Archive for Random
Lolcats need a roommate
Spotted this on the bulletin board outside the Porter Square shopping center:
The Bic pen trick
Have you heard of the Bic pen trick? A couple years ago, a network security guy in Seattle learned that most bicycle u-locks (even expensive Kryptonite locks) can be opened with a Bic pen. He even posted a video showing how easy it is.
Fast forward to yesterday. My bike is locked to the bike rack in the garage here. I haven’t ridden it since we moved in 3 years ago. Yesterday Cath wanted to ride it because her bike has a flat tire. Now, where’s that key? We searched and searched and couldn’t find it. Was my bike locked permanently to the bike rack? Would we have to call a locksmith? Bic pen to the rescue.
We practiced on her lock in our apartment. You have to remove the cap from the pen, and then stretch out the end so it fits in the circular keyhole on the lock. It’s kind of a pain to stretch it out enough, but once you get it far enough in, you just jiggle it and the lock pops open. It totally works.
After a few practices on Cath’s lock, we went down to liberate my bike. This one was harder because of the angle, but after maybe 20 minutes of fooling around, voila! My bike was free!
So let this be a lesson to all of you: A pre-2004 Kryptonite bike lock can be easily opened with a Bic pen, even by untrained folks like Cath and me.
“It’s a series of tubes.”
In case you don’t spend all your spare time browsing the web, Wired has a funny quote from Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska explaining the Internet:
They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It’s not a truck.
It’s a series of tubes.
And if you don’t understand those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and its going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.
He said this while arguing against Net Neutrality, which any sane person (except perhaps CEOs of telecom corporations) should support.
Tubes, eh? Who would thunk it?
Edit: The Daily Show did a funny bit about this…
