Portal prank: covering up crosswalk button sign

Someone's replaced crosswalk button with this funny reference to Portal, an addictive puzzle-game that uses a gun that generates "portals" that allow you to teleport through space.

Portal Crosswalk Sign Hack (via Neatorama)

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bbonyx

My favorite part of this post is Cory’s lengthy explanation of Portal on one of the places (BB) where I have no doubt he could have just said “The Cake is a Lie” and every single person here would have gotten the reference. =P
- mausium
  
  “My favorite part of this post is Cory’s lengthy explanation of Portal on one of the places (BB) where I have no doubt he could have just said “The Cake is a Lie” and every single person here would have gotten the reference. =P”
  
  My favorite part of BoingBoing is that 99% of it is actually interesting experiences and references without the need to revert into mindless, masturbatory catchphrasing.
  
  Whenever I go onto Gawker or Kotaku, I see the constant mainstream (and yes, Portal *is* mainstream) pop-culture references, with two or three replies of “OH I GET THAT JOKE! HA HA WE BOTH WATCHED THE SAME THING!”
  
  Gaming is mainstream and sci-fi haven’t been “underground” for what, thirty years?
  
  More ranting at the masturbatory high-fives over nerddom elsewhere on the net than bitching at you :)
Miss Cellania

“Someone” is Jeff Wysaski. He runs the site Pleated Jeans. He even posted a printable copy. http://i.imgur.com/gBs1M.jpg
JonStewartMill

Not me. I know Portal is a popular computer game but nothing else about it.

/me goes back to building a highway that stretches the entire width of a Minecraft world
- peterbruells
  
  Same here. Though I’ve heard “The cake is a lie” before and recognised it as a computer-game related in-joke, I’ve neeven connected it with “Portal”.
  
  Same with Minecraft, which is apparently some kind of computerized lego,
noen

You monster.
billster

You’re more likely to get a portal by pressing the button. Seriously, does pressing the button EVER change the light? I thought that traffic lights were on some sort of schedule.
- bbonyx
  
  While some smaller lights are still timed, most modern (US) traffic signals are tied into a “Loop”, which is a circuit running around the area near the intersection. The Loop detects when cars near the intersection and control the red/green switching accordingly. This (in theory) cuts down on times when a car would be sitting with no cross traffic.
  Pushing the pedestrian button sends a similar signal to the system, indicating that traffic (in this case foot traffic) needs the right of way to be given in their intended direction.
  
  But yes, they often seem to not function.
- putty
  
  I’ve always refered to those buttons as placebo.
MacBookHeir

I’m an avid walker and spend a lot of serious time at intersections and crosswalks – I’ve seen much light-hearted vandalism on many crosswalk button men, usually along the lines of adding faces and bits of clothing to the image. Lately I’ve noticed more stickers on crosswalk men which make little artistic statements – and of course, bands tend to slap their bumper stickers on crosswalk placards
metalgorgar

If the button on the other side had the orange portal, it would be much cooler
jackbird

I’ve always been partial to this (can’t find a video link, but the still speaks for itself): http://snl.jt.org/detail.php?i=1981110715
GeekMan

Hmm… that would be a lot safer than actually crossing the street.
putty

http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs21/f/2007/287/d/d/Portal_Icons__Part_I_by_CalicoStonewolf.jpg
leo

Doesn’t pressing a button usually result in a weighted storage cube being dropped?
grikdog

I don’t actually play any game my daughter has shredded a week after I bought it for myself, so no, I had to Google “the cake is allied.”
fnc

The signal change is a lie.
Sarah Neptune

when I saw the sign, I understood it in the sense that it was a portal, not a video game reference.

I’ve never heard of the game but I’m certainly familiar with portals, and would like one. I am equally clueless about cake (also want one) – it’s just better that way. But I like the sign.
TimmoWarner

I can’t speak for them making the light change any faster if there is no traffic, but I have seen many such buttons where if you do not press it, the pedestrian walk light will NEVER tell you to cross.

The traffic will get to go, but it won’t give you the walk light beforehand unless you press the button.
- Donald Petersen
  
  if you do not press it, the pedestrian walk light will NEVER tell you to cross.
  
  Funny you should mention it. At your namesake’s movie studio in Burbank, the crosswalk button on the southwest corner of Gate 4 (where Hollywood Way crosses Olive) used to be perfectly superfluous. Didn’t matter if you pushed it or not, because at regular intervals the main flow of east/west traffic would get a red light, and a full four seconds before the north/south traffic would get their green, the “Walk” signal would always light, button or no button. (It would do it early so pedestrians would get a leg up on the impatient drivers turning right from southbound Hollywood Way onto westbound Olive, on their way over the hill.) Since I used that gate to grab my lunches at Taco Bell for several years, I eventually stopped pressing the button, knowing I’d get a Walk signal soon no matter what.
  
  Well, that stopped this past fall. I didn’t press the button, and for the first time in memory, I didn’t get a Walk signal when the north/south lights went green. I cursed the traffic engineers who restored that button to functionality, since they delayed by Double-Decker Taco intake by at least a minute and a half, and my time is damned valuable!
  
  But otherwise, you’re right. Since the full cycle of a “Walk-signal-followed-by-flashing-Don’t-Walk-followed-by-steady-Don’t-Walk-and-amber-traffic-light” generally takes longer than a traffic signal cycle without the Walk cycle, the button helps keep traffic moving without unnecessary delays. I always hate it when there’s a big crowd of pedestrians clustered on a city corner but none of them actually bothered to press the button. Invariably the traffic light turns green but the Walk signal does not. Half the peds take a couple steps into the intersection, pause when they realize their error, then most of them (who can’t be bothered to wait one cycle and do it again properly) go ahead and plod into the intersection anyway.
  
  I’m not too pedestrian friendly when peds can’t be bothered to wait their turn.
  - Gulliver
    
    > I’m not too pedestrian friendly when peds can’t be bothered to wait their turn.
    
    That’s sensible; you get more points for jaywalkers :P
    
    Seriously though, don’t mow down peds. It ties up traffic.
    - Donald Petersen
      
      It ties up traffic.
      
      Clogs one’s grille, too, and my radiator needs all the airflow it can get.
  - Anonymous
    
    You just cleared up a minor mystery for me! Couple weeks ago I was jogging for the first time since last summer, and that light is one of my regular crossings. I almost never think to hit the buttons, b/c it seems like they go by themselves here.
    
    So I stood there thru a full cycle before realizing it wasn’t going to let me not get run over until I pushed the button.
Crashproof

Prolonged exposure to the button is not a part of the test.