Locks and Dock: Okey and Dokeys

When you are hoping to maximize your travel security, one of the most obvious places to start is with buying a lock. But how secure are luggage locks? The disturbing truth is that luggage locks are terribly insecure.

What does the insecurity of these locks mean for your luggage security? How does that affect the protection of your property? In order to investigate these issues, we will have to venture deep into the terrifying truth about luggage locks.

What security do TSA locks offer your luggage?
TSA locks are not secure. The shackles can be cut by most low-quality diagonal cutting pliers, the lock cylinders can be picked open with very little skill, and the schematics for the master keys have been revealed to the public. If you are using a TSA lock, you are getting the illusion of security.

The biggest benefit to using TSA locks is that the TSA can open your bag without having to 24/7 lock repair. This still might not keep your lock from being cut off, as many travelers report having TSA cut locks off regardless of having been TSA approved. But at least there is a chance that your insecure lock will not be broken open.

A TSA approved padlock is the next step up from a zip tie. It provides the same amount of initial security if you are worried about criminal tampering. However, a TSA lock can potentially be taken off and relocked on the bag, where a zip tie cannot be reattached once removed. With a TSA approved lock, after a lawful search, there is a chance that your luggage can maintain its same level of “security”.

1. The TSA Can Remove Any Luggage Lock Without Cause
If you are checking luggage, the TSA reserves the right to open your baggage by the means required to properly carry out the search. In case you have not received a “Notice Of Baggage Inspection” letter in your checked luggage, it reads as follows:

To Protect you and your fellow passengers, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is required by law to inspect all checked baggage. As part of this process, some bags are opened and physically inspected. Your bag was among those selected for physical inspection.

During the inspection, your bag and its contents may have been searched for prohibited items. At the completion of the inspection, the contents were returned to your bag.

If the TSA security officer was unable to open our bag for inspection because it was locked, the officer may have been forced to break the locks on your bag. TSA sincerely regrets having to do this, however TSA is not liable for the damage to your locks resulting from this necessary security precaution.

The note goes on to suggest that the recipient of the inspection notice refer to www.tsa.gov to find “packing tips and suggestions on how to secure your baggage during your next trip…” Is it ironic for a note telling you what you just read to recommend that you use better security next time you fly? It may seem that way, but the spirit in which it is intended is that locks are not security, knowing what is going to get your bag flagged is the security you need for avoiding TSA attention.

2. Every Luggage Lock Can Be Opened
It is true that every lock can be picked, even locks that have not been picked yet can still be opened. Opening methods that travel security professionals use are almost always destructive. There is no lock that exists that can withstand every type destructive entry method given an unlimited amount of time with the lock.

Not even the best padlocks in existence can hold up to the highest level of pressure that can be applied to them. Do not expect that your security can keep out any law enforcement. Even though you may be hoping to avoid criminally minded baggage checkers, they are within their right to open your luggage at all costs.

Though there are documented cases where strong enough security has been enough to have TSA give up on trying to open it. I don’t fully understand the implications of security that has law enforcement give up, but I would not expect to be the exception to the rule that if the opening of your bag a legally sanctioned it will be carried out.

In terms of criminal threats without the full force of the law behind them, your locks can still be opened. However, when it comes to standard criminals you have to consider every aspect of luggage security and not just the security of your luggage locks.

3. No Luggage Lock Can Protect a Zipper
Any luggage lock that is placed to secure a zipper is completely useless. Anyone with a ballpoint pen can puncture the zipper track (aka teeth). This gives anyone access to the contents of your bag in seconds. Once a person has rooted around in your belongings, they can then move the zipper’s pull tab over the open teeth and reseal the bag without any sign of entry.

If you have an anti-puncture zipper, then your zipper is safe, but a lock can never protect the zipper. When you want a lock to matter at all, you have to use luggage that has hasps, not a zipper. Hasps are common on hard shell cases, which are intended to protect the contents of the luggage.

It is also unlikely that you will end up with a bag that has an anti-puncture zipper if you do not go out of your way to purchase one. This feature is not common, in spite of the fact that the method of entry is extremely popular for criminals all over the world.

