[harrisi]

The interaction of engineering and "use" by the Lock Picking Lawyer (https://youtu.be/Ecy1FBdCRbQ) was fascinating - "use" here really meaning "exploiting". It's a problem many here are aware of, either by over-engineering things intended for use by non-engineers, or designing things to be used by customers when the designer isn't intimately familiar with the use. In this case it was sort of somewhere in between.

I'm currently an operator of heavy machinery in a factory making tools for the wafer industry, although my main career is in software development. I'm actively working with the tools and software used to get a better understanding of the disconnect between engineering and operations. It's been a great way to consider how to improve tools in ways that aren't just "better" from a software/engineering standpoint.

Also, holy cow. I've watched all of your videos multiple times. You are truly an inspiration. Thank you, and apologies for the fanboying.

[franciscop]

Def want to see Enclave's under Lock Picking Lawyer! If you make a "unpickable lock" you'd def want to send it to LPL, that's like the ultimate proof of how easy/hard it is to pick. The fact that there's no video, with how approachable LPL is and accepts random locks in his PO box, can only be seen as a red flag.

Do it in the open, like Stuff Made Here!

[codezero]

Check out another prominent lock sporter, Lock Noob. He has a recent video where he examines the lock and agrees it’ll be hard to pick.

Unpickable locks aren’t that unique or rare in the community but they tend to be too complex to make it to market at a reasonable price or with the ability to withstand years of wear and tear and still work.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qNHFyc1oMwU

[mlyle]

> The fact that there's no video, with how approachable LPL is and accepts random locks in his PO box, can only be seen as a red flag.

He says he's going to make a small number of prototypes and send them to the locksport community. It's not a "red flag", it's just very early in his design cycle.

[franciscop]

He's selling them at $250, patent pending and is sold out for 20 days ("again"), def sounds like a normal product and not a prototype.

[mlyle]

"Please be aware that this lock is only a demonstration of the mechanism, and cannot be used to secure doors, chains, or anything else. "

It's for locksport and to play right now. There's no ready means to actually... lock something.. with it.

[DominikPeters]

LPL makes few videos with locks where he can't do anything. To me it's not a red flag but more likely a signal that he hasn't found an exploit (yet).

[yebyen]

I definitely remember seeing a design similar to this one not many weeks ago on LPL. I am looking for it now. The video on the landing page shows these little discs which can provide a false set, and a secondary mechanism that opens only when all the pins have a correct set. I am not an expert just watch a lot of LPL so don't take my word for it when I say this is the same design, this may be a completely novel design, but I'm looking for the video, it can't have been long ago...

Edit: ok, it wasn't on LPL, or a similar design at all, it was this lock and it was on Lock Noob, I found this was in my viewing history and it was just recently published, it must be the video I remember: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNHFyc1oMwU (I see this was also linked down thread)

It looks like a very good design! I'd like to see it in front of Lock Picking Lawyer too

[jiveturkey]

It was reviewed a month ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNHFyc1oMwU

[nielsbot]

I think it's just too soon?

[Grimburger]

> that's like the ultimate proof of how easy/hard it is to pick

I would assume there's much better locksmiths on the planet than the most famous one on youtube who does it as a side job.

[brokenkebab2]

LPL is not a locksmith, he practices lockpicking as a sport. And evidently extremely good at it.

[Quequau]

Not only that but he manufactures and sells lock picking equipment and consults on physical security. There's nothing part time about LPL's lock picking any more.

[Fnoord]

Well, we don't know what his main job is, only that he lives in Washington DC. I would assume because of his location that he works for the US government, and that this is the reason he does not want his face on video.

[hprotagonist]

he’s in corporate law. contracts and such.

[Grimburger]

Has he won any tournaments? I'm not too familiar with the sport sorry.

[snoopy_telex]

Yes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avn7ABVHPYk

[PUSH_AX]

True, but it’s also probably excellent marketing if you can get your lock featured and it does well.

