Clear Channel Plans To Roll Out Digital Billboards

Tree131 writes "Just in case you don't have enough distractions driving on the highway, Clear Channel is planning to roll out digital billboards. The new billboards will feature ads that depend on the time of day as well as the general area demographics. I wonder how long before someone with lots of time on their hands hacks into the system and starts tampering with the messages."

Comments

Nothing new?

[Dj Stingray]

We even have digital billboards in Salt Lake already..... I thought they had these everywhere..

Re:Nothing new?

[Wakkow]

That's what I thought.. Here in Sacramento, over near Cal Expo, there's one that was mentioned on slashdot a while ago that tracked what radio stations people listened to that drove by.

It runs Windows.. I know because I've seen it blue screened before.

Re:Nothing new?

[Dj Stingray]

Wow, after reading my post, I just realized how badder my grammer is then most people.

Re:Nothing new?

[nexex]

yea, you can barely see it thanks to mr golden sun -- its like trying to watch tv outside at noon

Re:Nothing new?

[ambienceman]

yeah...and Times Square anyone? Look at the Reuters building...

Re:Nothing new?

[Wakkow]

Well, back in Soviet Russia I taught grammer.

Re:Nothing new?

[Anonymous Coward]

And Mr. Grammar checker, what is wrong with the sentence? The only questionable thing I see is ending the sentence with "by." However, in English the "by" in "drove by" is part of a verb. So the argument that a user ended a sentence with a verb is debatable.

My guess is that you were raised with Dick and Jane readers and cannot comprehend a sentence that includes more than one clause. That is more a defect with the American education system than with a post that lets ideas ramble in a sentence.

Re:Nothing new?

[Peeet]

Oh yeah, well we have one in Cincinnati. Beat that, damn mormons...

and I quote: "When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it's always twenty years behind the times."

Re:Nothing new?

[Anonymous Coward]

there's one in roseville too near the automall. it's been there at least 2 years.

Re:Nothing new?

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a bright animated lcd looking billboard advertisement over where I live, and I keep thinking that some day when it's flashing bright red, that someone is going to be distracted by it at the wrong time and it's going to cause a car accident.

Personally, when I'm driving I'd rather pay attention to driving than have people tear away my attention to something frivilous because they want to sell something to me. I'd probably support a ban on these things.

Re:Nothing new?

[raju1kabir]

We even have digital billboards in Salt Lake already..... I thought they had these everywhere..

They're all over New York City (at sidewalk level, on the walls above stairways leading into the subway) already. So they are everywhere that matters.

Re:Nothing new?

[VanessaDannenberg]

These seem to be showing up in my area (St. Petersburg/Largo/Clearwater, Florida) as well, one of which belongs to an auto dealer. I find it rather neat, actually, to sit there and watch the billboard's full-color animations while I wait at a nearby traffic signal for a few moments.

On the other hand, the sign I am referring to is somewhat distracting as well, and in a bad area if you consider the sheer amount of traffic that flows through from hour to hour. I wouldn't be surprised if that sign has caused more than a few traffic accidents, given the nature of motorists in this area.

This kinda gives a new meaning to the common phrase "found on road dead" ... The company maintaining this sign is a Ford dealership. :-)

Disclaimer: I am a Ford owner, so I can say whatever I want about my car. :-)

Re:Nothing new?

[core plexus]

"I thought they had these everywhere.."

We don't have billboards in Alaska. Hopefully we never will.

-cp-

Re:Nothing new?

[gefafwysp]

We've had these in Britain by the motorways for ages, but they always seem to be advertising something called "Major delays on M6 at J15".

Your written correspondence is currently broadcasting a postal address. With this, someone can begin attacking your house!

Re:Nothing new?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I drove through Salt Lake a week ago and found that those "moving" billboards were VERY annoying.

I wonder how long until the company producing those gets sued out of existance?

Re:Nothing new?

[AndroidCat]

that tracked what radio stations people listened to that drove by.

Leave a little fly-power transmitter near their sign and tell them what station everyone is listening to.

Re:Nothing new?

[Anonymous Coward]

Given that Clear Channel has dropped Howerd Stern
this is food for fodder.

Since Christans have wanted to be the whores of
the world since time started, i suppose they not
intend to become the world dick suckers too: imagine Mel Gibson a male prostitute on the
coner of 54 th and boadway.

So I guess to be a Christan now days is to seek to
kill anyone who thinks differently:

examples,

Iraq people,
French people,
Russia people,
Canada people, ...

We could go on but we all know that Tony Blair
is a dick sucking turd, and Christans want
to Blow the World ... just look at George W.
Bush ... what a pathetic twit, he should get the
gas chamber after he's convicted of crimes
against humanity ... along with his father ...
they'd be suck'n each other off as the oxygen
level drops to zero.

Toodles

Re:First....

[Alan]

Hmm..... I'm pretty sure that this is somehow a gross invasion of our privacy.

How long until it's hacked?

[Neil Blender]

I'd say about as quickly as my cable has been hacked to tamper with the commercials and programming I watch.

Re:How long until it's hacked?

[DigiShaman]

I dunno. I can imagine them being hacked with a statement that says "You are sheep, you must buy our product". Heh, it kind of reminds me of the movie They Live.

Re:How long until it's hacked?

[jigyasubalak]

I wonder why the nerds who post stories, almost always, assume that the system is gonna be networked? Why can't it be assumed to be run out of a plain old DVD player or something not networked, for a change?

Re:How long until it's hacked?

[GregWebb]

Because it's cheaper to network it. If they can stick in a DSL or even ISDN line to get it new ads then they've saved a fortune over sending out a tech to change CDs ever few weeks. Add in remote diagnostics and they'll save a packet.

Now, I can't see this running over the net or WiFi unless they're _really_ stupid but, having said that, we've seen VB cash machines so who knows?

Re:How long until it's hacked?

[GTRacer]

I wonder why the nerds who post stories, almost always, assume that the system is gonna be networked?

Well, aside from often being true, how about the fact that if it ISN'T networked, there's a physical device on-site to hack. After a recon visit to determine the cable and box specs (if possible) or to find the maintenance panel...

They'd better hope they don't put one near me because I'd have the billboard speak my mind about their lousy radio stations...

GTRacer
- The only thing scary about the "Monsters in the Morning" is the quality

Re:How long until it's hacked?

[Anonymous Coward]

Add in remote diagnostics and they'll save a packet.

Is this the old adage: Gotta send a packet to save a packet?

Re:How long until it's hacked?

[AndroidCat]

There were LED signs in British post-offices (cira 1988) that got their messages from data piggybacked on BBC-TV signals. If there are any still in use, I might have a copy of the source code somewhere... (Doubt it, they were a kludge abomination even then.)

Re:How long until it's hacked?

[poot_rootbeer]

It doesn't have to be networked to get hacked. If it's a DVD player, for instance, it could be hacked by climbing up the ladder to where the DVD player is located and swapping out the advertising disc with "Real Butts 14".

More likely the displays have a small amount of solid-state storage in them, and a serial port so they can be updated by plugging a laptop into them.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Well, just call some Congressional hearings

[ObviousGuy]

Clear Channel can then bend over and take it in the ass like they have no the Free Speech issue.

We demonize Clear Channel as this media goliath that can't be hurt or tamed by anything, but the way they are fellating the government lately, it seems like they are willing to do anything with the right incentive.

The question is how to persuade them to support Free Speech and good music.

Re:Well, just call some Congressional hearings

[Neil Blender]

We demonize Clear Channel as this media goliath that can't be hurt or tamed by anything,

I can't speak for everyone but I think of the main reasons people dislike Clear Channel is because they sit very far on the right side of the fence. Not to mention their strong conservative Christian views on most matters.

Re:Well, just call some Congressional hearings

[Anonymous Coward]

We demonize Clear Channel as this media goliath that can't be hurt or tamed by anything, but the way they are fellating the government lately, it seems like they are willing to do anything with the right incentive.

Re:Well, just call some Congressional hearings

[Babbster]

Clear Channel, like any other huge media company, doesn't have a "true" political leaning. Their only concern is making money. If conservative talk show hosts make them money, they put them on the air. If an ultra-liberal was going to make them money (before the JJ flap, they WERE carrying Howard Stern on several stations - hardly a good "Christian" program), they'd put that person on the air.

To use Rush Limbaugh as an example, he would have been just as big had he been a militant liberal for the simple fact that he and his show were entertaining. During his peak period, I listened every morning...not because I agreed with all (any?) of his opinions, but because it was good listening. These days, when I get up early enough, I listen to Don Imus [in the Morning] and disagree with at least half of his rants (many of them leftist - he's on the Kerry bandwagon at the moment). But it's a good show, so I enjoy it.

It's not always (almost never?) content that makes people listen to radio shows. It's how the show is put together and the quality of the host(s). These media companies know that better than anybody.

Re:Well, just call some Congressional hearings

[killjoe]

" Clear Channel, like any other huge media company, doesn't have a "true" political leaning."

Nonsense. Most corporations give more money to one party then the other. Some corporations give money depending on who is in power but others (like clearchannel) always give more money to one party then the other.

It's patently nonsensical to claim that clear channel does not have a political leaning. They are clearly republicans. Not only does the corporation give way more money to republicans (around 200K for republicans around 25K for democrats) but they have also pulled ads that critize the president.

Re:Well, just call some Congressional hearings

[Anonymous Coward]

You may have heard about some pro- war or "pro america" rallies held in the months prior to war with Iraq. Most of these events were funded and organized by Clear Channel. The largest rally was even held in a Clear Channel owned theater. Google search "clear channel america rallies" and see how political they really are.

Re:Well, just call some Congressional hearings

[gosand]

Clear Channel, like any other huge media company, doesn't have a "true" political leaning. Their only concern is making money. If conservative talk show hosts make them money, they put them on the air. If an ultra-liberal was going to make them money (before the JJ flap, they WERE carrying Howard Stern on several stations - hardly a good "Christian" program), they'd put that person on the air.

BS. Total BS. Why was Stern pulled off the air where he was #1 in the ratings? You don't pull your number one show unless you are in bed with the FCC, and they "make you an offer you can't refuse." Remember, he was pulled from the air before any fines were levied, and he wasn't even told he was being pulled. And it was for a year old comment made by a listener. Yet the words used in that comment can be heard on network TV today.

The whole thing reeks, and it isn't just with Stern. There are many other shows that have been treated like this, he is just the highest profile one. Yet some shows are allowed to slide. Hmm, I wonder why....

Re:Well, just call some Congressional hearings

[Babbster]

1. Look here.
2. NO big radio corporation fights the FCC on its content restrictions (even if they probably should since there's obviously a case on 1st amendment grounds) - Clear Channel isn't alone in that area. Because of that, the "offer they can't refuse" which the FCC is offering is to levy monstrous, excessive fines on them, and if they don't pay up and take corrective action then broadcast licenses can be pulled.
3. Keep your keyboard quiet if you don't know what you're talking about.

Re:Well, just call some Congressional hearings

[gosand]

1. Look here.

OK, so what? ONE listener complained, and the FCC gets him pulled off of 6 channels? Have you seen any fines against Oprah? Has she been pulled off the air yet? There have been complaints about her to the FCC too.

2. NO big radio corporation fights the FCC on its content restrictions (even if they probably should since there's obviously a case on 1st amendment grounds) - Clear Channel isn't alone in that area. Because of that, the "offer they can't refuse" which the FCC is offering is to levy monstrous, excessive fines on them, and if they don't pay up and take corrective action then broadcast licenses can be pulled.

i.e. you cannot fight it. So which is it? Either get fined, or take the "offending" material off the air? In this case, it is both. Why were they fined if they took him off the air? And why aren't the same standards applied to EVERYONE who broadcasts on TV and radio? This isn't about Howard Stern, it is much bigger than that. Of course, you get your news from MTV...

3. Keep your keyboard quiet if you don't know what you're talking about.

clickety clickety click.

Ads

[thefiremonk]

Will they have X-rated ads at 2 am?

Re:Ads

[Technician]

Will they have X-rated ads at 2 am?

Nope, Just taxi ads so you can catch a cab as the bars close. Why risk a DUI?

Re:Ads

[jigyasubalak]

If I can hack in, you get it to watch it earlier...heeeheee

Lawyers

[noelo]

Are going to love this. Imagine the number of court cases which will litigate agains CC when they claim that the driver was distracted by the billboards. I wonder how this will relate to the laws which are being considered for banning in-car dvd players....

Re:Lawyers

[ahfoo]

I was wondering the same thing.
Living outside of Taipei and commuting into town, I'm already exposed to quite a few digital billboards. I think they're cool and seem perfectly normal in Taiwan, but it's worth noting that Taiwan's sign standards are a lot closer to Vegas than any other western city I've seen. And I recall that in San Diego and LA even flashing neon signs are prohibited except in certain "historical" districts.
Adding that with California's prohibition on front seet LCDs makes it seem this is going to be a difficult trick to pull off at least in California.

Re:Lawyers

[krosk]

I don't know if there would be that many lawsuits as long as there were certain restrictions set on the billboards...

First, moving images and flashy graphics would definately be a no-no. As long as the image stayed somewhat static it wouldn't be a big distraction to drivers. Just as billboards today can have as many bright colors and some even have flashy glittering tin-foil-type-stuff to draw attention, they do not attempt to sustain the driver's constaint attention.

second, although the brightness would certainly have to be scalable for daylight versus night conditions, there would have to be a maximum brightness at night so as not to blind drivers and/or distract them too much. There are plenty of mega-trons at car dealerships on the side of major freeways, and they are certainly prevalent in Las Vegas. None of those guys have been sued for distracting drivers and causing wrecks...

just a thought...

Re:Lawyers

[33degrees]

Of course lawyers are going to live this; chances are, at least half the ads are going to be FOR lawyers:

"Hello, have you just gotten into an accident while looking at this billboard? If so, then call us, at..."

The other half of the adds will be for insurance companies.

Re:Lawyers

[michaelhood]

I see these on the 405 every day (Los Angeles). It's already been done. No clue why this was news-worthy. If ClearChannel doesn't already have these, they're behind the times.

Re:Lawyers

[surprise_audit]

There was a scrolling-message board attached to a big sign near where I live. The sign was advertising something like a new hotel/casino complex being build on the land behind the sign. The problem I had with it was that it uses red lamps (or giant red LEDs, maybe) and the message wasn't just static - it flashed on and off a few times for each 'page'. This made it look a lot like brake lights at the side of the road and, worse, it reflected off nearby vehicles, making it look like they were braking.

That was bad enough, but the crowning stupidity, for which (possibly) the board was legally shutdown, was that it was right at the top of a ramp onto the highway. So, you're roaring up the ramp (uphill!) trying to get up to highway cruising speed to merge with a couple of 18-wheelers, dividing your attention between other vehicles on the ramp and the oncoming juggernauts and suddenly there's this row of red, flashing lights demanding attention...

I swear, if it hadn't been shutdown within a couple of days, I might have made a special trip to WalMart to get a baseball bat or a can of spray paint... Dumbasses put the flashing sign at waist-height, too, so it wouldn't have been difficult to deal with.

Re:Lawyers

[simontek2]

Yes, you can catch me driving down the road, if I see one of those DVD players, I usually watch it till I figure out what movie it is. If its like 3am, I watch the whole movie. Sucks without sound though.

Re:Lawyers

[cheekyboy]

And what is wrong with a DVD player in the BACKSEAT only ???

Its great for little kids, they can watch their TV programs (burned to DVD ofcourse) over and over again, and never get bored.

Damn todays kids are LUCKY.
We had to just count colored cars to have fun.

Re:Lawyers

[Skater]

I wonder if anyone said this when the standard, static billboards were first introduced.

--RJ

Re:Lawyers

[poot_rootbeer]

Imagine the number of court cases which will litigate agains CC when they claim that the driver was distracted by the billboards.

I imagine the number of SUCCESSFUL court cases will be somewhere around zero.

There's already plenty of billboard and advertisements that draw attention away from the road, or rotate mechanically between two or three different messages, or feature a giant animated neon cowboy waving at you. If there was no precedent set that THOSE billboard types were dangerous to drivers' concentration, it would seem likely that the incremental novelty of this new type wouldn't be dangerous either.

Re:Lawyers

[anagama]

I sure hope so. Digital billboards are a complete menace. I know of one about 120 miles from where I live. Whenever I drive by, I have to make a consious effort to not stare at the video on the sign, and instead, concentrate on the heavy traffic. I would love to see the sign taken down by some lawsuit because the truth is, it endangers me by distracting other drivers and for what it's worth, causes me to become a danger to other drivers because I am distracted. We are hard wired to notice movement and flashing lights - taking advantage of that is not always appropriate.

Re:Lawyers

[Anonymous Coward]

No, most billboards are just passive. A few have been cool, like the In-N-Out Burger sign that was along Hwy 94 in San Diego (near Lemon Grove) a few years ago, that had a big 3-D burger on it with steam coming off of the patty. That was pretty cool and got some good stares.

No, the neon does not seem to stop the casinos anywhere from their gaudy signs, or cause too many problems. Their gaudiness seems to be related to their cash flow (i.e., higher cash flow, more gaudy signs), probably because gaudiness correlates directly with cost.

There is a DiamondVision-ish sign along I-5 just north of Fife, where I-5 drops down into the Puyallup River valley. Of course, I haven't driven up that way in a few months, but...

If Clear Channel, or anyone else REALLY wanted to get eyeballs focused, they would figure out how to stage accidents, or even have their advertisement vehicle [sic] just happen to have "engine problems with fluids flowing out onto the road".

People will slow down for an unattended vehicle for crissakes, clear across on the other side of the freeway...

How long until some-one hacks it

[ryg0r]

I'll give it a week.

Maybe less if their using Winblows(Tm)

Re:How long until some-one hacks it

[stargazer1sd]

Not very long. . . I saw a digital billboard on the 405 (in Los Angeles) with part of a windows desktop.

I can't wait to see what happens when someone hacks into the box and starts showing pr0n.

Re: How long until some-one hacks it

[Black Parrot]

> I'll give it a week.

I'd prefer that craxors restrained themselves until the billboards are widely deployed.

Re:How long until some-one hacks it

[Txiasaeia]

Ah yes, the obligatory "I use the lunix b3cause it was on Hackers and I also need to s1am the windoze computers!" (I'm risking flamebait, I know, but I've been wanting to use "lunix" for a while now ;))

These billboards have been around for a while, despite the /. blurb. Have they been hacked yet? Nope. They've crashed, they've blue-screened, and people have played solitaire on them with touch-screen ATMs, but not hacked. How, may I ask, do you hack a SCREEN?

Hacking requires physical access to the computer that is displaying the info on the screen, unless the comp is hooked up to a network (unlikely) or for whatever reason has wireless/bluetooth periphrial support (more likely, but still not exactly commonplace). Otherwise, the only way you'd be able to hack Time Square is using next season's Ono Sendai 7 with McCoy Pauley looking over your shoulder.

Re:How long until some-one hacks it

[parkanoid]

They have to be connected to a network in order to deliver new ad content on a regular basis. It's highly unlikely that the billboards use some form of removable media for the ads, which leaves us with a network connection.
Depending on the positioning of the billboard, it could be a wired connection (cat5? Animated ads would probably be too large to transfer via slow serial connections) or a wireless (802.11x, or more likely something proprietary). All of the above are hackable.

Re:How long until some-one hacks it

[Alioth]

Ah yes, the obligatory "I use the lunix b3cause it was on Hackers and I also need to s1am the windoze computers!" (I'm risking flamebait, I know, but I've been wanting to use "lunix" for a while now ;))

Lunix is actually an OS for the Commodore 64.

Too many temptations

[eekrano]

"I wonder how long before someone with lots of time on their hands hacks into the system and starts tampering with the messages." Who's going to need 'alot of time on thier hands' to start working on this? This could be better than revengeworld.com for the more sadistic and technically capable out there. So who's willing to throw in on how long after the first one's up does it get hacked? This billboard could be entertaining in more ways than 1!

Re:Too many temptations

[Technician]

If they use a regular FM broadcast (why pay a paging company) and it's subchannel to send the information to the billboard, then the protocol would be sniffable. The trick would be swamping the input on the billboard to get your signal into it. You would have to be pretty close to do it since you are competing with a 50KW station most of the time.

For more information on subchannels, Google SCA subchannel.

Re:Too many temptations

[psetzer]

Or you can disconnect the antenna and strap your transmitter straight to that baby. I think we can get that technology banned in maybe a week with strategic placement of hello.jpg.

Re:Too many temptations

[Micro$will]

You would have to be pretty close to do it since you are competing with a 50KW station most of the time.

