Things Your Burglar Wont Tell You. Concerned about home security while someone is knocking at your door Here are 2. Of course I look familiar. Jamie T Panic Prevention' title='Jamie T Panic Prevention' />I was here just last week cleaning your carpets, painting your shutters, or delivering your new refrigerator. Hey, thanks for letting me use the bathroom when I was working in your yard last week. While I was in there, I unlatched the back window to make my return a little easier. Love those flowers. That tells me you have taste and taste means there are nice things inside. Those yard toys your kids leave out always make me wonder what type of gaming system they have. Yes, I really do look for newspapers piled up on the driveway. And I might leave a pizza flyer in your front door to see how long it takes you to remove it. If it snows while youre out of town, get a neighbor to create car and foot tracks into the house. Virgin drifts in the driveway are a dead giveaway. If decorative glass is part of your front entrance, dont let your alarm company install the control pad where I can see if its set. That makes it too easy. A good security company alarms the window over the sink. And the windows on the second floor, which often access the master bedroom and your jewelry. Its not a bad idea to put motion detectors up there too. An effective and easy to use security bar for your doorMaster Lock Door Security Bar 8. Its raining, youre fumbling with your umbrella, and you forget to lock your door understandable. But understand this I dont take a day off because of bad weather. I always knock first. If you answer, Ill ask for directions somewhere or offer to clean your gutters. The Zika virus spread by mosquitoes can cause microcephalyheres what the government and CDC is doing, and what you should know. Facebook engineers panic, pull plug on AI after bots develop their own language, one site wrote. Facebook shuts down down AI after it invents its own creepy. Jamie T Panic Prevention' title='Jamie T Panic Prevention' />Dont take me up on it. Do you really think I wont look in your sock drawer I always check dresser drawers, the bedside table, and the medicine cabinet. Heres a helpful hint I almost never go into kids rooms. Jamie T Panic Prevention' title='Jamie T Panic Prevention' />Could future iPhones come with a builtin panic button to discreetly summon the cops Its certainly a possibility, judging by Apples recent patent filings. Jamie T Panic Prevention' title='Jamie T Panic Prevention' />Youre right I wont have enough time to break into that safe where you keep your valuables. But if its not bolted down, Ill take it with me. A loud TV or radio can be a better deterrent than the best alarm system. If youre reluctant to leave your TV on while youre out of town, you can buy a 3. Sometimes, I carry a clipboard. Sometimes, I dress like a lawn guy and carry a rake. I do my best to never, ever look like a crook. Seriously this very real looking fake security camera WILL be a burglar deterrent. Fake Security Camera 1. The two things I hate most loud dogs and nosy neighbors. Ill break a window to get in, even if it makes a little noise. If your neighbor hears one loud sound, hell stop what hes doing and wait to hear it again. If he doesnt hear it again, hell just go back to what he was doing. Its human nature. Im not complaining, but why would you pay all that money for a fancy alarm system and leave your house without setting it I love looking in your windows. Im looking for signs that youre home, and for flat screen TVs or gaming systems Id like. Ill drive or walk through your neighborhood at night, before you close the blinds, just to pick my targets. Avoid announcing your vacation on your Facebook page. Its easier than you think to look up your address. To you, leaving that window open just a crack during the day is a way to let in a little fresh air. To me, its an invitation. If you dont answer when I knock, I try the door. Occasionally, I hit the jackpot and walk right in. From outside the home at night, this clever Fake TV makes it look like someones home. Fake. TV Burglar Deterrent. Heres an idea that works with most cars Put your car keys beside your bed at night. If you hear a noise outside your home or someone trying to get in your house, just press the panic button on your key and the car alarm will soundNext time you start to put your keys away, think of this Your car alarm is a security alarm system. It will go off from most everywhere inside your house by pressing the key fob panic button. Test it. It should work if you park in your driveway or garage. If your car alarm goes off when someone is trying to break into your house, odds are the burglar wont stick around. After a few seconds all the neighbors will be looking out their windows to see who is out there and whats going on. And remember to carry your keys while walking to your car in a parking lot. The car alarm will work the same way there just press the panic button. This is a simple thing that should really be shared with everyone. Things To Do When A Stranger Knocks On Your Door. A Solution for Mac. Book Pro Booting to a Black Screen. Rarely, a Mac may encounter some peculiar issue during system boot that can cause quite a bit of panic, like booting to a completely black screen. It would be easy to interpret that as a potential hardware problem, and in some particularly rare situations that may be the case, but its more often a software issue that can be resolved with some simple troubleshooting steps. Case in point one of our readers experience with his Mac. Sav To Svs Converter here. Book Pro, which out of the blue rebooted to a completely dark screen. Though its rare, we figured this would be a good opportunity to share three potential solutions to this problem, and similar issues, should you encounter a dark screen on system start. First, Reset the System Management Controller to Fix the Black Display on Boot. The first thing youll want to do resolve nearly every power related issue on a Mac is to reset the SMC, or System Management Controller. This will dump and reset settings for anything power management related, and is long known to resolve problems with things like fans, heat, sleeping problems, and of course, display issues. On any modern Mac. Book Pro or Mac. Book Air with a built in battery, which is just a bout all of them nowadays, this is how you do that Shut down the Mac and connect it to your Mag. Safe adapter and a wall outlet as usual. Hold down the ShiftControlOptionPower button at the same time for a few seconds. Release all keys at the same time, then boot the Mac as usual. Older Macs can find directions here for the same process on their machines, its slightly different if you can take out the battery. When the Mac boots, hopefully the black screen has gone away and youre back to normal, but if it doesnt reader Nathan D. Second, Try a Keypress Sequence to Ditch the Black Screen. Regular readers may recall that we covered some OS X keyboard shortcuts for the Shutdown, Sleep, and Restart controls of just about every Mac, and this little key press sequence takes advantage of those. Oddly enough, it seems to work to resolve some of the mystery Mac booting into black screen issues. Heres the precise sequence to follow Press the Power OFF button once this will bring up the dialog box which you cant see. Press the S button this is the shortcut to sleep the Mac. Hold down the Power button until a hard shut down is forced. Wait about 1. 5 seconds, then hit the Power button again to turn it back on. This key press solution was discovered by reader Nathan D., who found it tucked away on Mac. Rumors Forums, and it has worked for several other commenters there as well. Some other users on the MR forums suggest that resetting PRAM helped them too, but most power issues are resolved by the SMC reset. Try a PRAM Reset to Resolve the Black Boot Display. If the above two tricks failed, a PRAM reset can often do the trick, as many of the commenters on this article can attest to. As a potential solution to the black screen on boot, this is done upon restarting the Mac similar to an SMC reset Reboot the Mac and as soon as you hear the boot chime, hold down the CommandOptionPR keys together. When you hear the boot sound again, the PRAM has been reset so let the Mac boot again as usual. At this point your Mac should boot again as usual and no longer have the black display, loading Mac OS or Mac OS X as usual. Finally Enter Password, Hit Return. Some users in our comments report an interesting alternative finding if they hit the black screen on boot if they enter their regular login password and hit the EnterReturn key, the Mac boots up as usual and theyre good to go. Try this out, it might work for you When the Mac boots into the black screen, enter the password youd use to login to the Mac as usual. Hit the Return key. If this works, youll know rather quickly because the black screen will give way to the regular Mac OS desktop. Did one of these solutions work to get past the black screen on Mac boot for you If you happen to run into this unusual issue with your Mac, let us know how you resolved it, and if the above tips worked for your Mac. Book, Mac. Book Pro, Mac. Book Air, and whichever Pro or Air model it may be.