I’m a mathtard. I admit it.

Which isn’t such a great thing to be in this line of work. I’m no slouch – I’ve rocked the occasional Smith Chart, understand basic calculus, and learned to hate LaPlace transforms – but when people start throwing formulae up on the board and proceed to analyze and then code something up based on it, I get lost very easy.

So I proceeded to bug Shardy the other day as to whether he’d be up for doing the occasional math lecture at HackLab. I wanted to learn more about the ideas, math and implementation of Markov Chains. He seemed cool with it, but now I think I might see about trying to leech even more from the guy’s brain.

Would people mind helping me come up with a list of ideas for Math talks? Let’s focus on stuff germane to cryptology, protocols and compsec.

Locks and Lockpicking, sometimes called ‘Locksport’ (yet another ‘politically correct’ term I abhor) is commonly seen at hacker conventions. If there isn’t an outright “Lockpick Village” or vendors selling picks and books, then at the very least a small group will unofficially congregate at some table or empty corner to talk and trade techniques.

I bet most people reading this have tried lock picking, and if not, it was only for lack of tools. But that shouldn’t be a reason any longer; it’s very easy to order the equipment online, and failing that, simple to make yourself. Street sweeper bristles, a cheap file and paper clips will do.

Starting off I had a real knack at opening locks, or at least thought I did, until I handed the tools to my brother who halved my picking times within a day. They then made their way to a roommate of his and she more than halved his times. Fun for the whole family!

While we’re at it, let’s give thanks for living in the Great White North where possession of lockpicking tools is entirely legal. Unless, of course, you’re using them to commit a criminal offense.

Now on to business… I would like to gauge the interest in holding some kind of monthly lockpicking meet-up at the wonderful HackLab space. I have several ideas and goals in mind:

1. Get new people involved, and equip them with tools so they can pursue this hobby

2. Bring like minded people together to share tips and techniques

3. Lend and/or trade various locks and lock collections, or create collections, so that there’s a wide range of interesting gear for people to learn and progress on

I’ve developed a pretty decent collections of locks that I will be happy to put into rotation. Some are modified with reduced pin counts to make learning easier, or cutaway so that you can study the action. Some have never been opened by anyone via picking – be the first!

Additionally, I hand manufacture 5 piece lockpicking kits, in small quantities and of tolerable quality. I will give them away, free of charge, to anyone who signs up and pays for HackLab membership. If regular meetups do come about, rest assured enough temp equipment will be provided for everyone who attends the session (within reason).