back to article French hacker besmuts road sign right under Les Plods' noses

A hacker defaced an electronic parking sign with a "poem" of vulgarities - and has since told The Register it was not a protest against the acquittal of Dominique Strauss-Kahn on pimping charges, although he did do it right under the noses of the Gendarmerie Nationale. When hacker got bored (proof video) A self-described " …

  1. Dr_N

    Unimpressive French swearing.

    Cock, ball, pussy, arse.

    Wow! Radical!

    1. ingie
      Coat

      Re: Unimpressive French swearing.

      ...there are physical limits on what one can insert with 7 french letters.

      edit: had to hover over the "withdraw" link for a moment.

    2. Khaptain Silver badge

      Re: Unimpressive French swearing.

      There are far worse things that can be said in French but he remained in keep with the context..

      The idea wasn't to shock but moreover to protest about how lightly DSK got off. One law for them, one law for us...

      In England London someone would have repeated the same gest/idea but would have turned up in Trafalgar square with a crumpled tshirt saying ...David is bland.... Now that really would have been naughty wouldn't it.

      1. werdsmith Silver badge

        Re: Unimpressive French swearing.

        I didn't know that simple nouns for anatomical parts had any impact in French, I thought that they are just simply words and it is only the immature English speaking world that are afraid of them (or feign sensibilities about them).

        It never made sense to me that two words with identical definitions could be so different in their perceived shock value. Though I think it is about 5% of the population that can't cope with it, the rest of us barely notice until one of the 5% starts squealing about it.

  2. JimmyPage Silver badge
    Happy

    Bravo !

    et nous ditons les Francais avoir pas un bon sens de l'humour.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Bravo !

      We do, now.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    was it pulled

    Or did the sign auto-refresh?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The hacker writes that the vulgar display was cut after only 10 seconds

    Surrender monkey behavior

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      Re: The hacker writes that the vulgar display was cut after only 10 seconds

      How did they know after just 10 seconds?

  5. Phil O'Sophical Silver badge

    We can expect more

    Since every large French town has signs like that for the car parks...

    1. heyrick Silver badge

      Re: We can expect more

      The sign in the town near where I live had something like sixteen letters by six lines, all free format, and maybe even dot addressable. Might provide some amusing opportunities.

      The best bit? The town council sleepwalks through life so if the replacement message isn't too rude, it is likely that nobody would notice for a while...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Meh

        Re: We can expect more

        Hmmmm, rude but not too rude, 6 lines 16 chars...

        ---

        Hard frozen

        penipitation

        likley, will

        affect low-lying

        bushy areas;

        Chains required

        ---

  6. CaptainBanjax

    We are...

    Surrendermous...we never forgive, we never forget, alright we're leaving now.

  7. I ain't Spartacus Gold badge

    I remember DSK's defence was quite interesting. His lawyer said in court that, with their clothes off, his client was unable to tell a prostitute from a woman of quality.

    Perhaps when you think the sun shines out of your own arse, you genuinely believe that all women just want to throw themselves at you. So why would you have to pay women to attend? I remember that when I lived in Brussels there was a huge swinging scene going on. A lot of it seemed to be amongst the Eurocrats. And they were always desperately trying to attract extra women. My theory was that it was the men who were therefore the driving force in getting the parties going, and their wives were there to supervise, but weren't so interested in joining in themselves. Either that, or the guys were only interested in younger women. There were very clear that single blokes need not apply, but all young single women welcome. Seemed to be a very odd scene.

    1. Khaptain Silver badge

      Power loves the smell of pussy and pussy loves the smell of power.

      Crude, but probably very close to reality....

      I lived in Strasbourg for a few years and was in the parliament on several occasions.. Most of the EuroMPs that I met there were a bunch of boring buggers that would undoubetely require large quantities of Cialis and alcohol to get into the "swing" of things...

      It never ceases to amaze me why people in power, or who believe that they are in power, are often addicted to meaningless pursuits.... Why the eternal need to have one's ego rubbed ( amongst other things)?

  8. Cynic_999

    As an article in a tech publication, it should have mentioned how messages are sent to the sign so we can understand the hack. My guess would be that the sign is updated by an unencrypted FSK VHF radio signal (easy to spoof with an SDR and laptop), or from a standard pager message - getting the pager number is not that difficult.

    1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge

      DSK VHD radio signal in this case.

    2. GarethWright.com

      OOK is not OK

      Few UK ones using OOK. Trivial to change even with a cheap radio or RasPi

      Though so do Remotes for Yale House Alarms

      Security by obscurity...or who let these lazy bastards work here...

