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Progressive Era Hacker Griefed Marconi Demonstration
nbauman writes "In June 1903, Gugliemo Marconi and his partner Ambrose Flemming were about to give the first demonstration of long-range wireless communication at the Royal Institution in London, which, Marconi said, could be sent in complete confidentiality with no fear of the messages being hijacked. Suddenly, the silence was broken by a huge mysterious wireless pulse strong enough to take over the carbon-arc projector and make it sputter messages in Morse Code. First, it repeated the word 'Rats' over and over again (abusive at that time). Then it tapped out, 'There was a young fellow of Italy, who diddled the public quite prettily.' Further rude epithets followed. It was Nevil Maskelyne, a stage musician and inventor who was annoyed because Marconi's patents prevented him from using wireless. It was the first hacking, to demonstrate an insecure system."
That's not a joke, BTW. So every time you really have to defecate and some greedy business or city has installed a pay toilet, you can thank John Nevil Maskelyne--the noble inventor who pioneered the idea of charging people a penny to take a shit.
And, as an American, god bless you Committee to End Pay Toilets in America--for keeping this scourge mostly out of the land of the free crapper.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I live in SF. There are NO free toilets. The only public toilets AT ALL are the pay ones, which are very, very few.
Before they put those in, there were simply no public toilets at all...
That's probably why the homeless crap on the streets there.
I believe the first hacker was actully the guy that shaved the messangers head.
I live in San Fransisco.
I said in America.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
There is (was?) a pay-restroom right by the western end of the Charles Bridge in Prague, presumably to fleece the high volume of crossing foreign tourists. You pay the big beefy man sitting at the window, he hands you a few squares of toilet paper, and gives you a big thumbs up and a "Good luck!" What service. Ah, free enterprise.
Yeah, definitely not cool from the standpoint of visitors, but still highly amusing.
A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with.
That's probably why the homeless crap on the streets there.
Duh.
And I'm vaguely interested in those disappearing toilets the British have.
I am John Hurt.
That wasn't the guy who hacked Marconi, it was his father.
You must be thinking of police boxes.
in NYC the public toilets are called Starbucks
This is quite common in Bulgaria; if only they'd use the money to maintain said toilets!
Extra medication for all!
Even the restaurants have pay toilets?
What the world would look like if this hack would have resulted in the equivalent of "Cyber threat/war" concepts we are seeing nowadays?
Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
It flows downhill.
May the Maths Be with you!
In NYC the bums just drop drawers, squat and pinch one off. Saw it with my own eyes once and know two people who have witnessed it first hand.
And we dont have pay toilets.
ORLY?
Pecunia non olet (supposedly 70CE).
You can't handle the truth.
Wasn't FIRST POST!?!?!?!
Does that mean we should all start posting RATS! instead?
A-freakin'-MEN!
Not saying that resorting to mischief is ALWAYS the right solution. But in these days of rampant complacency, you sometimes need to resort to something spectacular to draw attention to very real problems. Otherwise, people are just too busy keeping their heads down and their asses covered to give a damn.
And before some shit-for-brains tries to draw a parallel with Anonymous or "Occupy". This was a person pointing out a flaw in a technology and doing it in such a way that it didn't break anything, do any damage (other than to someone's overblown arrogance) or violate any laws.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Try visiting China. Went through 20 different cities and rural areas.
Toilets are free, or at least everyone I saw was, but there were no toilet paper rolls, paper towels, etc. You brought your own paper napkins and toilet paper with you everywhere.
Visited a factory and the public bathroom was a nightmare. You had running water, but were expected to have your own soap and paper. The executives handed me them.
It was just normal there. We took around handiwipes with us everywhere.
The only exception were the 4-5 star hotels that catered to westerners. Only time I had a "regular" toilet that I could sit on with a toilet paper roll right next to me. Rest were the squat type.
I hear India and other places are not much different.
Well, since they got rid of phone booth's, anyway.
Why we never hear "patent allowed," but instead always we hear this:
[...] a stage musician and inventor who was annoyed because Marconi's patents prevented him from using wireless.
All hope abandon ye who enter here.
When you got to go, you got to go.
Expecting a homeless person to hold for an hour or so till they find somebody willing to let them use the toilet is expecting too much. Are they going to walk around with signs, "Will work for a place to shit?".
Reminds of the story with Gerard Depardieu peeing on the plane. He is an older guy, and when you got to go, you really have to go. Waiting 20-30 minutes is not optional. He whipped it out and just started peeing in the aisle. Better than peeing in his own pants sitting down for certain.
