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MIT Hacks XKCD Talk With AACS key
Reader Hanji alerts us to a hack pulled off when Randall Munroe, author of the popular webcomic XKCD, spoke at MIT by invitation of the Lab for Computer Science. MIT hackers dropped hundreds of labelled playpen balls onto the audience from hatches in the ceiling. The labels bore XKCD's logo as well as the recently discovered 16-byte AACS processing key. At another point in Munroe's talk he was stalked by remote-controlled mechanical velociraptors; but fortunately he had been supplied with a squirt gun full of grape juice.
thats better than being stalked by remotely controlled mechanical MPAA lawyers
http://xkcd.com/c202.html
Learn your history, n00b.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
Yeah arent college pranks supposed to be stuff of legend?
"Lets drop some things and then set our overpriced RC toys at him!"
"Genius!"
"Yep, we're MIT students!"
The xkcd talk was hosted by the MIT Lecture Series Committee, not the MIT Labratory for Computer Science (which was merged with the AI Lab to form CSAIL a few years ago, and thus no longer formally exists).
For some reason, I expected him to be really thin, and wearing a black hat.
This is a sig. It is appended to the end of comments I post.
how odd we don't see the two tags together more often
I was there, it was awesome, but as a previous commenter said, it wasn't a particularily big "hack"; it was more of a prank, really.
Actually, there's a reason behind the playpen balls (not pens). It's a reference to the strip.
It's a little late to be jumping on the spread-the-AACS-key bandwagon, isn't it?
A Minesweeper clone that doesn't suck
The grape fruit juice and the raptors come from a blog entry about a letter he received.
Pfft, everyone velociraptors fear nothing besides traffic cones.
Mr. Moose did this first, and better.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
and the velociraptors http://xkcd.com/c87.html
SUX!
Genericon is trying to get him to come to RPI next year, so with any luck I may get my chance to meet him. Until then I'll just keep plastering comics on my door.
Evidently, the key to understanding recursion is to begin by understanding recursion. The rest is easy.
The playpen balls were a reference to one of xkcd's more popular comics, Grownups. The message on the playpen balls was a reference to some of xkcd's comics "My hobby...".
...that someone, SOMEONE, comes to my local city to chat that is even 1/2 as interesting. It has been YEARS since I was at a guest lecture... seem some good ones (esp Douglas Adams - talking about his book Last Chance to See). Wonder how you get on a mailing list...
"If you are on fire you can just stop, drop, and roll. If you fall into Lava you are just dead." - my 5yr old daughter
Why is it that whenever anything even remotely of interest happens at MIT, it immediately shows up on the front page of Slashdot, Digg, and Boingboing?
I'll gladly admit that xkcd is a great comic, and that there are plenty of smart students and professors at MIT. However, the disproportinate amount of press coverage that MIT (and the Ivies) receive is downright insulting to the rest of us.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
I've heard people have fun and do creative things at other schools, too, but I didn't read it on Slashdot.
Does CmdrTaco subscribe the MIT PR feed?
They chose velociraptors for a reason.
What was the name of that Internet "law" (more like an observation) that once you reach a point far enough to the political right, your viewpoint becomes indistinguishable from satire?
I assume you posted this in honour of the late Jerry Falwell.
I may make you feel, but I can't make you think.
They really need a new lecture hall. Most uncomfortable seats ever!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOWntIdegws
Were that I say, pancakes?
Now I know why the XKCD site is sooo slow. I just discovered it yesterday and was going through the back posts. Little did I know the site had been slashdotted.
I only wish he'd publish a dead-tree edition. My favorite web comic (actually, the only one I bother to check, other than Penny Arcade once in awhile.)
Um, how is dropping balls with text from the ceiling - your own ceiling - in any way clever? Or, for that matter, how is that a "hack"? Had it been a company doing it, it'd be classified solidly in the "lame promotion attempt" category.
Trust the Computer. The Computer is your friend.
Well, to be perfectly precise, that's all a real hacker is. But those who released the key were crackers. Not to be confused with the fucking hilarious racial epithet.
For those who may have missed the Velociraptor joke, another one here, and one more for good measure.
I love xkcd!
