Most of us who have locked doors to open at home or at the office know the hassles of using keys to lock and unlock them. In no particular order:

• Losing the key meant having to replace the lock and all copies of the key
• Scratches and dents on the door around the lock
• Fumbling, searching, sorting, selecting the right key while running the risk of getting mugged in front of the door
• Ensuring that you are holding the key before you close a door which automatically locks
• Keeping keys in a pouch, wallet, purse, or pocket, causing wear

Instead of messing with keys, try using something that only you own and can never lose: fingerprints! BrickHouse Electronics has a quality range of keyless door locks which use the uniqueness and convenience of your fingerprint to gain access.

Fingerprints are tested to be very unique as there is only a chance of false acceptance of a fingerprint in tens of millions of fingerprints. It is obviously more convenient to use as you have it with you all the time. Other family members or staff can also train their own fingerprints into the locks, so there is no need to share fingerprints (which is not possible anyway).

For the above peeves of using keys, I would buy and use one of these locks in the future. Residential crime is prevalent in Malaysia and having one of these devices can save the time spent opening doors and getting in safely. I don’t have to duplicate keys for others anymore, so there is no risk of the key smith copying your key unscrupulously.

One disadvantage of fingerprint door locks would be in the event of power loss. BrickHouse locks use batteries, which the lock will remind you to change when they are low on power. You have to be vigilant in changing batteries about every year. Fortunately, even if the batteries are flat and the fingerprint sensor does not work, you can still use a mechanical key to unlock – very clever!

The last thing to consider is the price. These locks cost about five times more than key locks, but I think they are worth the convenience, enhanced security and cool factor. Imagine, no keys clinging, no need for bright lights at the doorway, and silent and smooth access into your home or office!

Links:

BrickHouse Electronics Biometric Door Locks
<URL:http://www.brickhousesecurity.com/keylessdoorlock-electronicbiometric-fingerprintlock.html>

Technorati Tags: lock, door lock, fingerprint, keyless, biometric, keyless lock, biometric lock, keyless door lock

For websites and bloggers who are concerned with their web traffic, it has been the norm to analyze the incoming traffic trends using onsite analytical tools or third-party tools. You can see where most of your traffic is coming from, but do you know where your visitors go to next? Do you know what links they click most, possibly indicating a trend or interest in a particular topic?

I’ve been evaluating this free outgoing traffic tracking service, known as Bingr.com.

Bingr’s website is efficiently designed and works well. Being written in ASP, I didn’t expect it to perform quite fast. The interface is simple and gets things done easily.

For each link in your site that you want to track, you give it a name and its link. Bingr will return you a shortened link to replace the link. With this link, Bingr can track the number of clicks and the country of origin.

For example, I created a link for:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/7/7/nation/14765105&sec=nation&focus=1

and Bingr gives me this link to use:

http://bingr.com/he6ke7

To your visitors, they won’t see a difference. You can then view a graph of the clicks across time and see the trend of the link. This is very useful for bloggers and website owners who want to understand where their visitors visit next and build on those trends. If they are particularly interested in a news article on crime and public safety, you can then focus your blog on those topics or feature related products and services, such as personal security devices.

You can create as many Bingr links as you like, but each one can be tracked for 30 days.

Give it a try and let me know whether it is useful for you.

Links:

Bingr.com
<URL:http://www.bingr.com/>

Technorati Tags: bingr, web traffic, web trends, trend tracking, short links, free service