With 10+ stations in every market, I highly doubt they get info on your radio by any broadcast signal. They probably get it by listening to stray signals coming from the superheterodyne circuit in the recievers. It's very weak in modern equipment (heavy RF sheilding and FM on chip technology), but it can be detected. All you would need to screw it up is an old "transistor" radio (one with seperate transistors, not ICs) and a few solar cells. Place it next to the sign and it will swamp the detector .

Re:Too many temptations

[Technician]

Or you can disconnect the antenna and strap your transmitter straight to that baby.

I don't carry a 30 foot ladder in my car. I do have a kilowatt of AC. ;-)

Re:Too many temptations

[Technician]

I highly doubt they get info on your radio by any broadcast signal.

This has nothing to do with sniffing the radio in my car. This has everything to do with sniffing the signal from a Clear Channel FM station to the billboard. Picking up the 50 KW signal and looking at it's SCA subcarriers for data to the billboards is the sniffing mentioned. Replacing the signal from a 50 KW Clear Channel station in the area of the billboard to put in a hacked signal to the billboard is the competing with the 50 KW station mentioned.

Sorry I didn't make it super clear in my original post.

Re:Too many temptations

[KC7GR]

"You would have to be pretty close to do it since you are competing with a 50KW station most of the time..."

Not necessarily. If you could get within, say, a quarter-mile or so of the thing with about 50 or so watts, you'd probably do just fine. Remember that FM receivers exhibit a little something called the 'capture effect.' This is nothing more than the tendency for the receiver to capture and demodulate the strongest signal it hears.

Now, I know that 50kW sounds like a lot for a broadcast station, and it certainly is when you're close-in to the antenna site. However, also remember the inverse-square law when it comes to radio signals: Specifically, that the signal strength decreases as a function of the square of the distance from the antenna.

If a billboard is more than a few miles away from a station's antenna site, the station's signal is going to be fairly weak by the time it gets there (on the order of microvolts or fractions of a microvolt). If you're close enough that your signal is stronger than that, you're going to capture the receiver, no problem.

So... who's going to be the first to put 'Klaatu, Barada, Nikdo' up on one of those things? (Did I just date myself?) ;-)

Re:Too many temptations

[Technician]

Most consumer hackable cheap FM transmitters are in the 30 mW range. Running 50 watts has two disadvantages.

1 Expensive: Need to buy an exciter (5-150 watt info here:http://www.electrokits.com/fm-transmitters/16 8.htm ) or booster (30mW to 2 watt) and re-tuned 2 meter amplifier (2W to 20-200W). (two meter amplifier info here http://www.wb0w.com/mirage/amplifiers/2mtramps.htm )

2 Interferance: A long range tool will be noticed by all the commuters driving by and may trigger an FCC investigation sooner than something more clandestine. Remember you are transmitting on a local FM radio station frequency. This does not make the FCC happy.

Re:Too many temptations

[AndroidCat]

How about the first non-Photoshopped "ALL YOUR BASE" digital billboard? Some people might remember that, but "Klaatu" from Army of Darkness is ancient forgotten history. The Earth doesn't stand still, you know!

Re:Too many temptations

[KC7GR]

"Army of Darkness?" Where did that come from? I was referring to the classic flick 'Day the Earth Stood Still.'

Re:Too many temptations

[AndroidCat]

Re-read my post carefully this time. :^)

Demographics

[xicodarap]

Did I miss something but how are they supposed to tell who's around at the time for targetted demographic advertising?

Re:Demographics

[Anonymous Coward]

They'll just have it read the RFID tag they had implanted in everyone's heads a few years back.

Re:Demographics

[Quill345]

They're likely referring to the demographics of the neighborhood (or at least who drives through it). That's simple given that they own radio stations in each area and probably already understand the demographics of their audience. (Or, it's not so simple if they're truely targetting demographics on a billboard by billboard level.)

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Advertising/Subvertising

[ratherpedestrian]

A pre-digital era subvertising guide. Imagine the opportunities on a subverted digital board.

everytime I drive by it....

[Dj Stingray]

Everytime I drive by it, it displays a beer ad. How did they know??? RFID chips in bottles? WOW! Technology!

Re:everytime I drive by it....

[kd5ujz]

Your not constantly listening to country by any chance are you?

Re:everytime I drive by it....

[Dj Stingray]

Whoh! How did YOU know?????

Okay, I'm done with this computer thing... its getting kinda scary!

Re:everytime I drive by it....

[AndroidCat]

The systems that determine what radio stations people driving by are listening to probably depend on leakage from the radio tuners. Since this isn't a protected usage of the radio spectrum, a simple low-power circuit that "leaks" a jamming signal to overpower their spy receiver would be a nice project. (It wouldn't interfere with radio listening because the signal would be offset from the station by the radio IF frequency.) It's a privacy invasion system that deserves to be hacked.

"Damnit, everyone on that road listens to Country, why aren't our ads for BillyBob Beer selling?!"

Re:everytime I drive by it....

[Anonymous Coward]

Clear Channel... Yet another corrupt Texas corporation. What's new?

Re:everytime I drive by it....

[pr0cess]

Or maybe it's the pickup truck with the rack mounted shotgun.

The OS

[Paladin144]

Hopefully it will be running on Windows Me. That way, most of the time we won't be distracted by the blue screens (of death). The color might even be soothing.

Re:The OS

[EEBaum]

A couple years ago there was one in L.A., off the 405, that had an "Out of Virtual Memory" Windows error message on it for a few weeks straight, if not months.

Re:The OS

[Kizzle]

HAHA A WINDOWS BLUE SCREEN JOKE. Whoever modded this up needs to lose their procreation rights.

Re:The OS

[Trackster]

Stop YELLING and be quiet.

Blew skreen jokes r kewl.

Been there, done that.

[Shurhaian]

Didn't anybody see Short Circuit 2?

Okay, that was a text marquee and not a billboard as such, but nevertheless...

Re:Been there, done that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Didn't anybody see Short Circuit 2?

Okay, that was a text marquee and not a billboard as such, but nevertheless...

One time there was this movie and there was an asteroid and it was going to hit earth and everyone was probably going to die and they had a year before it would happen and they tried to figure out how to stop it and there were these guys and the got in a space ship and they went out to the asteroid and they drilled a hole and they put a bomb in it and a bunch of people on the asteroid were killed heroically and in the end the plan worked and the asteroid missed earth and nobody on earth died and all the dead spaceship guys were heroes.

Anyway, I am pretty sure this is the government's plan should any asteroids be found to be on a collision course with earth.

I can't wait to hack one

[teamhasnoi]

with a .22.

It's about time the common man can let Clear Channel know how they feel.

Re:I can't wait to hack one

[Anonymous Coward]

The Telco EQ is 'designed' to not be damaged by a .22 round. If CC follows a similar design idea, you won't get too far with your .22.

If you plan on 'reprograming' CC eq, I'd suggest a .308 or for the serious 'reprogrammer' - the 50 cal.

I know the .308 and the .243 rounds will put a hole in a 1/4 inch hunk of plate steel, and will dent 3/8 inch. I have no idea what a 50 cal will do....

Re:I can't wait to hack one

[Anonymous Coward]

You blokes want to silence Clear Channel because you disagree with them? Isn't that, um, what you guys accuse your government of doing?

Cunt. Stupid, hypocritical cunt.

Re:I can't wait to hack one

[Anonymous Coward]

I suggest a fire axe...

Re:I can't wait to hack one

[Anonymous Coward]

I have no idea what a 50 cal will do....

50 cal sniper rifles like this can be used to immobilize enemy vehicles.

Put a bullet through the engine block and that particular truck won't move again.

Re:I can't wait to hack one

[Anonymous Coward]

Amen.

There are one of these at one of the busiest four-way intersections in Portland, Oregon and it's fucking annoying and distracting. Makes me wonder how many people have been involved in car accidents because they were preoccupied with the flashy video for some car sales company.

Re:I can't wait to hack one

[Anonymous Coward]

Nope. We want to silence CC because are allowed to own every radio station and they only play homogenized, suck-ass music chosen by the lowest common denominator. Much like how your comment will be modded to -1, not because we disagree, but because it is a waste of time, and a blight on the landscape.

Miss the point?

Re:I can't wait to hack one

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, why not just use a paintball gun (and replace the dye in the balls with water, and then freeze them)? At least you're not using a potentially lethal weapon...

All your base are belong to us.

[qualico]

I think we all know what the hacker will write. :->

allyourbasearebelongtous.info

Re:All your base are belong to us.

[Anonymous Coward]

if the billboards animate, i hope they put up hardcore porn to frighten and corrupt all the innocent children...

Re:All your base are belong to us.

[glean]

all your Billboards are belong to us. Indeed.

Windows Error messages

[Gary Destruction]

I saw a site that had pictures of digital billboards with Windows Error messages on them. This is the picture I saw, although I can't remember the original site. It's not a crash but apparently, someone's missing a driver disk.

Re:Windows Error messages

[PhilHibbs]

I saw one at a train station in England that had a message saying that some video player software might be out of date, and would I like to look for updates on the internet? I didn't have a camera on me, sadly.

Re:Windows Error messages

[reignbow]

Don't you mean "All your boards are belong to us" ?

Re:Fuck Clear Channel

[Vacant Mind]

I don't see why this was modded flamebait, I agree, censorship sucks.

A possible reason

[Anonymous Coward]

Here in Indianapolis, a freeze has been placed upon creating new billboards - not unlike liquor licenses. Of course, that means some cry foul and claim they can't put up their material. What it does, just like liquor licenses, is raise the value of existing ones.

As far as most existing digital boards, I've seen some and they seem to be mostly like Amber alerts or something simple telling you about a blocked entrance ramp three miles ahead.

Re:First....

[DeathPenguin]

Just wait 'till they start displaying ads based on the radio station/CD/MP3/WMV/AAC you happen to be listening to at the time.

This is Funny

[Bruha]

My dad's a truck driver and keeps a laptop with a 1xRTT card in but also uses his WiFi card when at truck stops. When he was drivng through Utah he kept picking up a SSID and since I setup his wifi equipment he calls me asking what the hell is this SSID he kept picking up and goofing his connections whenever he stoped somewhere to access the net.

Turns out it was a billboard company in Salt Lake who after I contacted them really didnt care that they're systems were out there broadcasting their SSID's and assigning people's laptops a friggin IP!!

