Steel Bolt Hacking [Paperback]

Douglas Chick (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2004

Steel Bolt Hacking is a lock picking book for those that want to learn the art of picking locks as a hobby. With such annual events as DefCon, the annual hackers convention, more and more computer people are becoming interested in learning lock picking. Lock picking sports groups are springing up all over the world with little or no books to support it. Typically the art of lock picking is passed down from locksmith to apprentice and rarely are there any material to help those interested in lock picking, that don't necessarily want to become a locksmith to learn it. Steel Bolt Hacking will teach you more than just the basics, you will learn to pick padlocks, deadbolts, push button combination locks, and how find the number on combination padlocks.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Douglas Chick is the author of, What All Network Administrators Know, and creator of the computer professional website, TheNetworkAdministrator.com

Product Details

• Paperback: 110 pages
• Publisher: TheNetworkAdministrator.com (January 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974463019
• ISBN-13: 978-0974463018
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,796,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am an author, computer network engineer, and creator of the computer website: http://www.TheNeworkAdministrator.com. I have published 6 computer books, and am currently working on two non-fiction books that I hope to have out soon. I am also a book publisher and am always looking for writers submissions.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre, at best, January 11, 2005

By 

B. Pope "Hobbyist" (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Steel Bolt Hacking (Paperback)

The book's intended purpose as stated is to sell lockpicking as a competitive sport, or club. While I agree with the message, several problems made the book very nearly unreadable, and left me wondering why I'd spent money on what is so obviously an amateur web-page in bound form.

As mentioned, much of the information is copy/pasted from one chapter to the next, up to and including diagrams and pictures, with no real reason for the repetition. I suppose the author might have wanted to illustrate how similar different types of locks are in function, but this is a poor way at best to do so. Additionally, numerous spelling and grammatical mistakes broke up whatever flow the book had, from the rapidly (and incorrectly) changing tenses in the author's anecdotes, to simpler mistakes such as 6this. [sic]

If you find this book used, it might be worth the price. Still, if you have any idea already how a lock works, you're better off searching the web for How-To's and FAQ's. It's obvious the author does know the material, and that's what makes me most upset about the book. If he'd bothered to hire an editor, or even a proofreader, he would have improved the book's quality immeasurably, and perhaps made it more saleable.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Quite Poor, November 28, 2004

By 

Ellie (Raleigh, NC USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Steel Bolt Hacking (Paperback)

Very amateur printing and binding. Much of the information is repeated several times over verbatim... feels very much like the book was padded out to its length.

The "for computer people" angle is a red herring. The author simply comments - repeatedly - on the similarity between exploiting flaws in locks and exploiting flaws in computer security protocols. This is never explored or elaborated upon, nor is lock picking explored from a particularly computerish angle.

The information presented in the book is fairly clear, but there's very little of it. Furthermore, all of the information in the book is freely available - and better written - in several online guides.

Overall, I'm quite disappointed. Not worth the money.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Unique Title,, April 9, 2004

By 

Keith Kimmel "Free Thinker, Constant Reader" (OK USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Steel Bolt Hacking (Paperback)

This is not your average lockpicking tutorial and you'll find it to be useless unless you have a particular mindset. Written for the "computer hacker", Steel Bolt Hacking is a title meant for people with a curious mind who want to learn to pick locks for sport and fun, not nessicarilly for profit or occupation. This title approaches the subject from that of a computer user, drawing conclusions and connections that today's avid computer user can both understand and apply to practice.