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Hacking the Highways

Posted by michael on from the script-kiddies-could-learn-a-few-things dept.

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.""

3 of 407 comments (clear)

  1. Interesting.... by flyingember · · Score: 0, Troll

    Who'd have thought that stuff like this would happen. More proof government doesn't know what it's doing across the board

  2. I feel SPAMMED for having read this... by Mulletproof · · Score: 0, Troll

    Oh. My. God. How does this crap make it onto Slash? Katz and his Dog book was bad, but at least it had something to do with the internet in a vague, self promoting way. But this... WTF IS THIS SHIT DOING ON SLASH!!?!?? There is no science here. No ground breaking technology. No MS bashing. No Linux promotions. No case mods. Nothing to do with a satillites or planetary alignments. It's about a freeway sign! "A man and his dream to make the freeway safer and more efficient for us all!" Wha--? Maybe it was the use of the word "Hacking". It just sent Micheal into a tizzy and said "this must be good shit". Oh, wait. He used a digital camera to capture his moments of glory... There it is. The missing link... I should have seen it sooner!

    I guess that settles it. No more news from Micheal. And you want us to pay for this!? Oh, that's good....

    --
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  3. Re:I don't get it.... by gilroy · · Score: 1, Troll
    Blockquoth the poster:

    You'd think that the people in charge of the signs would notice that there was an addition that hadn't been authorized.

    Yes, because certainly everyone in CalTrans in charge of signage undoubtedly passes by that exact stretch of road every day... I don't this even counts as clever unless he can document that the sign had been seen by anyone competent to have ordered a change. Reading the article I didn't get any sense that this was some long, drawn-out crusade to get a sign put up, where "the Man" dragged his feet and stuck it to the little guy. No faceless bureaucrat decreeing, "No, you shall always be confused that that interchange, for Policy has made it so".


    The guy saw something that CalTrans hadn't noticed or hadn't gotten around to. He took it on himself to fix the problem as he saw it. Kudos for the initiative... but it ain't art.

    --
    The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach