raimundo wrote: and does the corialis effect apply in australia
yes - we actually apply tension in the oposite direction to the way we want the lock to turn.
I don't know what the standard is, or if there is one, but it seems to be random... I've often seen doors where the deadbolt has pins on top and the key-in-knob has pins on bottom. often when there's KIK in an push down latch type handle the pins are on the side.
we drive on the left hand side of the road.
personally I have always put my ring finger of the hand holding the pick on the lock face to get better control (and hence have had to modify my style in order to use your picks raimundo

), but I've never actually tried putting it at the shear line though... must try that.