
Kevin Mitnick's business card is a lock picking set - 3ds
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ranh/106709219/
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thaumaturgy
In California, carrying a lockpick set (or anything whose primary purpose
might be for picking locks) can get you in trouble if you're not a locksmith
-- possibly a lot of trouble, depending on the officer's mood.

I had read some conflicting information on this, so I checked with a local
locksmith that I trust. He said that intention doesn't matter, merely carrying
it is against the law.

I don't think it should be this way, but it's worth mentioning to anyone
thinking that this is a good idea.

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blackguardx
If you think this law is outrageous, you should check into the CA knife laws.
They are extremely broad and vague. You pretty much can't carry any knife at
all, depending on the officer's mood that day. I guess one should just try to
stay out of trouble, be courteous, and avoid the ire of law enforcement.

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ax0n
I've used them to try to pick locks. They don't work too well, as they're made
of cheap metal instead of the spring steel used to make real lock picks. They
could probably work on a filing cabinet or a kwikset door knob, but they're
mostly just for looks.

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hedgehog
They're chemical etched thin sheet steel, probably already as heavy and
expensive as you want to hand out as biz cards. The originals were tested at
least once. I like their design a bit better:

<http://www.jenimattson.com/index.php?id=melvin#identity>

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ax0n
Mitnick's cards have been around for several years... I got one from him at a
conference in KC (where he also autographed The Art of Deception and The Art
of Intrusion for me). It was quite a while ago. Many others (including melvin
and TOOOL) have also put together similar snap-apart credit-card lock picks.
The problems are that they're too short to really get a good feel with, and
they're made of crap metal that doesn't lend itself well to picking real
locks.

When I'm picking locks, the pick is a long lever, and my fingertips function
as the fulcrum. The other end of that lever rests neatly in the web of my
thumb and forefinger, which is at least two inches away from said fulcrum. It
is back there where I feel what's going on deep inside the lock, sight unseen.
The length of the lever (lock pick) amplifies anything felt by the end of the
pick. You just can't get that kind of feedback with lock picks that fit within
the dimensions of a business card.

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hedgehog
Your technical comments are fair but here's the history: fiveish years back a
friend of ours (Divide) got some metal cards and Melvin liked them but wanted
something a little different. Jeni, Mel and I came up with the lock picks.
Kevin's cards are a derivative with the picks shortened to fit more contact
info. If you wanted to build a more robust version you could use thicker steel
and replace the chemical etching with laser. I think a simple cipher machine
or something like that would be a cool next step.

