Chains and Stuff

(1)

Kootch has been gone about ten days now and I have settled into the usual routine which includes, among other things, chains. No, I am not into bondage. These chains are attached to the inside of the door to our apartment. When I leave the apartment I secure the two chains to two brackets on the inside of the door frame. I use digital padlocks for this. The padlocks are 4-digit anti-burglar locks ('anti-burglar' means that you can't pull on the locks as you dial through all the possibilities: you must relax the pull after each dialing). The four digits yield ten thousand possibilities each. It will take you a while to break into our apartment if you are so inclined.

In the old days I relied on my Apple computer. I connected it to a door switch which would tell the program when the door had been opened. The computer would immediately print out the details of the event on the printer. But as time went on it became clear that 'they' had come up with a way to defeat this. I'm not sure, but I think they would first turn off power to the apartment. Then I think they would use their keys to enter, and do what they wanted to do. It is unclear to me how they were then able to mask their entry. Perhaps when they wanted to leave they would load the program, then write an algorithm which would give them a few minutes to leave. When the algorithm timed out it would erase itself and branch to the beginning of the door switch program.

It was a case of being outwitted technologically. So when I discovered digital padlocks at Sears one fine day I made the decision to go with the 'brute force' method: make the bastards work!

This method seems to still be working after many years.

You're probably wondering how I come up with the numbers. Clearly, fixed numbers would be 'broken' by a determined burglar in short order, so I create new numbers every time I leave the apartment. I do this using a simple random process (tap): I close my eyes (in effect) and redial all the numbers over and over again and then I 'clamp in' the result and write it down. I do this for each lock. Then I write down the combinations. Then I check that these are the correct combinations. Then I am free to leave the apartment and go about my business... for a while. I am fairly sure that these two locks give me at least several hours of security against a determined team of burglars.

Of course the locks can be defeated by a simple chain cutter. But it would take a very big chain cutter. Or, they could simply break the bracket mountings using brute force. But this would yield evidence of entry, which perhaps even the Judeo-faggot ACSD could not ingore.