The Null Device

4-2-3-1

Several German cities have a phone-based bicycle rental service, in which electronically-locked bicycles are left in the street and may be ridden for 6 Euro cents a minute. This was not good enough for some h4x0r d00dz, so they opened one up and changed the firmware, giving them free rides. (via Slashdot)

Meanwhile, apparently there are secret cheat codes for Coca-Cola vending machines; pressing a certain sequence of buttons puts the machine into a debug menu. From there, one can apparently do fascinating things like, um, seeing how much money the machine has taken and how many cans it has sold. (via bOING bOING)

There are 1 comments on "4-2-3-1":

Posted by: Steff http:// Tue Dec 21 22:55:31 2004

Hehe, yup, read about the bicycle hack yesterday in [i]Der Spiegel[/i]. Apparently, the German Railway operator (Deutsche Bahn) had boasted that the bikes' security system was "uncrackable". That's throwing the gauntlet right there I should think. What might come as an interesting international comparison: in Germany expensive bikes with sophisticated e-security are available for (expensive) rental. In Copenhagen older bikes are left around for free, anyone can pick one up and leave it again at some other spot. They are not stolen, which appears to me a major moment in civilization. Some type of unwritten "gentleperson's" agreement played out across an entire city. So, what does Melbourne have to offer: insufficient bike lock-up space (in the City this is particularly bad!!!, at Barkley Squ, at Melbourne University even). Meh. Meanwhile public transport sucks harder than ever before (at least since i moved here in '97).