Bottom line is that if you don't give a human being an option on where to to put "it", "it" is just going to be put anywhere.
When travelling in Europe, I find that the most consistently clean toilets are at McDonald's restaurants... when you *really* gotta go and can't get back to your hotel, it's worth the cost of a small coke.
Yeah, those things which never disappear and never have doctors, police, or anything else inside them... how disappointing...
This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
There is no way that Marconi invented anything. He was just an early Steve Jobs, so no wonder someone rained on his parade.
There are too many references, but check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inventor_of_radio.
My favourite quote about this was Tesla when he said: "Marconi [... was] using seventeen of my patents"
The first transmissions were around 1872, with most of the work done by Mahlon Loomis with his 'wireless telegraph'.
Don't be apathetic. Procrastinate!
You'll see the same at restaurants, where you have to bring your own napkin.
Free napkins and toilet paper are mostly subsidized by the cost of the food. This is made possible because the commodity is so inexpensive, and the primary product is priced sufficiently high enough to cover the cost of the commodity.
In places like India and China (and numerous other places), natural resources (per capita) are relatively expensive, i.e. the cost of a roll of toilet paper or a stack of napkins or other such is significantly higher relative to the general cost of living.
IMHO, this is actually a good thing. It keeps people from wasting the resource, because they're paying out of their own pocket for it. The price of the freebie is not hidden behind something else, like the price of the food or the entrance price. They know exactly how much each napkin is costing them, because they bought it. Which means they're not going to use it on things that are not worthwhile.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
You mean These*? They're mainly an attempt to solve the 'drunk people pissing everywhere' issue that requires expensive cleanup, i.e. a cost-saving rather than a philanthropic gesture.
*The only reason I didn't use the clip set to the Thunderbirds March was because it didn't show the complete raise-lower sequence. It is truly unfortunate that they do not actually play this when activated.
Maskelyne (of the famed duo Maskelyne and Devant) was a stage magician, not musician.
There were several Maskelynes. I believe the one mentioned in the summary was a stage magician not a musician.
My friends tell me that Chinese toilets are like Mexican toilets, in that you can pee in them but you have to throw your poopy toilet paper into an adjacent wastebasket or you'll back the whole system up. Is that true?
I've seen American companies have problems with the F.O.B. Asians actually standing up on the(American-style) toilets and then squatting to crap, causing damage to the toilets and prompting management to leave angry notes saying not to stand on the toilets pasted on all the stalls. My brain broke trying to comprehend the absurdity of that message until somebody explained to me that they're used to shitting "like birds perched on a branch."
Channeling Spike Milligan, there.
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
I thought that police boxes usually have a Doctor (and maybe a companion) in them.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
Whoosh...
This tagline was transcoded to result in at least one smirk. If you experience failure to smirk, please consult your Gen
In France there's a company called Relais that operates pay toilets in high-traffic sites like subway stations and shopping centers. Different prices for different services; the dumper costs more than the pisser, and so forth. They also have showers. And they sparkle...matter of fact, Yank tourists are often a bit bemused to see a female attendant working her way past with a mop as they stand at the pisser. Free toilets are usually nearby, sometimes adjacent...they aren't so nice. It's the Invisible Hand, working its magic.
Gas stations on the German and Austrian Autobahn often have coin-op toilets. You put a euro coin in a slot to get in, and it gives you a receipt and unlocks the door. When you get up off the crapper, it flushes itself; then a robot arm comes down with a brush and a sprayer. The sprayer spritzes and the brush spins as the seat rotates 360 degrees on its axis. Then you can use the receipt to get your euro back if you buy anything.
rj
From TFS:
From TFA:
Having said that, he may also have been a musician, but the magician part was how he used his interest in wireless technology:
Also, I've highlighted the most-relevant part to today's world: he was frustrated by overly-broad patents.
Plus ca change...
He whipped it out and just started peeing in the aisle.
Actually he discreetly attempted to pee into a bottle while still seated. Nobody could see his wang except his seat-neighbor who was a good friend of his (... and who incidentally lent him the bottle...). However, being an "elephant" as he is, the bottle overflowed, and the rest is history.
No standing up in the middle of the aisle, and demonstratively peeing at the stewardess' feet. That was just pure journalistic fantasy.
Bottom line is that if you don't give a human being an option on where to to put "it", "it" is just going to be put anywhere.
