A giant statue of the Greek goddess Athena appeared in MIT's Killian Court on the first day of final exams 2009.
Hacks, clever student stunts that enliven campus life and do no harm, are an MIT tradition. Now the MIT Press and the MIT Museum are revising Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT in time for the pending 150th Institute anniversary in 2011. They need new material—and they are hoping that alumni will come forward to share stories and information.
The deadline looms! In fact, writer Eric Bender needs to hear from you by Friday, March 26. See ways to contact him below—and you can remain anonymous.
“In particular, I’m writing an essay about hacks from 2001 to today,” Bender says. “I’d love to hear from alums who have special knowledge of hacks in that period.”
Bender is particularly interested in these hacks:
- Caltech cannon abduction
- Apollo lunar module on the Dome
- Solar-powered subway on the Dome
- “In case of zombie attack, break glass”
- Board games hack
- Fire truck on the Dome (5th anniversary of 9/11)
- Marriage proposal banner drop
- Yellow cranks
- Wright Flyer on the Dome
- One Ring to Rule the Dome
Ready to share a tale or two? You can email Bender with a comment or set up a time to chat at ebender@mit.edu. Or leave voicemail at his day job, 617-732-2418.
Meanwhile feel free to visit Interesting Hacks To Fascinate People: the MIT Gallery of Hacks.
The world could use a few laughs these days, or chuckles, or even smiling nods of appreciation for supreme cleverness. Show off that irreverent MIT spirit and enter the Alumni Association’s Hacks @ Home video contest.
Here’s all you have to do:
- Create a hack somewhere in the world
- Record a short video of it (90 seconds max)
- Upload said video to YouTube and submit a very quick entry form
Earn the admiration and respect of your peers—who knew it could be so easy?
Videos must be uploaded by March 25, 2010, by MIT alumni. Winning videos will be posted April 1 (I know, so fitting, right?). Here are all the details.
Bioengineering hack on Feb. 7. Photo: Eric Schmiedl ’09
Hack aficionado and photographer Eric Schmiedl ’09 captured a Feb. 7 hack in photos and this on-the-scene description:
Satirizing MIT’s newest major (Biological Engineering), hackers representing “Stepford Labs” at the MIT Department of Biological Engineering installed a display case full of “enhanced” simulated body parts in MIT’s Infinite Corridor on 2/7/10. The body parts included: a head with a functional video camera replacing an eye, a leg with a power socket, feet with rolling wheels, an “Avatar”-style head, a face with LEDs in the eyes (transmitting “IHTFP” in Morse code), a head with a “Matrix”-style socket in the neck, a neck featuring a jack for “IP over Voice” as well as analog audio, and a hand with a USB “thumb drive.”
See a slide show of the hack photos.
The shopping cart-turned-go-kart, dubbed LOLrioKart. Photo: MITERS
More years passed than I care to acknowledge before the practice of perching on a shopping cart and zooming through the grocery store got old. In fact, it never got that old. Not to me, and evidently, not to these MIT students.
According to gadget blog Gizmodo, a group of MIT students recently fashioned a go-kart out of a shopping cart using a stack of NiCd aircraft batteries, a 15hp brushless motor, and some new wheels. The best (read: scariest) part? It can reach 45 miles per hour.
I don’t think they’ve taken it to any grocery stores, though they did record a charming tour of campus. Check it out on YouTube or view below:
Want to see the view from MIT’s hottest hack site–the Great Dome? Photographer and now videographer Eric Schmiedl, a senior majoring in Comparative Media Studies, offers a short video of MIT facilities folk taking down the Apollo hack. Their comments offer a glimpse of what it’s like to be on the other end of the hack experience.
Schmiedl captures these hack removal specialists taking apart the largest and most difficult part of this week’s Apollo 11 lunar lander hack from the Great Dome: the welded steel base, too large to fit through any door. One facilities veteran on the roof had a hand in removing the legendary police car on the dome hack.
During his undergraduate years, Eric Schmiedl has avidly documented MIT life in photography. One of his images will be included in American Photography 25, one of the most prestigious photo competitions in the country. Fewer than 1 percent of the 10,000-plus images submitted were chosen for the honor. Schmiedl’s image was originally taken for the cover of a student-driven calendar meant to raise money for an Institute scholarship. Schmiedl’s Web site offers a history of hacks and much, much more.
In case you haven’t seen video from the April 28th MBTA Red Line solar power subway hack, check it out:
Hackers were busy welcoming pre-frosh to Campus Preview Weekend today. Signs inspired by CPW sprang up around campus, all courtesy of Creative People with Words. Take a look:
Claustrophobic pterodactyls wandered in the tunnel between buildings 54 and 18.
Closeup on the pterodactyls.
The sign for this hack reads Carnivorous Plants Win. The plunger is a reference to the carnivorous plants that threaten the video game character/plumber Mario.
The sign for this hack outside the student lounge off Lobby 10 reads Colorful Psets on Windows. In the background is the Carnivorous Plants Win hack.
Admit it, you're itching to see one of the p-sets.
This sign, Cool People Working, appeared outside the Admissions Office.
In Stata, unsuspecting prefrosh risked being captured in webbing.
The front of Stata boasted an MIT no-brainer: Can Program Well
Can Paint Walls at East Campus Desk
On the exterior of Kresge: Chibi Prefrosh Welcome
Anyone who's been to this part of Stata will agree that this is a Completely Pointless Walkway.
Sorry, prefrosh. This one reads: Covering Prefrosh with Water
Photo: ZUG
Last fall, the comedy Web site ZUG held a contest seeking the funniest content and placement for a large vinyl banner. The winner suggested one for Harvard’s entrance reading “Institute of Nowledge.” ZUG writers took it one step further and decided an actual experiment was needed to determine whether MIT or Harvard has the better sense of humor. I know, pointless. But they did it anyway.
So they placed the banner (MIT’s read INSTITVTE OF NOWLEDGE) in prominent locales at both schools: above an entrance to Harvard Yard and over the doors leading to Lobby 7.
You can view the play by play of the prank and reactions at both schools, but they can be summed up by the reactions of the campus police. Harvard’s officers on the scene radioed for backup then maintained surveillance of the sign until a maintenance crew could remove it. MIT’s officers looked at the sign, laughed, then grabbed breakfast in the Student Center.