4. Your Bag Undermines the Security of a Luggage Lock
Security is not the main concern for standard baggage manufactures. Unless the luggage has been designed with security in mind, the lock you place on it is not going to matter much at all. Besides zipper protection, you have to be concerned about more brash criminals that will not care about surreptitiously or even covertly open your bag.

A very common method of entry that criminals will use is to cut your bag. You made need something like a Pelican case. With a light slice from a sharp knife, a thief now has access to everything in your luggage. Unless your bag can resist cutting, having a lock on your bag is not going to truly protect the property inside.

Most likely your bag is always going to be easier to break than an incredibly strong lock. It does not make sense to have an extremely powerful lock if the case it is securing is itself insecure. Be aware of the level of protection provided by the bag before you make any investment in a lock.

5. Built-in Luggage Locks Are Not Secure
Built In Luggage Lock

This is a guiding principle more than a hard and fast rule, but it is important to think about the fact that almost any piece of luggage you buy is not going to have high-security locks. This might be something that the case claims, but you need to know better than to believe the advertising.

Even if the brand of security being used is not notorious for manufacturing subpar locks, it might still be something cheap and ineffective. A lot of times locks on cases and luggage will claim to be high-security, but they are just using a novel lock type. Such lock types that are used as built-in luggage locks include tubular locks, cruciform locks, and disk detainer locks.

If a lock is poorly made, it does not matter what kind of internal components it has. Poorly made locks are not secure. They break easier because of the lower quality metal, and that means they can be broken open easier. Mass production required to place them on luggage also lost house key very simple to the point where most of these locks can be opened with bypasses or improvised keys.

What is the best way to protect luggage?
As you may have learned from the article about protecting your beach bag, the best possible way to protect any luggage is to keep your eyes on it. This is not going to be possible at every point of your trip, especially if you have to check your bags. The important thing is to take advantage of the instances where you can watch over your property.

Your locks need to take as long to open without permission as the average time you will leave them unmonitored. As has already been established, flying in the United States will be the exception to this rule. Law enforcement will have too much time with your luggage, and they will have the authority to open the lock. But for deterring criminals, this type of security assessment is a must.

Final Thoughts
It doesn’t matter if you are in one of the most dangerous countries in the world, or you are sleeping over at a friends house in the next town over, when you have luggage, you will attract the attention of criminals. Luggage locks are not going to do much to protect your bag. You need to consider a lot more than just luggage locks.

Gear Review: SunJack Waterproof Lightstick

In my usual style, I want to show you the Lightstick in action, but first, let me share a few of the basic facts.

Shaped like a long tube, the SUNJACK LIGHTSTICK is about 10 inches long.  The end cap includes a green power button that toggles between low, medium, high, and strobe.  Depending on the setting, one charge will deliver up to 46 hours of constant light.

The stated charging time is 4 to 5 hours.  It can be charged up using any USB source including a wall jack or a computer USB port.  That said, I hooked the SunJack Lightstick to my SunJack Solar Charger and found that it took a bit longer given that the day was cloudy and overcast.

For the technically inclined, the output is 5V 2Amp and the maximum output wattage is 3.5W.

Practical Uses for the SunJack Lightstick

Given its slim profile, the SunJack Waterproof Lightstick is ideal for bug out bags, get home kits, and vehicle emergency kits. I find that it fits neatly in my pack, right along side a LifeStraw which is are similar in size.

At the full power setting, and even at low and medium power, this is a very bright light. Impressive, actually, given its compact form factor.

If kept in a vehicle, it can be used as a trouble light when checking under the hood or as a spot of bright light when changing a tire. It can also be used as a flashing signal requesting help if stranded by the roadway. It would definitely light up a campsite at night with the added advantage that it can be charged with a portable solar panel during the day while not in use.

Another practical use is to use it as a beacon when traveling with a group. The leader can raise it above his or head in strobe mode to signal to the pack of followers. Being totally waterproof, using the Lightstick out in the bush or on the trails would be no problem at all.