Indeed. I happened to be at a "Quick Hamburger Restaurant" to have a small snack after a drinking spree, and suddenly I had to go. Unfortunately all loos at that place were paying (... even for customers!). But fortunately there was a trashcan suspended at exactly the correct height...
Not as high-tech as one of these Automatic rising toilets
A time-switch activates a motor at night to raise the unit to street-level for use. Then as dawn breaks, the unit is lowered back underground.
There are supposed to be safety systems that prevent anyone from being trapped and "buried alive".
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
No standing up in the middle of the aisle, and demonstratively peeing at the stewardess' feet. That was just pure journalistic fantasy.
Well that was the story going about over here in the US. I got to admit, I like that story better. Gerard defiant in the aisle, manhood in hand, screaming, "I piss for France!".
It's just funnier that way. In any case, I support him. When you have to go that bad just let the person go to the bathroom in a dignified manner. From the story I heard he did explain how badly he needed to go and that he would not be able to hold it.
When I flew into Brussels (yes, not USA), we then drove to Hasselt, and stopped for coffee and breakfast at a nice clean roadside "buffet" (European style, not American style). Can't remember the name, but it's a chain, nice clean place. Anyway, if you don't eat there, they charge you to use the bathroom, like half a Euro. They have an attendant there who checks your receipt or charges you if you don't have one. My American friend and I were dumbfounded. We live in the Carolinas, where pay toilets are almost unheard of, even in the city.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
How about the filthy pay toilets that actually existed until CEPTA went into action?
Actually, it's more of a grinding noise.
Progressive have been behind every great decade in the US.
Ah, yes. Progressives. Characterized by their movement's early and passsionate embrace of things like eugenics ("Really, it's for their own good - we're the best ones to decide who should be reproducing, don't you think?"). Fond of creating entire chunks of civilization that are simultaneously dependent on and resentful of a trickle of dole (tended to, of course, by ranks of career Dole Overseers who aspire to that position mostly while in Progressive-heavy lefty schools). Fond of enslaving one group of people so that they can claim to be taking care of another group who the say - because of their skin color - can't possibly look out for themselves, ever. Ah, Progressives - those fine young men and women who so staunchly protect freedom of speech unless they happen to disagree with what's being said, and then it must be made illegal, newspapers must be stolen and destroyed, and people speaking must be shouted down in the name of freedom of speech.
Yeah, who's the mysoginistic, racist, moronic group, I wonder? The ones who insist on dividing everyone into race and grievance groups? The ones who proclaim prosperity to be evil, but who will grant a properous person a pass if they (publicly, anyway) say that the Progressives have it all right, after all? Ah, Progressives, ardent defenders of ugly mediocrity or worse in every school, lest a labor union give in an admit that there are such things as lousy teacher on the payroll. Progressives, who would rather see a bright student's intellect burn away than lose a member of their forced-to-contribute-to-specific-political-operations-if-they-want-to-teach plantation.
Every great decade in the US has happened despite them, not because of them. They made the Great Depression longer and more ruinous, and we have a fanastic history-repeating-itself example of that sort of lunacy going on again, right now.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
John Nevil Maskelyne (of the pay toilet) was Nevil Maskelyne (the man in the article) 's father. Not sure if you knew this or not, but it might be ambiguous or confusing to others.
GCS/MU/P d- s:- a-- C++++$ UL++ P+ L++ E+ W++ N o K- w--- O M+ V- PS+++ PE Y+ PGP t+ 5- X R++ tv+ b++ DI++ D++ G+ e++ h-
I'm from NC. I had never even heard of a pay toilet before my first trip to Italy. Don't think I've run into one in the US.
or cop cars?
horror vacui
There are supposed to be safety systems that prevent anyone from being trapped and "buried alive".
If you RTFA (I know, this is slashdot) it is raised and lowered by an attendant at sunrise and sunset.
A moderator who doesn't get the reference and total non-sequitur. Gosh, you guys should have your geek cards revoked.
How very efficient -- how very German?
char*f="char*f=%c%s%c;main(){printf(f,34,f,34);}";main(){printf(f,34,f,34);}
My friends tell me that Chinese toilets are like Mexican toilets, in that you can pee in them but you have to throw your poopy toilet paper into an adjacent wastebasket or you'll back the whole system up. Is that true?
I've seen a similar thing in a French mountain hostel. The wastebasket for the TP was mounted to the door. The whole stall was so small that you kept bumping your knees into the wastebasket. And, when done, bringing your hand holding the stained TP from the back to the front without staining your clothes proved to be an interesting puzzle... And no, just passing your hand from the front to your ass was not an option, because spreading your legs enough for the hand to pass was just not possible in that minuscule stall.
