Stephen Harper eats babies!
Attention, passengers! A few days ago, commuters on Toronto's GO train looked up at the onboard pixellated advertising signs and saw the message: "Stephen Harper eats babies". Stephen Harper is, of course, Canada's new conservative prime minister, and as a friend of Harper's who saw the scrolling message told CTV ...
"... I worked with Stephen Harper for five years and never once did he, in that time, eat a baby."
Heh. Obviously, as the story points out, the sign had been hacked. And while the reporter doesn't make it clear how the trick was accomplished, I think I can guess how it was done. A few years back, 2600 magazine published an article all about hacking pixelboard signs, and apparently the vast majority of these signs are programmed using an infrared keyboard. The keyboard is fairly standardized, and while the signs can be protected with a password, virtually none of the gormless businesspeople who use the signs ever bother to change the password from its factory-installed default -- which is usually something like "password" or "admin" or "1234" or whatever.
It kind of makes me want to go buy an infrared keyboard and see what signs around Manhattan I can alter!
Posted by Clive Thompson at May 03, 2006 08:59 PM
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Subtitle: "...and other reasons why you should change the default password."
Gawd. It makes Bruce Schneir's "Movie plot threat contest" look like a reasonable way to find security holes.
Posted by: pjm at May 3, 2006 9:34 PM
Posted by: Clive at May 4, 2006 10:02 AM
Clive, I am heavily in favor of you tooling around NYC with a keyboard, looking for messages to hack. You'd be like a really hostile, Canadian, temporary Jenny Holzer.
My pal Keg, when he first got his Sony Clie, discovered that there was a TV remote built in that would work with any Sony TV. So in every sports bar we went into that had a Sox game on, too loud, he would turn the channel to the Cubs (or Oprah) instead, and turn the voilume up or down accordingly. That would be a useful thing to do in NYC as well. Carry a universal remote and a web browser that connected to a list of all TV model remote codes.
Did you note in the article that those screens weren't even protected, btw? Forget default password: there were no passwords at all!
Posted by: MoXmas at May 4, 2006 12:09 PM
Yes, I believe in many situations there is no password, MoXmas. Aahhahahah -- Jenny Holzer! Man, I should get a keyboard and hook up with her for an afternoon.
Posted by: Clive at May 4, 2006 5:58 PM
While Harper's friend tries to come by his side with that quote, it's really not helping him. Logically, you can't deduce (a) that he doesn't eat babies (as this friend simply hasn't seen him do it, or (b) that he doesn't eat other loveable creatures, like puppies.
Anyway, I find this sort of subversive hacking (like adbusting) very hilarious, especially when the content is political. Let people write to their politicians to complain, and they'll say they're too busy, or don't care enough. Let people hack a billboard or a pixilated ad, and people will be very creative, and very poignant at times. Maybe it's the feeling of actively taking control of politics (which are in reality, largely out of our hands).
This didn't happen to coincide with the new budget released by the Harper government on Tuesday, did it?
Posted by: Steve E. at May 4, 2006 6:30 PM
Not sure!
I actually wish that pixelboard hackers were generally more clever, or at least this clever. A while ago someone hacked the signs on the 401 to read "YOU SUCK", which is sort of funny, I guess, but not terribly inspired.
Posted by: Clive at May 5, 2006 7:18 AM
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Subtitle: "...and other reasons why you should change the default password."
Gawd. It makes Bruce Schneir's "Movie plot threat contest" look like a reasonable way to find security holes.
Posted by: pjm![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 3, 2006 9:34 PM
Heh. Yes!
Posted by: Clive![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 4, 2006 10:02 AM
Clive, I am heavily in favor of you tooling around NYC with a keyboard, looking for messages to hack. You'd be like a really hostile, Canadian, temporary Jenny Holzer.
My pal Keg, when he first got his Sony Clie, discovered that there was a TV remote built in that would work with any Sony TV. So in every sports bar we went into that had a Sox game on, too loud, he would turn the channel to the Cubs (or Oprah) instead, and turn the voilume up or down accordingly. That would be a useful thing to do in NYC as well. Carry a universal remote and a web browser that connected to a list of all TV model remote codes.
Did you note in the article that those screens weren't even protected, btw? Forget default password: there were no passwords at all!
Posted by: MoXmas![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 4, 2006 12:09 PM
Yes, I believe in many situations there is no password, MoXmas. Aahhahahah -- Jenny Holzer! Man, I should get a keyboard and hook up with her for an afternoon.
Posted by: Clive![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 4, 2006 5:58 PM
While Harper's friend tries to come by his side with that quote, it's really not helping him. Logically, you can't deduce (a) that he doesn't eat babies (as this friend simply hasn't seen him do it, or (b) that he doesn't eat other loveable creatures, like puppies.
Anyway, I find this sort of subversive hacking (like adbusting) very hilarious, especially when the content is political. Let people write to their politicians to complain, and they'll say they're too busy, or don't care enough. Let people hack a billboard or a pixilated ad, and people will be very creative, and very poignant at times. Maybe it's the feeling of actively taking control of politics (which are in reality, largely out of our hands).
This didn't happen to coincide with the new budget released by the Harper government on Tuesday, did it?
Posted by: Steve E.![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 4, 2006 6:30 PM
Not sure!
I actually wish that pixelboard hackers were generally more clever, or at least this clever. A while ago someone hacked the signs on the 401 to read "YOU SUCK", which is sort of funny, I guess, but not terribly inspired.
Posted by: Clive![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.collisiondetection.net/nav-commenters.gif)
at May 5, 2006 7:18 AM