An electronic lock (also known as a digital lock) is a locking device which uses some form of electronics to authenticate those accessing it, sometimes using two-factor authentication. Electronic locks are typically considered more secure than conventional mechanical locks and can include additional features like logging access attempts, group level access, time-based access and the incorporation of burglar or fire alarms.

Operation

Most electronic locks use a magnetic lock/solenoid bolt to perform the physical component of locking. Older mechanisms can also be found which use electric motors to move a deadbolt. Once the authentication process is successful, the lock is released into opening.

As providing electrical current to a lock within a door can be difficult, a common solution is an electronic strike plate. Using a normal mechanical lock, an electronic striker can also be triggered remotely to free the latch from the door frame.

Authentication methods

Electronic locks offer a variety of means of authentication; those described below are not considered exhaustive.

Numerical codes, passwords and passphrases

Perhaps the most prevalent form of electronic lock is that using a numerical code for authentication; the correct code must be entered in order for the lock to deactivate. Such locks typically provide a keypad, and some feature an audible response to each press. Combination lengths are usually between 4 and 6 digits long.

A variation on this design involves the user entering the correct password or passphrase.

Security tokens

Another means of authenticating users is to require them to scan or “swipe” a security token such as a smart card or similar, or to interact a token with the lock. For example, some locks can access stored credentials on a personal digital assistant using infrared data transfer methods.

Biometrics

As biometrics become more and more prominent as a recognized means of positive identification, their use in security systems increases. Some new electronic locks take advantage of technologies such as fingerprint scanning, retinal scanning and iris scanning, and voiceprint identification to authenticate users.

Southcote Lock is a lock on the River Kennet at Southcote within the town of Reading in Berkshire, England.

Southcote Lock was built between 1718 and 1723 under the supervision of the engineer John Hore of Newbury, and this stretch of the river is now administered by British Waterways and known as the Kennet Navigation. It has a rise/fall of 5 ft 3 in (1.65 m).

The Victorian brick building that overseas Southcote Lock is the redundant Southcote Pumping Station which, when it opened in 1850, was the key to Reading’s demanding water needs.

Chicago Lock Co. is a lock manufacturer. Since 1933, it has sold a tubular lock marketed under the registered trademark “Ace.” Millions of Ace locks have been sold; for instance, these locks are used in Northwestern Corporation’s Triple Play bulk vending machine.

Chicago Lock was acquired in November 1999 by CompX.

Golant railway station was opened on 1 July 1896 by the Great Western Railway. It was a simple platform on the waterside at the south end of Golant village, next to a level crossing that gave access to a slipway.

It was the only intermediate station between Lostwithiel and Fowey. The line had been built by the Lostwithiel and Fowey Railway but had fallen into disuse until reopened by the Cornwall Minerals Railway which was amalgamated into the Great Western Railway on the same day that Golant was opened.

The station was unstaffed. The instructions to staff stated that “no luggage is to be labelled to Golant. Passengers who may be travelling from Golant to stations on the main line beyond Lostwithiel must re-book at that station, and have their luggage labelled to their destination at Lostwithiel.”

The Great Western Railway was nationalised into British Railways on 1 January 1948. The passenger service was withdrawn on 4 January 1965 and the station subsequently demolished, the space now being used for a small car park.

Strebor Diecasting (the name comes from Roberts spelled backwards) was a die-casting company in Radcliffe, Lancashire who achieved widespread notice as makers of cylinder locks and locking devices for the motor trade during the 1960s and 1970s under the STREBOR and STRONIS trade names. Their locks were to be found on British cars such as the Mini. The company was founded around 1930, and finally dissolved in 2003/2004 following a period of rundown and some industrial relations problems.

Monospace may refer to:

In typography

• Monospace font, fixed-width typefaces whose glyphs have the same width
• Monospace (font), a computer font which carries said characteristic

Other

• Monospace or one-box car, a style of automobile body, that doesn’t feature clearly distinguishable ‘boxes’ for the engine, passenger and luggage compartments, like a three-box design.

In computer science, non-strict two-phase locking, also 2PL, is a locking method used in concurrent systems.

The rules for 2PL are similar to those of Strict 2PL:

1. If a transaction T wants to read/write an object, it must request a shared/exclusive lock on the object.
2. A transaction cannot request additional locks on any object once it releases any lock, and it can release locks at any time (not only at commit time, as in Strict 2PL).
   

So, every transaction has a growing phase (it acquires locks) and a shrinking phase (it releases locks). 2PL allows only conflict serializable schedules, but doesn’t guarantee that deadlocks will be avoided.

2PL is one scheduling algorithm, sometimes used instead of:

• simultaneous locking, simultaneous release (Disadvantage: redundant locking, no interactive transactions)
• incremental locking, simultaneous release (Disadvantage: Deadlock)
• simultaneous locking, incremental release (Disadvantage: rollback, redundant locking)
• incremental locking, incremental release (Disadvantage: deadlock, rollback)

Shiplake Lock is a lock and weir situated on the River Thames in the village of Shiplake in the county of Oxfordshire, England. It is owned and managed by the Environment Agency. It is just above the point where the River Loddon joins the Thames.

Reach above the lock

The river skirts Shiplake on the Oxfordshire bank and eventually passes into Sonning. On the way are four islands Phillimore Island, The Lynch, Hallmead Ait and Buck Ait. The Thames Path stays on the Oxfordshire bank to Sonning, where it crosses the bridge to the other side below Sonning Lock.

Varistaipale canal is a Finnish canal in Heinävesi. The canal is a part of Heinävesi route (Heinäveden reitti), a route with six canals: Kerma, Vihovuonne, Pilppa, Karvio, Taivallahti and Varistaipale canals. The canal was built in 1911–1913 and has four locks. It is the biggest canal in Finland being the only canal to have this many locks. The height of drop totals 14.5 meters and the length is 1,100 meters.

Next to the canal there is a canal museum.

Southcote

Lock is a lock on the River Kennet at Southcote within the town of Reading in Berkshire, England.

Southcote Lock was built between 1718 and 1723 under the supervision of the engineer John Hore of Newbury, and this stretch of the river is now administered by British Waterways and known as the Kennet Navigation. It has a rise/fall of 5 ft 3 in (1.65 m).

The Victorian brick building that overseas Southcote Lock is the redundant Southcote Pumping Station which, when it opened in 1850, was the key to Reading’s demanding water needs.