Hacker hits Toronto transit message system
Posted: Fri May 05, 2006 8:21 pm
MAY 05, 2006 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Imagine Gerry Nicholls’ surprise when he glanced at the electronic advertising sign on the Toronto-area commuter train he was riding last week and saw this message about the Canadian prime minister scroll across the screen: “Stephen Harper eats babies.”
Said Nicholls, “I worked with Harper for five years, and I know he has a craving for junk food, but I’ve never seen him eat a baby.” He then explained his role in publicizing a hack of the transit system’s message system.
“It was Thursday evening, April 27, about 5:30, and I was leaving Toronto and I was taking the GO Transit train,” said Nicholls, vice president of the National Citizens Coalition. “Each car has a little electronic advertising sign, and messages scroll across them, and usually it’s something like, 'Buy tickets to this event' or messages about train safety. But this time the message on the sign was reading ‘Stephen Harper eats babies,’ every three seconds. Stephen Harper used to be my boss, and he’s president of the organization I work for right now.”
Nicholls, who lives in a suburb of Toronto, thought the message on the sign was strange and figured it had to be some kind of parody, with some kind of kicker explaining what it meant. But there was no punchline, he said.
Read more . . . .
Archived topic from Anythingforums, old topic ID:2724, old post ID:47205
Said Nicholls, “I worked with Harper for five years, and I know he has a craving for junk food, but I’ve never seen him eat a baby.” He then explained his role in publicizing a hack of the transit system’s message system.
“It was Thursday evening, April 27, about 5:30, and I was leaving Toronto and I was taking the GO Transit train,” said Nicholls, vice president of the National Citizens Coalition. “Each car has a little electronic advertising sign, and messages scroll across them, and usually it’s something like, 'Buy tickets to this event' or messages about train safety. But this time the message on the sign was reading ‘Stephen Harper eats babies,’ every three seconds. Stephen Harper used to be my boss, and he’s president of the organization I work for right now.”
Nicholls, who lives in a suburb of Toronto, thought the message on the sign was strange and figured it had to be some kind of parody, with some kind of kicker explaining what it meant. But there was no punchline, he said.
Read more . . . .
Archived topic from Anythingforums, old topic ID:2724, old post ID:47205
