Luggage locks || Tubular pin tumbler lock

Posted on August 31st, 2008 in Uncategorized by admin

A tubular pin tumbler lock, also known as Ace lock or “axial pin tumbler lock” or “radial lock”, is a variety of pin tumbler lock in which 6-8 pins are arranged in a circular pattern, and the corresponding key is tubular or cylindrical in shape.

J.A. Blake is credited with patenting the first tubular lock in 1833. Walter R. Schlage continued the development of the tubular lock. He was awarded 11 patents, and his improvements made the tubular lock what it is today.

Tubular locks are commonly seen on bicycle locks, computer locks, and a variety of coin-operated devices such as vending machines and coin-operated washing machines.

Security

Tubular pin tumbler locks are generally considered to be safer and more resistant to picking than standard locks, though there are several ways to open them without a key. Even though the pins are exposed, making them superficially easier to pick, they are designed such that after all pins are manipulated to their shear line, once the plug is rotated 1/6 to 1/8 around, the pins will fall into the next pin’s hole, requiring re-picking to continue. As such, picking the lock without using a device to hold its pins in place once they reach their shear line requires over a dozen complete picks to unlock and relock.

Such locks can be picked by a special tubular lock pick with a minimum of effort in very little time; it is also possible to defeat them by drilling with a special “hole saw” drill bit. Standard tubular lock drill bit sizes are .375″ (9.53 mm) diameter and .394″ (10 mm) diameter.[1] To prevent drilling, many tubular locks have a middle pin made of hardened steel, or contain a ball bearing in the middle pin.

In 2004, videos circulating on the Internet demonstrated that some tubular pin tumbler locks could be easily opened with the shaft of an inexpensive ballpoint pen (e.g. BIC brand) of matching diameter. Trade website BikeBiz.com revealed that the weaknesses of the tubular pin tumbler mechanism had first been described in 1992 by UK journalist John Stuart Clark (see Kryptonite lock).

Luggage locks || Monospace

Posted on August 31st, 2008 in Uncategorized by admin

Monospace may refer to:

In typography

  • Monospace font, fixed-width typefaces whose glyphs have the same width
  • Monospace (font), a computer font which carries said characteristic

Other

  • Monospace or one-box car, a style of automobile body, that doesn’t feature clearly distinguishable ‘boxes’ for the engine, passenger and luggage compartments, like a three-box design.

Luggage locks || Vermaport

Posted on August 31st, 2008 in Uncategorized by admin

The Vermaport® Cart Conveying System is the trademarked name of conveyor systems built by Darrott (Germany) that are designed to transport shopping carts between floors of a retail establishment or to transport or store luggage carts at airports or other transportation hubs. Vermaport Cart Conveying Systems are alternatives to inclined moving walkways, a Vermaport will take up much less space than the walkway.

Vermaport SC

The Vermaport SC (Shopping Cart) is typically used in discount retailers such as Target and Kmart, as well as furniture store IKEA, and the retail chain Bed Bath and Beyond. Essentially an escalator, the device uses specially designed shopping carts and transports them between levels in shopping complexes.

Along the path of the Vermaport there are three valleys. The special carts have their front wheels set closer together and out of parallel to the back, outset, wheels. On the way up the inset wheels glide along the center valley, which is lower than the two outer valleys that the outset wheels ride along. This allows the shopping cart to stay level while moving along an inclined path. On the way down, the center valley is higher and the side valleys are lower to allow the cart to transport level while facing down the Vermaport. Due to these valleys, shopping carts on the Vermaport SC do not have the typical plastic or metal grate shelf below the basket of the shopping cart that is used to carry large or bulk items.

An installed Vermaport system is typically located next to an escalator, moving at the same speed, so as to allow a shopping cart to be transported alongside a shopper as he or she moves between floors. The conveyance is accomplished by a belt of hard rubber teeth that grab near the wheels of the cart as a shopper guides it into the entrance of the Vermaport.

The world’s largest Vermaport is located in Kmart in Middle Village, Queens, New York City, New York. It has a length of 120 ft (37 m) and a vertical rise of 50 ft (15 m).

Vermaport LC

The Vermaport LC (Luggage Cart) is based on the same engineering principles and the SC model. It allows travellers and their luggage to travel between floors in transportation terminals such as an airport. The LC system allows for items wider than what would fit into a shopping cart on the Vermaport SC.

Vermaport RS

The Vermaport RS (Return System) is used to store luggage carts which are typically rental fee based. Personnel at an arrival or departure area will gather abandoned luggage carts and return them to the Vermaport RS. The carts will be automatically feed into the Vermaport and will wait for a traveler to retrieve one by inserting the required fee.

