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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."

4 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Re:It's not a bug... by azalin · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    I would recommend calling it "Forced Service Intervals" and get a pay raise in addition. Laser Printers anybody?

  2. Re:Nice code reviews at whac-a-mole by Dahamma · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Eh, "whac-a-mole" and "code reviews" are probably stretching the realm of probability. I'm pretty sure the "programming staff" required to implement "mole pops up, detect if whacked" could be done by a single programmer in this mostly mechanical-game-oriented company, making useful code reviews a bit tough. Sounds like it really was a mom-and-pop company, and they just put way too much trust in a real douche bag of an employee...

  3. Well it's wrong but... by localman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    15 years prison time? In comparison to other crimes that's pretty insane. This guy is a bigger danger to society than the numerous fraudsters that pushed the financial crisis? Bah.

    1. Re:Well it's wrong but... by Hartree · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The key is "up to" 15 years. Unless it has a mandatory minimum sentence, the judge has a lot of leeway in what is handed down. A lot of other crimes have pretty broad sentencing guidelines as well.

      In this case, Whac-A-Mole isn't that big of a deal. If an arcade game fails, it's rare someone gets hurt. He'll get off lightly.

      If he'd done this with something more mission critical (and it somehow made it past QC) that might warrant more.

      Imagine if he'd put a logic bomb in a system controlling a radiation therapy machine for cancer. Even if it hadn't hurt anyone, the potential for harm would be much greater, and the judge would take that into account in setting the sentence.