A bit inconvenient thing happened to me today: I was leaving the lab ... just started to rain a bit, so I said to myself that I must hurry ... I wanted to unlock my bike and found the key somehow more willing to turn in the lock than usual ... but the lock did not open. As a conscientious computer scientist I tried to apply the usual software trick to the problem ... restart the procedure ... back off ... and try again. Nothing.

After a few attempts I somehow deduced that the lock must be broken. Pretty inconvenient. I tried to rotate it and shake it a bit. Nothing. Ah well, it was an old lock ... "I can as well break it" I though. But with what? I explained to the doorman my situation (if only not to get suspicious looks) and head back to the lab. Even though we have some hardware tools in our lab we are just not equipped for cutting bicycle locks ... so I just took a screwdriver and a pair of pliers and head back to my bike. I did not imagine that I could cut the metal string with this tools but at least I was able to remove the plastic coating around the lock mechanism. It turned out that the metal around the mechanism cracked and the whole mechanism got stuck in that crack. A few more persuasive maneuvers with my metal assistants and the whole mechanism just fell off ... so much about robust construction of these locks.

So I managed to hack my first lock by force ... fortunately it was my own one (otherwise I would probably not be writing this online :) )