I'm curious if someone's managed to redesign a few billboards out there.

Re:This is Funny

[Halfbaked Plan]

I'm curious if someone's managed to redesign a few billboards out there.

A far more interesting hack would be to 'Own' the billboard and be able to grab ahold and do things to the machines of people driving by. If the billboard is assigning an IP it should try to do something with all those nice machines, afterall.

Re: This is Funny

[Black Parrot]

> > I'm curious if someone's managed to redesign a few billboards out there.

> A far more interesting hack would be to 'Own' the billboard and

...use them to DDoS ClearChannel.

Re:This is Funny

[krosk]

wow! free internet on the highway!! that'll make those long road trips through utah a lot shorter!! maybe this billboard thing isn't a bad idea after all?? i could deal with the billboards if they provided me free internet on my cross country trips...

Re: This is Funny

[Halfbaked Plan]

Or a cascading worm. Laptop passes first billboard, is infected. Passes second billboard, infects it...

Re:This is Funny

[jred]

I wonder if they could somehow direct the wifi signals so you can only pick them up in certain areas, such as a parking lot facing the billboard.

I'd think those spots would be worth much more money...

Re:This is Funny

[Anonymous Coward]

How long until the first Goatse billboard? That ought to cause a few deaths from traffic accidents, when the motorists will be too busy trying to rip out their eyes!

Re:This is Funny

[inKubus]

Most of the digital signs in Utah and Nevada are manufactured by YESCO. They used to have an outdoor media department but it was just bought (like last month) by Clearchannel. So YESCO provided me with the following information (since they don't really care):

I've worked for 2 companies now in Las Vegas that used their signs. The software and hardware used is pretty basic. They use a cell phone modem in the actual sign with a PPP server behind it. We dial in using Dial-Up networking on a 56k modem.

Then there's a little console app which is used to upload the new stuff. I'm not sure if it connects to the sign computer with plain old FTP or something more secure. It might be worth a look, now that I think about it.

There are a number of little files. The signs graphics are usually just a few frames of bitmaps and then there's a script to schedule the playing of the files on the sign, what transitions to use, etc.

That's about it.

So basically, if I wanted to play with some billboards, I would start with an actual physical inspection, then do WiFI as suggested above. Then, start wardialing cellphone exchanges using that CdC PALM PILOT wardialing program which you can stick in one of those airport or hotel phone jacks. When you find some probables, attempt to create PPP connections. You might be able to get away with a guest account or it might take a while. We had at least one with no password.

The signs in front of Vegas Hotels are a very different story. Everything was hardwired in on it's own separate network, no WiFi, no nothing. You'd have to have physical access to the Sign or the Console which is located in the most secure room in the casino besides the vault (computer room..) The Signs themselves are all alarmed to prevent tampering. It would be a gold hack though, and there has to be one out there.

I'm not messing with it though ;) I'd prefer to not have my legs broken.

Yeah

[jeffster10304]

Just what people need, a TV on the roadside.... I think the real question is how long before they start showing Survivor on them ;)

Synergy with radio

[LostCluster]

Clear Channel can get a pretty good idea who's driving at any hour a day based on adding up the radio listening data... they can do supplemental surveys to subtract out at-work listeners so that they only count in-car listeners to figure out what the demographic that's going to pass their billboards at each hour of the day will be.

Their killer app will be to link together packages that promise to reach a certain number of impressions to a given demographic.. based on who's expected to drive by at the hours that the given ad is up. That's what ad buyers really want, is to only count the people who are likely to consider buying the product being pitched... everyone else doesn't count. Doing it this way, they'll be able to get more milage out of their existing boards.

Re:Synergy with radio

[windside]

Clear Channel can get a pretty good idea who's driving at any hour a day based on adding up the radio listening data... they can do supplemental surveys to subtract out at-work listeners so that they only count in-car listeners to figure out what the demographic that's going to pass their billboards at each hour of the day will be.

Dear God! They can't be allowed to control that kind of information! It's almost like those godawful bastards at Google who want to give us all a free gigabyte of e-mail storing with advanced search capabilities and minimal text-based ads in exchange for Draconian cookie-based information control.

Somebody sound the alarm! Call in the Dutch privacy zealots! This travesty cannot be allowed.

--

Re:Synergy with radio

[jafuser]

How long do you think it'll be before they OCR your license plate using cameras spread around town, track where you go, where you park, and then advertise to you based on your shopping habits?

They wouldn't even need to necessarily know your name or anything, but your license plate would make for a nice unique identifier, like a browser cookie holding a UUID.

When you're driving down the highway these dynamic billboards can then adjust the advertisment to fit whatever "average" ad best fits the group of cars who have the billboard in view.

With enough cameras installed around a city, and a little fancy tag recognition + OCR technology, I don't see what's to stop them from being able to do this now.

Re:Synergy with radio

[Mwongozi]

The technology for this is already in place in central London, UK. The centre of London is now a "Congestion Charge" zone, which means you have to pay a toll if you want to drive there. Cameras snapshot your license plate as you enter and leave the zone, and if you haven't pre-payed, you get a bill in the post.

Re:Synergy with radio

[G-funk]

Well thanks for giving them the idea, ya bastard. Go patent it so a) they can't do it, or b) you at least get rich :)

Re:Synergy with radio

[EinarH]

Why stop there? Why not OCR the whole car and match the scan with a database of cars.
For example: You are driving a Ford; display GM ads.

Maybe not possible yet but as long as it's possible to make money on it it soon will be.

Re:Synergy with radio

[Triv]

They wouldn't even need to necessarily know your name or anything...

Yeah, but see, when you've got one database of consumer data based on license numbers and another database of license numbers with personal information, it doesn't take a genius to suggest pairing the two and getting it done. I used to be okay with unique unidentifiable ID #s. Now the idea gives me the creeps because, with a setup like this, all someone needs to do after setting up their non-invasive database is to built a bridge to the invasive one.

Triv

Re:Synergy with radio

[The Desert Palooka]

Yeah then someone's wife drives by and wonders "Why are their so many Dating service billboards"

Or a husband borrows said wife's car and is barraged with Tampax ads all the way to the office...

ack, the future is going to suck.

Re:Synergy with radio

[PhreeZrByte]

Ahh but as technology arises to do this, someone will always come up with a way around it.

License plate covers that change the angle by about 5 degrees. You would then need cameras that would be almost direct line of sight to see the plates. I don't know how well these really work as they are some as seen on TV crap, but it seems at least the idea is valid :P

Re:Synergy with radio

[turnage]

With enough cameras installed around a city, and a little fancy tag recognition + OCR technology, I don't see what's to stop them from being able to do this now.

Politics.

I don't know what city you live in, but it certainly wouldn't fly in mine. If it were some government-ordained test, possibly for security/"terrorist-or-criminal-face-recognition" reasons whathaveyou, it would probably go through without a hitch (short of a lot of fussing by plenty of privacy groups). I could be wrong, but I haven't heard of any city that ClearChannel owns enough of to install video cameras on streets, highways, or interstates for advertising demographic reasons. It would take a lot of political pressure to get something like that through.

Re:Synergy with radio

[ssstraub]

Yet another reason not to ever turn on the radio and listen to CD's only... You radio won't broadcast a signal, telling CC that you are listening to their station. Awful.

Re:First....

[Micro$will]

Just wait 'till they start displaying ads based on the radio station/CD/MP3/WMV/AAC you happen to be listening to at the time.

I wonder what they would spam me with while listening to Suicide Commando or Wumpscut.

BSOD

[fiddlesticks]

There'll be a regular showing of 'BSOD', followed by a film at 11

Real posters/ (billboards) don't crash

Re:BSOD

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, i think real poster.... (buffering... buffering... buggering... buffering...)

Why do you think they call them BillBoards, anyway

[rjamestaylor]

Digital BillBoards. Running Windows. Why else would they be called BillBoards, anyway?

But they're not new. There was a big one heading in to Seattle back in '98. And in Vegas I saw the digital marquee at the convention center with the Win2k Login screen saver bouncing around it. Really sad.

Re:Fuck Clear Channel

[Anonymous Coward]

George Carlin pointed out there are two knobs on a radio|tv: one to change the station, the other to turn it off. Here in Indy, some little prick tried to run for Mayor under a "decency" campaign attacking Bob & Tom, claiming he'd get them fined, ticketed, jailed, whatever it would take to get them off of the air.

One of the things these morons try & claim is their kids might hear it on a bus over the radio->speakers. Okay, then get on the school corporation's staff and determine what the busses can or cannot play on the radio. Why should I have a squid-licker determine what is or is not available to me to listen to or watch?

This is as bad as a parent screaming bloody murder because some book is in a school's library and they want it removed rather than just creating a blocklist and saying, "my child cannot check out ".

So now we have the FCC proclaiming they're going after cable channels such as HBO, SHO, skinMAX, etc. Why don't parents simply put a password-block on those channels?

Are we programmable sheep?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have never in my conscious life grasped how commercials are supposed to affect me.

What are all these brands of pads doing in my flat? I don't even have a girlfriend.
I rest my non-existant case.

Ooh!

[Anonymous Coward]

Do ya think goatse.cx causes accidents?

Hack it? Not likely..

[siberian]

I've been waiting over two years for someone to hack the digital bb here in the Bay Area on the 101..

I think its all hardwired, need to social engineer your way into that one.

Re:Hack it? Not likely..

[fenix down]

Probably more "show up at 3AM with a ladder" engineering.

Tampering eh?

[edunbar93]

I can't wait to see a big billboard with the message "0\/\/N3d by c0D3c!" on a background of the playboy centerfold of Pam Anderson, during rush hour.

Makes one wonder how tight the security will be after that! :)

Re:Tampering eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

someone needs to put up goatse for all the commuters

Re:Fuck Clear Channel

[Anonymous Coward]

no fuck howard...he is a moron

Driver has seizure.......

[www.fuckingdie.com]

due to stupid blinking ad on stupid electronic sign.

I think that there, perhaps, should be a strict limit on how many different types of distractions a driver can be legally exposed to before it is no longer their fault when they crash. This could be a sort of self solving problem, whereby advertisers will not advertise in high accident locations due to legislation saying that they are in fact responsible for the accidents in said locations.

I also happen to agree very strongly with the school of thought that DVD players in Vehicles should not have screens in a location visible to the driver, PERIOD. There should not even be a discussion on this, it is just stupid. Would you put a strobe light on your steering wheel and drive at night with it on? Probably not, but I guarantee that there is someone out there stupid enough to try it.

