The book doesn't specify a size for the mini-pry bar. I think he had something in mind that could be carried comfortably on a daily basis.

I would think it would need to be strong enough to help escape a building by prying open a door or elevator doors. Maybe even pry open a window if the glass wasn't breakable.

Keep in mind if you are at a fixed place of business, you can keep a bag under your desk with a full sized crowbar (also consider a hardhat -- and water!).

Personally, if you had to scale it down to the size you could have on your person at all times, you might be better off a with a heavy duty screwdriver.

-john

I guess it depends on the part of town being traversed. "Working person" might not appear to be as affluent as the computer programmer (or whatever) in a three piece suit and wingtips. And please keep in mind that I an not a city dweller, so I might be all wet...

I carry a Stanley 7 inch pry bar on the job as a fire LT. i open plenty of doors with this tool, slipping the lock on doors is easy with this bar. You can forget elevator doors though , a small bar will never do it then the outer doors are only a skin anyways .

The widgley (sp?) and micro ones from county comm. are great at slipping locks also and way smaller.

Bwahhahaha! Wow, you really don't know how computer programmers dress, do you?

Going back to the whole "disguise" thing, I still think that's overly paranoid. If everyone is in a panic trying to get out of the city it won't matter much what you are wearing. Now, changing into Dickies or Carthart clothing for there durability makes a little sense, but will you really have time to do that?

-Blast

"...you really don't know how computer programmers dress, do you..."

Well, back when computers were the size of a boxcar...

Funny story: DW used to work at a huge computer programing firm near where I worked in Houston. We'd carpool together so every evening at 5:15pm I'd be standing at her building's front desk waiting for her. I had the usual tie/white shirt/dark slacks thing required for my job and a pda in my hand. As I stood there all these programmers in flip-flops, cut off shorts and tee-shirts would shuffle by giving me a worried look.

After two months of this almost all of them had switched over to at least polo shirts and Dockers, though a number of ties had appeared. I asked DW why they started a dress code at work. She said they didn't, everyone assumed I was some VIP of the company and they were trying to impress me.

She left the company soon after so I wasn't able to take advantage of my newly-realized power...

-Blast

[quote=OldBaldGuy]affluent as the computer programmer /quote]

No one gets rich by writing code. You get rich by leading projects, and marketing them, which means you probably wouldn't know Java from COBOL if I slapped you with the books. Being a code monkey means long hours, lousy pay, bosses and customers that don't understand anything past the user interface is pretty, and you get to do it all in some crappy little cube unless you are enough of a child prodigy to get in some place like Google. Or Mac. But then it's mostly bennies- your pay is decent, but not spectacular. You're still working for the Department of Education.


As for how we dress.... I wear a tshirt and utilities, with long hair, goatee (and sometimes two or three days stubble), sneakers or workboots, and drag my Bag of Tricks everywhere.

Sheese. Guess I should edit my original post from computer programmer to bank president or something...

How about an experimental return engagement wearing, say, a loin cloth, pith helmet and knee-high rubber boots, to evaluate social psychology of code-monkeys. One of the networks would pay big bucks for this.