Home Security Check - 10 Simple Steps to Securing Your Exterior Property - Securing Your Residential Property from Break and Enter (B&E) and Burglary

Most Residential Break and Enters (B & E) are crimes of opportunity. They occur because homeowners provide the opportunity and there are individuals (criminal elements) willing to take advantage of the situation. Police and Community Policing efforts continue to empower communities to collectively develop partnerships aimed at delivering meaningful crime prevention and community safety initiatives like Neighborhood Watch.

The 3 major deterrents to most crimes targeting residential property include:
1) reducing opportunity
2) increasing the difficulty to perpetrate a crime of theft, burglary or intrusion
3) increasing the time required for an intruder to perpetrate the crime

all of which will increase the offenders rick of being observed and reported to police. A collective cooperation of a community and neighborhood, like the Neighborhood Watch program, does discourage local crime and drives them to go elsewhere. The real objective is “crime displacement” not “crime reduction” - Go somewhere else, but Not Here.

Residential B&E offenders are usually not sophisticated criminals. They look for the easiest target possible like unlocked windows (basement or first floor), unlocked front door and lifting patio doors out of their tracks. They could also perform simple forceful entry through doors or windows. Daytime (0900 to 1700 hours), when no one is at home, is the most common time for Residential Break and Enter crimes.

Here are 10 simple ways to Target Harden your property's Exterior Grounds and Locks, which are your first line of defense against intruders:

1) Trees and shrubs near any windows (front, back yard or sides) - ensure trees and shrubs cannot conceal a potential intruder and allow the offender to work unnoticed on doors or windows. Cut back trees and trim shrubs low from the top and trim them up from the ground. Remove them if they can conceal a person. (increase the rick of being observed)

2) Sheds or any other out buildings - ensure no one can hide behind sheds or other buildings. (increase the rick of being observed)

3) Hedge, Perimeter Bushes or Fence - does their height, density or privacy allow for offender concealment. Again allowing offenders to work unobserved on rear windows and doors. Lock gates forcing the offender to scale over the fence. (increase the difficulty and the time)

4) Motion Detectors and Lights - use motion detectors on lighting so that when the lights come on the neighbors know something or someone is moving around your house. A motion detector could be applied to trigger a radio show to play inside the house, just like a similar application in the movie Ferris Beuller's Day Off. Make it look like someone could be at home. (reduce the opportunity and increase the rick of being observed)

5) Timers and Day/Night Timers - Light up your garden, pathways, sidewalks and your property with low voltage and LED lighting. These are beautiful landscaping touches to your property as well.(increase the rick of being observed)

6) Barking dog - A dog inside your house that barks on the slightest motion or noise outside your house is a great opportunity reducer. A big barking dog is even better. Some police feel a barking dog is more effective than an burglar alarm system. As a simple alternative, a radio set on a talk channel will make it appear like the house is occupied. The offender will hear conversation coming from inside the dwelling. (reduce the opportunity and increase the rick of being observed)

7) Ladders - Remove all climbable objects like ladders, trellises, BBQ, picnic table, trees close to the house. These could be used to gain access to second floor windows and balconies. Remove, lock-up, cut down as necessary. (increase the difficulty and the time)

8) Telephone and Cable - shield and protect so they cannot be cut from outside your house. Monitored alarm systems typically require the use of the telephone or cable connection. (reduce the opportunity)

9) Parking and Garage – ensure your parking area and garage door(s) are visible to the street. Keep your garage door(s) closed when you are not in the front yard and lock your vehicles. Don't make it easy for an offender to just walk into your garage and steal what they want. (reduce the opportunity)

10) Locks - good locks (and chains where appropriate) on your shed, gate, BBQ and picnic table. Ensure nothing can get moved. Locks on your doors and windows will receive more detailed discussion under a separate article on securing your Interior Property. (reduce the opportunity and increase the difficulty)

Your home and property are both your castle and your fortress. Be smart and keep your home safe for your family and friends. With some common sense and the help of your local hardware store, you can keep the good inside and clearly let the bad guys know, “Go Somewhere Else”!





About Bizfare Enterprise Inc
Bizfare Enterprise Inc provides a secure online shopping experience for high quality products and professional services. Products sold through inter-linked websites include: Fashion - clothing, jewelry, leather accessories; Home and Garden Decor - pewter, room accents, recreation; Collectibles & Memorabilia - mohair bears, photographs, sports items; Hobbies & Crafts - cooking, DIY wood projects, gardening, Music - equipment and services. Bizfare Enterprise Professional Services provide our clients with applied real world experience in Business and Channel Sales and Development, Internet Marketing, Commercial Photography, Personal Development and Professional Writing Services.

Home Security Check - 10 Simple Steps to Securing Your Exterior Property - Securing Your Residential Property from Break and Enter (B&E) and Burglary

Laughing Keeps You Healthy - Laughter is the Best Medicine – Keeping Laughter in Your Life

An infant's smile or a child's laugh is magical. Receiving a smile from an infant or child elicits an automatic smile from any adult. Parents, grandparents and adults alike will perform varying degrees of happy face antics in the hope of getting a baby to smile. Medical studies have determined that laughing is both contagious and healthy.

I it's most demure mode, laughing will manifest itself visually as a smile maybe coupled with some wide eye contact. At the other extreme end of the laughing scale, you will realize Visual, Kinesthetic, and Auditory displays – leg slapping, belly shaking, body contorting laughter! Just thinking about this 'Laugh Attack' brings a smile to your face. Remembering or thinking about laughter itself physically and mentally emotes all the positive effects of actually laughing.

The beautiful thing about laughter is that it is contagious. It matters not whether you initiate laughing or it comes from some other source, the health benefits of laughing have been studied and documented.
Laughter is the BEST MEDICINE!

Yet, laughter is still one of the least understood of human behaviors and one that is just now a serious study by scientists. Science has been able to determine three parts of the brain are activated during a good laugh: 1) a thinking or cognitive area for understanding the joke, 2) a movement or kinesthetic part for initiating muscle movement, and 3) an emotional region that derives the “giddy” feeling. Why do people laugh at jokes delivered while others laugh at incongruities like pain inflicted or a threatening situations? Is laughter a signal indicating a action is meant “in fun”? These things are still being studied.

Laughter makes us (and others) feel better.

Studies have identified a number of areas, where applying laughter, will be a positive and healthy experience. Feel better by laughing:

1) Health and laughing
A) lifts up your mood
B) is contagious and positive
C) is stress reducing
D) has proven long term connections to improved mental health

2) Learning and laughter has shown that
A) levity as a teaching style reduces fear and anxiety and opens students up to learning and absorbing
B) well-planned, appropriate, contextual humor can help students ingrain information

3) Relationships and laughing
A) help create a social lubricant that, in groups, encourages cooperation and altruistic behavior
B) is believed to be one of the earliest forms of communication; especially, emotional communication. Laughter could have preceded the spoken word and bonded groups in pre-historic society.


“By the time a child reaches nursery school, he or she will laugh about 300 times a day. Adults laugh an average of 17 times a day.” “Science of Laughter” Discovery Health


Clearly as adults we do not laugh enough. Here are ten ideas to improve and increase laughter [and fun] in your life:

1) Receive, Share and Tell Jokes - email is awesome for this and so are social gatherings. Telling jokes (and learning what jokes are appropriate) will prove to improve your social and public speaking skills.

2) Share humorous personal stories - stories about yourself will allow you to laugh at yourself. Laughing at yourself is a great way to express and learn from our mistakes and little foibles.

3) With your family and friends play group games that require group interaction (Parlour Games) - old standards and board games (like Charades, Pictionary, Balderdash, Cranium, Trivial Pursuit, Humzinger) or more organized themed events like a Murder Mystery Night. Excellent for a varied group of age and shyness. These are just FUN! Play like children!

4) Laugh out loud - not just a chuckle, a deep laugh that works the lungs and belly (maybe even brings tears to your eyes). Laughing equals Happy and Happy equals Healthy!

5) Karoke or new video games like Guitar Hero - whether at home or at a public event, singing and music are excellent and fun group situations that will help create fun and laughter!

6) Meet your group at a favorite pub or watering hole - conversation and stories will naturally make you laugh. Have fun!

7) Play Kids' Games - nothing allow you to play like a child than playing with your children or grandchildren. And nothing is more liberating than laughing with children!

8) Learn with friends - experience learning a new language or go to dance class with other people or couples. Laughing will open you up to a better learning experience.

9) Host a Party (maybe with a Fun Theme (item 3) - a casual informal gathering (BYOB, BBQ, Campfire or Dinner Party) will always give people an opportunity to meet and share. Invite fun people and you will create a fun and memorable event.

10) Do something you have never done before - with other people or friends, step out and do something new (community fair, site seeing, small airplane ride, hot air balloon, casino, a day at the track, snowmobiling, skiing). With a group you have both the benefit of increased support and protection. Have fun!

Fun and Laughter is best in a social group setting. Do Not attempt Laughter alone. It is best served with friends. Get Crackin' and Get Laughin'!

Laughing Keeps You Healthy - Laughter is the Best Medicine – Keeping Laughter in Your Life

The Genesis of Computer Art – FORTRAN a Computer Art Medium Replicates the Leonardo da Vinci Mona Lisa – A tribute to John Backus

Where did computer art, computer graphics and computer animation begin?

Written communication became sharable and pervasive once stone etchings were replaced with the mobility of paper and ink. Similarly once computer languages advanced from machine or assembly code to third generation computer languages, only then did computer output advance from simple alphanumerical (maybe mosaic) printouts to graphics and images with smooth curves and realism.

Computer graphical output got its humble start when alphanumeric characters hammered on TTY and line printers to represent X-Y graphs and even mosaic images. It was crude, but allowed for a more effective analysis of mathematical and scientific solutions. Computer programming languages like FORTRAN and BASIC made it easier to develop and program printers, plotters and CRT screens to display and print graphics and ultimately images.


The FORTRAN programming language – a personal and historic short review.

John Backus, the inventor of FORTRAN, passed away on March 17, 2007 at the age of 83. He lead a team of IBM computer scientists to invent the first high-level programming language in 1954. John Backus received the Turing Award in 1977, an IBM Fellowship (1987) and the Draper Prize (1993).

FORTRAN is a computer programming language particularly suited to computation and scientific applications. But it was also used for business applications like the student information system at Saint Mary's University (SMU) in Halifax Nova Scotia. It was a prevalent programming language in business before more structured and english-language-like programming languages came on the scene; namely, COBOL, PL1, RPG, BASIC.

It is FORTRAN that brings back fond memories of coding sheets, punch cards, debugging student code and the old IBM 1130 computer at university. FORTRAN, BASIC and COBOL were the prevalent programming languages of the day (circa 1976). After many iterations of “debugging your code”, having your program work was such a 'high', an exalted feeling of success.

Every Science, Engineering and even Business student undertook a course in one of these languages. A necessary and effective way of understanding the logical and mathematical world of computers. Even more so it offered students an in depth knowledge of business and science processes like order processing, accounting, engineering calculations.

With the recent passing of Mr Backus, I was reminded that there are historical vestiges of that programming era right in my own basement. I have a collection of my most 'profound programming works'. Hardcopy computer code printouts are contained in two binders. Even Better though! These programs are immortalized on 80 column punch cards! Why did I save computer punch cards for over 35 years? Not sure I am able to answer that question – Maybe I need some professional help!


FORTRAN programming as an Art Medium?

I enjoyed programming in FORTRAN. So much so, that I spent most of the Christmas of 1975 duplicating an alphanumeric printout picture of the famous Mona Lisa. This image of the Mona Lisa was done by printing and over-printing standard alphanumeric characters creating a mosaic art piece to form an image of that famous Leonardo da Vinci painting. Step back from this computer printout and you viewed a simple replica of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. Not having access to the original programming code, I meticulously counted and coded each character line-by-line from a hardcopy printout into programming print statements. With due respect to the master Leonardo, I used FORTRAN print statements for this task! Like a brush to canvas the computer printout image of Mona Lisa took form after many days of coding.

One of these Mona Lisa Mosaic printouts is framed and hangs in my office where I hone my craft as an Internet Marketer and Photographer. Still have another dozen Mona printouts stored with my programming anthology binder.


The search has begun for access to an 80 column punch card reader.

Getting access to an 80-column card reader could facilitate moving the Mona Lisa FORTRAN code from its analog state to a digital version. Using an online editor, I could once again deploy the power of FORTRAN to print copies of 'computer mosaic' Mona Lisa. Then 'Mosaic Mona' would be available for the world to enjoy.

I figured out that my infatuation with FORTRAN programming might have stemmed from the fact that both FORTRAN and I were coincidentally created in 1954. Thank you John Backus for bringing us computer geeks FORTRAN.



About Bizfare Enterprise Inc
Bizfare Enterprise Inc provides a secure online shopping experience for high quality products and professional services. Products sold through inter-linked websites include: Fashion - clothing, jewelry, leather accessories; Home and Garden Decor - pewter, room accents, recreation; Collectibles & Memorabilia - mohair bears, photographs, sports items; Hobbies & Crafts - cooking, DIY wood projects, gardening, Music - equipment and services. Bizfare Enterprise Professional Services provide our clients with applied real world experience in Business and Channel Sales and Development, Internet Marketing, Commercial Photography, Personal Development and Professional Writing Services.

The Genesis of Computer Art – FORTRAN a Computer Art Medium Replicates the Leonardo da Vinci Mona Lisa – A tribute to John Backus