I gave you 5 just for the first sign. Brilliant.



The picture is too dark to read the second one though. What does it say?

Not bad, not bad at all.

UFO Crossing ahead?

Man that's great. We have heaps of those signs in pretty deserted areas around here... I'm so doing that next time I drive past one of them.

Alright, this prank is going to keep me smiling for a while.



You are my favorite poster this month.

werent those words used in Army of darkness aswell?

With only a few minutes of road sign hacking, I had programmed an homage to the 1951 sci-fi film The Day The Earth Stood Still, the phrase that was used to stop Gort, the robot in the film, from taking over the world.



























Nerd.

I like to masturbate when I read stories like this. I especially like the pictures.

THe only road signs that are more annoying than signs warning of construction that is long finished, are those ones that tell you how fast you are going, before you go around a sharp turn. I used to think they were kind of neat, until I noticed that my car actually comes equipped with a tool that tells me how fast I'm going, at any given time, so now I just use that one instead.

and we both ended up in a quivering heap on the bed.



New experience for both of you?

Awesome prank, btw. I will try this.



"Beyond here there be dragons."

OK, which one of you did this?

Best prank since Whistler's employee's tattoo.

I pulled whistler's tattoo prank the other day. I asked the lady if she knew what her tat meant. She said yes, "mother daughter"



I looked at her in a sad way and walked out of the store into the parking lot. She followed me out and said wait, what do you think it means? I told her I had studied Japanese, and while it was close, it really meant more along the lines of Mu Shu Pork.



She was crestfallen.



God, I love April Fools.

It's an excuse to be a complete Emerson to strangers and walk away without a black eye.

That is the greatest prank on the website becuase it actually was, well, a prank.



You've inspired me.

Great prank and good article. Thanks!

hmmm, how much is it gonna cost to buy the video?

I still think it would have been funnier if you had put "Stephen Harper eats babies."

It's funny, but I wouldn't have gotten the reference in the first one. However, those that did probably had a good laugh.

Omitting signup rules and ZUG Commandments, I choose to let my inner geek take over when posting this comment.



FYI there's an article in issue 18:4 of 2600 Magazine (the hacker quarterly) on page 40 which covers hacking these signs. What's funny is that the passwords to these things are almost always written on the inner door of them.

I will always remember the three magic words from Army of Darkness where Ash screws it up.

I am ashamed to say I didn't read this until I saw it linked here.

My thanks for all the kind comments and near-sidesplitting rating. I also got (telephone) interviewed by the morning show host at station WTTS about this one. I just hope I brought a few chuckles to the station's morning commute crowd. ;-)



SHAWNO: Question for you... By "18:4" of 2600 Magazine, I'm assuming you're referring to volume 18, #4? If so, I think I'll order that back issue and see what it has to say on the subject. I can always use a few tips.



As for the Canadian subway signs getting changed: I read the article on that, and it appears that the person responsible was able to do it because of a design flaw. Specifically, that the signs in question were made by the same company that sells similar signs through consumer channels. This means that the same programming remote used for the consumer version worked on the commercial version as well.



My hat's off to the person responsible, though I don't know enough about Stephen Harper to offer an opinion one way or the other.



In closing, let me offer a simple caution to anyone who wants to try this on their own: Please DO NOT do it to ANY sign that is warning of work currently in progress! If you want to do it, pick a sign that is obviously idle (turned off, sitting by the roadside), or (as I did) one that is warning about work that has already been completed.



Keep the peace(es). Thanks again for the applause.

Oh, one other thing... Just for the record, the sign shown in the article headline is not one that I ever touched. That particular specimen happens to be in the city of San Jose, CA, south of my former residence of Berkeley by about 40-some-odd miles.



Keep the peace(es).

A friend sent me the URL to this article, it is priceless! Amusing on so many levels. Thanks for taking a delightful harmless and entertaining ZAP at Those In Authority.

Weird that there isn't even a link to this article on the front page anymore. Especially with all the orbs you got.



Looks like you got a mention in today's Minneapolis Star Tribune as well as a few other pranks here.



Congrats.

i was once driving down a road near my house and saw one of these signs that said "Welcome to the Machine." Had to turn around a block later and take a picture. Brilliant prank.

Bloody fantastic! You kept me in stitches for a while with this - keep up the good work!

Best prank I have read in a loooong time! I'm still laughing. No damage caused, lots of laughter generated, and you've inspired us all. Way to make the world a better place! 5*

Once you start, you just can't stop. Check out the road sign prank at my website.

http://www.mit.edu/~jonmon/Pranks/



Most of these units come with a preconfigured password that never gets changed. Just type 111111, or 222222, or 123456, or 654321, and you'll eventually get it. Also, some require that you bring a keyboard. The ESC key is the most useful but least obvious key.



Obviously, don't change road signs that serve some safety purpose. Just the lame ones blinking "Road Work Next 3 Miles".

I just spent about an hour on your site reading your pranks. Some good stuff on there... so, I guess this is, uh, welcome. Or something.

Speechless. If this had happened with me I would have called my many friend, bought a case of beer, and set up some lawn chairs. Hours of fun.



And yes, I did say friends

You would have called me and you know it.

I would have called my many friend



Who you callin' fat?

Now you need to figure out how hack the Amber Alert signs on the freeway!

8 Frost-ing weeks and nobody has figured out how to lighten the second picture so it is readable?

Two months and you're still too stupid to read?

what I love is when drunks hit them because they get towed over to my welding shop and I repair them (yay overtime!)

i can't wait to do that in my town. it's gonna be the mother-Frosting Shakespeare. oh yeah. i went there bitches

While it's funny, it's only a cut and paste. Notice the original on the grass, where's the grass? What about the Road Work Ahead? Where's it on the original?



BUSTED !!!!!!

Your Retarded.

You're?

*sighs* Your Retarded.

$17.99? Now THAT's retarded.

A great idea for next time is to use the phrase "All your base are belong to us"

Hello dear, are you new?

Leave the rockwolf alone, can't you see how cool s/he is? I mean s/he likes rocks, wolves and bud. How cool is that? The only way he could be any cooler would be if he were HotBigTittiedRockWolf420.

I think the year old bitching about lights not being visible/legible properly from Shakespearety photography is kind of ironic.

I rarely bother to read or click articles. I give you both.

that is great !!!!! fight "the man" every chance you get !

Was the password by any chance DOTS?

http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/01/23/default-password-for.html

I'm sure he'll get right back to you on that.

I know it's a little late but I call 'fat daughter' on this whole thing.  After looking at both the before and after pictures, there are discrepancies which lead me to believe they are two different signs at two different locations.  

Still funny though.

It's weird that you bumped this, a week or so ago I saw something on another website where someone in Austin did this same kind of prank, but they wrote "Caution Zombies Ahead" on the signs.

So... freaking.. hilarious.. xD There's a sign on a major crossing in the city I live, the busiest road in the city. Even at like 3am in the morning there's a traffic jam there. There's a huge electronic sign there, dont give me ideas LOL