So many people in the group didn't bother, and dropped the TP in the bowl anyways. We stayed only one night, and never knew whether this did indeed back the whole system up.
Everyone knows you need at least 20oz capacity to pee in a bottle. I guess he never peed in a bottle before!
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
That describes toilets in some Greek islands I've visited. The second thing the holiday company rep said was not to flush your toilet paper, because the sewer system isn't able to take them and tends to clog very easily.
The first thing the rep said was not to drink the tapwater.
...the Analogue Millennium Copyright Act.
Their they're doing there hair.
As a young child I'll never forget stepping over streams of pee on the sidewalk while walking through New York city.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
Forget it, this thread is now about toilets.
I object to power without constructive purpose. --Spock
Not as high-tech as one of these Automatic rising toilets
But the one-way mirror loo passes them all for zaniness!
When I flew into Brussels (yes, not USA), we then drove to Hasselt, and stopped for coffee and breakfast at a nice clean roadside "buffet" (European style, not American style). Can't remember the name, but it's a chain, nice clean place. Anyway, if you don't eat there, they charge you to use the bathroom, like half a Euro. They have an attendant there who checks your receipt or charges you if you don't have one. My American friend and I were dumbfounded. We live in the Carolinas, where pay toilets are almost unheard of, even in the city.
Weird, because where i come from (Seattle, yes, in the USA), those places say RESTROOMS FOR CUSTOMERS ONLY.
Granted they don't have someone standing there checking to make sure you bought something, but they normally do NOT let non paying customers use they restrooms. Why? Because having homeless and junkies using your bathrooms are bad for business.
And honestly, do you want to go use a bathroom where anyone can go and use it? Ya, those anyone's usually are the homeless and druggies.
For example, in Seattle, we have a place called Pike Place Public Market. And there is bathrooms anyone can use. And even though they get cleaned daily, they are gross as all hell, and I would NEVER do anything more then stand and pee there.
But don't get me wrong, I feel a city should provide free bathrooms, but the businesses in that city can charge or not charge all they want. It's not about making money, it's usually about keeping paying customers happy.
Be seeing you...
Good beer, good sausage and sparkly clean toilets.
I'm sold.
Once again, the inability of Americans to let go of the imperial system has lead to a disaster, if only the bottle had been marked metric then Gerard Depardieu would have known how much it held!
You have 5 Moderator Points!
Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
Considering this is a story about hacking, on the 'news for nerds' website, you certainly got a good conversation going about PAY TOILETS, of all things. Well played sir. I never realised this would register so high on the conversational agenda. I'm going to try this one at my next dinner party :-)
If medicine were ever perfected, we'd all be the same.
Hmmm. I have no mod points today, so that makes me a commenter, not a mod. -1 for you.
I obviously didn't get the reference you intended, so -1 for me.
It seems you haven't read SM's WWII collection, so while it was an incorrect reference, it wasn't a non-sequitur. Call that even. BTW, I'd be flattered if someone compared me to Spike.
You haven't read SM's WWII books? -1 for you.
They sentenced me to twenty years of boredom
Oh so appropriate for your subject.
No brain, no pain.
The only place I've seen pay toilets in the USA has been in bus stations and in fast food restaurants. The fast food restaurants have a token to give you if you buy food.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
You mean These*? They're mainly an attempt to solve the 'drunk people pissing everywhere' issue that requires expensive cleanup, i.e. a cost-saving rather than a philanthropic gesture.
*The only reason I didn't use the clip set to the Thunderbirds March was because it didn't show the complete raise-lower sequence. It is truly unfortunate that they do not actually play this when activated.
I wonder how many people piss themselves for waiting for the thing to pop up. Also it saddens me that there is no music involved.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
That's not a joke, BTW. So every time you really have to defecate and some greedy business or city has installed a pay toilet, you can thank John Nevil Maskelyne--the noble inventor who pioneered the idea of charging people a penny to take a shit.
And, as an American, god bless you Committee to End Pay Toilets in America--for keeping this scourge mostly out of the land of the free crapper.
So the guy was the first troll as well.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
It has happened, but with a different type of automation
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
Standard medical tests require an individual to provide 24-hours worth of urine ... Clinic provides the "specimen bottles", which are basically a pair of medically approved two litre water containers. Usually, one is enough, the second is there as a spare. But it's impressive to take back to the clinic, what looks like a two litre bottle of apple juice or cider.