  9. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Headmaster

    "the Francophone hacker"

    Considering that there is a serious grammatical error in

    Beaucoup me demande (should be: "Beaucoup me demandent")

    ...which would have cost us a warm-ish ear when skool still meant something, the "Francophone" demands a "bémol" be applied.

    Not to be outdone, the sign dépicted says

    Zones piétones (should be: "Zones piétonnes")

    OMFG. See me after class.

    1. wdmot

      Re: "the Francophone hacker"

      Knowing very little French myself, I asked Google... which says piétones means "pedestrianised" whereas piétonnes means "pedestrians". So Rues piétones would be streets that have been closed to vehicle traffic. Some cities and towns do this e.g. in a market area for certain hours in the afternoon/evening.

      But as Google Translate isn't based on a language expert but Big Data, I have no idea if it's correct.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "the Francophone hacker"

        "Zone" is noun with female gender, so the adjective must have the female ending "piét-onne". The male ending would be "piét-on".

        I don't know where "zone piétone" comes from, it sure ain't french, it sounds italian.

        See also: Zone piétonne. Google brings up "about 373,000 results".

        For "zone piétone", Google brings up "about 4,050 results" .. NOPE!

        1. Kevin Johnston

          Re: "the Francophone hacker"

          Try reverso.net this IS a proper translation site with translation/grammar/context etc etc and has been put together by people who understand the translation business....

          Translates 'zone piétonne' as pedestrian zone

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: "the Francophone hacker"

        wdmot,

        As ususal, Google doesn't know its arse from its elbow and is trying to be too clever with technology.

        Being very proud of their language, the French have an official dictionary maintained by l'Académie française.

        If you consult that (courtesy of their website), you will only find one entry :

        "PIÉTON , -ONNE"

        Which is defined as :

        As a noun :

        1. In the Middle Ages, a rural postman who conducted his service on foot in the countryside.

        2. Person who goes by foot (e.g. Un piéton fauché par une voiture)

        As an ajective:

        1. Destined or reserved for pedestrians (e.g. Rue piétonne, quartier piéton)

        Remark: This adjective is preferable to Piétonnier.

        Piétonnier being defined as a synonym of Piéton, and described as a pedestrian road or area in Belgium.

        1. Bloakey1

          Re: "the Francophone hacker"

          "As ususal, Google doesn't know its arse from its elbow and is trying to be too clever with technology."

          <snip>

          Well said that man and agreed on validity of both words.

          I served in the French Foreign Legion with a chap from Alsace Lorraine whose Legion name was Jean Kuhl. My how we laughed at that one.

    2. Andy 66

      Re: "the Francophone hacker"

      Beaucoup me demande

      Beaucoup de personnes me demandent

      Donc il a raison Mr grammar police

    3. Bloakey1

      Re: "the Francophone hacker"

      <snip>

      "Zones piétones (should be: "Zones piétonnes")"

      <snip>

      I would not like to be a "couille dans le potage" but you are wrong, in fact as wrong as a very wrong thing. Think context as in one who walks and a place dedicated to people who walk.

      As for El Reg. saying couille meaning testicle, that is utter balls and loses the pejorative / offensive intent of M. Hackeur <sic>

      1. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
        Thumb Down

        Re: "the Francophone hacker"

        @Bloakey1

        I would not like to be a "couille dans le potage" but you are wrong, in fact as wrong as a very wrong thing. Think context as in one who walks and a place dedicated to people who walk.

        Yeah well, maybe you should just learn to write french first, matey. Protip: You ain't gonna pass an exam in "grammaire française".

        Full disclosure: Writing in french is part of my job description. "Dont acte".

        1. Bloakey1

          Re: "the Francophone hacker"

          "Yeah well, maybe you should just learn to write french first, matey."

          I speak fluent French both high and street, I can also write in the language and even read when my glasses are to hand.

          Perhaps you ought to learn how to write in English and then you would find that "French" would follow in a fairly transparent manner.

        2. Bloakey1

          Re: "the Francophone hacker"

          added to cope with Edit by poster.

          <snip>

          " Protip: You ain't gonna pass an exam in "grammaire française"."

          <snip>

          I already have done so and from a fairly prestigious academic establishment in Paris.

          "Full disclosure: Writing in french is part of my job description. "Dont acte"."

          Hmmm, if that is the case, what happened with "french"<sic> which as we all know is French in English?

          As for " Dont acte" <sic> should that not be "Don't acte"? although I am not sure where you are going with that particular linguistic mix.

          Ohhh and by the way, I am not "matey", Matey or any other silly nomenclature intended as a pejorative side swipe.

  10. g e

    FTFY

    children with YouTube internet access are still going to be able to see the rude words filth

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