SunJack Waterproof LightStick Review – A Portable Light with Power Bank

Features and Performance

The SunJack LightStick is made of plastic and it is significantly bigger than disposable light sticks we’ve been already familiar with. It has a solid build and I feel very sturdy holding it in my hand. I actually dropped it to a hard floor once but it still seems perfectly alright. In my test, I also used it in the rain for a couple of minutes and as you can see, it still survives. So, the waterproof feature seems to be legit as well.


The product has a simple design and it is ready to use out of the box. I don’t know how long my product has been kept in their warehouse but when it is delivered to my office, the battery is still full and I didn’t need to charge it at all. I turned the light stick on at the highest brightness and it easily could last for more than 4 hours. There is a battery indicator on the body of the light stick, so you can easily check how long it could last. The manufacturer states that the battery could last up to 46 hours at the lowest brightness setting.

The button on one end of the stick is used to change the lamp brightness from low to high. You also have a flashing mode that I find very useful in case of emergency. The light can flash very bright and more importantly, the battery could last up to 49 hours. On the other end of the stick, you can see a USB port and a mini-USB port after twisting off the waterproof cap. The USB port is used to charge your mobile device while the mini-USB is used to charge the light stick itself. The built-in 5200mAh battery is enough to charge your high-end smartphone twice, it also supports fast charging 2A output.

The light emitted from the lamp is purely white and it is amazingly bright at 350 lumens. You can check out some pictures below to see how bright it is

Aukey Cell Phone Camera Lens Review

While some people might consider cell phone photography inferior to using a “real” camera, there are many who strongly believe that, as Chase Jarvis says, the best camera is the one that you have with you. These days, that camera is typically going to be a phone. With that in mind, what if you could add the flexibility of interchangeable lenses to your phone’s camera? That’s exactly what Aukey Lens do. In this post I’ll be reviewing a Wide angle and a 2x Telephoto lens. Also, since it seemed appropriate for a phone accessory review, all photos are taken with a cell phone.


1) Specifications (Both Lenses)
Aluminum and glass construction
5 Elements in 4 groups
Weight: 5.1 oz
Flexible clip that fits most phones
Storage pouch and cleaning case
Lens cap
Works on almost any mobile device and tablet
2) First Impressions (Both Lenses)

When the Aukey lenses first arrived, I was quite impressed with the packaging. The boxes have a clean, sophisticated look to them that gives the impression of a quality product. The inside of the packaging lived up to the expectation set by the outside. The lens is nestled inside a foam cutout and is kept from rattling around inside the main box by a small box of accessories, which include a cleaning cloth, clip and storage bag.




You might also notice some slight vignetting in the corners of some of the images. This isn’t due to the lens. It’s actually the rear of the lens itself. I found that if the lens wasn’t positioned perfectly over my camera’s lens, I got this vignetting. Depending on the placement of the lens, it ranged from very mild to severe.

The side of the lens that touches your phone has a rubber gasket that goes around the lens on the camera. This serves two purposes… it keeps the lens from slipping once it’s in place and it also prevents light from entering between the lens and phone. When you use it on top of a case, it seems to move the lens just far enough from the phone body to allow it to show up in the image. To make sure this doesn’t happen, you’ll want to remove the case from your phone before using the wide angle lens. If you don’t remove your case, the severity will vary from phone to phone since different models of phones have different focal lengths.

In most situations, I didn’t notice any issues with flair. The one exception was when I was shooting directly into the sun, in which case I got some flare, but that’s to be expected with any lens.

3 Warning Signs Your Roof Needs Repair Or Replacement

1. Dark stained or dirty-looking places in your commercial roofing nyc. One of the most probable causes of any dark or stained looking areas on your roofers new york is a result alga or fungi growth which in turn causes the new york roofer to seem abnormally black or dirty in some specific areas. This issue often occurs in hot, humid climates such as the southeastern part of the nation. This can be a problem for your roofing company nyc as the algae or mold begins to eat away at the shingle base making them loosen and rust. If you spot any dark spots on your nyc roofing contractors and are worried about climbing on your roofing contractors nyc to get a better look then contact a trustworthy roofing companies nyc to inspect your roofing contractor nyc and determine if the stains are indeed algae growth and also to what extent. It's much better to address potential mold growth before it spreads to other areas of the commercial roofing nyc which makes this aggravation and the potential hit to your wallet even worse than you believed it could be.

