I've always been fascinated with locks and lock picking, ever since high school. I got my fist set of lock picks off the internet a couple of years ago. Apparently, there's this long tradition of hackers picking locks (c.f. The MIT Lockpicking Guide) . Anyone else into this?
Here in The Netherlands there is Toool, http://www.toool.nl. They are an officially registered sport club with contests and 'practice'. I think most of their members are computer hackers too. It's all perfectly legal here also btw.
I bought a cheap set of picks and got a copy of the "MIT Guide to Lockpicking" and tried to get into it. It was kinda fun at first, but I never had much success. How long do you have to work at it before obtaining any proficiency? All I ever managed to do was bend my picks.
I got proficient at the scrape method after about a week. Generally, this method involves more luck than skill and can take anywhere from 30 seconds to 15 mins to pick a lock. The pin-at-a-time method is much more difficult. I'm still not super good at that approach, but I don't practice as regularly as I should. They've got these clear plastic training sets you can purchase so you can see the tumblers move up and down. I never bought one, but I can see how they'd be useful: http://www.lockpickshop.com/PSTNX.html
I'm into it, a little bit. I'm good enough that I never get locked out of my apartment, but I couldn't crack a safe or anything.
There's a weird and compelling sensation you get when you successfully pick a lock you've never picked before. Especially if there's some practical goal involved.
Lock picking and safe cracking are pretty much wet equivalents to computer cracking. It's a very hackerish hobby as long as it's done in a mature, non-destructive way.
I don't put a lot of money into it, but working on new locks is a nice way to kill time and relax my mind.
lockpicking is a lot of fun. I haven't been practicing much recently but I own a set of picks and live to stay up to date with the latest locks and attacks. I've been meaning to master lock bumping but never got around to it.
I wonder if lock bumping really works. I've also got a set of Auto Jigglers (btw, the police get really pissed if you have these things, so don't carry them around in public), but they don't work at all. At least, I've had no success starting or opening my own Toyota Camry.
Bumping does work, but not on automotive locks, as they have a different internal structure. Most lock manufacturers have come up with bump-proof or bump-resistant locks now that bumping has become more known.
My dad was a mechanic and long story short, he could open any vehicle in under 30 seconds with the 'jimmy sticks'.
I worked with him a lot during my youth, and I am decent at it. However, the way new cars are designed it is getting a lot more difficult to do this, so most people will pull at your window now around the edge and slip down basically a coathanger to hit the unlock button.
I've heard that about auto jigglers only working on older model cars. The set I have advertises that they work on both foreign and domestic. I think my camry is a 2002. Anything post 2000 is a dicey proposition. And obviously, they won't work on cars that have the computer chip embedded in the key. I have no idea how you'd pick one of those.
There was a woman on Click & Clack last weekend who was looking at a $2000 key replacement from Saab for her key with an embedded chip.
I have half a dozen locks behind my monitor. But I made a starter kit for my niece by removing pins from four locks and gave her my picks. Need to pull another tine from the the lawn rake and make a new pick.
