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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."

10 of 218 comments (clear)

  1. Why programmers will never rule the world.... by Auroch · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Mostly because any good software engineer could put a hard-to-find bug in the code. Thank goodness it takes a good social engineer to make money off it - and the two skills don't often overlap in real life (as much as software engineers seem to think they do).

    The other reason programmers will never rule the world - eventually the whack-a-person machines will require Marvin to come fix them.

    --
    Quartz Extreme and Core Image. Are there any other real reasons to spend all that money on generic hardware?
    1. Re:Why programmers will never rule the world.... by pieterh · · Score: 4, Interesting

      419 scams depend on finding someone greedy; one original form was to find a house who's owner had left on holiday, bribe the watchman for the keys, and then sell it to another person on the basis of "OK, we've had a few good parties here, you know I'm a great guy, but suddenly I have to leave the country and need $10,000 real quick", at which the mark realizes this is a great opportunity (the house is easily worth ten times that), and offers to buy it.

      Houses in Lagos, Nigeria (when I worked there) sometimes had "419! Not for Sale!" painted on their walls, when their owners were away.

      However, social engineering depends on decent peoples' trust; head hunted calling the receptionist and asking, "who's your best Java developer?", or emailing the tech support from a hacked account so you look like the boss, and asking, "hey, give me ssh access and a new password, ok?"

      What this guy did was more like simple robbery, getting money by force.

      --
      My blog
  2. Re:Lies by Auroch · · Score: 4, Funny

    He's going to have to tell all the other inmates he's in for murder because he'll surely get his ass kicked for telling them he rigged Whack-A-Mole.

    There are a lot of preposterous ways of winding up in the clink, and this is in the top 100.

    Can you imagine, that in some states, he'll be sitting next to a guy in prison, who was busted for smoking marijuana.

    Marvin: So, what are you in for?
    Prisoner B: Smoking a joint while trying to relax at the carnival. You?
    Marvin: Rigging whack-a-mole so it'll fail. on purpose.

    And suddenly prisoner B is in jail for manslaughter.

    --
    Quartz Extreme and Core Image. Are there any other real reasons to spend all that money on generic hardware?
  3. At Least it Wasn't Boon-Ga Boon-Ga by Scarletdown · · Score: 4, Funny

    Imagine the hilarity that would have ensued had it been Boon-Ga Boon-Ga that was rigged instead of Whack A Mole.

    --
    This space unintentionally left blank.
  4. 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?

  5. 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...

  6. Re:You gotta feel for this guy. by zill · · Score: 4, Funny

    For Slashdot points, I will now note that what this guy planted was a logic bomb, not a virus.

    I'm guessing Detective Sherlock here didn't read the title.

  7. Re:You gotta feel for this guy. by AlamedaStone · · Score: 4, Funny

    What are you talking about? The true Slashdot hardcore do not even read the TITLES, much less the summaries. The articles? Those don't actually exist. Ever tried clicking on one? Don't waste your time, there's never anything at the other end of that link.

    That's insane, no rational human being can justify stealing music from content creators. If you want to listen, buy the media - period.

    --
    "All these years believing you're the signified monkey, only to find out you're just a big hunk of nobody cares."
  8. 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.