Luggage locks || Zero Halliburton

Posted on August 31st, 2008 in Uncategorized by admin

Zero Halliburton was originally a metal fabrication company called Zierold Company, which in 1946 changed its name to Zero Corporation. In 1952 Zero, which until then had no relation to Halliburton, bought the luggage division of Halliburton, the Texas oilfield services company. On December 29, 2006, Zero Corporation sold its consumer division to ACE Co. Ltd., a Japanese luggage manufacturer. Today Zero Halliburton is a wholly owned subsidiary of ACE Co. Ltd. of Osaka and Tokyo.

Erle P. Halliburton, the founder of Halliburton, had commissioned the aluminum case in 1938 from aircraft engineers because other luggage could not endure the rough travel through Texas oil fields in a pickup truck. In addition to being more durable than a leather or cloth case due to its rigidity, the aluminum case seals tightly against dust and water.

Today the aluminum cases, which have appeared in over 200 Hollywood movies, are also available in carbon-fiber. They have been seen in wrestling as well - in one ‘angle’, Steve McMichael turned on fellow NFL’er Kevin Greene for a Halliburton stuffed with cash and a 4 Horsemen t-shirt. McMichael used the case to ensure victory several times. Although lighter, the carbon-fiber briefcases cost about $2000 USD, about seven times the cost of the standard aluminum Zero Halliburton briefcases. Famously, the Nuclear Football (the briefcase used to order a nuclear attack) is a modified Zero Halliburton case.

Luggage locks || Two Locks

Posted on August 31st, 2008 in Uncategorized by admin

Two Locks is a suburb of Cwmbran in the county borough of Torfaen, traditional county of Monmouthshire, southern Wales, United Kingdom.

The locks in question are part of the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal in its southern section between Newport and Pontypool.

Demographics

At the 2001 Census

  • Population 6572 (Torfaen 90,949)
  • 49.1% Male, 50.9% Female
  • Ages
    • 23.3% aged between 0-15
    • 41.1% aged between 16-44
    • 21.7% aged 45-59/64
    • 13.9% of pensionable age

Luggage locks || Party bus

Posted on August 30th, 2008 in Uncategorized by admin

A party bus (also known as a Party Ride, limo bus, limousine bus or luxury bus) is a large motor vehicle designed to carry 20 or more passengers. Party buses are often driven by chauffeurs.

Party buses offer seating capacities from 20 to 50 passengers and include more amenities and standard equipment than most other forms of ground transportation. These amenities may include upgraded electrical systems, fast idle controller, AM/FM stereo with CD player, power/heated remote control mirrors, power door locks and windows, upgraded seats and fabric, strip-poles, air actuated passenger entry door, video and audio systems, luggage partitions, back-up cameras, seat and fabric upgrades, smoke machines, laser lights, disco lights, strobe lights, on-board restroom, ADA equipment and a large array of floor plans to suit demanding transportation needs.

Party buses are primarily used for, although not limited to, weddings, proms and bachelor and bachelorette parties as well as round trips to casinos, nights on the town, personalized drop offs and pick ups at various bars and nightclubs, birthdays and city tours.

While some party buses are used for week long tours and events, most are used for day trips and events. Most party buses, however, operate as livery vehicles, providing upmarket competition to limousines and taxicabs.

Luggage locks || Multiple granularity locking

Posted on August 30th, 2008 in Uncategorized by admin

In computer science, multiple granularity locking (MGL), sometimes called the John Rayner locking method, is a locking method used in database management systems (DBMS) and relational databases.

In MGL, locks are set on objects that contain other objects. MGL exploits the hierarchical nature of the contains relationship. For example, a database may have files, which contain pages, which further contain records. This can be thought of as a tree of objects, where each node contains its children. A lock locks a node and its descendants.

Multiple granularity locking is usually used with Non-strict two-phase locking to guarantee serializability. MGL uses lock escalation to determine granularity lock on a node and its ancestors.

Lock Modes

In addition to shared (S) locks and exclusive (X) locks from other locking schemes, like Strict two-phase locking, MGL also uses intention shared and intention exclusive locks. IS locks conflict with X locks, while IX locks conflict with S and X locks. The null lock (NL) is compatible with everything.

To lock a node in S (or X), MGL has the transaction locks all of its ancestors with IS (or IX), so if a transaction locks a node in S (or X), no other transaction can access its ancestors in X (or S and X).

MGL locking modes are compatible with each other as defined in the following matrix.

