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Hacking the Highways
cindy writes "LA artist Richard Ankrom got fed up with the terrible signage on the Harbor Freeway. Rather than wait for CalTrans to do something about it, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He carefully made additional signage and added it to an existing freeway sign. The results were so good that no one, including CalTrans, noticed for months! The LA Times has an article including some of the video shot by the artist to document his "crime.""
Congratulations for reading the article.
He made a perfect replica of a highway sign, which probably isn't all that easy to do on your own. He did it in broad daylight. He got away with it for months. Besides, art imitates life (or in this case, makes life a little easier for everyone else.)
He made a compelling statement. Something really obvious needed fixing and the responsible authorities were too clueless to fix it, so he fixed it for them.
If everyone had a constructive attitude like that, think what a society we'd have. People would automatically pick up trash, report suspicious behavior, finger dishonest colleagues or employers, and generally apply millions of little improvements to the status quo. Too bad most people are too selfish/alienated/cynical to care. It's inspiring to see someone who does care, and passionately, too.
it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.
but just imagine if we allowed your average person on the street to dictate how a tcp/ip stack should be implemented, or what have you.
You have just described open-source software development.