Thinking of training as a locksmith?
Thinking you’ll be getting rich quick, due to the “national shortage” the locksmith training firms are shouting about?
For a little perspective, I did a search, and, in brackets after the link, you will see how many testimonials, names or companies there are for each training school…
http://www.advancedlocksmiths.org.uk/testimonials.html (7)
http://www.locksmithcourses.co.uk/letters.html (6)
http://www.assuredlocksmiths.co.uk/page_1219398081773.html (33)
http://www.locksmithtraininguk.co.uk/ (23)
http://www.locksmithtrainingcourse.co.uk/testimonials (4)
http://www.uklocksmithsassociation.co.uk/index.php?option=com_rsgallery&catid=2 (8)
http://www.traininglocksmiths.co.uk/page8.htm#Recent%20Students (44)
http://www.safeopenings.com/locksmith_training/ (100+ – membership of their organisation the NNAL is 750+ http://www.nnal.co.uk/forum/memberlist.php?mode=joined&order=ASC&start=750 )
http://www.thelocksmithtrainingcompany.co.uk/guestbook.htm (lots)
http://locksmithstrainingcentre.co.uk/ (specifically names 34 large organisations such as hospitals, police, councils, and the Army)
http://www.lockstraining.co.uk/testimonials (8)
http://www.rftraining.co.uk/locksmith_training.htm (4)
And then I gave up, not having the heart to go beyond the FIRST page of Google’s search results.
Even ignoring the apparently insane number of members of the NNAL trained by safeopenings.com in Birmingham, or trained up by thelocksmithtrainingcompany.co.uk, we get 7+6+33+23+4+8+44+34+8+4 or 171 new “locksmiths” testimonials.
And every single one of them is there for you to see for yourself. Now consider how many people never bother to give a testimonial, and how many have trained just in this last week.
Still want to waste your £2000?
Oh, and plumbing is full as well.
“I’d give my right arm for that car” “I’d give your right arm for it too!”
Monday, February 5th, 2007From the BBC website: Police in Malaysia are hunting for members of a violent gang who chopped off a car owner’s finger to get round the vehicle’s hi-tech security system.
The Mercedes S-class was ‘protected’ by a fingerprint recognition system. So the answer? Run the driver over as he opens the door, then kidnap him, rather than simply stealing the keys. The armed gang took the keys to his car but these alone won’t start the car, so they beat him up, stripped him naked and took him with them!
The attackers forced Mr Kumaran to put his finger on the security panel to start the vehicle, bundled him into the back seat and drove off. But having stripped the car, the thieves became frustrated when they wanted to restart it. They found they again could not bypass the immobiliser, which needs the owner’s fingerprint to disarm it.
They stripped Mr Kumaran naked and left him by the side of the road – but not before cutting off the end of his index finger with a machete.
Hardly a brilliant idea to improve security, when it simply means that the level of violence has to increase. Somewhat like CCTV, it is deeply flawed, at least in this instance.
The issue with CCTV I have is that it only acts after the fact, often way after the fact, and deeply discourages citizens from taking part in society, since “the watchers” will deal with it later, or will have seen it on CCTV, and so won’t need a witness or a call to say something has happened. As a result, the UK has more cameras than ever, and more criminals than ever, and a lot more kids roaming the streets with hoodies to hide their faces all the time. Which doesn’t reassure anyone! And when crimes are prepared & planned, the face is hidden and the response time is expected to be faster, so the speed and violence goes up in response.
In this case, the driver could have lost his entire hand. While some people say they would give their right arm for such a car, I suspect most don’t really mean it! Biometrics on my car? Not a chance!
Posted in Commentary, Crime, Trauma, Whoops! | No Comments »