As the above video clearly displays, opening any locked door, is very easy – even for a non-professional lock picker. The Slate article in this Bulletin reports how popular lockpicking (known as locksport) has now become – with training videos and clubs – springing up all over the nation.
Pick a Lock, Any Lock YouTube makes it easy to learn the finer points of breaking and entering—and locksmiths aren’t happy. Slate Posted Wednesday, July 23, 2008, at 3:39 PM ET
Locksmiths and lock manufactures have found themselves in a jam. The skills of their trade, passed down through generations under conditions of occult secrecy, have been jimmied open online (subscription required). The professionals are crying foul over enthusiasts of “locksport”—amateur lock pickers who congregate on the Web to discuss how to pick locks. The amateurs do this for fun, not mischief, they say; there’s a sublime thrill in charming a deadbolt to turn your way. And they argue that by finding and publishing flaws in some of the most popular locks on the market—from the locks you’ve got on your front door to those the president has on his—they’re forcing improvements in security. Lock professionals say the opposite is true: that in showing people how to pick locks, hobbyists are swinging your doors wide open to criminals.
This is a familiar tale. Its plot points echo those of many recent computer-security debates. An entrenched community that’s used to working in secret suddenly sees its entire business upended by the secrecy-busting ways of the Internet. It’s a fate suffered by voting machine firms, software companies, and ATM manufacturers. Now it’s happening to locksmiths and lockmakers, too.
But there are a few interesting wrinkles to the skirmish between amateur and professional lock wranglers. For one thing, unlike security-services company Diebold, the locksmiths and lockmakers aren’t just fighting a new crop of activists. They’re fighting a new subculture—really, a new sport.
All of us are trying to stay one step ahead regarding especially our private security. No doubt, techonology is giving us a run, but it still ultimately comes down to the simple things: having a good alarm system in place, dead bolts and sharp-eyed neighbors.
Given the recent record-breaking temperatures here in NY, we think it a timely entry to re-issue our pool safety Bulletin from last season, with several added updates.
According to data (compiled from various federal agencies and industry monitoring organizations), in a given year, there is one drowning of a child for every 11,000 residential pools in the United States. (In a country with 6 million pools, this means that roughly 550 children under the age of ten drown each year.)
Below please find the full NYDOS amended text (12/14/2006) version of NYCRR Title 19 re: pool alarms. Feel welcome to contact BNI for our post pool/water-event checklist. There are often many variables involved in pool-related incidents. Our checklist has been developed over more than a decade of conducting these types of investigations.
TITLE 19 (NYCRR)
CHAPTER XXXIII – STATE FIRE PREVENTION & BUILDING CODE COUNCIL
SUBCHAPTER A – UNIFORM FIRE PREVENTION & BUILDING CODE
1221.3. Swimming pool alarms. [amended text 12/14/2006]
(a) Purpose. Paragraph (b) of subdivision (14) of section 378 of the Executive Law, as added by Chapter 450 of the Laws of 2006, requires that the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code (the Uniform Code) provide that any “residential or commercial swimming pool constructed or substantially modified after the effective date of this paragraph (December 14, 2006) shall be equipped with an acceptable pool alarm capable of detecting a child entering the water and of giving an audible alarm.” The Introducer’s Memorandum in Support of Chapter 450 states, in pertinent part, that “drowning is the second leading cause of unintentional injury-related deaths in children between the ages of one and fourteen nation wide, and the third leading cause of injury-related deaths of children in New York. . . . (T)echnological advances have produced several different types of pool alarms designed to sound a warning if a child falls into the water. When used in conjunction with access barriers, these alarms provide greater protection against accidental pool drownings.” This section and section 1220.5 of Part 1220 of this Title are intended to implement the provisions of Executive Law section 378(14)(b).
(b) Definitions. The following terms shall, for the purposes of this section and for the purposes of section 1220.5 in Part 1220 of this Title, have the following meanings:
(1) Approved. Approved by the code enforcement official responsible for enforcement and administration of the Uniform Code as complying with and satisfying the purposes of this section and section 1220.5 in Part 1220 of this Title.
(2) Commercial swimming pool. Any swimming pool (as defined in paragraph (4) of this subdivision) that is not a residential swimming pool (as defined in paragraph (3) of this subdivision).
(3) Residential swimming pool. A swimming pool (as defined in paragraph (4) of this subdivision) which is situated on the premises of a detached one- or two-family dwelling; a multiple single-family dwelling (townhouse) not more than three stories in height; a one-family dwelling converted to a bed and breakfast; a community residence for 14 or fewer mentally disabled persons, operated by or subject to licensure by the Office of Mental Health or the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities; a one-or two-family dwelling operated for the purpose of providing care to more than two but not more than eight hospice patients, created pursuant to Article 40 of the Public Health Law, and defined as a hospice residence in §4002 of said Law; a manufactured home; a mobile home; or a factory manufactured dwelling unit.
(4) Swimming pool. Any structure intended for swimming, recreational bathing or wading which contains or which is designed to contain water over 24 inches (610 mm) deep. This includes in-ground, above-ground and on-ground pools; indoor pools; hot tubs; spas; and fixed-in-place wading pools.
(5) Substantial damage. Damage of any origin sustained by a swimming pool whereby the cost of restoring the swimming pool to its before damaged condition would equal or exceed 50 percent of the market value of the swimming pool before the damage occurred.
(6) Substantial modification. Any repair reconstruction, rehabilitation, addition, or improvement of a swimming pool, the cost of which equals or exceeds 50 percent of the market value of the swimming pool before the repair, rehabilitation, addition, or improvement is started. If a swimming pool has sustained substantial damage, any repairs are considered to be a substantial modification regardless of the actual repair work performed.
