Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with locked

R Kelly is trapped in my trunk!

zerobyproxy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:23:27 -0800

I cannot unlock the trunk on my car! I have a 2004 Honda Accord. This morning, I put some stuff in the trunk and, in closing it, must have forced the locking mechanism to mis-align. I have used the latch (inside the car), the key fob, and the key in the lock itself. None work. I tried lifting the trunk while pressing the fob. I tried sitting on the trunk while pressing the fob. Nothing.

My backseat lowers, so I got my stuff out of the trunk and was able to watch the locking mechanism move when I pressed the fob. I just don't know what I should be looking for or trying when I crawl into the trunk to try to fix it.

Any ideas of where to start?

How do you open a childproof zipper?

TurkeyMustard — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 18:14:37 -0800

How do you open a childproof zipper on an Ikea children's mattress cover? We want to take off the cloth mattress cover on my son's Ikea mattress. It has a zipper on one end that appears to be childproof. See photos. But we'll be jiggered if we can figure out how to release it. I've tried pulling it with needle-nose pliers, I've tried twisting, prying, bending, pushing, bumping, jerking, snapping, wrenching, and doing the Mashed Potato. You can see the marks in the photo where my needle-nosed pliers have soiled it a bit. I've tried a paper clip. I've also googled this question to great frustration, with this story about a product from a different company sounding tantalizingly close but still insufficient to solving our problem.

Can you help? How do we release that zipper without simply destroying it?

Can you hear me now? NO I CANNOT BECAUSE I HAVE A TRACFONE.

headnsouth — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 18:11:53 -0800

Please hope me! The Tracfone I just bought to replace a broken AT&T phone will only allow emergency calls. My son broke the screen on his at&t phone a while back, and guys at two separate at&t stores told me I could just pick up a tracfone and switch out the sim cards no problem. So I picked up a tracfone and switched out the sim cards and the screen reads "sim lock code-1: emergency."

The phone comes with 10 minutes of setup time/support. Since I don't want to pay-as-I-go but rather use the at&t contract I'm already paying for, I don't want to register with tracfone and use those minutes. It also comes with an "activation card," with which you register that phone's serial number with tracfone. I haven't done that either, as again I don't want a tracfone account.

I've searched online but I'm frankly overwhelmed by all the technical information out there, and I'm sure that this is a simple thing that I'm just not getting. Is there an unlock code or something? How can I get this phone to work?

Lame locked Leatherman

zardoz — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 02:51:46 -0800

My fake Leatherman multitool is locked open. It's not a real Leatherman, just a no-name knockoff that I can't even find a manufacturer's name on it. If I open and lock any tool--knife, saw, whatever, it locks open and I have to get a flathead screwdriver to pry it out of its groove.

Either a) I'm doing it wrong or b) I bought a real piece of shit knockoff Leatherman. It seems to be solidly constructed and doesn't appear to be as lame as it is; am I doing anything wrong? Or is it just a paperweight?

Starting over with a new laptop, how best to stay organized?

pseudostrabismus — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:50:58 -0800

I'd like to know the best way to move a selected group of files & applications to a new laptop, and advice to help ensure that my new Mac doesn't get bunged up with duplicate & improperly deleted files like my old one did, with its inexplicably full hard drive and crammed iTunes & iPhoto folders. This is rather lengthy, geared to the slightly moronic layperson (me), and has 6 sub-questions inside. My old laptop quickly filled up & slowed down. I tried to back up & delete unused files, but later I'd find the same files still tucked away on the machine, not deleted after all. Also, when I first imported files from my old PC to my then-new G4, for some reason a lot of files showed up as "locked" on the new computer. Many of them (just word docs & jpegs, nothing important or complex) were nested into folders (from how I'd organized my old computer)- and try as I might, I could never get them all unlocked to delete them. It was such a pain in the butt.

So I have a new laptop now (thank you, Santa!), and I want to avoid all the problems from last time. Hence, I have some questions. And as you will soon discover, I'm not particularly computer-savvy. Plus I'm inexplicably intimidated by computer jargon. So simple explanations would be really appreciated here!