At any rate, there has to be a limit imposed on some of this at some point in the near future. It is a proven fact that aboslutely no profit driven business will regulate themselves at the cost of the bottom line, whether it means indirectly causing death in the mean time or not.

Re:Driver has seizure.......

[Bill_Royle]

That's right - solve the problem with legislation. Hey, it fixed the spam problem, didn't it? Music piracy - fixed through the DMCA.

No - the only thing that'll sideline something like this will be vandalism.

Also, the last time I went down 880 near Hayward, I recall seeing one of these things. Wasn't distracting to me at all - perhaps because I was paying attention to what I was supposed to be doing: driving.

Point is - people should be paying attention to the road. Those that are distracted enough by signs to get into accidents... natural selection, perhaps?

Re:Driver has seizure.......

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey,

Have you ever put a strobe light on your steering wheel and driven at night with it on .... ON WEEEEEEEEEEEEEED???!

Re:Driver has seizure.......

[Mike Buddha]

That's right - solve the problem with legislation.

Actually, isn't it illegal to watch TV or videos when you're driving your car already, in most states?

Why is this any different? Slashdot lawyers: Start your rants!

Re:Driver has seizure.......

[gswallow]

There ought to be a law prohibiting installation of DVD players in vehicles, PERIOD. Jesus, since when does anyone have time to pull over and watch a movie?

If your kids won't behave then try corporal punishment, not addiction.

THERE OUGHT TO BE LIMITS ON FREEDOM

[Anonymous Coward]

Dipshit. I know exactly how I want to lead this cuntry and where I want to go. Vote for me, George W Bush next election. Thank-you. I approve of this message.

Re:THERE OUGHT TO BE LIMITS ON FREEDOM

[Anonymous Coward]

You're right...I should be free to skull-fuck your mother.

Re:This is Funny -- +5 Interesting

[rjamestaylor]

Damn moderators can't get anything right!

:)

Hackers dream...

[TyrranzzX]

Just think of the possibilities...now we can play tetris across the entire globe for all to see!

Re:Hackers dream...

[TyrranzzX]

Not to mention what someone with a silenced pistol can do to a bunch of signs...or a pair of wire cutters.

Re:Hackers dream...

[Anonymous Coward]

Just think of the possibilities...now we can play tetris across the entire globe for all to see!

That is your hacker's dream? Christ, you might as well have said Atari's 'Tank' instead of Tetris. Me, I dream of a game of Pong on such devices. Everyone who has mastered intergalactic space travel, please raise your hand.

lots of time?

[dj245]

I wonder how long before someone with lots of time on their hands hacks into the system and starts tampering with the messages.

I hate clear channel. They have killed radio as a venue for listening for music. Maybe radio was going downhill before Clearchannel and before Clearchannel all the radio stations really did sound exactly the same; all top40 clones of each other, but Clearchannel lets me put a name on my hatred of radio as it stands today. Long live Clearchannel.

I wonder how long it takes for someone with lots of spray paint in their backpack to climb the billboard and spray all over the expensive sign?

Re:lots of time?

[surprise_audit]

Why climb, when paintball guns are available at WalMart and other handy stores?? Gives a whole new meaning to calling "Shotgun!!" Just lay a few paintballs on the display as you drive by...

Re:lots of time?

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't really get how it is. ClearChannel plays what the most people listen to. We vote with our ears. If the craptastic music wasn't the most popular, it wouldn't get played. Period. Just cause you think some shitty garage band is wonderful (and I have my own favorite shitty garage band, www.skunkweed.com) doesn't mean EVERONE does. Get over it.

ClearChannel is to radio what democracy should be to government. Just because you don't like what the rest of the country listens to, don't blame ClearChannel. They play what gets advertising, simple as that.

Re:lots of time?

[dj245]

You don't really get how it is. ClearChannel plays what the most people listen to.

No. Record industry pays Clearchannel lots of money to pay certain albums. Net result: radio is crap for everyone, except radio execs.

Re:lots of time?

[TaliesinWI]

Maybe radio was going downhill before Clearchannel

It was.

and before Clearchannel all the radio stations really did sound exactly the same

They did.

But you're not wrong... Clear Channel really did seem to kill that last 10% of mainstream radio differentiation. Before you had three or four stations that sounded the same but one had a great morning personality or something... now that's no longer the case.

Re:First....

[Senjutsu]

Just wait 'till they start displaying ads based on the radio station/CD/MP3/WMV/AAC you happen to be listening to at the time.

Already happening.

There was even a story here on /. about it.

Re:Fuck Clear Channel

[Anonymous Coward]

FUN WITHOUT THE FILTH!

I wonder what will happen next?

[illumina us]

Holographic overlay on the road in front of you perhaps? I think this technology is really cool. It can be extremely profitable for ad organizations because now they can reach multiple target audiences in a single day rather than just one. However, this, as well as most other technology, will probably be fairly insecure and we will most likely end up seeing blatantly rediculous messages while driving down the street or walking in a big city.

Not all bad

[Lord_Dweomer]

I know its Clearchannel that is behind this, and that they are evil. However, digital billboards can save a lot of costs after as taking down and putting up new billboards. And it certainly gives room for more options, such as video, which may or may not be a bad thing depending on how distracted you and everybody else gets.

Re:Not all bad

[Game Genie]

Are you nuts? That is just more ads they can afford. That is by no means a good thing!

Re:Not all bad

[kent_eh]

However, digital billboards can save a lot of costs after as taking down and putting up new billboards.

Oh, sure, now even the guys who change billboard messages can be outsourced to India.

Re:Not all bad

[Lord_Dweomer]

Well look, if we just made jobs stupidly complex just to keep jobs in the states, we would never advance as a nation. So I'm sorry if it may cause jobs to be outsourced, but I'd rather make the technological leap to digital with this than keep old ones just to save a few jobs.

If they Hack it.....

[Q-Mont]

They would do this

My new..

[msimm]

wide screen TV! And to think in the eighties I thought it was cool to steal strobing roadside lights!

Cheap digital picture frames! Whoot!

;-)

News...

[NEOtaku17]

I take it no one here has ever been to Japan?(Specifically Tokyo witch is cluttered with the things)

Re:News...

[Cackmobile]

They have them in London as well. All the big ones at piccadilly circus are these now.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

cabs in Boston

[SuperBanana]

We even have digital billboards in Salt Lake already

Boston's cabs have started sprouting Super(with a capital S) bright orange LED panels on top. They are displaying sports scores, or maybe very short news bits. Because of the brightness, they are virtually impossible to ignore, and exceptionally annoying. I'm almost positive I saw a Clear Channel logo at the bottom of the sign unit.

Screw Microsoft- there's plenty of competition these days. It's Clear Channel and the other super-huge media conglomerates that really frighten me.

At least the signs aren't animated. I give them about 6 months to figure that out. Personally, I hope someone takes Clear Channel to court over the existing signs violating some motor vehicle law.

Re:cabs in Boston

[emtechs]

The best part of this is that even these Boston cabs still have no light indicating their availability.

Nothing like standing in a snowstorm trying to count the profiles in the back seat and decide whether to run across the street or not. :)

If I could just get realtime GPS info on mass transit sent to my PDA...

Re:cabs in Boston

[AndroidCat]

There's probably laws against any kind of animated display on a moving vehicle. (i.e. non-constant.) When the Ontario gov sent out the RFP for the 401 highway signs on Toronto, the controller firmware couldn't have any capability for flashing, animation or moving letters. ("Well, don't use it." "Not good enough.")

Of course, with enough green pass-slips, I'm sure that some selective law enforcement could be arranged.

Re:cabs in Boston

[cavebear42]

Screw Microsoft-...It's ... the other super-huge media conglomerates that really frighten me.

So, when you say media conglomerates, your not talking about msnbc?

Re:cabs in Boston

[flez]

Actually, animiated cab signs are in Boston.
I've seen a few with what look like 3 LCD panels on top with flash-type animation running on them.

However the majority are not working (just blank screens).

Re:cabs in Boston

[Anonymous Coward]

A rock would go through one of those panels fairly nicely I would bet.

Re:cabs in Boston

[Anonymous Coward]

A rock, yes. Public billboards are offensive enough. Now this poison.

I don't encourage such

[KalvinB]

an unlawful act.

But if you're going to do it anyway, take a video camera.

Ben

Re:I don't encourage such

[Monkelectric]

an unlawful act. But if you're going to do it anyway, take a video camera.

Allow me to recommend one of my favorite guilty pleasures along the same lines, requires quicktime :-( ? Phone Bashing

Car Crashes

[Moocowsia]

Imagine how many car crashes this is going to be responsible for. It will be like trying to watch TV and drive at the same time. Yay.

Keep Stern off the air

[Anonymous Coward]

TAKING STERN OFF THE AIR

Good riddance. I don't see why some people are so upset about a foul mouthed jerk who finally went too far and paid the price for it.

If you want to listen to filth, do so by all means at home. The airwaves are public and hence the material should be suitable to all people including kids. I wouldn't want my (or anybody else's) daughter tuning on Clear Channel only to get an earful of foul sexually explicit talk.

Re:Keep Stern off the air

[Triumph The Insult C]

then hone your parenting skills and teach your child about choice and how to change the channel

Re:Keep Stern off the air

[FxChiP]

Then tell her not to turn any Clear Channel station on.

Seriously, what they banned Howard Stern for is said pretty much every day in rap songs and the like. I know the DJs over here aren't that much better -- on ANY Clear Channel station!!!

See also: that damn "Tipsy" song, the Ignition Remix (though that's older, but not much better), nearly any (other?) 50 Cent song that Clear Channel still currently plays. Sure, it's not sexually explicit, but it's all the same.

FUN

[rock_climbing_guy]

Here's how to have fun hacking this:

1. Hack into digital billboard management computer
2. Fire up Mozilla
3. http://www.tubgirl.com
4. Get out a set of binoculars to watch motorists as they pass the hacked billboard!

Fuck FCC, not Clear Channel if you want to

[InfiniteWisdom]

The FCC imposed a half-million dollar fine, and more seriously threatened to cancel their license due to the repeated flagrant violations. That is a risk simply not worth taking for them.

Re:Fuck FCC, not Clear Channel if you want to

[killjoe]

The interesting thing to watch from now on is which candidate clearchannel supports for president.

