that had a shared code that could be selectively enabled, and a longer, master code for private use. The solution was Dial-a-Door:

Ward with Dial-a-Door

Now its 2008, forty years later, Ward has located the mechanical technology that decoded the combination, restored it to working order, and prepared a display which he will present at the bi-weekly DorkbotPDX tonight at the Lucky Lab in Northwest Portland. Here is AboutUs colleague Stephen Judkins inspecting the device.

Stephen playing with Dial-a-Door

{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }

1 NickBurrus 28 October 2008 at 1:37 pm

Woah!

I’m jealous. xD. That would be an awesome bedroom door lock!

2 Mark 1 November 2008 at 5:55 pm

Here is a video of Ward at the event: PDXdorkbot

3 K. Bernard 4 February 2010 at 2:30 pm

This is GREAT! I knew Ward was the inventor of WIKI, but had no idea that he had such a creative mind. I guess it goes without saying, but this is wonderful proof. I think it would be great if you showcased some of his other inventions.

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