[GuB-42]

It is not a side job anymore. He has stopped lawyering to concentrate on security. He launched covertinstruments.com, which sells tools and training.

[permo-w]

whether he does it as a side job isn't really relevant, but I do think that there's a bit of a cult of personality going on here.

he's clearly a good lockpick, but even in a thread that isn't about him, he's somehow dominating conversation and gathering plaudits. I completely agree that being famous doesn't make you the ultimate arbiter of anything

[trompetenaccoun]

Didn't know HN had so many lock experts and lawyers frequenting the site. Dozens of comments have already detected an IP violation, half the thread is recommending ways the lock can be tested or people it needs to be sent to for confirmation of the unpickable claim...

As someone who doesn't know anything about lockpicking, I feel like part of a weird minority here. What do I know but I'd assumed one would take it to a convention or competition where the best lockpickers in the world meet, not a youtuber. Something like this: https://www.wired.com/2014/12/international-competition-mast...

[mypalmike]

> Didn't know HN had so many lock experts and lawyers frequenting the site.

Now you do? They're are definitely lawyers who frequent this site. And lockpicking is a common interest of computer security experts

[orthoxerox]

That youtuber has won his fair share of locksport competitions.

[trompetenaccoun]

Sure. Not saying he's bad at lockpicking. The point is more are you an expert yourself or how do you know he's THE guy to talk to? For reference, what are the main lock picking competitions in the world and which ones has he won? Can you name them?

When I looked it up out of interest, he isn't mentioned as the world expert in actual lockpicking forums. I found a couple of other names but in any way, it makes more sense to have it tested by a group of experts than just a single person. One person may fail, but if an entire convention full of the best lockpickers can't pick your lock, that's a much better indication the lock really is unpickable.

[wruza]

What’s wrong with taking it to a youtuber?

[kebman]

Got a lockpicking set from a friend, and was ... hooked ... ever since. Apparently it's pretty normal among tech / IT types.

[cvccvroomvroom]

I can't be bothered to use YT anymore with all the ads. They're basically interactive, on-demand, corporate TV monetizing other people's content and nothing more. The world needs a co-op video sharing app and a microblogging app.

[pwg]

Just download the videos you want to watch:

https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp

The only "ads" you get will be the ones the video uploaders encode directly into the video itself. Plus you can watch using whatever playback software works best on your system, instead of the rather feature free JS player youtube provides.

[pengaru]

This is the only way to enjoy youtube without a premium account, and even with a premium account it's still far better to use a proper player like mpv.

But it seems likely to me that YouTube will eventually start embedding the ads more inextricably into the video streams while downloaded. Especially as more people use tools like youtube-dl/yt-dlp to circumvent ads.

[efreak]

They'd have to vary the ad timing to get past sponsorblock, and generating a video for each viewer to do targeting. I can't imagine Google going back to content-based ads after all this time.

https://github.com/yt-dlp/yt-dlp/#sponsorblock-options

[shawnz]

Firefox with uBlock Origin is effective at blocking them.

[MattRix]

You could also just pay for YouTube premium. I subscribed about a year ago and I don’t regret it.

[neop1x]

Same here. Totally worth it.

[Caboose8685]

Using privacy front-ends makes the experience much more tolerable and completely eliminates ads. Then you can directly support your favorite creators via patreon, etc. There's invidious [0] and piped [1], with the major differentiator being that invidious doesn't require JS and piped having sponsorblock built in.

[0] https://invidious.io/ [1] https://github.com/TeamPiped/Piped

[chiph]

Having a PiHole on your network makes it tolerable. But doesn't fix their broken recommendation system.

[Caboose8685]

Pihole can't deal with YT ads because they're served from YT domains.

[msandford]

How so? I have a pihole and the requisite config on my ddwrt router but still get plenty of yt ads.

[dubswithus]

I use Brave to block the ads. Also, Brave has the playlist feature on iOS which is quite nice.

[twobitshifter]

or just pay to avoid the ads?