Mode NL IS IX S SIX EX
NL
IS
IX
S
SIX
EX

Luggage locks || Lost luggage

Posted on August 30th, 2008 in Uncategorized by admin

Lost luggage is the phenomenon in which a public carrier, airline, ship, or train does not send a passenger’s luggage to the correct destination to arrive with the passenger. In the United States, an average of 1 of 150 people have their checked baggage misdirected or left behind each year.Why Airlines Keep Losing Your Luggage (http://biz.yahoo.com/weekend/lostluggage_1.html)

Lost or misdirected luggage becomes more common the more elaborate a flight plan is. International flights, or flights with connections are far more likely to see luggage get lost. There are many causes of lost luggage. If a passenger arrives late for a flight luggage will sometimes not have enough time to be loaded on the plane. If tags are accidentally torn off airport workers may not know where to send the luggage. Human error is also common as tags are misread or luggage is placed in the wrong location. Security delays and, for international flights, customs delays can also cause bags to arrive on a later flight than their owner.

Most lost luggage is quickly sent by the airline to the correct destination. For the inconvenience airlines will often reimburse passengers for toiletries, clothing, and other essentials if the arrival airport is away from the passenger’s home area. In most cases, upon the arrival of delayed luggage, a courier service will deliver it from the arrival airport to the passenger at his or her home or hotel. Delivery charges are paid by the airline except in rare cases.

On some occasions luggage is completely lost and cannot be recovered. The airline will then normally compensate the owner. The passengers must then list the contents of their baggage and file a claim. Most airlines maintain stores where they sell the contents of lost or abandoned luggage. The reason if a bag is never recovered is usually that it is stolen or mistaken by another passenger or stolen by an airport employee.

To deal with lost luggage travelers are advised to carry all essentials in a carry-on bag, including a change of clothes and anything they would be greatly troubled to lose because of monetary or emotional value.

Bags can also be damaged during travel, but most damage (such as broken wheels and handles) is not covered under the airlines’ contract of carriage. Some airlines, however, will still repair such damage as a good-faith gesture to the customer, or offer a discount voucher for a future flight. Rynn’s in Dallas, Texas (www.netbags.com) is the primary baggage repair facility for most US airlines. Damaged bag repairs cost airlines around $25, on average.

The majority of unclaimed baggage, whether by being lost or misdirected, or simply forgotten by travelers, is handled by the Unclaimed Baggage Center in Scottsboro, Alabama, which has contracts with most major airlines. The luggage sent to UBC is eventually resold for a profit.

Luggage locks || Windsor Locks, Connecticut Tornado

Posted on August 30th, 2008 in Uncategorized by admin

The Windsor Locks, Connecticut tornado struck on October 3 1979. The short-lived, but intense F4 tornado (see Fujita scale) caused 3 deaths, 500 injuries, and - with more than $300 million in property damage along an 11-mile path - ranks as one of the most expensively destructive tornadoes in American history.

The tornado touched down in the town of Poquonock, Connecticut, just north of Hartford, Connecticut in the Connecticut River valley. It traveled north through the town of Windsor Locks, Connecticut before dissipating in the town of Suffield, Connecticut, just south of the Massachusetts state line.

The path of the tornado crossed the northern portion of Bradley International Airport, and many vintage aircraft at the nearby New England Air Museum were damaged or destroyed by the storm.

Luggage locks || Electronic lock

Posted on August 30th, 2008 in Uncategorized by admin

An electronic lock (also known as a digital lock) is a locking device which uses some form of electronics to authenticate those accessing it, sometimes using two-factor authentication. Electronic locks are typically considered more secure than conventional mechanical locks and can include additional features like logging access attempts, group level access, time-based access and the incorporation of burglar or fire alarms.

Operation

Most electronic locks use a magnetic lock/solenoid bolt to perform the physical component of locking. Older mechanisms can also be found which use electric motors to move a deadbolt. Once the authentication process is successful, the lock is released into opening.

As providing electrical current to a lock within a door can be difficult, a common solution is an electronic strike plate. Using a normal mechanical lock, an electronic striker can also be triggered remotely to free the latch from the door frame.

Authentication methods

Electronic locks offer a variety of means of authentication; those described below are not considered exhaustive.

Numerical codes, passwords and passphrases

Perhaps the most prevalent form of electronic lock is that using a numerical code for authentication; the correct code must be entered in order for the lock to deactivate. Such locks typically provide a keypad, and some feature an audible response to each press. Combination lengths are usually between 4 and 6 digits long.

A variation on this design involves the user entering the correct password or passphrase.

Security tokens

Another means of authenticating users is to require them to scan or “swipe” a security token such as a smart card or similar, or to interact a token with the lock. For example, some locks can access stored credentials on a personal digital assistant using infrared data transfer methods.

Biometrics

As biometrics become more and more prominent as a recognized means of positive identification, their use in security systems increases. Some new electronic locks take advantage of technologies such as fingerprint scanning, retinal scanning and iris scanning, and voiceprint identification to authenticate users.

Next Page »