The potentially-relevant stats:
The old one is a 12" PowerBook G4, purchased in 2005, running OSX 10.4.11
The new one is a 2008 MacBook (aluminum body & glass screen) running OSX 10.5.5
I have a 1GB USB memory stick and a 500GB external firewire drive.

Okay, so here are some really obvious questions:

1. What's the best way to transfer many selected files from my old box to the new one?
I don't want all the files from the old machine- just the ones I'm currently using. And I particularly need to avoid accidentally moving copies of locked files to the new machine- which is tricky as they're all nested deep into folders and I can't find them all. In fact,

2. How do I ensure that I never again have any "locked" files on the new machine?!
Is there a default for this? I don't even know how they all got locked in the first place, and although I know you can select specific files & folders, then hit "Get Info" and select "Unlock", my files are nested deep into various folders, and that command doesn't unlock individual locked files nested in folders- believe me, I've tried!
And I can't just delete the locked files, either- that leaves the originals locked where they were AND adds locked & therefore undeletable duplicate files to the Trash, thereby doubling the number of locked files, aargh. I don't want to go all the way to the end of each tentacle and unlock the files one by one- there are hundreds.
Is there an easier, blanket way to unlock them all?

3. How do I transfer programs I downloaded from the web?
VisualHub is the main one I'm concerned about since it's discontinued.
But I'd also like to keep my paid copies of Net News Wire, VLC, Transmit, and Minuteur.
Also, I acquired a few other programs from friends (Final Draft, Photoshop). Is there an easy way to move those over, too?

4. How to transfer drafts of iWeb pages?

5. When I get going on the new computer, how best to keep the files streamlined on that machine?
I noticed that I was losing a lot of disk space to:
a) duplicate, "locked" files, as above
b) extra copies of photos & videos I downloaded from my digital camera- they all went into iPhoto, which was fine, but then there seemed to be other copies (?) floating around in the "Pictures" folder, and in other places.
c) iTunes songs. In the past, I would try to delete them in iTunes by selecting & dragging to trash or hitting delete, (like I used to on Windows Music). And then, after "deleting" them, I'd be annoyed to note that I didn't free up any disk space... because the files were still sitting in my Music folder. Obviously my limited PC skillz didn't transfer really well.

6. Is there an easy web tutorial that shows how you're supposed to manage iTunes?

Oh these are such dumb questions. I'm embarassed. Sorry, smart computer people. This is seriously not my forte. If you ever need help with something I'm good at, like public speaking or feng shui or crossing your eyes or something, I promise to be soooo nice when I help you! THANK YOU.

GMail Account Locked

miltoncat — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 13:09:46 -0800

GMail apparently has had an outage. Supposedly it has been fixed, but I still cannot log into my account. I am going insane. Please help. My password is remembered on my computer (MacBook, Leopard) and I am the only one who uses my computer. The other day I go to log in and it says that my username and password do not match. It's been almost 48 hours and I still cannot access my account.

I suppose there is a possibility it was hacked, but I highly doubt it. My password is not an easy guess and is a letter/number combo. My financial accounts have not been touched.

I have a Yahoo email on file as a secondary, so I tried to reset my password that way. I can login to my Yahoo account (which I seldom use) but for whatever reason, it's not receiving email. My inbox is empty.

Aside from waiting 5 days for them to send me a password hint-- which won't help, really, because I KNOW MY FREAKIN' PASSWORD-- what are my options?

I can get a new email address/provider, but in the meantime I am missing a ton of email. Pardon me while I rip out my hair.

How do I restore iPhone 1.2/2.0 to 1.1.4?

geoff. — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 12:44:02 -0800

I sloppily upgraded my 1.1.4 iPhone to 1.2 (2.0 Beta). The phone is locked and I cannot restore through iTunes. I only have a Windows machine at the moment. Can I get it back without going to the AT&T/Apple Store? I didn't realize this was an illegal, bad thing to do. Nor did I realize you couldn't at least reset to the earlier firmware (which I have as an IPSW file). Is there anyway I can set it so that I can just get it back to the original out-of-the-box (1.1.4) state? Apparently I can unlock it via Pwnage with a Mac, will this work through VMWare Workstation and Tiger? Is USB 2.0 support good enough for that? Is there anyway I can do it on Windows Vista or XP?

