Slashdot Mirror

only on /. would somebody think that sending a lot of new visitors to a website is a prank on the same level as liberating a 110 year old cannon and moving it 3,000 miles.
even CalTech kids seem to think MIT is ahead..... http://www.caltechvsmit.com/

the brass rat is a nice touch, iirc there was an old MIT hack where somebody welded one to the hand on the statue of the founder of Harvard? the MIT hacks are well documented online and in a few books.

disclaimer: i did not attend either school.

At this time, it has NOT been updated, actually...still reads 6v1 (hopefully whoever's responsible [hah] for maintaining it will add this story). The 1 point is for MIT's response to this prank, specifically, this.

At this time, it has NOT been updated, actually...still reads 6v1 (hopefully whoever's responsible [hah] for maintaining it will add this story). The 1 point is for MIT's response to this prank, specifically, this.

I note that the http://www.caltechvsmit.com/ seems updated to reflect this hack. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but if not I have a question.

Caltech pulls a number of silly little pranks that, to be quite honest, no one really noticed, and garners 6 points for their "feud" with MIT... MIT students socially engineer themselves into being able to steal and drive Caltech's cannon across the United States, point it back at Caltech and install a large (really well made) brass rat onto the barrel of the cannon and create a plaque commemorating the heist.

All that's worth one point? Pff.

Not that I really care or anything; it's like my attitude towards the Red Sox... it's not until they're in the playoffs or the series that I pay attention.

[EDITORS: IMPROVED VERSION! CLICK THE LINKS! Possibly the most inspired post ever ...] There's a history of pranks and hacks in the year-end issue of the Economist, including MIT hacks, the Bonsai Kitten, and the Pentagon hack by my favorite, Abbie Hoffman. They end with an invitation: "... we invite readers to nominate their contender for the finest prank in history, explaining in 750 words why it deserves the title." Slashdot readers, can you hack the contest?

The concrete barrier thing was part of Senior Ditch Day, the most wonderful day of the year at Caltech. Ditch Day activities are centered around "stacks", not the usual pranks (called "RFs"). RF stands for either Royal Fuck or Real Fun or whatever other phrase you can find that fits.

This Wikipedia blurb on Caltech pranks mentions some of the more well-known RFs. And of course, when it comes to Caltech vs MIT in pranks, Caltech rules!

Interesting. For reference, here is the original text and links (from before the article "went live", as seen by subscribers):

Luther Blissett writes "There's a history of pranks and hacks in the year-end issue of the Economist, including MIT hacks, the Bonsai Kitten, and the Pentagon hack by my favorite, Abbie Hoffman." From the article: "At Harvard's neighbour, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 'hacks', as the MIT crowd calls them, are more serious. So serious, in fact, that in 2003 the institute's best hacks were assembled in a 178-page book, 'Nightwork'. The pranks at MIT tend to be feats of engineering. They are positively encouraged, because they teach students to work in teams, solve complex problems and, sometimes, get a message across. Mr Peterson's book includes an 11-point code for pranksters: leave no damage, do not steal, do not drop things off a building without a ground crew, and so on. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, at least, student pranks have become an establishment activity."

I guess that this must be an inverse contest. Whoever wins will prove that they spend too much valuable time thinking about pranks instead of getting an education.

Because most slashdotters probably won't actually browse around the site, I think it's important to repeat some of the rules of this prank war. The intent of this is good-natured fun, which seems to be missed by some of the commenters here.

From http://www.caltechvsmit.com/overview.html:

Both Caltech and MIT require that students put in a lot of hard work studying math and science. Because the stress is so intense, we students at Caltech believe that pranks are an important, if not essential, way to relax and have a little fun. We are familiar with MIT's tradition of hacks and hope that we can merge the cultures at the two schools, if only for a short time.

We propose that MIT joins us in a pranking/hacking war. As you may have already noticed, we struck first, so now it is MIT's turn. Obviously the distance between schools poses a great difficulty, but we believe that MIT students will find that this difficulty can be overcome. In fact all of the pranks need not even be on the other school's campus so long as the pranks are made public enough through the media.

The rules of the contest are simple and are essentially the same as Caltech's prank ethics and MIT's hackers' code. Pranks should be reversible. No permanent damage should be done and the pranksters must provide some sort of contact information on a note so they can be contacted if things are damaged. The note need not contain names, but it must be a reliable way to contact the pranksters.

Pranks should be creative and display some form of originality. Novel ideas, particularly novel ideas involving technology, are generally well received, but repeats are strictly discouraged. We suggest that those wanting to participate make themselves very familiar with the history of pranks and hacks at both schools in order to prevent repeating pranks.

Finally, we wish to inform MIT students that Caltech Prefrosh Weekend is next weekend. It may not be possible to organize something so quickly, but we have faith in the ingenuity of MIT students. We hope to see you all in Pasadena soon.

As a side note, denial of service attacks are lame. Anybody can do that. Wouldn't your time be better spent trying to put a '2' on the scoreboard?