2. Shingle and sheathing deterioration. Deterioration of the shingles, or even worse that the sheathing of a commercial roofing nyc, can be brought on by a range of variables; among which is cited previously. Mold and algae may eat away at the natural base of shingles making them decay. If this problem goes on undetected and reaches the sheathing panels then it may be too late as the sheathing is the connection between the shingles and the rafters of the roof. If this link is weak then it makes your roof much more vulnerable to lose during potentially substantial winds during storms can eventually compromise the integrity of your roof. If your roof is apparently sagging in areas it could be an indicator of a far bigger issue known as roof rot that could cause the possible collapse of your roof. By having a roofing professional inspect your roof you might be avoiding additional repair costs not to just your roof but to the interior of your dwelling.

3. Missing, buckled, cracked or curled shingles. Each one of these signs is often indications that they may be near the end of the useful life. Due in part to period and protracted exposure to the various elements mother nature might throw at them, the shingles in your sadly won't last forever. In reality, the practical life of your typical asphalt/fiberglass shingle is 20-25 years based on where you live in the nation and the quality of the shingle manufacturer among other elements. Over time the granules that add color to and protect the shingle material from UV rays begin to drop off exposing the substance to the elements. Over time this vulnerability causes the shingles to crack or flake out at the borders. Sometimes this cracking can eventually lead to shingles breaking into pieces and flying off the new york roofing or buckling during storms with really significant winds.

Uncorking the Residential Solar O&M Market

In the early days of solar, its proponents SUNJACK LIGHTSTICK  claimed that the technology was simple to install and did not require maintenance. Consequently, a significant number of early small solar installations were neither monitored nor serviced regularly. These installations are likely to suffer from suboptimal performance without owners noticing. Undetected power production losses can lead to serious financial losses—from factors including inverter failure, cable damage, installation errors, and dirty modules. Fast detection of deviations in yield is crucial to preventing both generation and financial losses.

Traditionally, manual inspections have been used to identify issues that could cause a drop in performance, but this can be costly. Thankfully, the drive to reduce costs in the solar industry and promote self-consumption is affecting the advanced monitoring of residential installations as most are connected to a computing device and/or the Internet, opening opportunities to automate some of the operations and maintenance (O&M) tasks. Advanced monitoring and diagnostics solutions can tackle this issue without the need for costly manual inspections, identifying problems as they occur and making it unnecessary to visit every home to manually measure system performance.

Potential Residential Diagnostic Providers

Inverters and data loggers with monitoring software have been part of distributed solar installations since at least the late 2000s when distributed solar gained popularity, and have been part of virtually all installations since 2012. Data loggers (external or as part of inverters) and monitoring tools have been used by installers and inverter companies as differentiators in an otherwise competitive market. While there are no public figures on active users, there are some examples of penetration in the market. SMA—a leading inverter OEM—has put its user figure at around 250,000 residential end users. Using an average of 5 kW per installation, the company is monitoring around 1,250 GW of residential solar. Solar-Log has a similar number of data loggers in the field, providing monitoring and other services to about 11.6 GW of installed capacity (including large installations). Other inverter companies like SolarEdge and Enphase have also integrated monitoring services into small-scale products.




Most smart monitoring tools have been developed and run at a loss by inverter and data logger OEMs. By doing so, these OEMs have inserted themselves in the routines of solar installation owners as the monitoring tools are the interface between the solar system and the installation owner, and OEMs could use these to move their customers to a paid service that includes diagnostic tools.

Barriers

In residential and small commercial markets, significantly different power electronics components (sometimes with closed communications protocols) can be used, depending on the age of the deployment and the installer’s preferences.

If a third party wants to offer monitoring services to the residential market, it must invest in a system that is sufficiently flexible to accommodate this heterogeneity, increasing the service’s cost and therefore reducing potential profit. While inverter manufacturers are best placed to bring products to market, most of them will be limited to installations where their equipment was used.

