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Programmer Arrested For Logic Bombing 'Whac-A-Mole'

Posted by Roblimo on from the up-to-15-years-in-prison-for-sabotaging-Whac-A-Mole dept.

McGruber writes "WFTV.com has the curious story of programmer Marvin Wimberly, who was arrested for having installed a logic bomb on Whac-A-Mole arcade games made by Bob's Space Racers in Holly Hill, Florida."

5 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Re:If they didn't figure it out, they wouldn't hav by Auroch · · Score: 2, Informative

    > "If they hadn't of discovered that they had the virus installed > in the equipment, they wouldn't have known why their > machines were failing," said Cpt. Steve Aldrich, Holly Hill > Police Department.

    Holly Hill's finest at work. You heard it here folks, if they hadn't of figured it out, they wouldn't have known!

    ... Actually, the article states that if he hadn't mentioned it, they wouldn't have been looking at a software "feature" at all.

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    Quartz Extreme and Core Image. Are there any other real reasons to spend all that money on generic hardware?
  2. It's not a bug... by St.Anne · · Score: 1, Informative

    Sounds like normal run of the mill american capitalism. Except I would call it a "Service Bomb".

  3. Nice code reviews at whac-a-mole by SpaghettiPattern · · Score: 3, Informative

    Nice code reviews. Way to go whac-a-mole!!!

    When you have a tiny bit of quality, these things couldn't really happen and certainly the programmer could never be blamed.

    But any which way I put it, the programmer in this case is a truly sorry character.

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    I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
  4. Re:Planned Obsolescence by Joce640k · · Score: 3, Informative

    Long lasting bulbs use more electricity. ie. It costs you more at the meter than the replacement bulbs.

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    No sig today...
  5. Re:Planned Obsolescence by TheLink · · Score: 3, Informative

    Water pipe analogy for you:

    Volts = water pressure
    Amps/current = amount of water flowing.
    Ohms = resistance to water flow.
    Watts = amount of water flowing * pressure.

    Bulb = narrow high resistance pipe attached to big pipe.

    If you put a low amount of pressure (2V) across a narrow high resistance pipe there is no way a lot of current will flow through that pipe.

    The higher the pressure the more current will flow.

    A 130V 40W incandescent bulb will have about 420 ohms resistance at operating temperature and voltage, and be carrying 0.3 amps.

    If you put 2 volts across a cold 130V 40W incandescent bulb, the bulb will be about 30 ohms (when cold[1]), and carry about 0.07 amps. The bulb certain won't blow up, nor would your wiring start burning up.

    A 130 V 40 W bulb running 120 Volts will only be 34 watts (but I believe a smaller percentage of that will be visible light compared to a 120V 40W bulb).

    [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incandescent_light_bulb#Electrical_characteristics

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