engineering

Kill pill

Kill pill is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Kill pill rather than just read about it. In short: In computing, a kill pill is a mechanism or a technology designed to render systems useless either by user command, or under a predefined set of circumstances. Kill pill technology is most commonly used to disable lost or stolen devices for security purposes, but can also be used for the enforcement of rules and contractual obligations.

Key takeaways

Kill pill belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Kill pill to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Kill pill from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

In computing, a kill pill is a mechanism or a technology designed to render systems useless either by user command, or under a predefined set of circumstances. Kill pill technology is most commonly used to disable lost or stolen devices for security purposes, but can also be used for the enforcement of rules and contractual obligations.

Applications

Lost and stolen devices Kill pill technology is used prominently in smartphones, especially in the disablement of lost or stolen devices. A notable example is Find My iPhone, a service that allows the user to password protect or wipe their iDevice(s) remotely, aiding in the protection of private data. Similar applications exist for other smartphone operating systems, including Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone.

Anti-piracy measure Kill pill technology has been notably used as an anti-piracy measure. Windows Vista was released with the ability to severely limit its own functionality if it was determined that the copy was obtained through piracy. The feature was later dropped after complaints that false positives caused genuine copies of Vista to act as though they were pirated.

Removal of malicious software The concept of a kill pill is also applied to the remote removal by a server of malicious files or applications from a client's system. Such technology is a standard component of most handheld computing devices, mainly due to their generally more limited operating systems and means of obtaining applications. Such functionality is also reportedly available to applications downloaded from the Windows Store on Windows 8 operating systems.

Vehicles Kill pill technology is used frequently in vehicles for a variety of reasons. Remote vehicle disablement can be used to prevent a vehicle from starting, to prevent it from moving, and to prevent the vehicle's continued operation. Non-remotely, vehicles can require driver recognition before starting or moving, such as asking for a password or some form of biometrics from the driver. Kill pill technology is often used by governments to prevent drunk driving by repeat offenders as a punishment and deterrent. The installation of an ignition interlock devices is a sentencing alternative for drunk drivers in almost all 50 of the United States. Such a device requires the driver to blow into a breathalyzer before starting the vehicle. If the driver is found to be over the legal blood alcohol content limit, the vehicle will not start

Other uses Kill pill technology can also be implemented to contextually disable certain aspects of a smartphone's functionality. A patent obtained by Apple claims the ability to disable the antenna, screen, or camera of a smartphone in settings like theaters, schools, and areas of high security sensitivity.

Criticism Kill pill technology has been criticized for allowing for the suppression of personal liberties. While a kill pill can be utilized in a school setting to prevent academic dishonesty, it has been suggested that governments may also use it to suppress their people, for example, by disabling a phone's camera or antenna in the area of a protest. The ability to remotely remove files and applications from a user's device has also come under fire. Apple's apparent ability to blacklist applications, rendering them unusable on any iDevice, has raised concerns about the user's rights when downloading from the App Store. As of July 2014, no applications appear on Apple's blacklist website.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Kill pill

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Kill pill claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Kill pill before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Kill pill ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Kill pill

In research: Kill pill appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Kill pill in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Kill pill is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Cybersecurity engineering, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Kill pill outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Kill pill in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Kill pill means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Kill pill out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Kill pill in simple terms?

Why does Kill pill matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Kill pill?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Kill pill.