Would you support a candidate who fined you a half a million dollars? Most normal businesses would not give money to a candidate or party which fined them incredible amounts of money for basically nothing. After all Howard Stern has been doing his thing for over 20 years now.

To me if they continue to support this administration they actually wanted to be fined. I don't know why but they must have had their reasons.

Re:Fuck FCC, not Clear Channel if you want to

[zurab]

Err... Just because Janet Jackson showed her boob on TV, FCC decided to crack down harder on radio companies, so ClearChannel could drop Howard Stern permanently; but Howard Stern can still do his show on TV. Look, I'm no Howard Stern fan, but it looks like there's more to this than that. Maybe it's that a lot of people listen to Howard Stern on radio, and neither FCC, nor current government in general likes or agrees with his opinions or even his topics, so they decided to make it hard for him.

Meanwhile, next time I see a real liposuction performed on someone's fat triple-chin, or oversized upper legs on TLC, or a tampon commercial on just about any channel on TV while I am having dinner, I am going to puke. I wonder what would "Parent's Council" (or whatever their name) would have to say about that. Maybe government should suppress all kinds of speech without consideration as long as it's viewed as indecent by any part of voting public. That way, we could all simply watch dissolving still green nature images with "inspiring" string music in the background on every TV channel, and be happy. Wouldn't that be nice?

Yeah, OT, burn it baby!

Re:Fuck FCC, not Clear Channel if you want to

[Anonymous Coward]

Clear Channel supports Bush. Check the campaign contributions. Something close to a mill for Republicans, something like 12k for the Dems. Lowry Mays, head of CC is part of a group with the Republican party and a few religious folks. It's out of control and a shame. Check HowardStern.com and KOAM.com for tons o'links on the stuff.

Re:Fuck FCC, not Clear Channel if you want to

[Frogbert]

Only in a country like America would its people, who "pride" themselves on their free speech, allow a radio station to be fined for saying the word Fuck.

Christian fundamentalism is as worse as any other.

Re:Fuck FCC, not Clear Channel if you want to

[tekunokurato]

Look, just so you know, it's not all of us.

Re:Fuck FCC, not Clear Channel if you want to

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem is sterns feelings towards GWB.. He used to like bush, and was fine, now hes started to criticise him and now they're fining him over stuff from over a year ago.. they just dont like him.. some other poster said blame the FCC not clearchannel.. clearchannel is just using the FCC fines as a good excuse, they couldnt just go "we donate to the bush administration, and you dont like bush, you're fired" there would be an uproar.. but now with the fcc fines clearchannel can use that as an excuse to pull stern.. clearchannel is in cahoots with the fcc/bush administration.

Re:Fuck FCC, not Clear Channel if you want to

[Anonymous Coward]

thats unusual most large coporations give a metric ton of money to both sides.

regardless of politics. they are protecting themselves for whoever wins

Re:Fuck FCC, not Clear Channel if you want to

[gcaseye6677]

Clear Channel is getting exactly what they want. Unlike most monopolies, they are actually forward thinking. They are thinking about what they want to monopolize next, which will be XM radio. They already have a stake in it, and I'm sure a full buyout of XM will be coming soon. The idea is to make the FCC regulate FM and AM radio to the extent that anything that's ever so slightly controversial will not be allowed over the airwaves. The only way anyone can broadcast a show such as Howard Stern, Mancow, Bob & Tom, Loveline, etc. will be over XM radio. Hence, there will be more XM subscribers paying $10 a month for what used to be free. Once this happens, you can bet that the price of an XM subscription will skyrocket.

Re:Fuck FCC, not Clear Channel if you want to

[SubtleNuance]

Fuck FCC

Huh? The FCC, which was formerly charged with maintaining the rights and interest of the citizens, but is now occupied by a corporate whore who intends on allowing MegaMergers/Consolidation ala Clear Channel to grow and accelerate.

These mega-mergers stiffle debate, frame and restrict public discourse and facilitate the Corporatization of Ideas...

I'd say Fuck Clear Channel, and anyone at the FCC who thinks that CC shouldnt be broken up. The FCC should return to its purpose -- not just another body of pro-corporate policy.

Re:Fuck FCC, not Clear Channel if you want to

[Anonymous Coward]

But it's those fizzy candy things and soda...they'll go fizzyfizzyfizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and ruin all their suits with the overfizz.

Clinton said that

[Anonymous Coward]

It was Clinton who said "There ought to be limits on freedom".

How do you like that you liberal whinger?

Re:Clinton said that

[Anonymous Coward]

Never happened moron. It was Bush.

Re:Clinton said that

[DigiShaman]

I seriously doubt any polition would have said that. I mean, if Clinton or Bush said that, it would be political suicide for them. I sure as hell wouldn't have voted for anyone that makes a statement about "too much freedom is bad...yada yada yada"

College Radio

[Anonymous Coward]

It's easy. Listen to a channel that isn't owned by them. If their listenership goes down, they'll notice quickly. I personally love listening to local college radio stations, particularly WRUR

Re:College Radio

[Anonymous Coward]

WRAS 88.5 in Atlanta!

Re:College Radio

[FxChiP]

WRCT 88.3 here in Pittsburgh, PA (CMU's radio station!)

91.3 is also a college station. :)

Re:First....

[Anonymous Coward]

Probably advertisements for gay singles bars.

Re:Fuck Clear Channel

[Anonymous Coward]

This is as bad as a parent screaming bloody murder because some book is in a school's library and they want it removed rather than just creating a blocklist and saying, "my child cannot check out ".

Oh come on. How can I stop my daughter from tuning on a Howard Stern show, for instance? I can't. We already have a rating system for TV-shows and you can't show porn except on pay channels for good reason. I don't see why we shouldn't have similar control over the access to adult content on the web or on the radio.

Can't move

[uspsguy]

It will be interesting to see how they handle the whole idea. A lot of jurisdictions around here simply do not allow flashing or moving signs. I sure wouldn't want some movie distracting me at 80 on the freeway.

Re:Fuck Clear Channel

[Anonymous Coward]

Ya, fuck clearchannel, because clear channel forces me to turn on my radio and makes me listen to music everyday.

Because if I don't then clearchannel people will come and kick my ass, because they suck so much.

Also, fuck clearchannel, for playing conservitive commentary shows on the AM bands, because since Rush Limbaugh has roughly 20 million listeners a day compared to the paltry 1 million or so viewers a day.

Anything that makes CNN look stupid is evil. Anything body who makes programming lots of people want to listen to is evil.

Only people who pretend to have no point of view are worth listening too.

Also they should play liberal talk show people, too.

Oh, and kicking Howard Stern off of the six channels they owned was the ULTIMATE EVIL. (that's it folks. Over the entire country Howard Stern was on only SIX clearchannel radio stations)

Also promoting bands is evil, and making money off of ticket sales and advertising money is evil too.

I hate people who make money, making money is bad.

that's why only people who fail miserably in life and are poor should control radio stations. Like liberal talk show hosts.

Why they should use windows for their *bill*boards

[Anonymous Coward]

they should use windows... it would be a great advertisement for linux!!

An example

Beer bottles in cars?

[Anonymous Coward]

You have opened beer bottles in your car?

Where I live, that would get me a ticket. Yes. Even if the bottles are empty. Obviously if the bottles are empty and you reek of beer, you'd be in much more deeper shit.

Re:Beer bottles in cars?

[ajs318]

So how do you take your empties to the recycling centre?

Re:Beer bottles in cars?

[Anonymous Coward]

Here in the civilized corner of humanity, they come around and pick them up.

Re:Beer bottles in cars?

[Anonymous Coward]

Around here, the people who come and pick up your empties for the deposit are called bums.

Re:Beer bottles in cars?

[cayenne8]

"You have opened beer bottles in your car? "

Well, here in New Orleans, they only just recently passed any kind of 'open container' law. It first had a big loophole in that only the driver couldn't have one, which meant if you get pulled over, hand your drink to your passenger before the cop gets to the window. I think they've closed that one now somehow. But, still not that big a deal down here. I mean, this is the city where all bars give you a 'to go' cup to take your drink with you...and land of the drive through daquiri shops....

Re:First....

[Anonymous Coward]

Come on. That's giving us queers a bad name.

Re:Why do you think they call them BillBoards, any

[forevermore]

There was a big one heading in to Seattle back in '98

Was? It's about 50 feet north of the Pierce/King county line, visible from I-5 (large full-color northbound, smaller partial-color southbound), featuring full-otion video, and (northbound) bright enough at night to make me squint. When it went in, accident rate along that portion of the freeway jumped up something like 10%, and people fought to have it removed. Unfortunately, it's still there, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who dreams of taking a wide-spread shotgun to it every time I see it.

Too Bright - Traffic Hazard

[billstewart]

The billboard on 101 in Redwood City CA is dangerously bright - too distracting at night. It has been real tempting to get some of my gun-owning friends together and take care of the problem, and it's really more of a job for an AK47 than a 22. (Actually, thermite on the supports, or big wire-cutters on the power feeds are more appropriate.) Even spray-paint would do just fine.

I don't mind that it's Clear Channel, though that's certainly worth a couple of extra Brownie(tm) points, but it's just way too bright.

It did have a dud pixel for a while, but they seem to have fixed it.

Re:Too Bright - Traffic Hazard

[Anonymous Coward]

Even spray-paint would do just fine.

So... a paint-ball gun!

reeduckulous titles

[tormentae agent]

In unveiling its new strategy, Clear Channel named long-time digital media strategist Michael Hudes as executive vice president of corporate development.

in other news, I name myself Lord of the Realm, Defender of the Faith, Emperor of India.

Re:Fuck Clear Channel

[Trent05]

First off I love Howard Stern, but I think the media is blowing it WAY out of proportion.

First, Stern is NOT a Clear Channel employee. If you read the headlines, you'd think they're firing him/taking him off the air. Clear Channel is taking him off the stations they own. That is 6 stations out of 41. Next, people should be mad a the FCC and writing to their congressman about passing such asinine laws. I know everyone loves to hate Clear Channel, but if a syndicated personallity was costing you a boatload of $$, you'd be switching shows as well.

Lastly I don't see how people relate this to censorship. A radio conglomerate dropping your syndicated show for finacial risks isn't exactly "The Man" trying to shut you down and squash your message.

Again, I TOTALLY disagree with all that's going on, I just feel the news outlets are mis-representing what's going on.

^^ This isn't me, BTW.

[Anonymous Coward]

Really.

Waste of money.