Best not to leave them in an unlocked car - wouldn't want them to get stolen :)
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Guenstige Brautkleider online bestellen. Brautmode billig Günstige Abendkleider
You're thinking of Turkish Toilets, also called "Squat Toilets".
Pros: Squatting is better for getting the waste out of your bowels. Sitting on a toilet like a chair is actually unnatural. In the last 5 years or so physicians have been advising that people raise their feet on a stool on seated toilets to help with bowel movement.
Cons: They can clog with toilet paper, so there's that. Also, they don't have standing water as sitting toilets do, so the stench can be rather pervasive.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
The lab I work at issues 4L bottles, and it's not that uncommon to get more than one for the 24hr period
http://www.cracked.com/article_19170_6-insane-stories-magician-who-helped-win-wwii.html
And that's where we have to leave it. One way or another, Jasper Maskelyne was a fascinating man, and there is no question he helped the war effort. But the real details have been blurred by secrecy, lost documents, exaggerated war stories and the fact that time has killed off almost everyone who would know for certain.
But we admit: We want to believe it's all true. The idea that one man and his gang of rogue theater rats tricked the Nazis through Bugs Bunny-style tomfoolery? Who doesn't want to believe that?
Don't shit where you sleep. The pay-for crappers here have the nickname "Nickel Hotel" amongst them. Take a wild guess why.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Just stand outside one and peer at the mirror as if you can see through it. I betcha a lot of people couldn't take a crap anymore.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I am from Europe, but believe me, this ain't the standard over here either. Sure, in subway stations or rail stations, pay toilets, but in restaurants... I am not sure, but maybe there's even a law against something like that in some of the saner countries of Europe...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
A story about the first hack of the world, and half the discussion is about toilets and taking a dump. Which just happens to be slightly, very slightly, topical, but still...
Gotta love /. these days.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Pretty standard in Belgium. They also do that in the toilets in shopping mals and stations and the like.
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
Best not to leave them in an unlocked car - wouldn't want them to get stolen :)
Yes, it's more fun to just leave such bottles near the roadside, park benches, bus-stops...
Some people are strange enough to drink any "drinks" that they see "left behind" in public.
It's not all restaurants, just the ones that otherwise would have lots of people passing through just to use the toilet. I don't think it's so strange, it annoys paying customers when there's a lot of people breezing through and the facilities aren't free to operate either (water, electricity, cleaning, etc.)
If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
You just have to know where to look.
I'm not homeless, but I essentially LOOK homeless. When wandering SF I use the nice plush bathrooms at the Palace Hotel, among other places.
That's the thing about SF - you can be dressed in jeans with holes but you're just as likely to be a millionaire guest in the penthouse of the Palace Hotel as a homeless person.
This space available.
We Europeans go to McDonald's. I'd never eat there but I'd spend a free penny.
I hear that in the US too there are one or two McDonald's.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
Where is it written that someone has the sacred duty to provide services to you for free? If you use someone else's toilet it's only fair that you pay for it.
It looks like they were different Maskelynes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nevil_Maskelyne_(magician)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Nevil_Maskelyne
73 de LU2DFM
One time I was competing in an mirrorkhana event in a mall parking lot. The place was PACKED with spectators. Crowds had to part for cars to move to and from the driving area and we were powersliding inches away from packed crowds.
Anyways, there weren't nearly enough bathroom facilities for the number of people there, and only one area offered any shred of privacy. Had a good 3m wide river of piss going eventually x_x
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
That is what our Belgian host told us, that they were common in Belgium in public areas. Here in the US, acceptance wouldn't be so forthcoming, particularly in the Southern areas. We expect a degree of that in urban bus stations and the like, but not if a Stuckeys or Cracker Barrel (our more common highway side eateries) did that, people would be pissed off and leave. Even truck stops won't do that here. Keep in mind, I'm talking about places that aren't urban (both here and in Belgium) so I'm not sure the reasoning given earlier (to keep out the homeless) really applies. If you don't have change (I NEVER carry change) and you run into one of those, what can do? Piss in the sink or the corner? Not worth the extra cleanup to collect a quarter.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
I hear that in the US too there are one or two McDonald's.
As a matter of fact, we do - but I didn't realize you could smell the bathrooms from Europe.
I'm the real Vorokrytin P. Winterbuttocks.
Shit matters.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Many cities simply just stopped having public restrooms entirely, thanks to CEPTA.