In addition to technology fragmentation, the installer market is also highly fragmented, creating a complex sales channel for monitoring companies. Many installers also want to keep their customers from third parties so that they can sell maintenance and other services. Thus, some monitoring companies provide a backend monitoring service to installers. In this model, the monitoring company does the day-to-day monitoring of an installation through digitalized systems while the installer receives any alerts generated by the system (and hence retains its revenue stream). This business model is making inroads into the residential HVAC maintenance market, which has similarities to the residential PV market: it is highly fragmented and has suboptimal performance issues that are difficult/costly to detect before automated diagnostic technologies are introduced.

According to Navigant Research, global cumulative revenue for the residential solar monitoring market between 2017 and 2026 is expected to reach $5.4 billion, monitoring up to 40 million residential systems. Importantly, this includes diagnostic analytics and hardware, but not home visits and repairs. Navigant Research anticipates that home visits and repairs could add about $2 billion per year by 2026, although at significantly higher costs due to the labor needed for the repairs.

To hit this level of revenue, residential O&M providers need to develop the monitoring market for small systems. Companies must reeducate the public to show the value monitoring can bring to their installation. This is especially important to the retrofit market as, in some cases, the customer may need to invest in new hardware. Thankfully, these installations also have the most unrealized value as—at least in Europe and Asia—the systems receive high feed-in tariffs, and therefore even a slight increase in generation can cover the associated costs of the O&M service.

Why Your Online Marketing Efforts Need Assistance From a Local SEO Company

Generally, Search Engine Optimization or affordable local SEO services includes types of tactics so that a lasting perception is established while in the heads of the probable prospects residing in some other part of the world. However, before achieving the international and national targets, a business needs to get in touch with the local prospects. The problem that certain encounters in doing this are the absolute size of the World Wide Web, which buries a business site looking for local clients deeply browsing engine results. This dilemma is best managed local SEO NYC. It's a great technique to target customers and customers existing in a particular geographic area. Often, nearby search engine marketing requires a different strategy that merely a professional can program and use. Consequently, firms buying local recognition online are inclined to hire an area Google best local SEO company firm that provides knowledgeable and competent expertise for hiring unique processes to learn and improve the business situation while in the nearby location rather than within the worldwide market. Listed here are a couple of explanations why you will recognize choosing a local SEO firm locally.

Assists in Efficiently Targeting Local Online Customers

Nowadays, Internet users are more seeking regional the websites. Almost over 75% users seek out local websites for gaining information or acquiring services or products. Consequently, your company undoubtedly takes a nearby New York City SEO company approach that may draw these regional hunters to your internet website, that are searching for specific regional offers. Possibly, this is an ideal market phase your site must attract. However, targeting them needs a complete understanding of these online actions so that you may design your online popularity in a way that they'll place easily. It is only a trustworthy and knowledgeable local SEO agencies business that could give you this knowledge.

Prevents Regular Barriers for Best Local SEO Services

Perhaps you have created your site by yourself or have ordered it from a firm to gain more exposure online? Irrespective of the method that you have gone onward to style your site, it has become frequent to expect the brand new site to fetch countless visitors and leads immediately. Nevertheless, it takes no time for this expectancy to convert into discontent. The primary reason for this dissatisfaction is the fact that the search engines rarely know about your website and even should they recognize, they know it almost no. The reason being such local websites are designed for looking great, not for satisfying the various search engines along with the guests. Being a fact, most web-design organizations completely give attention to style and therefore are least worried to ensure appropriate search marketing.

Furthermore, local business owners with sites often target more on working the daily real operations rather than working their websites. More, taking care and selling a website require a diverse skill set that many don't comprehend or have enough time for you to examine and discover. That is why the business entrepreneurs don't know from how to start to get visitors to their website. To be able to maintain these boundaries from increasing, the aid of a best local SEO company is expected.

Thus, your company truly requires SEO services NYC tactic that may move these regional visitors to your internet website, who're trying to find unique regional offers.