Eyeball Security Camera
As many people noted, the Eyeball Security System is very vulnerable to attack since it can easily be turned off or unplugged, rendering it useless. Little did they know, that was all part of the plan!
You see, the actual tripwire alarm is just a decoy, and is just one part of the whole system. Most people see only the alarm and completely miss the webcam conveniently positioned to catch them in the act of stealing the eyeballs or trying to disable the alarm:
The webcam caught many people red-handed, though eventually its presence was discovered and disclosed to other would-be thieves.
Here's a YouTube video of the interesting bits of the security camera footage:
Eyeball security system
After a recent rash of Wallmonster eyeball thefts, it became clear that I needed to install an Eyeball Security System:
It's wired up to set off an alarm if anybody steals the eyeballs.
With such a disorganized circuit design, it might look like it was wired up by a mental patient, but it's all part of the protection scheme. If it's confusing looking, nobody can crack it (don't listen to Schneier and his claims that security-through-obscurity will never work, bah).
Each eyeball is coated with tin foil, which completes an electric circuit when it's in place touching the two wires.
Here's the obligatory YouTube video of the system in action:
Wallmonster is all stressed out today
How do you pictorially represent a headache? I guess a lightning bolt to the brain works.
New Bulb #2
So fortunately it ends up that the brake lights on the 2006 GTI are actually user-serviceable, but it requires a few more steps than on a 1984 Buick. First, the molding behind the the light must be peeled back and the light enclosure unscrewed:
Then the entire enclosure can be removed:
And the bulb holder can be extracted:
Finally we can replace the actual bulb and notice a tiny break in the filament of the broken one:
Dead Bulb #2
Fortunately this one is in my car instead of in my projector.
I like how the car knows exactly which bulb is dead and can even tell me about it. On my old car I had no way to tell that something was dead other than manually checking out all the lights.
Of course, on the old Buick, I could go out there with a normal screwdriver and replace the stupid $1 bulb myself. On the new car the lights are all hermetically sealed into the back of the car and I'll probably have to pay Volkswagen $75 to fix it.. grr.
I wonder if this is related to this story from February which I seemed to have missed: VW recalls 790,000 vehicles because of brake lights