On Sat, Aug 09, 2003 at 08:52:32AM -0400, Roy M. Silvernail wrote:On Saturday 09 August 2003 02:01, John Kozubik wrote:On Fri, 8 Aug 2003, Tyler Durden wrote:...in cahoots with the "authorities"?
Most intelligent and savvy people I know "roll their own" Tivo (PVR, etc.)
- I think the answer to your question is that it would be reasonable (and
trivial) to roll your own alarm system.
But it's not trivial to roll your own 24/7 monitoring company with the ability
to call in the cops. If the monitoring company is compromised, you're
\033653337357 anyway, but without them, all you have is one of those car
alarms that everyone ignores.
But how important is that anyway? Most any half competent burglar knows
enough to cut the phone wire before the B&E, so they don't get called. That
means that, yes, if some dimwit middleschool kid is doing the job, the cops get
called, otherwise no.
Cellphones are cheap enough, and monthly charges are small enough when N machines share the same monthly account charge (Dad, Mom, Johnnie, Suzy, and Alarm). I would be surprised if today's alarm companies already aren't making good use of cellphones.
I have a couple of perimeter lights and alarms on solar panels. Nothing to cut without either first using a ladder or, possibly, an accurate pellet gun to somehow disable the electronics. (One is mounted under the eaves of my roof, very high up. I may put another one in a tall oak.)
I've also considered installing a full system with a beeper, with 802.11b cameras wirelessly sending to a laptop on a large battery. (If invaders/thieves/government agents find the laptop, in a closet devoted to this, they may not find the second such receiver, possibly hidden quite well. Or, for those who live near others, kept in a closet in the home of a friend. And even if they find it, I'll presumably still know I was invaded.)
I figure that for a few thousand dollars and a spare laptop or two I could have a system very resistant to cutting phone or power lines, and something which would make surreptitious entry teams think twice. (Leave a couple of the 802.11b cameras visible, put another behind a Lexan plate, etc.)
--Tim May
"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant." --John Stuart Mill
