US engineer in the clink for wrecking ex-bosses' smart meter radio masts with Pink Floyd lyrics Fueled by beer and bitterness, a US techie logged into his ex-employer's radio towers to sabotage them – and is now behind bars as a result. Adam Flanagan, 42, of Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, worked as an engineer for a company that built radio masts used by utility companies to collect power and water usage data from home …
As always, against companies, its a case of "Us and Them".
I suspect when he sobered up he wanted to "Run Like Hell", but he had to much "Brain Damage" from the hangover. I bet it was a shock when the "Pigs" came around to visit.
$40,000 fine is a lot of "Money", and I wonder if his "Mother" will come and visit him in Jail?
He should demand that they keep him alive long enough to serve his sentance. At their cost.
Making up stupidly long sentances so the penal system can commute them down to something feasible is breaking the spirit of the law. Those reductions are there for a reason.
The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers.
His sentence is a year and a day, 3 years probation, and $40,000.00 fine. Not entirely unreasonable. His proposed sentence was ludicrous, I agree. Didn't I just read N. Korea threatened to "sharpen the blade" of its punishment re: protest over the recent death of the released American prisoner in a coma? I sometimes wonder when and where the punishment ever truly fits the crime.
A story I heard on the radio in Ireland. A certain station master was responsible for making reports to head office whenever there was a train accident or derailment. Had something of a literary bent, it seems, because his reports ran into several pages of quite descriptive prose about the ins and outs of the incidents and the actions taken to get things back on track.
Head office got a bit pissed off with the length of his reports and asked him to be a bit more to the point. The station master complied, and the next time there was a derailment (in 1921), his report simply stated: "Off again. On again. Gone again. Flanagan"
While I was at university (Southampton) back in the '70s, the University Radio Club managed to intercept the microwave link to one of the BBC's radio relay stations (Radio 1, I think), and substitute their own program material. It went unnoticed for about 20 minutes until they broadcast an "emergency message" requiring all pensioners to report to their local police station for mandatory euthanasia.I don't recall any significant punishments being handed out in those far-off, innocent, days.
A few years later, a member of the University Rock Climbing Club climbed up a BBC TV mast to unfurl a large banner at the top. When asked when they wanted to prosecute him, one of the the BBC technical managers is supposed to have replied "Nah!. He's been punished enough already. He's just climbed through the near field of a powerful transmitter. Just wait till he wants to have children!".
a member of the University Rock Climbing Club
This is a phrase I haven't heard for a few years. Almost every time I have heard it, it's been in an anecdote which started off with one or more people getting drunk and ended with one or more people getting hurt. Not always the same people though.
When I first arrived at the University, back in '75, I was quickly told that the University rag week was banned until further notice, on the orders of the Hampshire Police. A couple of years previously, a group of students, presumably the rock climbing club, had done a rag week stunt which went too far, even in those lenient times. They had broken into Parkhurst prison (max security), put up posters in some cells, and then left undetected. The police still hadn't figured out how they'd done it.
I could mention about our team's (non) appearance on "University Challenge". The night before filming, the whole team got so drunk they were too hung over to take part, and the recording had to be cancelled. I don't think we were every invited again, at least not in my time.
Durham University has "Duck":- Durham University Charity weeK.
Durham University hasn't had a Rag week for a very long time (possibly the early 80's), *alledgedly* because of students breaking into the high security prison there and leaving a box of milk tray on the govenor's desk.
Now, I don't know about the truth of the above, but my favourite story about the Durham Rag week (when it still existed) was that the climbing club hung an Austen 7 from a bridge over the river some time in the 1960's.
https://community.dur.ac.uk/j.d.little/kingsgate/viewtopichtml_files/414.jpg
Very wrong. lol I myself included. Comes out more like Kin-Wid, have heard Kin-Wood from a lot. But then most of the people can't pronounce anything right anyway, so it would be an exercise in futility to correct it. I had a new manager at a job that had just moved into the area from down south. He was asking me how to pronounce all these names like Schuylkill or Conshohocken (funny enough - not far from Bala Cynwyd). It seems the further north and west you go in PA, the crazier the names get.
As a matter of fact, the Schuylkill Expressway runs right next to Bala Cynwyd. Runs down the West Side of Philadelphia. It is more like lemmings really. We refer to it as the surekill, as there is certain to be an accident there. The police have certain spots along the route they just wait for the inevitable every day. I worked down there for about 6 months. You find alternate side roads. All of the local broadcast TV stations are in Bala Cynwyd, so I was initially thinking it was going to be about transmission towers. DRAND - now were you referring to Bala Cynwyd or the lad, Adam Flanagan? lol Actually, if you check a map in the area, you will see more of Ireland.
It's a fair point, which is why I upvoted you. They fired him and they didn't think he was going to be a tad upset by this?
Still, it does sound a little like blaming the victim though, doesn't it?
Abuse of trust Vs V.Poor outplacement process.
Hmm, six of one, half dozen of the other......
"Still, it does sound a little like blaming the victim though, doesn't it?"
Not really. They were both abusing basic security, albeit in two different ways. If, say, this guy had been more adept at covering his tracks and there was a current employee might easily have come under suspicion. Changing the passwords ought to be routine and is in everyone's interest.
..think that the original proposed sentence of "90 years" is a tad high for essentially disrupting a radio station??
I mean all references of "Careful with that Axe Eugene" aside, you could truly be an axe murderer or do other unspeakable acts and be sentenced to a fraction of that.
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