(c) Pool alarms. Each residential swimming pool installed, constructed or substantially modified after December 14, 2006 and each commercial swimming pool installed, constructed or substantially modified after December 14, 2006 shall be equipped with an approved pool alarm which:
(1) is capable of detecting a child entering the water and giving an audible alarm when it detects a child entering the water;
(2) is audible poolside and at another location on the premises where the swimming pool is located;
(3) is installed, used and maintained in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions;
(4) is classified by Underwriter’s Laboratory, Inc. (or other approved independent testing laboratory) to reference standard ASTM F2208, entitled “Standard Specification for Pool Alarms,” as adopted in 2002 and editorially corrected in June 2005, published by ASTM International, 100 Barr Harbor Drive, West Conshohocken, PA 19428; and
(5) is not an alarm device which is located on person(s) or which is dependent on device(s) located on person(s) for its proper operation.
(d) Multiple pool alarms. A pool alarm installed pursuant to subdivision (c) of this section must be capable of detecting entry into the water at any point on the surface of the swimming pool. If necessary to provide detection capability at every point on the surface of the swimming pool, more than one pool alarm shall be installed.
In a recent Wall Street Journal article by Jamie Heller, law firms will experience a flat to 5-6% decline in business this year. Partners are being scrutinized more closely as is outside counsel. Our experience in the field indicates that firms are less inclined to take on personal injury cases unless there are obvious injuries (i.e., fractures). Soft tissue injury cases are becoming a matter of the past as are medical malpractice cases, which are often labor-intensive, with hard to prove relationships between malpractice and injury and prohibitively costly expenses (expert witnesses, reconstructions, research…). Larger firms are cutting “non-producers” within their ranks and solo and small- to medium sized firms are more tightly focusing their advertising budget.
Below are several zero-to-low cost marketing tips that can be implemented immediately and may help to maintain or increase your practice’s income status/ client retention:
1. Stay in touch with your clients. Instead of frantic calls to or from your clients when case activity occurs, schedule set, periodic update calls or notices to your clients. If there is no activity, simply have your assistant (digital, human or combination) mail/email a contact information update request to your client. Otherwise, if you know there are upcoming events that will require your client’s input, don’t upset your entire schedule with 2 minute phone calls here and there. Schedule several hours biweekly with a set list of clients to discuss their matters.
2. Network. Great movie; invaluable concept. LinkedIn recently announced an agreement with the traditional online lawyer directory LexisNexis Martindale Hubbell. LinkedIn is quickly becoming the largest professional networking site in the world. LinkedIn has added a powerful social networking component onto the Martindale site. As of last week, 260,000 lawyers have LinkedIn accounts. Join today.
3. Blog. Use Blogger, WordPress; any generic application will do but get your firm’s business out there. Prospective clients, as the rest of the online world now, wants information. They actively seek it and you need to provide it. Remaining faceless in a society that increasingly demands transparency and data is suicidal for any business. And write your own blog, or assign to someone competent within your firm. There are businesses that will provide fee-based “blogs” but we would firmly advise not to waste your budget on this tactic. Your blog needs to reflect your firm’s personality, even if you update it once every two weeks.
4. Identify and target your market. The most attuned attorneys are focusing on niche markets and sniper-shooting their advertising efforts.
We hope these tips help your business; it helps ours!
(We thought we’d start the Monday after this holiday weekend with several good laughs with the above video of 4 brief but hilarious commericals to kick off our two-part marketing series.)
Part I of II/ Marketing Don’ts
Anyone who has been in business for a while has probably learned a few marketing don’ts but it doesn’t hurt to repeat them as we all tend to stray from our original advertising goals. This week we’ll go over these basic marketing don’ts with a follow up next week of proven advertising do’s.
10 Marketing Assumptions That Are Wrong For Your Practice
1. Current and prospective clients know what services I provide; (Generally, clients are aware only of the services that they are seeking. Teach them.)
2. Referral services will send me all of the clients that I need or can service; (No comment necessary to point out the fallacy of this presumption.)
3. My marketing materials don’t need my photograph; (Especially in this technological age, people want to place a face to the professional they will contact.)
4. Clients will remember what I tell them, so I don’t need to send any follow up correspondence; (Wrong. Regardless of the sophistication level, people hear what they want to hear.)
5. Clients will understand legal jargon; (Wrong again. Read above.)
6. Certain marketing methods are obsolete. (All advertising avenues work; it’s your budget and message strength that will determine ROI.)
7. Complicated messages will make clients feel that they need my services more; (KISS – no offense intended.)
8. Graphics are unimportant in visual media placements; generic photos can be used. (Keep it real. Real pics of yourself, your staff, discreet photos of your office…)
9. People expect lawyers to not return phone calls promptly; they know attorneys are busy. (No, they don’t and they don’t care about any other matter other than their own.)
10. Keeping in touch with clients on a reasonable basis is a waste of time. (It’ll also be a waste of money when you have to re-locate your own clients or take an extraordinary block of time to bring them up to speed after months or years of non-contact.)
Basically, it’s your firm, your business and as such, you never stop selling yourself.
For the trial law and legal community from a NY private investigator's perspective.
The Beacon Bulletin is the weekly newsletter authored and published by our parent company, Beacon Network Investigations, Inc. (BNI) and will shortly be combined with The MainPower Post, of our new company, MainPower Investigations, Inc., (MPI). (BNI will be involved in the development end of investigative and informational services and products. MPI will carry on with traditional private detective services.)
We're a private investigation company. We DON'T dispense legal advice, respond to anonymous queries or black hat your enemies for you. (Internally, however, points are alloted to our favorite subtly phrased compliments.)
We DO hope to inform. That's our business.
