<nettime> Crosswalk Hacking

[andy@remotelinux.com]

This is by far the most useful information I've read since moving to San Francisco.
Now I have to check if it works!

andy

-------------

"A shadowy group of pedestrian hackers called Cross Anytime announced their
discovery of several back doors or "cheats" using crosswalk buttons at many
intersections. The 3658-item list has been released on their website
www.crosswalkbuttonhacks.com. While some of the codes have been obtained through
intelligence gathering and analysis of illegally obtained push-button systems, most
were uncovered through the brute-force approach. "It's wasn't as easy as it
sounds," Walker said. "Contrary to what the kiddies may think, going crazy with
clicks doesn't help much. You need to understand the inner workings of the systems
- not to mention differences in the push-intervals. For instance, the McKenzie mkI
model is based on dual 1.2 second cycles (meaning that long clicks and pauses last
1.2 seconds) while the mkII model uses a 1.5 second cycle (pauses are 1.5 seconds
long). And the models look almost identical to the casual pedestrian!" The most
popular hack, which works on most models, is the "Instant Walk."  Three short
clicks, followed by two long, one short, two long, and three short; turn any
crosswalk signal from "don't walk" to "walk" with a matching change in the traffic
signals. rw-, a co-editor here claims this hack has been out for years. The FBI
closed down the website for the usual DCMA/TERRORIST BS reasons fearing that
terrorists might be able to cross the streets of America at will.  What they forgot
was that the page is mirrored over most of the internet, in places they can't
control."

http://www.hackerz.org/



#  distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission
#  <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism,
#  collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets
#  more info: majordomo@bbs.thing.net and "info nettime-l" in the msg body
#  archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime@bbs.thing.net