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The Max Headroom Incident

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Re: The Max Headroom Incident

#161

Post by GekkePrutser »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #99
jaywalk wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, it didn't happen in the middle of the night, so nobody got woken up in the middle of the night. You need more joy in your life if you see this as an asshole move.

11:15PM is not the middle of the night? I know I'm old and all, but that's not exactly the middle of the work day either. > You need more joy in your life if you see this as an asshole move. Everybody seems to think I'm joyless because I think people need to be more considerate of the negative externalities of fucking pranks. No wonder the world is going to shit.

If I were called at 11:15pm to investigate this I'd be pretty excited. Even if I was asleep. In fact I would be at any time. This is the kind of workplace thing you still talk about 30 years later.

Re: The Max Headroom Incident

#162

Post by GekkePrutser »

paulpauper wrote: post #49

“I would like to inform anybody involved in this kinda thing, that there’s a maximum penalty of $100,000, one year in jail, or both,” Phil Bradford, an FCC spokesman, told a reporter the following day. does anyone ever pay maximum penalty for these cases?

Yes when they want to make an example of you it does happen.

I don't think it would have happened for this though.

Re: The Max Headroom Incident

#163

Post by GekkePrutser »

fortran77 wrote: post #136
throwawaygh wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, this would've been quite a bit more difficult than "hacked an AV system". Hijacking small town public access channels was fairly easy. Taking over the feed for two different stations in Chicago is a whole different level. The basic hack is the same, but "just scale it up" isn't trivial in this case.

If you were pretty close to the receiving end on the microwave link, it wouldn't be that hard to overpower the signal from the studio.

Yeah and it doesn't have to work great or long before it burns out.

People used chained TV reception amplifiers to broadcast pirate TV :)

Re: The Max Headroom Incident

#164

Post by dang »

Past related threads:

Max Headroom Signal Hijacking (2020) [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25923243 - Jan 2021 (1 comment)

Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21611551 - Nov 2019 (54 comments)

Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18167508 - Oct 2018 (1 comment)

The Cold Case of the Max Headroom Signal Intrusion - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16816663 - April 2018 (53 comments)

The Max Headroom TV Hack - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9845038 - July 2015 (81 comments)

27 Years Later the Max Headroom Hackers Still Remain a Mystery - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8889388 - Jan 2015 (1 comment)

The Mystery of the Creepiest Television Hack - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6824715 - Nov 2013 (11 comments)

The 1987 Max Headroom Pirating Incident - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1207937 - March 2010 (5 comments)

Re: The Max Headroom Incident

#165

Post by rufus_foreman »

jazzyjackson wrote: post #151
rufus_foreman wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a C64 and my mom bought me a CompuServe starter kit at some point in the 80's. I think it was something like $6 an hour off-peak and over $20 an hour during peak hours, which might not even include long distance charges depending on where you were. That would be $20 an hour off-peak and over $60 peak in today's dollars. For 300 bits per second. For practical purposes, the internet did not exist for people like…

Out of curiosity, what kind of hardware/software was included in a CompuServe starter kit?

Hopefully someone else can answer this better than I can, but from what I remember, there was no hardware included. You had to buy an old style modem separately, like something out of Wargames.

Then you got software that allowed you to connect along with an hour of connection time.

Re: The Max Headroom Incident

#166

Post by GekkePrutser »

BoxOfRain wrote: post #39
beaner wrote: post #6

Of all the conspiracy theories out there, this one, to me, has the highest coverage-to-interestingness ratio. It just seems like a teen hacked an AV system and did a goofy presentation. I'm surprised that type of thing isn't more common, and I'm befuddled as to why this one gets so much attention.

>I'm surprised that type of thing isn't more common I'd guess that interfering with a digital TV signal today is considerably harder than an old analogue TV signal.

And you have to get into the cable network these days. Who still uses terrestrial TV?

Broadcasting DVB-T is pretty trivial and people have even done it with a raspberry pi and a piece of wire (in an awful distortion-creating way) but getting people to tune to it will be harder. Also the power amplifier bit would be tougher but doable.

In fact since the days of SDR you can broadcast almost anything. You can run your own 4G mobile base station with one of those.

Re: The Max Headroom Incident

#167

Post by bryans »

kaycebasques wrote: post #146
bryans wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hackers is still one of my favorite movies. Forgetting the Hollywood exaggerations, that is pretty much how the culture was in the late 80s and throughout the 90s. It was entirely nerdy, a little punk, there were a lot of arcades and pizza deliveries and dumpsters involved, and there were some incredibly douchey self-described villains suffering from megalomania. The wild west hacker days were pretty amazing, and tha…

Not really the same vibe as what you're describing but I need to go back and watch Enemy Of The State . Another one that seems similar to the vibe you describe is Sneakers . Hell, even Wayne's World is kinda the same vibe (in terms of their TV show).

I end up watching Enemy Of The State once every couple years. Still holds up, and it's still extremely relevant given recent events.

Re: The Max Headroom Incident

#168

Post by jonnycomputer »

dang wrote: post #164

Past related threads: Max Headroom Signal Hijacking (2020) [video] - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25923243 - Jan 2021 (1 comment) Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21611551 - Nov 2019 (54 comments) Max Headroom broadcast signal intrusion - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18167508 - Oct 2018 (1 comment) The Cold Case of the Max Headroom Signal Intrusion - https…

Thanks.

But its also the first time I noticed it. So, I guess that from my pov, its great.

Re: The Max Headroom Incident

#169

Post by ndiddy »

jcrawfordor wrote: post #67
leephillips wrote: post #12

I was interested in finding out how the intrusion was accomplished, but the article devotes only a few words to explaining that, in a sentence that makes no grammatical sense. What does it mean to place a dish antenna “between the transmitter tower”?

Sibling comment explains the idea, but I also think a lot of articles about this tend to present the theory of someone positioned between the two sites overriding the microwave signal as more definite than it is. It is perhaps the most likely explanation, but no real evidence was ever found to support it, and I think the possibility of another means (such as an insider, as in other prominent incidents) still exists.…

Given that the intrusion happened on two different TV stations within a few minutes (and the video being played was meant for the first station, WGN), I don't think it's an insider or anyone who had physical access.

Re: The Max Headroom Incident

#170

Post by PostThisTooFast »

h2odragon wrote: post #3

The assumption that the content of the video had something do do with why it was broadcast may not be reasonable. Someone wanting to play the technical prank might well find some of the most random shit available to broadcast, hoping (perhaps mistakenly) that the point would be clear anyway. I think its also possible that the the technically equipped people who did this were perhaps not thinking as clearly as usual t…

Another thing that seems dumb about the investigation is that they went to a warehouse district because the background looks like a warehouse door.

A warehouse door THAT SPINS AROUND? Really?

With crack investigators like this on the case, is it any wonder it was never solved?

"You're posting too fast. Please slow down. Thanks."

TWO HOURS AFTER MY LAST POST? Up yours, assholes.

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