Also if I bring it back to the store do they just reset it there? Is it a big deal?

Help me get to the garden! How can I unlock the patio doors?

handee — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 03:14:41 -0800

In our new house, I can't work out how to get out of the double glazed sliding patio doors. They are locked, and I think I have the key (well, I have a key), but they just won't open. What am I missing? I have always lived in older houses, so am new to the world of double glazing and window locks and patio doors, so I expect I am missing something simple - but here is all the information I have:

These are large sliding double-glazed glass doors. About half way up the left edge of the left door (where it fits the wall) is a fixed sliding door handle (does not turn) with a small lever attached. This lever goes from about -45 degrees to +45 degrees from the horizontal. Below this, at the base of the door, is a metal box with a lock and a small plastic knob which turns but doesn't seem to do anything.

I have a big bunch of keys, and one of these keys, when inserted into the lock, turns about a quarter turn. I have tried both states of the lever with both states of the key (up-vertical, down-vertical; up-turned, down-turned). No luck.

On the right hand door (at the base) is a small box with a light on it. When I touched this box, the light went from green to flashing orange (this, I assume, is something to do with the burglar alarm). The box with the flashing lights does not seem to have any other features. There do not seem to be any other locks or bolts, but I'm not entirely sure what I am looking for. We do not (yet) have a contact number for the people who have just moved out. I know the doors do open, as they were open when I viewed the property.

Any ideas?

My computer is being locked randomly

bristolcat — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 06:16:09 -0800

Windows XP Pro randomly being locked by unknown users. Is my computer being hijacked? I recently moved halfway across the country and my company kept me on staff as a telecommuter. I brought my work computer with me and connect to their network via a dedicated VPN.

During these last three months I have experienced some odd behaviour with my computer. About two weeks after I set up shop here is when it first started. I was actively working on the computer when everything would suddenly start to shut down and the default blue CTRL-ALT-DEL login screen would appear.

It read: "This computer is in use and has been locked" and then listed computername\guest. It gave me an opportunity to put in my username and password, but I never could get in. I would have to hard boot my computer. Just when I got freaked out enough to call IT, it mysteriously stopped.

Now it's happening again. Sometimes I'll come into work and it's happened during the night (such as last night). I've only been here for a half hour this morning and it already happened while I was in the middle of drafting an e-mail to IT. Things are a little different this time, though. It appears to be adding Windows users. They are usually nonsense names ending with a dollar sign. Today when it locked it displayed computername\xiake$. Indeed, there are several new accounts under control panel. My fiance deleted most of them but a few remain that we weren't sure about, such as "admis" and "HelpAssistent" (sic). Also now I am able to login from the locked screen whereas I wasn't able to before.

I am not running a screensaver and when I did, it was not password protected. I'm on XP Pro. I'm running Norton Antivirus but no firewall (as the request of IT for purposes of the VPN I suppose). AdAware found nothing. There is no consistency with anything I'm doing or running when it happens. It seems completely random. I always turn the VPN connection off when I'm not here.

I hope someone here has an idea what's going on and if I'm at risk. I have recently paid for items with credit cards on this computer and checked my bank accounts. This is starting to freak me out a little!

Thanks!

HP PAvillion ISSUES***LOCKED OUT

eve28 — Sun, 17 Jun 2007 13:28:27 -0800

My HP Pavillion dv4000 is not allowing me to log into the computer. It did this once before saying i lost my password and i had to have my ex do some trickery and it was fine. Now it is doing it all over again. This time I did not have a password..it has just locked me out completely. I have tried putting in the recovery disk and system restore and stuff, but it is still asking for a password. The thing is the first time it happened a couple of months back i never forgot my password, i changed it and it was fine for 2 days...and then boom, it just crashes or something...

Now it is doing the same thing, i even went into the "f10" menu thing and tried some stuff, but nothing worked.

Anywho, there have been serious issues with this computer from day one, and now COMP USA is or have all ready closed down there doors in SoCal...
Thanks anyone who helps with this issue.

