It’s finally time to re-key all five exterior locks, switching out from the construction keys. Walter from Cothron Safe & Lock set to it.
Walter removed and disassembled the locksets from each door.This tray holds pins to go into the cylinder. Each color designates a different width or length for locks made by different manufacturers.Four of the cylinders that Walter has to open and match to the fifth cylinder we are using as the “master.”Walter uses a special wrench to unlock the retainer on the cylinder.After removing the retainer, Walter uses a shim and a blank key to twist the plug free of the cylinder without losing the springs mounted inside the tower.There are five pins in the plug. Each color indicates a different size pin. Walter has to match all five pins in all five locksets. When this is done, one key will unlock any of the five exterior doors.When the pins are all correctly assembled, Walter puts each lock assembly back together in reverse order of disassembly. Here, he reinstall the lock mechanism to the front door. As Walter finished with each door, Steven tested one key in each of the five locks, to ensure that all five operated with that one keyset.Walter stamps a numeric code onto the “master” key that operates all five doors, that serves as the model for duplicate keys. This code matches the size pin that must be inserted into the cylinder, if we ever have to repair and rekey the locks again.As the penultimate step, Walter cuts duplicate keys. Steven tested all the duplicate keys in all exterior doors, to ensure they all work. When done, Walter wrote up the bill and sent it via cellphone to the office. Done.
Saturday morning. Steven is back from the IFA 2016 GPC in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China. He needs bike, air, sun, sweat to flush away the 30 hour ride back in three aluminum tubes branded by United Airlines. Jadin has a horseback riding lesson near Pflugerville, north of Austin, where the land rolls flat. There’s less traffic. Jacquela, Jadin, riding boots, bike, helmet, water — loaded into car.
2.5 hours later, Steven sets new records for time on the bike and distance — 28 miles.
And a butterfly rode for about 1 minute on Steven’s left knee.
UA 862 Hong Kong to San Francisco, a double-decker 747, soon to be retired by United Airlines. Steven has flown something more than 1 million miles lifetime since his first flight as a teen. But this is a first — riding upstairs to the US from Asia.
No one opened a window shade to watch the world spin past. 14 hours locked away in a closet. Shame.
Looking forward to the flight deck at the end of the upper cabin.
The IFA GPC shifted to Shenzhen, China, leaving Hong Kong.
Here’s the photo essay:
Larry Magid queries the VR panel. Dave Graveline holds the mic.
Tim Bajarin from Creative Strategies queries the VR panel.
The VR panel takes a selfie.
We turned right after crossing the border into China and, on the way to the hotel in Shenzhen, we were suddenly in a theme park.
Shenzhen as the sun begins to go, on a gray and overcast day.
The gala dinner.
The tech team driving the show.
Part of the US press contingent at the gala dinner.
Traiditional dancers take the stage at the IFA gala dinner in Shenzhen.
Shenzhen at night — a modern city of glass towers.
The ghost of Steven, reflected in the glass of the convention center.
The monkey outside the theme park on the main road leaving the Intercontinental, at night, glowing from within.
An evacuation suit on the shelf in the closet at the Intercontinental.
The border crossing into China from Hong Kong.
Leaving Hong Kong, entering China.
After crossing the border, traffic jams in Shenzhen.
Global brands for sale in Shenzhen.
The Intercontinental has a pirate theme. Here’s one of two pirate ships. Why? Because.
The first bus of journalists pulls up to the Intercontinental Hotel in Shenzhen.
Jens Heithecker begins the power briefings in Shenzhen.
GfK details market trends and stats.
Q&A after the Dlodlo power briefing.
The ZTE power briefing during the GPC.
The photo scrum with Ms. IFA.
Dan polls the VR panel audience. “Raise your hand …”
Steven organized a panel about virtual reality, with help from the IFA team. At left, Rob Pegoraro, freelance journalist. Raymond Pao from HTC. Hanjin Chu from AMD. Dan Tynan, freelance journalist.