[raehl]

You'll be too drunk to see that far anyway.

Re:Why do you think they call them BillBoards, any

[ChrisMG999]

IIRC that one still stands because it is on Native American Reservation land. That or it's grandfathered in, since electronic billboards are illegal in the state of Washington.

Free Pr0n!

[Anonymous Coward]

So when do they start showing the free pr0n?

1. Set up digital billboards.
2. Pr0n and then suddenly goatse.cx appears... blame all of it on a Windows crash.
3. Sue Microsoft!
4. ??????????????????????
5. PROFIT!!!!!!!

SCO has to be in there somewhere...

Oh, I dunno...

[raehl]

Maybe by properly supervising your children?

Seriously, how often are your kids far enough away that you can't hear what's going on?

Re:Oh, I dunno...

[Diamon]

All the time if they have head phones, any time they're at a friends house, when they're at school, need I go on? If you can't do do indecent acts in public, why should you be able to broadcast indecency to the public?

Re:Oh, I dunno...

[cayenne8]

"Seriously, how often are your kids far enough away that you can't hear what's going on?"

Geez, this brings back memories of my young pre-teen/teen years. Sneaking in George Carlin and Richard Pryor records with my friends in my room, turning the volume down low and closing the door to listen to them. Hahaha...man, that was some funny stuff.

If we could get away with it then, surely kids can today. If parents work...kids are unsupervised...we all were. On the other hand, listening to that stuff didn't 'curve our spine, melt our minds or lose the war for the allies'...

And its fun to be able with your buds at a party, and rattle off the 7 words you can never say on tv....

Re:Oh, I dunno...

[mgoff]

All the time if they have head phones, any time they're at a friends house, when they're at school, need I go on? If you can't do do indecent acts in public, why should you be able to broadcast indecency to the public?

You shouldn't. Unfortunately for your argument, Stern's was fined for material that, had he stood on a box in Times Square and shouted it, would have been legal-- it was only illegal on the airwaves. In short, it's pretty much up to the FCC's judgement to decide who gets fined, based on "decency" standards that have no concrete definition.

Censorship is a slippery slope. What do you think "indecent" means? Why is my definition less credible than yours? How about someone else who has a more stringent definition? Do we settle for the lowest common denominator?

Re:Why do you think they call them BillBoards, any

[rjamestaylor]

• There was a big one heading in to Seattle back in '98

  Was? It's about 50 feet north of the Pierce/King county line, visible from I-5

Sorry, I was only up that direction for a short time -- in 1998 I moved to Bellingham to run a radio station with some friends for about 8 months. I'm back in Sunny Southern California, thank-you-very-much. :) -- so I used the "was" to hedge my information in case a gust of sanity hit the area and knocked the thing down.

In other news...

[Anonymous Coward]

Evil media conglomerate does somthing annoying/stupid. Slashdot links to article.

In France...

[dargaud]

I recently came back to France and noticed that the country side drives seemed a lot... cleaner. It took me a while to figure out that there were no more billboard signs. Upon inquiry I learnt that they are now illegal outside of city boundaries. Very nice.

Re:In France...

[Denito]

Billboards are also illegal in Vermont. It is so much nicer...

Re:In France...

[dbirchall]

Also in Hawaii. After a while you just get used to being able to see waterfalls and the ocean and mountains and stuff, and kinda forget that other places have billboards blocking "the view."

Re:In France...

[GregWebb]

Unless it was changed since I was last over there, they're present by the ton in towns, though. And, back then, stupid numbers of flyposters trying to get you to go to Minitel porn sites (hmm, don't want to imagine how that worked) - presumably now net sites instead?

Swings and roundabouts IMHO. A prettier countryside in compensation for towns (where I actually spend my time...) where I want blinkers.

Oh, OT, can someone go round and paint all the old villages? There's tons that look like they haven't had a single building repainted since D Day!

Re:In France...

[sploxx]

Here in germany it's the same, there are no billboards out of cities, but I don't know if it is required by law.

I always ask myself if so much advertising, if unrestricted advertising is really productive. If it does something good to the economy as a whole. If it would not be better to restrict advertisements to a certain level(?)

It seems to me that today's advertisements do not inform about new products but instead are just there because if a company does not advertise, all other companies will advertise and therefore cut away the market share. I am no economist but that looks counter-productive to me. The money could be used to offer better products instead.

Re:In France...

[Anonymous Coward]

I always ask myself if so much advertising, if unrestricted advertising is really productive. If it does something good to the economy as a whole. If it would not be better to restrict advertisements to a certain level(?)

Why? All that's occuring is that money is moving from pocket A to pocket B. In fact, the more that money moves around between individuals, the healthier that the economy will be. When it stops moving around because of fears you end up with a recession.

Re:In France...

[The Desert Palooka]

And Maine for that matter... (there is ONE actually, but it's "historical" I guess... I think it's just reminding all how much they suck)

Hacking? Hell no...

[Anonymous Coward]

...why bother hacking the thing when a can of spray paint will do? Or how about a brick? Just smash the thing to pieces. Enough of ads, enough of commodifying the entirity of life.

I DONT'T-A USE-A LINUX, YOU-A INSENSITIVE CLOD!

[Anonymous Coward]

Only Windows XP and NetBSD!!!!!

once they are hacked....

[missing_hed]

we all know what they say.

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US

every... friggin... billboard... in the country... finally, my lifelong goal will be complete.

Fahrenheit 451

[berkut7]

This story kind of remind of Ray Bradbury's book: Fahrenheit 451. In the book the billboards were englarged and streched out because of increasing spead limits...

digital billboard light pollution

[chongo]

My concern with the digital billboards that I have seen is they add to the light pollution of the nighttime sky. In the silicon valley we have two on 101 (Redwood City and Santa Clara) that spew photons across the spectrum at a glaring rate.

If ClearChannel is going to insist pushing these digital billboards with "time of day" related messages, then I hope they will turn down the brightness of their billboards at night as well.

Re:digital billboard light pollution

[Piquan]

I know the one in RWC (my ex-roommate used to work next door), but where's the one in Santa Clara?

Re:digital billboard light pollution

[Anonymous Coward]

The one in Santa Clara is right by San Tomas Expressway near Intel HQ and the Network Associates building.

Digital Billboards

[MrNonchalant]

We have at least 2 of them in Pittsburgh, though I don't think the company is Clear Channel. They display a color slideshow of pretty regular billboard images with a slightly grainy look. Every X seconds (where X is ~3) the image changes. It's interesting because there's not much variety in who advertises, 90% of the ads are for either Toyota ("Get The Feeling") or a bank ("Throwing Darts Is Not An Investment Strategy"), I'm wondering if other advertisers are afraid of this medium. Haven't noticed any customization as far as time of day, but that doesn't mean it isn't there. What would be interesting to see would be a multi-slide presentation for one company, customized to the medium. As far as connection goes it looks to be a phone type (dialup, possibly DSL, possibly something proprietary), based on the wires emanating from it.

Oh, Yippee!

[87C751]

There's at least one of these in Cincinnati, and I think it's downright dangerous. Not content with a little motion and several ads, they programmed it to do these bizarre tear-away transitions between the ads. I've already seen a bunch of near-accidents when the ads changed.

God forbid...

[AnotherScratchMonkey]

...that children find out what their parents did to bring them into existence!

"No, honey, that's how you get jewelry!"

Re:In Australia..

[Anonymous Coward]

Billboards are scarce, and out of reach of most car launched projectiles, but not Sydney hailstorms and lightning. Love Nature.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

I read that as "ford sucks BMW".

At least Ford know which end is best to send the power to. Hint: if you push something it has a choice of 180 degrees' worth of directions to go in, whereas if you pull something it can only ever come towards you.

Re:interesting

[Anonymous Coward]

sorry... flamebait?

the parent is quite insightful, if you ask me, as well as if you ask any educated person.

Re:First....

[Deflagro]

That has to be the first time i've seen anyone post anything about Wumpscut. They gotta be one of my fave bands. Or "He has to be fave band", whatever.
Bravo... glad to see i'm not alone in my enjoyment of german industrial. Das Ich isn't bad either.
Verflucht Bis Ihr Verhungert!

If it's just a display...

[Tuxedo Jack]

One would think that it has some manner of RGB/DVI input cable going to it - maybe even S-Video or RCA.

One could (if they didn't mind losing a little cash on it, but still worth the job) run a cheap eMachines or Wal-Mart PC up (or a P1 that you can't run as a NetBSD firewall), then run that with a slideshow program to produce whatever images and advertising you wanted.

Of course, that would promptly make the guards on these things probably electrify the poles, so if you do this (go for it, in my opinion; the media is becoming far too pervasive), be damn careful.

.....or how long...

[Snaller]

...before such a sign is the cause of accidents because they distract the drivers.

Digital Billboards are Evil

[Anonymous Coward]

We have one near our home,

At night it is so bright, the glare can blind drivers,
I wont be suprised if they report a strange spike in increased accidents near the thing...

It is so bright, when driving, I intentionally look away from it, so it won't blind me with the glare.

Leave it to clear channel to promote a form of advertisement
that forces viewers NOT to see the Advertisement!

Imagine? Hah, already made the news

[Vexar]

Yesterday there was a sizable traffic jam in my city due to the release of the Clear Channel alternating billboard. Evil bastards. I suppose we don't have to wait long to see it integrated with retinal scans. This reminds me of an old video game called The Syndicate.

Hacks in? Why bother

[^chuck^]

I consistently see a recurring "hack" on a Board on my way home on 146 (from da Pike to Woostah).

Some conscientious objecter loves to place badly spelled and hard to read slogans such as "STOP BUSH BABY KILLER" over recruitment ads with spray paint.

So I ask, why bother with hacking? A good ol' can of spray paint will get the job done just fine :).

Ah well, at least it lightens my mood.

three words

[gosand]

How long do you think it'll be before they OCR your license plate using cameras spread around town, track where you go, where you park, and then advertise to you based on your shopping habits?

I have three words for you...

big porn billboard

Old tech but new angle ...

[hackster]

Yes, this is not new technology. Full motion billboards have been all over North America for some time, and no doubt elsewhere, too -- in 1994 these were all over Seoul and even mobile on the sides of vans. The programming mode is not new, either -- five years ago we put a 15-second spot for a charity on new digital boards in downtown Toronto -- and these spots were programmed as to time of day, etc.

