Neat Wired article on the Dutch Open - described as the Wimbledon of lockpicking. A timely reminder in the wake of last years Kryptonite scandal. The lock picking world sounds pretty, erm, just read the article....
"It's 20 hours before the third annual Dutch Open lock-picking competition will begin, but the room is already packed with 50 or so men and women wielding burglar tools and representing the international steel bolt-hacker diaspora. By the kitchen you'll find Jean-Marie, a debonair French military "surreptitious entry" instructor in a black commando sweater, chatting with a lock enthusiast about his collection of Abloy disc tumblers. At the door is Barry Wels, the event's host and a coinventor of the CryptoPhone. He's hacking an expensive, high-security, dimpled Mul-T-Lock using only a filed key and a steak knife handle. Behind the bar, a pair of locksmiths are speculating about which of the newbies is really an undercover cop. By the pool table, a gaggle of Dutch programmers probes the latches of a combination padlock with a broken tape measure, while behind them a German cyberpunk sells a hand-milled Kryptonite skeleton key to an American satellite engineer: 100 euros - cheap.
Standing above them all, with a beer stein in one hand and a cigarette in the other, is Arthur Bühl, a private dick from Hamburg and one of the most successful lock pickers of all time. Even in this crowded, smoky room, you can't miss him - he's the one standing 6'5" in snakeskin boots, with a kidney-length mullet cascading over the broad shoulders of his double-breasted zoot suit. Bühl's Fabio-the-Barbarian look stands out. So does his record. Although he's never won a Dutch Open, he's won most everywhere else, earning him Germany's ultimate lock-picking accolade: Master of the Universe."
Via Boing Boing
Posted by nic at 09.02.05 08:43 | TrackBack