Re: [Amc-list] AMX Stolen

[Victor the Cleaner <jonathan@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Jan 28, 2009 at 09:38:41AM -0600, Neil Shaw wrote:

> Russ Hathaway's toggle switch comment reminds me of my old '70 Mach 1. 
> It had exactly that. A simple toggle switch that was hidden in the ash 
> tray on the console. Unfortunately I wasn't told about it when I bought 
> the car and one day was cleaning the interior and flipped that switch. 
> It took us a full frustrating hour to figure out why the heck the car 
> wouldn't start. Sometimes the simplest things are the most effective.

Indeed.  A few years ago I designed a very exotic theft control system
for use on tractor-trailers.  The details aren't important; suffice to
say it was complex enough to warrant a nest of state diagrams that took 
us some time to untangle, and the company we did it for (Magtec) earned 
a patent for it.

What's interesting (and relevant) is that, at the end of the day, we
were working under the assumption that a sufficiently determined thief
will *always* be able to get what he wants, if allowed enough time.
What justifies any antitheft system, whether really complicated or dead
simple (like the ignition switch), is the knowledge that what it is 
really intended to do is add hassle, and, more importantly, *time* to
the thief's job.  The insurance companies' view is that if you can add
just a few minutes to the task of stealing a vehicle, you've created an 
effective deterrent.

jl

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