A Legacy of Gifts for June

Two of my favorite holidays come in June – Flag Day on June 14, and Father’s Day, this year on June 18.

What I particularly love about Flag Day is that it gives us an opportunity to be patriotic without all the red-white-and-blue hoopla of the Fourth of July. You never see blonde bimbos draped over Ford trucks in Flag Day ads. Instead we should think about the flag and its history and what it represents to our nation, because it really is a symbol that tells a story. Conceptually, it echoes the British Union Jack, whose crossed bars represent the joining of England and Scotland into Great Britain. And unlike traditional banners, there’s no coat of arms suggesting a royal family or powerful aristocracy that run things.


ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED HERE

A Word of Command

“Still, the gate is the weakest point.”
Aragorn, in The Two Towers

Fans of J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Trilogy of the Ring will remember the siege of Helms Deep, when the Saruman’s orcs attacked the fortress by blasting through its wooden gate. A few chapters later, the forces of Sauron did the same during the siege of Gondor, using the great battering ram, Grond, to break down the iron gates that had stood invincible for thousands of years. Even earlier, Gandalf had a heck of a time keeping shut the door from the Chamber of Records after his companions fled; he closed it using a closing spell, but the Balrog on the other side overcame him, and he had to use a word of Command. The effect of that was to shatter the door, the wall, and the roof of the chamber and bring it all crashing down, closing off the stairway behind him. Shades of Jericho!


Most of us don’t have Gandalf’s access to spells and words of Command, and the last thing we want is to bring down our own walls to protect ourselves from intruders. We have to think in more mundane terms about the options available to us.


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Who Has The Keys?

Access control is a major problem for businesses large and small. Companies with high-tech access control systems – key cards, fingerprint- or retina scanners, etc. – can easily reprogram access codes and delete former employees from the data base. But even smaller businesses that rely on the security provided by a good, traditional lock-and-key system need to update their access controls regularly. This is an issue whether you use padlocks, cylinder locks, or police locks.

The first step is to conduct a regular Key Audit to review the status and location of every key, making sure that no unauthorized person has one. In small businesses with few employees, this can be a fairly simple process and one that’s sufficient to ensure access control.

Read all about it - click here.

Mr. Locks Featured in Smartmoney.com

An undercover reporter apparently sniffed around to check on nationwide locksmith pricing, and found us to be a worthy "Deal of the Day" feature.

Read her full story here: http://www.smartmoney.com/dealoftheday/index.cfm?story=20060327

Proximity Readers

Proximity readers are among the simplest access control systems to install and use. The principle is simple: they are encoded to read and respond to electronic signals from access cards, and only to cards that are specifically authorized. Unlike the swipe cards used at ATM readers at groceries and other stores, most proximity cards don’t require contact with the reader or a Personal Identification Number (PIN) to work. Proximity is enough, with sensitivity limited to as little as an inch or two or expanded to over a foot – especially useful for handicap-access doors, parking garages, etc.

Full article can be read HERE.

Magnetic Locks

Magnetic locks, like electric strikes, use electromagnetism to control the locking mechanism. They rely on electric power, whether from a building current or a battery, and as a result they’re as dependable as a refrigerator, TV, or bedside alarm clock (though like any other household appliance they can also be vulnerable to power failure). But because no key is needed to operate magnetic locks, mag-locks can’t be picked – and you’ll never be locked out because you’ve lost the key.


The core of a magnetic lock control system is an electromagnet made of advanced metal alloys. When electric power activates it, the bolt slides in or out, up or down, along its U-shaped channel to lock or unlock the door. Some mag-locks also incorporate timing mechanisms that allow them to operate only at certain times – during business hours, for example. Others have “transaction memory,” which can record every use or attempted use. This function can be especially valuable with locks that use number-pads rather than coded cards: if an unauthorized person tries to gain access using incorrect codes more than twice, for example, the lock can automatically set off an alarm.


To read the full article, please CLICK HERE

Of Barn Doors And Horses

There’s nothing more important to most people than protecting their family. The safety of your loved ones, your sweetheart or husband or wife or children, matters more than money, status, or the kind of car you drive. After all, if your loved ones aren’t safe, do material things really count for that much?

Many years ago, I lived in a brownstone in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. It was a neighborhood “in transition” in those years, and we were diligent about locking up. But one night I woke up at 3:00 a.m., startled to find a flashlight shining in my eyes. It was a police officer, and when my sweetheart and I sat up in bed, he whispered to us to be silent, then quickly told us what was going on.

A fireman at the firehouse across the street had happened to see someone climb through our first floor window and alerted the police, who had hurried over without sirens, entered the same way, and were now searching the house.

Upstairs, they caught the man in the landlady’s bedroom – holding her at knifepoint while he prepared to rape her. The knife was from my kitchen.

The read the full story, click here.

"Safe" Storage

The most sophisticated security system can sometimes be defeated by stone-age technology: a brick thrown through a window. Using such a simple tool, a house-burglar can get in, grab your valuables, and get out again before help arrives, even if your home alarm system is connected to the local police station.

But for that kind of burglary to succeed, time is of the essence, and that’s what a secure safe provides: time that the thief can’t afford. That’s why it’s so important to make sure your real valuables can’t be found quickly or easily.

Read full article here: http://www.mr-locks.com/news.php?id=47

Locks – A Short History

by Andrew Reed for Mr. Locks, Inc

Mechanical locks work according to two fundamental principles: incorporating fixed obstructions to keep the wrong keys out, or using movable pins or tumblers that have to be put in the right positions by the key to move the bolt. The ancient Egyptians invented primitive tumbler locks that held a bolt in place across a door; their tumblers were wooden pegs up to two feet long. The Old Testament suggests that ancient keys were also very large: “And the key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder; so he shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open.” (Isaiah 22, xxii) While other civilizations have incorporated brass, bronze, silver, gold, steel, and carbon composites into their locks since those early models, many people in theMiddle East still use the Egyptian wooden model – 4,000 years later!

Read full article at: http://www.mr-locks.com/news.php?id=45

Mr. Locks Demands High Standards For Locksmith Profession

When Mr. Locks was established in 2001, most of the public thought of locksmiths as small, shabby hole-in-the-wall storefronts where you could get a duplicate key made or get help when you were locked out of your car. In the eyes of corporate executives, home-owners and renters, and even many other small business owners, locksmiths were in the same category as others in the “mechanical” trades – air conditioning repairmen, plumbers, and the like – men doing dirty work in dirty overalls. For their part, most locksmiths themselves were not particularly interested in presenting a professional appearance.

Read full article here.