About those Master combination locks...

I didn't have the stick-to-it-iveness to try all 256 combinations on Natalie's "joystick" Master combination lock (which assumes the combination involves four moves of the joystick in either the up, down, left, or right directions). Maybe, when I have some spare time (or a pressing need for a lock of that size), I'll chase the prize.

However, today, I ran across a Master Lock that looks like it may be suitable for a gym locker or luggage (except it's not TSA approved, and seeing as how I've returned home from several trips with my TSA-approved locks missing—meaning they were either snipped off or not put back on) it's not likely I'll ever use it for that purpose.

The lock has a carabiner mechanism that's locked by a three digit code. As each position may take on the numbers 0 to 9, that's a total of 1000 potential combinations. At between a second to a second-and-a-half per "try" (change the number and squeeze), that means that a complete stranger could open this lock using brute force in, on the average, between 8 and 12 minutes.

I couldn't recall the combination I had set, but had a strong feeling that the middle number was 0, so I tried the one hundred combinations with 0 as the middle number and had the lock open less than a minute.

Holy Richard Feynman, Batman!