Victor wrote:
> Richard Evans wrote:
>> Tony Harding <ToHard@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>> And how would you get access to the subway system computers to ensure
>> you had an accurate test bed?
>
> Truth be told this argument is pointless as what you saw on CSI-NY
> probably has no connection what-so-ever with the real NYC transit
> system. There is no junction box anywhere in the subway tunnels that
> will let you hook up a MP3 player to control the system. Rats, YES;
> fancy junction box with blinking light which you can hack into to
> control the subway system..NO. :)
>
> We're talking about a city agency here. My guess is that the system is
> still controlled mechanically and the only system wide computer network
> in use by the MTA is the one that handles the metro card sales and their
> use.
>
Well, if the various shows on the Discovery and History channels are to
be believed, they HAVE added some computers and sensors and remote
switches to the system, but in the nature of a retrofit to the old
stone-age tech, not computerized from the ground up like the relatively
young SF and DC systems are. I haven't checked Wikipedia or done a
general Google search, but the NYC system dates from a day when cities
were proud of stuff like that, and it never occurred to them to hold
back any details. They depended on physical security, not security by
obscurity. Not to mention, with thousands of employees at any given
time, you can't keep too much secret. I did look up the station they
referenced- it does really exist, and the history of it is an
interesting little story. Google or Wiki 'NYC Subway city hall station'
for more.
(I've always been a sucker for urban archeology, and tales of
abandoned-in-place civil works projects. The 1900s office building I
work in, a former fat farm/resort hotel, used to have tunnels to nearby
buildings, most long since demolished. I was curious enough to go to
library and dig up some hundred-year-old records, to find out which of
the tales the old-timers told me were based in fact, and which were pure
folklore.)
aem sends...
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