Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at Mit

by T.F. Peterson

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. Nightwork collects the best materials from this collection, to entertain innocent bystanders and inspire new generations of practitioners.

Genres: Nonfiction, Humor, Technology, Computers, College, History

178 pages, Paperback

First published March 14, 2003

About the author

"Institute Historian T.F. Peterson" is a play on the abbreviation IHTFP, part of the folklore at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The precise time of origin is unknown, though the term IHTFP was already widely used at MIT by 1960. It originally stood for "I Hate This Fucking Place," but has been used to stand for many phrases, such as "I Have The Fucking Power," "I Help Tutor Freshman Physics," "It's Hard To Fondle Penguins", and "Institute for Hacks, TomFoolery, and Pranks." MIT leadership has adapted the acronym, using it to encourage vaccination during the 2009–2010 flu season with a banner in the MIT medical building that read "I Hate This Flu Pandemic".

Reviews

[Philitsa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is one of the few books that I stopped reading part of the way through. The thing read like a dictionary (not even an encyclopedia!). With such an interesting topic, I would think that it would be hard to write a boring book, but here it is!

The book "details" visual pranks pulled at MIT over the years, but with little detail (i.e. "and the dome got decorated like R2D2..."). There is very little how, or why, or reaction from the public chronicled, which is what I expected and what makes the story interesting.

Thanks to my husband's research (he's an MIT alumnus and didn't like me badmouthing anything remotely connected to the school), he found that this is a subset of material that the MIT museum has on the subject, and that a far better book is "Journal of the Institute of Hacks, Tomfoolery, and Pranks" by Brian M Leibowitz. If you're interested in a more entertaining book, I'd suggest that one even though I haven't read it. It can't be worse than this one!

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

An entertaining look, with lots of photographs, of the famous hacking (prancing) scene at MIT. Many pretty humorous. While many involve fairly complex pranks, many are simply funny pranks that I can imagine happening anywhere there are intelligent students. But give them their props, cause many could only occur there. I really love and admire the more unusual, complicated ones.

[K De · Rating 4 out of 5]

What is hacking? It is not what you think it is. T.F. Peterson gives a lively account of the history of hacking at MIT from the early 20th century to now. It is chock full of anecdotes about how hacking came to be and how it has evolved over the decades in the student who become a part of the MIT hack subculture. The is a ethos and mystic that is both known and unknown to the general public on "hacking" as is generally understood. From the famous campus police car on top of the MIT dome to the hack done on the football field there are many examples and how MIT hack culture has affected students, faculty, administration and out to the wider world of other educational institutions and cities. This is a fun read in which you get a taste of MIT hack culture.

[Jordan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The author manages to reduce a fascinating history of quirky people and wild pranks to a dry recitation of dimensions, dates, and building materials. I would have loved to read a book that delved into the personalities behind pranks like placing a campus police car on top of MIT’s Dome. This is a book full of great stories poorly told.

[Risa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good waiting room fare.

[Shane · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is great, and entertaining.

[Roger King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hacking in the common digital vernacular evolved from teenagers in basements rudely altering websites, to nefarious gangs in Eastern Europe and North Asia hijacking databases, now to countries spying on just about everyone and anything.

Back in simpler times, hacks were analog pranks, perpetrated in darkness for the morning daylight reveal. Raised to High Art at MIT, hacks were humorous satires of campus life, sometimes expressed off-campus at Harvard and Cal Tech.

My favorite (alumni MIT '73) was the weather balloon planted under the Harvard Stadium turf, remotely expanded during a Harvard Yale game--priceless pictures of H's on sweaters and O's on mouths.

These balloons were hot back in the day, cheap government surplus. A fraternity Brother unneighborly locked his room with a clasp and combination lock when leaving on vacation. It took a while but the combination was opened, all the furniture and personal items removed, weather balloon inserted, and room locked up with the combination changed. Eventually regaining entrance, puncturing the ballon, all that was left was torn rubber and talcum powder. Another Brother, a non smoker, filled several balloons with gas from the house stove, attached them to a beach chair, and embarked on a moonlit flight across campus.

Fire engines and police cars hauled up onto the Great Dome routinely attracted attention of morning traffic reporters in helicopters flying by. Another favorite was an Apollo Lunar Lander resting on the craterlees Dome.

Units of measurement were another theme, most famously "one smoot". As a pledging hack, 5'7" Lambda Chi freshman Oliver Smoot was repeatedly laid end-to-end along the Harvard Bridge, eventually measured at 364.4 smoots plus one ear. Mr. Smoot eventually became Chairman of American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and International Organization of Standards (ISO). Some things you just can't make up!

