(lock)picking the blues

[hirez]

There have been locksport/locksmith types at every hacker-camp I've been to. It's like the law or something. There has to be a tent filled with people cheerfully fiddling with locks and a good handful of presentations about opening secure things and voiding warranties for the purposes of entertainment.

So like any sensible person I've been meaning to buy a set of picks so I can have a fiddle with lock-picking in the privacy and comfort of my own home. Or indeed at work when I'm staring into space and fiddling with a broken serial connector, I might as well be fiddling with a slightly broken lock instead.

Anyway.







The really very useful thing, which I've not seen before, is the cut-open lock. Which means I can also see what I'm pushing to and fro, rather than just having to guess it.

Comments

[neefsck.livejournal.com]

Ohhh!
If you don't mind my asking, where did you get yours from ? (As the Actress said to the Bishop)

N.

[cutietrol.livejournal.com]

This is another one of those things I've started but have yet to get good at. However, as stated, the cutaway locks are really good. In some cases you can also remove/add different numbers of pins to vary the challenge. I believe there's also some sort of monthly locksport meeting in that there Lon Don.

Presumably the picks/torsion wrench in the above detach from the handle.

Oh, and if you really want shiny, check http://www.stormlockpicks.com/

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Ooer.

These people - http://madbobpicks.co.uk/

They're just up the road in Malvern.

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Yes. The torsion bar sits very nicely inside a spring that runs along the back of the pick set. It's a rather clever arrangement.

[bogwitch64.livejournal.com]

I wonder if, when you buy such things, you get put on a "watch out for this potential sneakthief" list. ;)

[hirez.livejournal.com]

Who can say?

Given Amazon.com (.co.uk had yet to be instantiated) still recommend stuff along the lines of 'People who bought Uncle Fester''s guide to methamphetamine and MDMA manufacture also liked..' I would imagine my file at Internet Central Control is quite full by now..

[mr-tom.livejournal.com]

You remember a while ago back on the Usenet when that was a thing and the tinfoil-hat people were getting excited about ECHELON (back before we knew about PRISM and it turned out that they were right all along) and would insert trigger words into their messages - "bomb", "Bin Laden", "capitalist pigdogs" etc.

That's what I imagine your internet shopping history does to recommender systems.