In sci.electronics.repair wrote:
On Thu, 21 Aug 2014 18:03:59 +0000 (UTC), Cydrome Leader
wrote:

In sci.electronics.repair wrote:
On Wed, 20 Aug 2014 23:44:21 +0000 (UTC), Cydrome Leader
wrote:

In sci.electronics.repair wrote:
On Wed, 20 Aug 2014 20:10:52 +0000 (UTC), Cydrome Leader
wrote:

In sci.electronics.repair wrote:
On Wed, 20 Aug 2014 15:51:26 +0000 (UTC), Cydrome Leader
wrote:

In sci.electronics.equipment Don Y wrote:
On 8/19/2014 3:46 PM, rickman wrote:
Locks keep honest people honest. As the OP still hasn't indicated
the level of threat that is faced (and attacker's motivation),
all this is just speculation.

You don't understand how a Kensington lock is intended to work. The
point is not to keep a laptop from being taken by brute force. The
intent is to require that enough damage be done to the laptop in the
process that no one will want the unit. Grinding a gaping hole in the

---------------^^^^^^ have you ruled out the *thief*? -- who may be
very happy with a $1500 laptop that has a "gaping hole" in the back
(that he has since covered with duct tape, Bondo, etc.)

side greatly reduces any resale value of a laptop which is already not
much to begin with. Used laptops aren't worth much and one with obvious
case damage is nearly worthless.

Cut the cable by which the "lock-mate" tethers the laptop to
whatever. Remove the remaining piece in the privacy/safety
of your own home. (this assume you have never hacked the locking
device in question -- and have never used a search engine to see
how easy it is!)

Most of the Kensington devices that I have seen are easily
thwarted (shims, picks, etc. -- e.g., a thin sheet of CARDBOARD,
fragment of a soda can, etc!).

I understand how ALL locks work: locks keep honest people honest.
Period.

Going out on a limb here- I doubt the local lockpicking club is the group
breaking into and robbing homes in the OP's area. You don't need a clever
locks on stuff.

Doped up, ****ty, smash and grab then sell for 3% of actual value idiots
are probably at work.

If you make the job hard enough, people either move on or just get angry
and toss stuff around.

The neighbor across the back porch got broken into while I was home once.
They had a modern, thin, poorly installed door that broke down like old
crappy car. Hell, the thing looked like a bathroom door, but with glossy
paint. They never even tried my door, even though it's in a more hidden
area. My only guess is a 1000 year old solid wood door with 800 locks
would have been more work. I also keep enough junk by the door so you
can't even get the space for a good kick, not that that would break it
down anyways, which how most doors around here are compromised anyways.

You have no windows? If there is a window available, no steel door or
vault lock is going to do a damned thing. They're just for the honest
and insurance companies.

The doors have no windows. If you want climb in a window, you better have
a good extension ladder. Again, you can get in, it's just more on a pain
in the ass than breaking into the other units which don't require all the
effort.

Again, locks or doors don't do anything to stop anyone who wants to
get in. It sounds like you're on the second floor, which is likely
why they went elsewhere. The quality of the door, and particularly
the lock, are irrelevant.

the methods they use to break down doors, old and new differs and the one
for old doors is actually pretty clever. None of which even involve
touching the lock, unless you've got a $12 Kwikset lock and nothing more.

Who cares? There are easier ways to get into 99.9% of homes than
busting down a door or picking a lock.

Either way, when you're a harder target, people look elsewhere.

Agreed but a solid front door and lock aren't included. Lights are
likely the best insurance (after buying insurance ...and a gun). A
sign stolen from an alarm company might help, too. ;-)

Take for instance robbing a bank. You walk in, hand over a note, get a
token amount of money, nobody puts up a fight and you walk out. It's
apparently not hard at all once you cross that moral line. Surprise,
there's lots of serial bankrobbers, and it would seem most never get
caught as banks only believe in slow-scan quarter VGA-res security
cameras.

If you think it's that easy, you're nuts. Sure, it's easy, once. It's
easy twice, but pretty soon you're on the TMWL. The FBI doesn't treat
bank robbery kindly, even though the average take is less than $4K.

It doesn't matter what the FBI likes or doesn't like. If you rob a bank,
you walk away with some small amount of money, each and every time. Nobody
resists. Tellers don't jump the counter with baseball bats like at a
liquir store and fight back.

The FBI is all over bank robberies. It ****es 'em off. As it gets to
be more of a "serial" issue, the heat turns up quickly.

Is there enough heat for the government workers to take a break from
taking breaks and actually, lift themselves out of a chair and actually do
some work?

Probably not is my guess.

You might get caught, eventually, and it seems many serial robbers never
get caught.

I doubt that. They will eventually get caught. They aren't the
brightest of the criminal class.

It doesn't require brightness. But unless you leave your ID at the counter
or just made a withdrawl from your own account, you're probably going to
get away with it.

Hell, you can search for bankrobbers by their nicknames:

https://bankrobbers.fbi.gov/

Of course the site is completely broken, search doesn't work and it shows
no robberies in Chicago at all. This website must have cost at least
$10million to get to the point it is at now.