While most of our articles focus on security of the digital sort, this interview with a professional safecracker is an interesting look the physical side of securing your goods.
As part of their Interviews with People Who Have Interesting or Unusual Jobs series over at McSweeney’s, they interviewed Ken Doyle, a professional a locksmithing and safecracking veteran with 30 years of industry experience. The interview is both entertaining and an interesting read. One of the more unusual aspects of safecracking he highlights:
Q: Do you ever look inside?
A: I NEVER look. It’s none of my business. Involving yourself in people’s private affairs can lead to being subpoenaed in a lawsuit or criminal trial. Besides, I’d prefer not knowing about a client’s drug stash, personal porn, or belly button lint collection.
When I’m done I gather my tools and walk to the truck to write my invoice. Sometimes I’m out of the room before they open it. I don’t want to be nearby if there is a booby trap.
Q: Why would there be a booby trap?
A: The safe owner intentionally uses trip mechanisms, explosives or tear gas devices to “deter” unauthorized entry into his safe. It’s pretty stupid because I have yet to see any signs warning a would-be culprit about the danger.
Over the years I’ve found several tear gas devices in safes and vaults I’ve opened. These devices were marketed with names like “BEAVER” and “BADGER.” There are safecrackers that collect them.
Hit up the link below for the full interview.
Ken Doyle – Safecracker [via BoingBoing]
Chrome: If you’re a fan of Bing’s eye-catching daily backgrounds but prefer Google as your search portal, this Google Chrome add-on will pull the Bing wallpaper and add it to Google for you.
In this week’s game you are a spy whose mission is to infiltrate a building and successfully circumvent all of the security there. Are you quick enough, good enough to stealthily sneak past all of the guards and security cameras there or will you get busted?
From ultrabooks to netbooks, computers are shedding their optical drives. If you still use an occasional CD or DVD, you don’t have to buy an external optical drive – you can share another computer’s optical drive over the network.
Once a week we round up some great reader tips and share them with everyone. This week we’re looking at a cheap DIY setup for “scanning” film negatives and slides, animating GIFs with Android, and pushing RSS feeds to your Kindle.
Are you tired of switching to a new tab when you need to add an image, interesting fact, or other item to your document in Google Docs? Then you are definitely going to love the new Research Pane feature that has been added to Google Docs!
Think you know the answer? Click through to see if you're right!
When the water fountain in their hackerspace broke down, Dave and Craig weren’t content to just fix it–they upgraded it to dispense Brawndo: The Thirst Mutilator.
Web browsers include predefined lists of search engines, but you can easily add your own favorites. Even search engines that don’t offer search plugins can be added with a few tricks, whether you’re using Firefox, Google Chrome, or Internet Explorer.
Whether you keep it handcuffed to your wrist to avoid losing it in the first place, etch your phone number on it, or load it with tracking software, we’re interested in hearing about how you ensure your lost gear finds its way back to you.
Think you know the answer? Click through to see if you're right!
