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MIT Hacks XKCD Talk With AACS key

Posted by kdawson on from the hacking-101 dept.

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.

6 of 161 comments (clear)

  1. LSC != LCS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    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).

  2. Re:Wow! by EvanED · · Score: 5, Informative

    Actually, there's a reason behind the playpen balls (not pens). It's a reference to the strip.

  3. Re:Wow! by MtHuurne · · Score: 5, Informative

    They chose velociraptors for a reason.

  4. Re:Not to be contrarian, but by k3vlar · · Score: 5, Informative

    The term 'hack' has long been applied to various pranks on the MIT campus. Please read this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIT_hack

    --
    Unlike porn, which yada yada rimshot hey-ooh!
  5. Velociraptors by Kuvter · · Score: 5, Informative

    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
  6. XKCD: Hover over the comics by gsn · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.