"To be is to do." --Socrates
"To do is to be." -- Aristotle
"Do-Be-Do-Be-Do..." --Sinatra
Well, if they absolutely had to drop shit from the ceiling and involve the lame-ass robots, wouldn't it be cooler to drop ballpens with hidden RFID chips broadcasting that stolen DVD key, then make those raptors and random gadgets harass the carrier? Hunter-seeker transistor ants homing in on your cellphone? Mounted paintball guns targeting a passerby until she begs them to killer aunt delete select all? A tape recorder hidden in an elevator demanding MAFIAA royalties for listening to the elevator music the visitors "have not bought": hand over $2000 or we sue you for x100 that? A suit or armour OCRing the badges/name tags, then chatbotting the visitors. A rigged soda machine locking out non-diet cans if your BMI is too high? Anything, but this?
I would have to agree with GP, this MIT prank would be great for a Sunday school or a fat camp.
Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
I was in Boston that day, but I couldn't get a seat. They turned me away at the door. Would have gotten in if I didn't get out of the no-ticket line for food.
The pictures show they just used sticky labels. Still a pain in the rear, but not THAT bad. Having the ceiling open automatically, though, that would be fun, though I expect it wouldn't be that difficult for MIT types who like RC toys.
If they really want to do something impressive, laser etch the damn number into the AACS LA's office building or something. Or use mirrors to reflect it off a cloud or mountain or something. Or make your own fulgerites in the shape of the number, turn them into a necklace, and auction it. Or make it the new default screen saver for every computer in the main computer labs. Or disguise it as artwork and put it with the rest of those NSA cryptogram statues. Or find some way to write it legibly on the moon.
Or something.
NOTE: Poster is not responsible for the wrath of the world if someone actually finds a way to deface the moon. Besides, it was supposed to be a Coke logo, not the Magic Number...
Extremisim in any form is pretty tough to distinguish from satire. For instance, it's hard to tell if the thousands of the inane "OMG Linux+OOo+Beryl rocks M$ is the sux0r!" posts here are satire or not. I hope at least some of them are.
int getRandomNumber() {
/* P.S. Schneier approves! */ // Chosen by fair dice roll, guaranteed to be random.
return 4;
}
You mean like Aram from Men in Hats? Man, I miss that.
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
Also, if you don't already know, being afraid of and protecting yourself from velociraptor attacks and playpen balls as sexual innuendo are a common meme at xkcd and on its forum. Simple things like releasing playpen balls and stalking Randall Munroe with velociraptors seem to be the perfect hack considering the general spirit of the comic. In the end, the sophistication doesn't matter if it completely misses the joke and just doesn't feel right for the occasion. There's a right time and place to show off your tech skills, but this one just wasn't.
:/- spoon(_).
You'd think that a comic like this would appeal only to those of the dorky persuasion, but I think I know why it has broader appeal. (I know at least one non-dorky person who doesn't know the technical background of the jokes, but still really likes xkcd.) It's because the comic isn't really about dorky things; it uses dorky jokes to talk about themes like loneliness which even non-dorks can appreciate, and does this often enough that many non-dorks find it worth the time to read. Compare this to, for instance, Schlock Mercenary, which has its appeal pretty firmly limited to dorks.
Laws do not persuade just because they threaten. --Seneca
I find it amazing that of all the moderation that comment got, not one of them was +1 Funny.
Chances are any disscution on Slashdot will degrade into a flamewar about ID/Christianity within 14 posts.
LSC..
You gotta find first gear in your giant robot car
"Lets drop some things and then set our overpriced RC toys at him!"
Great job, Guys! Throwing that switch and all, I can see your MIT education really pays for itself
</Barney>
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
What was the name of that Internet "law" (more like an observation) that once you reach a point far enough to the political right, your viewpoint becomes indistinguishable from satire?
You're thinking of the law that "once you reach a point far enought to the political right, your viewpoint becomes indistinguishable from your liberal girlfriend's."
Oddly, it's equally disturbing for both parties.
One man's -1 Flamebait is another man's +5 Funny.
Um...'Crackers' do something illegal. It's not illegal to write a number on a ball, unless the MPAA owns copyright on a number.
Having only recently been introduced to xkcd (and having read the entirety of the strip in one sitting) I have to say this entire thing is quite amusing. The balls, the raptors... obviously the folks who pulled this have read and understood the strip.
If you haven't read it yet, I highly recommend it. Geek humour at it's finest (and sometimes most touching)
Hey Rob, where's my 20 questions with the xkcd author???
If I knew the wedgies I gave you back in 6th grade would have resulted in this . . . I might have taken a moments pause.
The comics have the Title attribute defined. For example http://xkcd.com/c253.html. I read them all and noticed this a week later and then had to go back and read them all again.
I love xkcd.
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.