But until now the supply of operators has pretty much been limited to niche providers in local markets. Sounds like Clear Channel's "new" angle is to offer advertisers a coordinated media buy across their global market. Now that is news.

Love 'em or hate 'em -- but these displays are proliferating. We are edging ever closer to the urban marketing environment envisioned in Blade Runner.

I patiently await...

[AcquaCow]

...the day I get to drive past one of these things as it bluescreens =)

News?

[tmillard]

How about having one of these things in your back yard, showing slashdot on it?

NYC

[Triv]

We've already got these damn things atop the stairs leading to certain subway stations (like, the 23rd street station on the NR line) been their for a few years, I think. They're exceedingly annoying. Not really targeted though - they mostly (at least, at this point) show ads for clearchannel itself.

Triv

Down with government authorised graffiti

[t_allardyce]

Afew years back i had a dream that one day i would be very rich and just for fun, buy up all advertising space in the country for the day and just make it blank, now i dont have to - you could probably do it all from one convenient location with a laptop :P

NYC already here.

[Anonymous Coward]

They are already making their way around NYC, especially teh Wall St. area where I have some clients. IMO they make a very nice place to put South Park stickers. Big ones.

why do conservatives fight to destroy america?

[Anonymous Coward]

They hate our freedoms!

Fuck Clear Channel!

hack it and plug in my laptop

[bl8n8r]

can you imagine how cool ut2004 would be on a 20 foot friggin screen!!

All pervasive advertising

[greystormcloud]

Hacking digital billboards sounds like a job for the readers of adbusters.

It's estimated the average child sees more than 20,000 commercials every year - that works out to at least 55 commercials per day. (American Academy of Pediatrics, "Television and the Family" fact sheet. www.aap.org/family/tv1.htm

In 2001 US advertising expenditures topped $230 billion, more than doubling the $105.97 billion spent in 1980.

When Nike pays schools so that kids do projects designing nike shoes - advertising has gone too far...

Fastrak tracking

[Gwenna]

They already have the capability to do something similar here in the SF Bay Area with Fastrak transponders. These are small, optional, devices that some commuters carry to go through the bridge toll booths quickly. Last year Caltrans started using them for traffic flow information (511 info) along major highways. At the time they said that personal information would not be tracked, but everyone was sent a plastic anti-static bag to use if they felt uncomfortable being tracked in any way (these of course are a pain, because you have to take the transponder out of the bag at the toll, and who knows if they really prevent any tracking.)

It would be trivial for Caltrans to collect personal information about each driver on the road with one of these transponders. Heck, I'm surprised they haven't sold the information to Clear Channel to close our budget gap. Many people use a credit card to pay for the tolls every month, so if you could get the credit card companies involved getting the buying habits data would be easier.

(side note: these same transponders are used all over California, but I only know about how they're used in the Bay Area.)

Useless in NYC

[funkyjunkman]

In New York City, Clear Channel has been experimenting with electronic signs over Subway entrances. Throughout the city these boxes are constantly down or have faulty portions of the display. Like this one
I understand that Windows Embedded is cheap to buy and code for and support, but if it isn't stable what's the point?
I say, like electronic voting, this is using technology in an environment where it isn't needed and will invariably be more problematic than the technology it is replacing.

It will be networked..

[RGautier]

As far as "Will it be networked?" goes... just looking for digital billboard on Google gives you the answer:

Sprint, which operates the largest all-digital, all-CDMA 3G wireless network in the US, and World Satellite Media, a provider of wireless digital billboards, announced an agreement to provide on-demand, wireless, digital billboard display capabilities as part of its PCS Telemetry Services offering. World Satellite Media will utilize the high-speed capabilities of the enhanced Sprint Nationwide PCS Network to transmit data to its network of color electronic billboards, allowing customers to make updates to advertising messages on a local, regional or national basis The solution will appeal to companies looking to publicize, on demand, well-timed, custom graphic and text messages when and where potential customers are making their most important buying decisions including restaurants, shopping malls, and convenience stores.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

digital billboards

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone read Neal Stephenson's _Diamond Age_? Loglo is here. It doesn't follow you yet, but the concept is similar (time of day, demographics, etc...).

Howard

[Anonymous Coward]

... I'd like to see a hack of one of these Clear Channel boards with the words "Ba Ba Booie" scrolling across......

Clear channel is *not* into content

[SgtChaireBourne]

Don't make the mistake of thinking that clear channel is into relaying content. It's a marketing company pure and simple.

Clear Channel's main service is piping advertising to the populace and their customers are those who pay Clear Channel to pump ads. Though they would prefer to stay out of the public's attention, the executives are very, very up front about it. To achieve that goal, a minimum of music or other non-revenue generating transmissions must be used until people can get by on just the ads.

Personally, I look on advertising as noise at best and disinformation at worst. Given the effectiveness of marketing and lobbying, you can also raise questions about it subverting or circumventing the democratic process.

Civil Disobedience via Roadside Electronic Signs?

[EMNDev]

I've been wanting to hack into roadside traffic signs for a while now. I'm talking about the typing of signs they tow to a location and set a message on. Something which says 'Aggressive Driving Enforment Area' really should be changed to something slightly less... official.

I can see it now...

[barfarf]

(driving) Hey! Look at that billboard! It has this preview of the new movie on with this really hot blond babe... *crash*.

Except that you don't really need a billboard to do that. They'll just help cause more accidents. ;-)

what the sign really says...

[animal mother]

all your signs are belong to us

-Clear Channel

SOUNDS LIKE BUSH TO ME

[Anonymous Coward]

Listen to him say it

Base it on the radio signal

[ianscot]

Hasn't customizing it to the radio settings of the passing cars already been done? Seems like a slashdot story, IIRC.

They do in the Sony Metreon in SF

[mmuskratt]

XP, actually, I've seen crashes on several of their smaller screens. Same concept, different scale.

Not rocket science...

[KnarfO]

...dude, it's Utah. The bum on the side of the road could probably tell you what 9 out of 10 cars passing have their radios tuned to: one of the several Country stations crowding the airwaves !

:-P

Re:Not rocket science...

[AndroidCat]

So I guess trying to swamp their receiver with "votes" for the local Industrial Femminist Metal-Bach station just isn't in the card eh?

How it relates to censorship

[ianscot]

Clear Channel sponsored rallies, before the most recent of our wars, promoting the invasion of Iraq.

Howard Stern, meanwhile, had recently become an outspoken critic of the current administration. That the FCC should choose him as their first object lesson after Janet Jackson's half-revealed Halftime show stinks to high heaven. That Clear Channel conspicuously bowed to that pressure in a heartbeat just reeks. They have a right -- but they're talking about decency and not about their real reasons.

I didn't listen to Howard Stern when he was around in my local market. He was boring as heck -- nothing but a puffed-up schtick where he talked about how the local stations had been ripping off his act for years, which wasn't fun to listen to, interspersed with eighth-grade humor. But yeah, there's more than a note of censorship there. The FCC put the "financial risks" in place, conspicuously, for a critic of the President's. Clear Channel complied with nauseating servility. Eck.

[OT] joke

[amplt1337]

Bulletin boards running Windows that wind up showing the BSoD or just a dialog that says "Fatal error: swpadcnt.dll could not be found." and not running as a result, need a name:

Windows XP Unprofessional!

Welcome to Windows XP...booting on a billboard?

[Funkmastaeric]

With ordinairy billboards out there, there's a big chance a guy could get caught spewing his own thoughts...but with this!....oh with this, the ads may be able to be replaced in an instant! They wont know until it's too late...!

I should predict to see some "All your base are belong to us" signs rolling in, too.

Link to SLC's Billboard

[ChrisBrown1]

You can get more information, including technical, on the Salt Lake City KSL Sign here.

Cookie Pollution

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you believe that skyandtelescope.com won't let you view any of their site without cookies?

interstate signs

[JeremyALogan]

Where I live (Birmingham, Al) they've erected several signs over the interstates. The signs are ment to warn drivers of potential problems with the roads (traffic accidents, ice, immenent meteor strike, etc). I've been kinda curious as to how they worked since they put them up (so that I might have a little fun with them).

example

so yeah... if anyone knows about them then let me know :)

some technical information

[maadmole]

For many years I worked in an office building that hosted one of these signs, and happened to be going to lunch one day when the owner was giving a tour of the control room. I quietly joined the group and learned a bit about this system. It may or may not be relevant to other signs:

content system was crude: a PC running a browser in full-screen mode, the billboards driven straight from VGA output

In California, this particular size sign (big) was constrained by the CHP to show only still pictures 5 seconds at a time to minimize distraction. Apparently smaller signs (e.g. the ones by Great America, Serramonte, etc.) can show motion video

Also to keep CHP happy, light sensors to dim the billboard when it got dark outside.

There were video cameras pointed at each billboard to detect hardware failures (lots of stuck pixels in the early days), and also hacking.

the control room was behind a locked, alarmed door, images were downloaded remotely to the PC.

the signs are very lucrative, $12M/yr revenue was quoted for this one.

when my presence was detected, the guy giving the preso got really pissed and ordered my out.

Welcome

[Anonymous Coward]

I'd like to take this opportunity to welcome the rest of the US of A to Las Vegas. We have had these for years and it really isn't all that distracting... I mean, we only have the highest auto insurance rates in the country... The higest # of car / ped accidents in the country... And I can't remember diving down the strip without seeing at lease 1 fender-bender. Of course, that could all be due to our 24 hour drinking policies and have nothing to do with the signs. -My 2 cents.

or...

[slapout]

I wonder how long before someone with lots of time on their hands hacks into the system and starts tampering with the messages ...or how long until Amazon.com claims they have a patent on it...

Re:HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

BAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!1111!1!1!2@!21!!@1eleven1@22two !@11one

BASHING SOMEONE WHO MADE A M$ JOKE!!12121231232!@!!!!!

I can't believe the originality!!!1

Gotta karma whore at least once...

[FxChiP]

I, for one, welcome our new digital billboard overlords!

req for the first hacker to get em: Natalie Mains

[robin147]

Would love to see Natalie's image up there,
instead of the dumb vinyl sign that shreds before it lands in pieces on my patio
from the nearby muddyChannel billboard everytime the wind blows.

Limits to Freedom

[frankie]

I seriously doubt any politician would have said that.
I sure as hell wouldn't have voted for anyone that makes a statement about "too much freedom is bad...

Did you vote for Bush in 2000?

"There ought to be limits to freedom" - GWB, May 21, 1999