I just saw something that really has me worried. I just watched a news click that shows how to defeat any tumbler lock in seconds and without damaging the lock... The technique is called "bumping". This really is the end of feeling safe for life and property behind a lock and key!

have a look at http://e-techblog.com/2006/08/07/how...k-bump-keying/

what choice do we have on a home level?

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Man can't even create a simple worm, but can create gods by the dozen.

Even Beethoven had his critics..

e=mc2 ( energy=morning coffee x 2)

Any suffiently determined person can invade your home regardless of what you do to secure it. Security systems aren't there to keep people from entering. They're there to make your neighbors look more tempting by comparison.

What makes the situation vexing is the insurance companies who seem to be using this as yet another excuse to duck having to pay out.

Your choice? Do you own a dog?

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In Fallout 3, 'happiness' is a warm junkyard dog and a loaded gun. It's mostly the loaded gun.
- Moose's one-line review.

"your going to regret that one. You are now a colonoscope...
- Chrissy, corrupting PraedSt's wish.

I have a dog, but I'm not sure if he's effective.

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I calculated the odds of this succeeding versus the odds I was doing something incredibly stupid...and I went ahead anyway. - Crow T. Robot

Godspeed, John Glenn. - Scott Carpenter

And these atomic bombs that science burst upon the world that night were strange even to the men that used them.
- H.G Wells, The World Set Free

To the conspiracy crowd, radiation is a big Boogey Man that inspires terror and death in all who encounter it. - JayUtah

Back up your hardrive and drop the backups in a safety deposit box. What besides that have you got that you can't afford to lose? Family photos? Scan 'em and back 'em up. High school year book? Scan it. Back it up.

Librate yourself from the tyranny of physical ownership.

Then again, there's always an alarm system or electronic locks.

All a dog really has to do is make noise to alert anyone who might be in the house. That's generally enough if you can make the house look like it might be occupied.

I can't emphasize this enough:

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In Fallout 3, 'happiness' is a warm junkyard dog and a loaded gun. It's mostly the loaded gun.
- Moose's one-line review.

"your going to regret that one. You are now a colonoscope...
- Chrissy, corrupting PraedSt's wish.

This really is the end of feeling safe for life and property behind a lock and key!

No it isn't. There are other types of lock that simply will not be bothered by this method. Use a couple of types and you'll be fine.

Let's face it, locks have never bothered burglars in the past. If someone wants to get inside your house badly enough they'll find a way, like crowbarring a window or stealing/copying your key.

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"The very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common: They don't alter their views to fit the facts, they alter the facts to fit their views." The Doctor, Doctor Who: The Face of Evil.

Yep, loud pets. I don't think many amatuer burglars would be nervy enough to hang around with our dogs going nuts making noise. And we have nothing a professional burglar would want.

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Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

We have a dog -- she is a decent watch dog, but burglars had better beware of our killer cats (lol).

We have metal bars over our front windows, and like Moose says, they are more to make our house look less inviting to the casual thief canvassing a neighborhood, than anything else.

I have installed gates that from the front appear to be solid wood fences at both sides of our house, to deter the casual burglar from entering our back yard.

Our safe has both a combination lock and a circular-key lock, and it is anchored to the concrete floor.

We (wife and I) are also very good friends with the neighbors on all sides, and keep watch (although it is not an official "neighborhood watch" program).


NOW... if I can just figure out how to protect our vehicles parked in the driveway, which get broken into about once every other year.

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http://boinc.mundayweb.com/one/stats...033/prj:6/.png

Tyranny?

Explain that to a musician whose instrument on which he composed his songs is stolen. Doesn't matter whether the model is still for sale or not.
Explain that to a kid whose toys are stolen. Doesn't matter that you can buy the same toy in the shop.

Physical objects are what is stolen, but they can imply much more than physical ownership. Just like instruments and toys, also the vintage audio equipment I brought together has lots of emotional value connected to it that's ALSO stolen because the object and its emotional value can't be separated, even though the thieves only want the object.

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To the regular visitor of internet bulletin boards it is clear that it's an excellent idea your parents get to choose your real name.

Spot on, Nicolas.

