[Scott Dorsey]

Preben Friis wrote:

Well... a padlock on your garden shed can make sure that your neighbour
doesn't borrow your lawnmover without asking... That is a technical
solution to a social problem, right?

Locks are a good example: locks keep honest people honest but they don't
do anything much to deal with an even slightly determined thief. The
social contract built up around the lock is stronger than the minimal
security the lock actually provides.

People take locks seriously, and that keeps them from borrowing your
lawnmower. But as soon as people stop taking locks seriously, they
don't really do much good.

When I was a kid, cars had ignition locks, but everybody knew how to
defeat them and thieves regularly hotwired cars and ran off with them.
Then GM put in mechanical steering wheel locks, but everybody knew
how to defeat those too. Now everyone has put in car alarms, but they
go off spuriously so often that nobody even looks when an alarm goes
off, so thieves just ignore them. The deterrent effect of the lock
and alarm is more in the mind than being anything physical.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."