Nightwork : A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT

by Institute Historian T. F. Peterson

• ISBN13: 9780262661379
• ISBN10: 0262661373
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-03-14
• Publisher: Mit Pr

Summary

Before the term hacking became associated with computers, MIT undergraduates used it to describe any activity that took their minds off studying, suggested an unusual solution to a technical problem, or generally fostered nondestructive mischief. The MIT hacking culture has given us such treasures as police cars and cows on the Great Dome, a disappearing door to the President's office, and the commencement game of "Al Gore Buzzword Bingo." Hacks can be technical, physical, virtual, or verbal. Often the underlying motivation is to conquer the inaccessible and make possible the improbable. Hacks can express dissatisfaction with local culture or with administrative decisions, but mostly they are remarkably good-spirited. They are also by definition ephemeral. Fortunately, the MIT Museum has amassed a unique collection of hack-related pictures, reports, and remnants. Nightworkcollects the best materials from this collection, to entertain innocent bystanders and inspire new generations of practitioners.

Author Biography

Institute Historian T. F. Peterson has spent many years lurking in the corridors of MIT picking up gossip and monitoring hacks in progress

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Introduction	p. ix
Where No Cow Has Gone Before: Accessing the Inaccessible	p. 1
Hack, Hacker, Hacking	p. 4
Auto Industry: The Great Vehicle Hacks	p. 5
Hacking Ethics	p. 10
Domework: Hacking the Domes	p. 11
Dome as Dais	p. 12
Greener Pastures: The Green Building Hacks	p. 27
Greenspeak Spoken Here	p. 31
Intriguing Hacks to Fascinate People	p. 35
Making an Entrance: The Lobby 7 Hacks	p. 37
Father Tool's Grand Tour	p. 47
Under the Dome	p. 54
"All Mondays Should Be So Beautiful": The Art of Hacking Art	p. 57
U.S.S. Tetazoo	p. 62
No Knife	p. 63
Why Ruin the Atrium?	p. 64
Green Eggs and Hair	p. 65
Form + Function = Hack: The Architecture Hacks	p. 67
A Guide for New Employees: Building History and Numbering System	p. 73
Hacking as Campus Commentary: The Editorial Hacks	p. 75
A Sign of the Times: Hacking with Signs and Banners	p. 85
The Numbers Game: Hackers Reinvent Measurement	p. 97
Recalculating the Infinite Corridor	p. 101
Beyond Recognition: Commemoration Hacks	p. 103
Object Lessons: Hacks in the Classroom	p. 113
Why Sleep through a Class When You Can Hack It?	p. 115
Worth a Thousand Words: Hacks Fit to Print	p. 119
That VooDoo That You Do	p. 121
Teaching a Nation to Make Snow: Hoax Hacks	p. 123
"Please Wait to Be Served": The Performance Hacks	p. 125
When MIT Won the Harvard-Yale Game: Hacking Harvard	p. 129
Student Leaders at MIT Claim Harvard as Colony	p. 140
The John Harvard Hacks	p. 141
Because It's There: The Best of the Rest	p. 143
Hacking by Mail	p. 150
Zen and the Art of Hacking: The Essays	p. 151
The Case of the Disappearing President's Office	p. 152
Door Man	p. 153
It's Not a Job, It's an Adventure	p. 155
The Great Breast of Knowledge	p. 159
Mastery over the Physical World: Demonstrative and Pedagogical Value of the MIT Hack	p. 160
Where the Sun Shines, There Hack They	p. 162
Engineering in Action	p. 165
Why We Hack	p. 169
Glossary of MIT Vernacular	p. 171
Sources	p. 175
Photo Credits	p. 177
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