From the Austin Statesman:
Someone reprogrammed two city construction road signs near the University of Texas early Monday morning in an attempt to warn Austin of an imminent zombie attack.
Messages that typically alert Lamar Boulevard drivers to a detour for Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard splashed several warnings like “Caution! Zombies Ahead!” and “Nazi Zombies! Run!!!”
As he drove south on Lamar, traffic controller Bruce Jones saw the first sign flash the Nazi zombies message at 6 a.m. and wheeled his truck around for another look. Then he said he noticed that the second sign, directed at northbound drivers, had also been tampered with.
Jones, who has one of only two keys to the locked access panels on the portable signs, said that the hacker broke into the panels on each sign and bypassed the passwords before leaving five different zombie messages and even changing one of the passwords. Jones said he had to wait until 8 a.m. to call the manufacturing company to figure out how to override the hacker’s work. He speculated that the hacker could be a computer genius from UT.
...The hacking occurred within weeks of various articles appearing online with descriptions of how to hack into these road signs — which point out that such an act is illegal.
Is this funny?
Sure, in a way. But was this just a harmless prank? No harm, no foul?
Although it had to be a strange sight, signs warning of zombies, tampering with road signs is a serious matter.
Messing with the messages on road signs could result in injury or death. Thankfully, no one was injured or killed in this case, although some particularly vulnerable people, those with an intense fear of zombies, may have suffered psychological distress.
I don't think the issue is the "Zombies Ahead!" message. What matters is that the messages on the signs were illegally altered.
It amazes me how immature, stupid, and selfish these computer "geniuses" can be.
They have such little regard for the safety and the rights of others.
Maybe some Dem should add a few hundred million dollars in anti-Zombie funding to the "economic" stimulus bill.
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