I scream, you scream, we all scream for WiFi
May 30, 2018 2:22 PM   Subscribe

LinkNYC WiFi kiosks are playing creepy ice cream truck music and no one knows why. This has been going on for a week now. Arguments have been made in favour of the controversial kiosks, and this is arguably not the creepiest jingle or ice cream truck scenario ever, but it's still not helping. LinkNYC previously. Creepy ice cream trucks previously.
posted by halation (17 comments total) 9 users marked this as a favorite
 
Well, this is obviously promotion for the next Boards of Canada album.
posted by lmfsilva at 2:41 PM on May 30, 2018 [4 favorites]


LinkNYC WiFi kiosks are playing creepy ice cream truck music and no one knows why.

The marketing for Fallout 76 has already begun.
posted by Fizz at 2:42 PM on May 30, 2018 [7 favorites]


Stupid of me to ask, but didn't gothamist die after refusing to unionize or something? Why is the zombie soft serve jingle reporting coming from a zombie blog? What happened to them?
posted by saysthis at 2:48 PM on May 30, 2018


Gothamist and some of its sister sites were acquired and resurrected by public radio stations! (With the help of some anonymous private donors.) So Gothamist is now under the wing of WNYC, while WAMU looks after DCist and KPCC takes on LAist.

So it's less zombie-reports-on-monster, more s6-Buffy-the-Vampire-Slayer-goes-to-J-school, if you will.
posted by halation at 2:54 PM on May 30, 2018 [6 favorites]


Gothamist was shuttered and it’s archved closed by its billionaire owners after they voted to unionize, the archives were reopened under threat of lawsuit, and WNYC Eventually bought Gothamist and relaunched it (but notably, without the union)
posted by The Whelk at 2:55 PM on May 30, 2018 [7 favorites]


The FBI suggests turning them off, and then on again.
posted by eustacescrubb at 4:52 PM on May 30, 2018 [6 favorites]


Kevin Uxbridge is in town?

Nah, it's not all WiFi, everywhere.
posted by The Gaffer at 5:00 PM on May 30, 2018 [1 favorite]


Wasn't there a SCP story about LinkNYC hotspots? Perhaps this is just an evolution in their growth.
posted by Merus at 5:35 PM on May 30, 2018


In Captain America voice: I understand that reference!
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 6:33 PM on May 30, 2018 [3 favorites]


Wasn't there a SCP story about LinkNYC hotspots?

Yup.
posted by Chrysostom at 9:40 PM on May 30, 2018 [4 favorites]


Some years ago I read a tip here on MeFi for muting too-loud battery-operated kids' toys in an amazingly simple, efficient, effective way: smear caulk into the speaker grille, which is usually a round array of tiny round holes. Just like on these kiosks.

I'm surprised that in a place like New York City, this sort of adjustment hasn't already appeared organically, so to speak.
posted by Western Infidels at 6:40 AM on May 31, 2018


LyncNYC on twitter: The ice cream truck song is a result of an old fashioned phone prank. That said, our team is rebooting the tablets at the Links you’ve specified to prevent the music from continuing

It's a phone prank, not an access breach, but it requires a reboot to clear the issue? Anyone with more experience with these see any way that's a plausible explanation?

When I first read about the ongoing jingles, I thought it said bad things about their security and worse about their incident response. Then I read "phone prank" and thought "Maybe someone's just calling an obnoxious recording and leaving it on speaker. Hope they rethink that feature or at least limit the volume" But "phone prank" and "reboot" together makes me question their honesty in addition to their security, and that's not good. PLEASE get a good VPN before you connect ANYTHING to these.

Huge streamlined glaring video-ad pods scattered along the sidewalks of 150 year old neighborhoods, providing 'free' communications services and lots of surveillance tech. Gawd. These are probably the most cyberpunkAF things I've ever seen. Set dressing from an 80s SF noir. This is not an endorsement.
posted by CHoldredge at 8:21 AM on May 31, 2018 [1 favorite]


It's time for west coast hackers to step up and throw down some Turkey in the Straw.

And it's time for engineers who think public kiosks need speakers to quit their jobs and take up solitary, wilderness hobbies.

Finally, a hat tip to the hackers who decided to use their power for silly instead of (or, perhaps, in addition to) evil.
posted by eotvos at 8:30 AM on May 31, 2018


engineers who think public kiosks need speakers to quit their jobs

They...provide free phone calls?
posted by praemunire at 9:19 AM on May 31, 2018 [1 favorite]


In Captain America voice: I understand that reference!

I didn't. The only "Kevin Uxbridge" I knew was the ST:TNG character, so I was very confused until I Googled it.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 9:34 AM on May 31, 2018


I mean- it *is* that Kevin Uxbridge but uh, I feel for your google search history.
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 3:47 PM on May 31, 2018


They...provide free phone calls?
Ah. Nevermind.
posted by eotvos at 5:46 PM on May 31, 2018


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