Why does my phone sometimes say it's 'restricted'?

jacalata — Fri, 29 Sep 2006 07:32:18 -0800

Is using a new SIM card confusing my mobile phone? I bought a Nokia 6280 on a contract with Optus in Australia (specifically not network locked), and then moved to France, where I bought a prepaid (Orange) SIM card to use. With the French SIM in, sometimes the phone either doesn't 'boot' fully on powering on, instead stopping at a white screen saying 'phone restricted' and offering me the chance to enter the restriction code. Other times, it loads up fine. Further oddness - occiasionally when it's already on, possibly most often when I'm using it to listen to music, the phone goes from normal operation back to the 'restriction' screen. None of this happens with my original Optus SIM.

I have intermittent net access, so may not be able to promptly respond to answers

The sad thing is, my lunch is in the car and I'm hungry!

hamster — Thu, 18 May 2006 08:23:33 -0800

Calling all armchair MacGuyvers: My car is locked in my garage, and there must be a way to get it out. I bought a condo in a converted apartment building a month ago, and it includes a detached garage. The garage is part of a long outbuilding divided by plywood; each apartment has its own stall, with no doors or windows.

Because the garage stall isn't attached to the building, it's been necessary to keep the garage door opener in my purse. I take it out, park the car, and then take it with me. Of course, it's easier to close the garage door by pressing the doorbell-type button inside, so last night the inevitable happened, and I locked the opener in the garage.

I have a small key that fits into the lock at the top of the door. I can turn the key, but nothing happens (though the lock will pull out completely with my key in it). The lock is attached to a wire inside the garage that I assume somehow operates the lifter thingy. But the garage door doesn't have handles or any apparent way to get inside except this key, which does nada. The key also fits into a lock on the side of the garage, but it doesn't turn its tumblers.

How to open the door? Is there a way to avoid a costly call to a locksmith, and would a locksmith be able to help anyway? Thanks in advance...

DVD Ripping and burning: I'm ready to rip my hair out!

barnone — Wed, 18 Jan 2006 00:01:15 -0800

Burning DVDs: I want to get clips from (commercial and locked) DVDs and into a new DVD for class, with a menu system. I've seen this explanation, but I have a Mac (OS X, I could be convinced to upgrade to 10.4 if necessary). What's the easiest and/or best way to do this? I have a PowerBook G4, external FireWire hard-drive, a stack of DVDs and I've tried a whole bunch of different programs, found here. I want the easiest solution available. If it's free or cheapish (under $100), that's even better. I'd rather not rip the entire DVD to my hard-drive every time I do this - each week of class could include up to 8 clips from different films. The menu page doesn't have to look fancy - it just has to be able to separate each clip (like a chapter).

PLEASE treat me like a total moron here: even though I'm pretty well versed in some computer stuff, this is totally foreign to me right now and I have no idea what VOB, AVI, MPEG2 or any of the other derivations should be doing for me. Will Cinematize do this? MacTheRipper, then something else? iDVD? What is each step? Many thanks in advance: I've already spent hours and hours with someone else trying to figure this out, and I'm at my wit's end.

Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi

ludwig_van — Thu, 08 Dec 2005 22:30:45 -0800

There are several inches of snow on the ground. My keys are locked inside my 1998 Chrysler Cirrus. The engine is running. No help will arrive for three hours. Any suggestions? I've got a wire hanger, but after a few minutes of trying, wasn't able to accomplish anything useful.

Stupid House-sitting Mistake

lychee — Fri, 10 Dec 2004 10:04:23 -0800

Stupid House-sitting mistake: I've locked myself out of my friends' house that I'm looking after for the next two weeks. I think I've exhausted all avenues of possible help and am planning on going in through a window tonight. Is there anything I can do today to prepare or any precautions I need to take, in regards to safety, lawfulness, property damage, etc.? (MI) I feel horrible about this, as I can't help but think that I've let these people down, but there's no point in beating myself up about it til I'm back inside the house. The couple and their family are abroad and/or unreachable, and none of their friends in town have any information that can help. Calls to the locksmith, alarm company, and non-emergency police have been fruitless, as I need written proof that I can access their house, which I do not have. There are pets inside the house, as well as ALL my ID, cash, and keys. I'm going to go in through a back window tonight, but is there anything I'm overlooking today? What should I expect if the cops are called? I'm planning on explaining the situation to the neighbors before I do anything, but who knows if they'll believe me.