This whole "let's broadcast the AACS key everywhere" thing is getting really freaking old.
I've only read Slashdot a half-dozen times since that story broke, and it's still going strong, everybody and their mother has the key in their sig, tags, stories, etc.
Broadcasting new ways to rip people off with twice the resolution of previous methods isn't edgy, fun, making a statement...at best it's subversive and anti-establishment for no good reason and I guess nerds love that sort of thing.
I'm quite glad I got out of IT and am pursuing a Ph.D. in an unrelated field at this point....
Firefox doesn't show the whole titles (i.e. hovertext) without the Long Titles extension. Get it. Enjoy it. :D
Don't miss the alt text.
I wrote down the ones I thought were amusing to save others from my agony. Here is some code to generate clickable links. Drop it in a text file and browse it, or just take the numbers and manually enter the URLs.
Well, you may be wrong there as writting that particular number anywhere may indeed be illegal under the DMCA. Not because the number itself is copyrighted (it isn't), but because it 'facilitates' copyright violations.
Sorry, I'm obviously new here. Please explain how this is actually a hack.
Get off my launchpad!
Anyone confused about why playpen balls and velociraptors should see:
Grownups
Velociraptors
Just one for old times' sake.
The LSC Registration Day porno movie -- your guarantee that you'll see a naked woman during your stay at MIT.
I support free speech and think the MPAA is overreacting. But at the same time, this guy (and everyone else who has plastered the key everywhere) is acting in a provocative manner. This whole argument is starting to sound like the brother/sister act of "I'm not touching you". Maybe if both sides grew up and actually tried to understand the other sides argument, this type of thing could be resolved.
http://timcol6.freehostia.com/
It works the other way too; when you get too far to the left, it gets indistinguishable from satire.
As far as Shelly goes, she is satire. I'm a republican and I was outraged by the things that site said. I researched it and found out the connection between them and Billy Bob Neck who is a comedian. Maybe I'm just naive, but how many people do you think read that and believe it? Thats the part that scares me. For all their hardcore and radical beliefs, even hannity and beck, etc don't go that insane. (I am a pretty moderate repub btw)
True, but those who originally got the key and released it were crackers as it is illegal to initially knowingly release a trade secret. Everybody else just parroted the information, so basically the MIT boys were a poorly updated RSS feed
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
Mods: It's not off-topic. The 'xkcd' hat guy was modeled after the character Aram from Men in Hats. (See the alt text to this comic.)
Well, if you want to know if anyone takes the STR blog seriously, just check out some of the comments people leave. There seems to be quite a few that are not also satirical in nature.
It made me shudder even more than some of the crudest, most ignorant Youtube comments, which are basically the bottom of the barrel for human nature.
I may make you feel, but I can't make you think.
It's a good thing with all the patent issues that Richard Stallman now has his very own katana.d -part-ii-richard-stallman/
http://blag.xkcd.com/2007/04/19/life-imitates-xkc
What was the name of that Internet "law" (more like an observation) that once you reach a point far enough to the political right, your viewpoint becomes indistinguishable from satire?
i believe you're refering to Poe's law:
"Without the use of a winking smiley or other blatant display of humor, it is impossible to make a parody of fundamentalism that someone won't mistake for the real thing."
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
Yes, that's exactly it.
I think the reason I couldn't recall it was because I conflated the general concept of fundamentalism with the current political situation. The way it's actually phrased is much more universally applicable.
I may make you feel, but I can't make you think.
XKCD is hilarious! I'm glad it was linked. I just finished reading every last comic (except for a few of the beginning ones that were high school drawings). There are a lot of classic ones. I want the "Make me a sandwich" "What? Make it yourself" "Sudo make me a sandwich" "Okay" t-shirt!
:D
http://xkcd.com/store/
Great comics
So, like 27 people link to the playpen balls comic, but no one mentions that someone actually baked him a cake shaped like the internet - a deliciously(!) multi-layered reference to XKCD?
sic transit gloria mundi
on the other hand, you can go over to democratic underground.com and see this amazing trip down the road of stupidity and failed critical thinking
That isn't satire. That is an actual liberal posting on an actual mainstream liberal website and he is obviously batshit insane. I have never seen anything on freerepublic.com as retarded as that thread on democraticunderground.com
As crazy and conspiratorial as it is, that post seems downright sensible compared to the things Pat Robertson says.
Please, for the good of Humanity, vote Obama.
You forgot something. The juice joke doesn't make sense without that. :P