Many MIT hacks are on display at the MIT Museum, a must visit on campus, and chronicled in this book, a must read for all the nerds-at-heart.

[Noiresque · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, I wish GoodReads had a more sophisticated review system, because I would use one for this review.

The subject matter is fantastic. I love reading about and participating in pranks/hacks, so a book about this sort of thing at MIT is bound to be good. When I was growing up, Real Genius was one of my favorite movies. I was so excited about going to college, because I figured that it would be half high-tech classes and half hi jinks. Little did I know...

Anyway, the subject matter is delightful, but its treatment here is a bit lacking. The photos of the hacks, an essential element when discussing this stuff, are of poor quality and are only black and white. Plus, there are no photo captions (!) although the adjoining text usually explains it.

The organization of the book also leaves much to be desired. The hacks are divided up by type and then the highlights are given, but there are frequent repetitions, and no real progression.

Sprinkled in to all of this are "essays" by various students, alum and staff about hacks and hacking. They are pretty much just thrown in there.

Anyway, it is a short but generally enjoyable read, but this is in spite of, and not because of, the construction of the book. I guess good subject matter can save you every time.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

An amusing survey of the best hacks perpetrated by M.I.T.'s student body over the past century (and then some). Were the photography of slightly better quality, this would be the ultimate coffee table book for the geekish household. Of course, given the short lifespan of most of these hacks, one can understand why some of the pictures are less than perfectly framed.

I wish this book had provided a bit more insight into the school's culture of hackerdom, rather than repeatedly brushing over the surface (they're engineers, they're geeks, they're giddy from cramming thermodynamics for sixty hours straight). This is true of plenty of students at plenty of universities: why only at M.I.T. have students raised pranks to an art? Care to connect the dots between hacking on top of the Great Dome and thinking outside of the corporate box? Would that Peterson, the Institute's historian, had asked a sociologist or anthropologist buddy to flesh out his text, because I wanted there to be more discussion of the hackers' ethos and ideals.

[Tracey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received Nightwork : A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT as a birthday present from my brother.

A relatively slim (173 pgs) oversized volume, Peterson discusses the tradition of pranking (known as "hacks") at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston. Unlike many other colleges, MIT adheres to a strict hack code - no permanent damage is to be done, hacks are always anonymous, and there's usually both an element of parody and of the absurd. Technology & creativity also figure highly in the hacks.

The hacks are grouped by type, with black & white photos (unfortunately of varying quality) interspersed within the text; a nice section of color photos is included in the middle of the book. One of the last chapters includes essays on hacking, written by professors and administrators, as well as students and alumni. A glossary of slang and a sources list (that could be more detailed) is included as well.

A fun read for anyone interested in the more sophisticated form of college tomfoolery.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

"MIT hackers typically don't throw pies or wrap underwear around statues of the founding fathers. Rather, they make large objects appear in inaccessible places, rewire lecture hall blackboards to go haywire when the instructor tries to use them, replace chiseled wisdom on friezes with silly sayings in what appears to be identical script and then do so so cleverly that it takes a SWAT team of trained rappellers to dismantle them." Samuel Jay Kaiser, 1996.

This sums up the contents of the book quite elegantly. As an engineer, cracker, and hacker, I found this book to be highly entertaining. Read it.

[Kris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hacking is a long tradition of elaborate pranks at MIT, and this book covers both the hacks themselves, and some of the culture that causes them to thrive. It's impressive that the hacking culture prides itself on both its anonymity and in making sure that its hacks do no harm, which is no doubt why they are so successful. The style can be a bit dry at times, but my main complaint is that there aren't more pictures of the hacks (although there are a fair number of them).

[Owen Lindsell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Exactly what is says on the tin.

[Jonathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

The folks at MIT know how to have fun.

[Doc Kinne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The books was OK, and was a reasonable overview of the subject. I also could have wished for greater illustrations or photographs, but given the subject matter, perhaps its not quite possible.

[Rogue Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting idea to catalogue and even physically document MIT hacks, some stupid and some brilliant. Wish the photographs were better and captioned; some repetition.

[pmk · Rating 4 out of 5]

I lost interest near the end a bit but it was still a unique experience

[Pushpendra Singh · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is described the expression to hack onto the surrounding observed reality, in theory and practice.

[Jacques Bromberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought this gem for my father last year. Great photos!