We had a printer repair contract with a company that did work for Uncle Sam. The new building there was to be a secure facility when it was completed. In about the center of that facility, was a room it had a raised computer floor and TWO hand print activated doors to go through to get into it. You walked up a ramp, the guy palmed the outside detector, the outside door opened, you went in to a tiny room, the door closed, he palmed the inside detector and the inside door opened. For the time it was cutting edge technology. Cutting edge technology that often failed.
On my first visit to install a printer, I was lead to the “computer room” and he palmed the detector. The outside door opened. We went inside, the outside door closed. He palmed the inside detector and nothing happened. several attempts later, he said “…this happens a lot.” grabbed the computer floor carpet square grabbers, lifted a floor tile up, we crawled to a location marked on the floor, pushed up the panel in the “secure” room, I installed the printer and we exited the same way. The thing that got me was, as we were exiting, he said “Usually they BOTH fail and we have to crawl all the way out to the door in the ramp.”
The ramp is also made of computer floor pop-out squares. You can crawl in and out past BOTH palm print reading doors.
Secure. Yea.
Of course when it went online, you were preceded and followed by armed guards who yelled “UNCLEAR” every step and there were flashing yellow lights all over the place indicating that there was an unclear on the premises.
Talk about feeling like a leper.
– Thanks Riley, sorry for the delay in posting this! – Rob