Steven traveled to Hong Kong and Shenzhen for the IFA 2016 Global Press Conference.
Here’s a photo essay.
Steven organized a panel discussion about startups, with help from the IFA team. Larry Magid, left, from CBS moderated the panel about start ups. Ramesh Somani, second from left, founder, chief editor and publisher at Exhibit Group, thetechy.com and thestarupz.com. Sagi Klein, third from left, editor at Pocket.co.il. Third from right, Arto Ekman, founder of Black Eye Lens. Second from right, Peng Lee, founder of Embrace Audio Lab. At far right, Jonas Pfeil, founder of Panono.
Jonas fields a question, with the Panono camera shooting video.
Arto introduces his clip on cameras.
Arto demonstrates the clip on camera.
Ramesh queries.
Sagi queries.
Daniel introduces his audio device.
The scrum after the panel to ask questions and shoot pix.
Chris Davies from Slashgear shoots the Embrace Labs audio device.
Ruch Demuro at work, shooting a video interview.
IFA night in Hong Kong.
Part of the US press contingent attending and covering IFA.
Chinese Elvis. Why? Because.
Before dawn, Hong Kong from the Renaissance Hotel.
Just before the GPC begins.
The doors open.
Jens Heithecker from IFA begins the GPC.
Ms. IFA poses with tech from Philips.
A power washer from Karcher introduced at the GPC.
Above, Steve, left, Tim Bajarin, middle, and Larry Magid, right, traveled up the tram to the Peak overlook of Hong Kong, hoping to see what the city and harbor look like. But … it’s foggy. And it’s cloudy. Tim and Larry joked that we got lost in the Internet cloud.
A photo essay.
The Borg landed a survey craft behind what Steven believes is a court building in Hong Kong — that is what the tour guide said.
The token that gets you onto the Star Ferry.
This is where Tim, Larry and Steven ate Dim Sum for lunch.
Inside the restaurant.
We celebrated a wedding at the restaurant!
The planetarium at the Space Museum.
Tim points out buildings on the other side of the Hong Kong channel to Larry.
The ferry ride took us past a sampan.
Larry and Tim preparing to debark from the Star Ferry.
This is not Fry’s. It is the Wan Chai Computer Center. Imagine 10×10 booths packed one upon another. It’s overwhelming. Larry and Steven were boggled.
The start of the tram ride.
There’s a wax museum and a shopping mall at the top end of the tram ride.
This is the top end of the tram ride tower, lost in fog.
An old tram car.
Tim, left, checks the guidebook while Larry enters the Twilight Zone. Yes, there is a Starbucks everywhere. The woman at right, with her dog, gave us several site-seeing tips.
Larry shoots a photo of a mural — this is the view we would have seen if there was not fog.
On the way down, we passed a tram car pulling itself up the track.
Bamboo is used as scaffolding.
Not sure what’s going on here. It’s Sunday. It looks like everyone unfolds a tarp and sits outside for their day off.
The clouds never really burned off.
Hong Kong is city that climbs up mountains.
We passed the US Consulate — across the street from the tram entrance.
When we arrived at the Tram at 730 there was no line. At 930, the line wraps around the building. They don’t know how thick the fog is.
A street market.
“Wrong Design.” Glimpsed from the Hop On Hop Off bus.
The bus turned a corner and there were these amazing green trees.
Steven is in Hong Kong for the IFA Global Press Conference. His first trip to Hong Kong. There are 12 hours before the first US journalists arrive. He opted to ride the subway, walk the streets, ride the Shelley Street escalator to the MidLevels.
Above, this is apparently one of the longest outdoor, covered escalators in the world. It runs up during the day, but down in the morning when everyone rides down from homes on the MidLevels. If you ride up, you have to walk down a couple of thousand rain-slick steps.
This tree is rooted in a concrete retainer wall. On the way up the escalator.There’s a street market on the walk down.From a balcony overlooking the Central Station subway passageways. Busy.
Jetlag caught up with Steven. He crashed back at the hotel.
