Road Sign Hacking Continues Around Town

Photo taken by trexfiles23 on flickr

Yesterday's sighting of a DOT warning that "New York is Dying" apparently had less to do with the city's decaying infrastructure and was more likely the handiwork of hacker(s) who had their way with road signs in Manhattan yesterday. Commenters yesterday pointed us to a January posting on iHacked that gave simple instructions on how to manipulate the roadside messages as well as the fact that the Diggnation founders had just mentioned it (and even gave out the signs' default password!) this past week on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Three separate users on flickr tagged "Gothamist" onto photos with the above road sign, taken on the corner of East Houston and Lafayette Streets. The last photo indicates that the hacked message made it into the night without being changed. Below is the clip with the Diggnation guys. If any Floridians know exactly what a "shit bird" is, we'd love to hear it. And we're still waiting for confirmation on what time we should stop by Julie's.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Billy Parker in News on March 15, 2009 5:15 PM

Comments [rss]

ivyleaguecrew

this one was done by smart crew..

ORL - owls rockin 'lo

meyhemlauren.com for more info. on that..

lostwallet

(Sorry, didn't mean to sound like a pirate. Not enough coffee yet.)

http://dailyscrewups.com/lifestyle/giggles/hacked-road-signs

lostwallet

"Zombies' is still me favorite. Come on EV, you can do better!

ebie

OK, but what's "ORL"? (aside from Orlando's airport code)

ur doing it rong

I read about 1/2 of "Black Dahlia". Shit Bird was some kind of pejorative the cops used when referring to the Zoot Suiters. Some kinda 20s word I guess. I think the hacker is prolly an old timer who still pronounes oil funny, anyway that's just my idear, ooh gotta run to the terlet.

butterbutter

That video of the Digg Nation guys was pretty gae and I'm really shocked that what they got them on that show.

It also says to me that Jimmy Fallon can't get good guests on his show, and hes' going DOWN!!!

FranklinBluth

meh, it was kind of funny a few months ago when people were putting up zombie warnings in some other part of the US.

I wonder where this will fall on the NY Mag approval matrix.

NannyState

"Lowbrow, Brilliant".

LaLuneEstMorte

Shit bird is frequently used in The Wire.

chlyn

Wiktionary: "A person who regularly gets into trouble."

I thought it was a new form of haiku developed for hacked highway signs: 1-1-3 syllables.

tingo

I saw cops laughing and taking pics of it. Everyone appreciates a little humor.

Ben

Birds of a shitfeather flock together, Randy.

Spirit of 76

If somebody gets hurt because a legitimate warning was replaced on one of these signs, what are the odds that the pranksters will turn themselves in and take their lumps? Only slightly less than the careless DOT workers who left the panel unlocked being disciplined? This is what happens when you ask workers who barely graduated high school to handle security on electronic equipment.

Politburo

Some shit lawyers will disagree, but there is never a warning on those signs whose absence could result in injury. Furthermore, one should never be driving in a manner that could reasonably result in an accident - regardless of the presence or lack of signs, and signs (or lack of) are not an escape from liability.