I have about a ton of stuff. Leaving out the books, music, movies, and sewing equipment, of course, I have a lot less. But a scanned copy of my high school yearbook, for example, won't have the emotional significance of the physical object. Then there are the things that didn't look like much but belonged to my dad. I don't really remember my dad; I don't want to give up what little of his I have. And Grandma's pearls mean something to me at least half because they're Grandma's, and she said I was the only one she could think of who should have one. (I have two sisters, a female cousin, an aunt, a mother, and several female relatives by marriage--plus I think the aunt's son might have a daughter by now.)

Now. I live in an apartment. There's not a heck of a lot I can do to make the place more safe--not only can't we have dogs, I wouldn't if we could. I loathe dogs. The locks we have are the locks we're going to have. But any burglar trying to enter the house would trip over my cat, who likes sleeping in the hallway when it's dark, and the phone's right by my bed.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

"Locks only discourage the honest thieves."

As has been mentioned, the idea is not to guarantee that no one can break in, but to make it as difficult and time consuming (and attention grabbing) as possible.

We have the little thumb locks on all the windows, scratchy bushes under most of the windows, double locks on the doors, two dogs that bark at strange noises, and security lights.

(On a related note, I saw an interview with a former thief on tv; he's now in the security business. He mentioned the discouragement tactic. He also mentioned that thieves love car alarms. The owners of the cars feel protected so they get sloppy, seldom hear the alarms when they go off, and the neighbors are so glad when they finally stop - because the thief has ripped the wires out - that they just go back to what they were doing.)

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Isaac Asimov

Well I could design a burglar proof home, but unfortunately it'd be considered illegal.

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

Just out of curiosity, what part of it would be illegal? I've got an alarm system, several locks on the door, and someone's always awake in the building at all times (no dogs, though). Tell me more about your burglar-proof home and what might make it illegal.

- Maha Vailo

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When you get down to it, Science answers how. Religion answers why. - hippietrekx

Rats, now you've got me thinking about that old joke... "In 30 days, the viper will be here."

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Isaac Asimov

Probably something similar to the anti-carjacker flamethrowers.

Some of these about the yard and house, I would imagine.

Someone ripped off all the plums in both my father's and neighbor's trees last year. The trees were both slightly damaged as well. I mentionned that link to my father, who thought it was an idea in the right direction, but not large enough caliber.

He's hedging his bets this year. He planted a plum tree in my yard, knowing full well I don't eat plums.

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In Fallout 3, 'happiness' is a warm junkyard dog and a loaded gun. It's mostly the loaded gun.
- Moose's one-line review.

"your going to regret that one. You are now a colonoscope...
- Chrissy, corrupting PraedSt's wish.

Phantom Wolf's anti-burglar system may be like some of the booby-traps an old codger around here was known to rig from time to time. They finally convinced him to stop, as he would be in a lot more trouble than any burglars. He grumbled about how ridiculous that was, but quit.

He was an expert machinist, gunsmith, and ex-army explosive expert, which will give you an idea of what he was capable of. One of his booby traps was some homemade claymore mine type contractions. Anyone walked in through a door or window, and they got a face and bodyful of shotgun shot. Back in his heyday, dynamite was available at any decent hardware store (sold only to those they knew of course, and who had a good reason), and this guy was known to use that to protect some of his more valuable stashes.

This fellow, name of Ralph, died oh, about 15 - 20 years ago. A month or so after his death, his son, whom I know, got a call from a way out-of-town lawyer saying he had something important to give him. The made arrangements to fly out and meet with the son.

It turned out the lawyer had been hired by Ralph to hold the map to the places where he had buried and otherwise hidden money, valuables, and other stuff. It was quite a treasure, from what I understand. The other stuff, well, I don't know for sure what it was, but I understand it wouldn't be too legal nowadays.

-Richard

Well apparently they won't let you install 100,000V +/- grids in the floor and ceiling of the house for a start. For some reason the same goes for filling the house with halogen or even noble gases. I have various other ideas as well that would certainly stop a burgler, well, Dead in his tracks, but there seems to be a little law that states such items deliberately set up to do so are illegal and would result in a murder charge.

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran