To car manufacturers and owners that can operate electronic locks: do people really need to be alerted about these events at 55dBA? Especially at 3:00AM when people are trying to sleep? Do we need ear-piercing noise and flashing lights to indicate that YOU HAVE JUST LOCKED OR UNLOCKED THE DOORS ON THE VEHICLE RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU?

Aggressive drivers: if you need beat me to that red light by three seconds, I understand. I'm eager to help if you're eager to further prove the whole natural selection thing. I mean it with all my heart when I say that I really don't want to be in your way. It's not just your own life at stake, after all.

Car owners with car alarms: tell me the last time you heard a news report that started, "Someone attempted to steal a Porsche 911 but was immediately beaten to death when passersby heard the car's alarm go off." Nobody panics over car alarms or pays much attention to them—not even you. To the cohort of people that steal cars, loud noises mean party time, thus car alarms seem to exist for the purpose of announcing the presence of dogs, passersby, faulty car alarm sensors and sports or luxury car drivers with large egos and small brains.

"Hey, I'm a big flashy sports car with a knuckleheaded owner, weeooweeoooweeooow! Steal me!"

Why not invest in something that might actually stop a thief from driving away with your car? If you're a fellow BC resident and you have such a device, you might even get a discount on your insurance provided you're not an maniacal accident-prone driver (see above).

There have been over 130 house and (mostly) car alarms audible from my desk at home since November 2003. Distributed evenly, that's about one alarm every other day as of July 2004. So far, none of them have resulted in stories about things getting stolen.