The MIT Gallery of Hacks.

January 4, 2004 2:03 PM

The MIT Gallery of Hacks. Good-natured creative pranks by MIT students. The pinnacle was possibly 1999's Great Droid, with the Great Dome made to resemble R2D2's head to mark the release of some film or other at the time. In the spirit of the tradition, students left detailed instructions for the safe removal of the decoration.
posted by nthdegx (12 comments total)

From the FAQ:

Engaging in humorous and sometimes challenging pranks seems to be one such outlet

Which of these pranks was challenging? Or even funny?
posted by dydecker at 3:17 PM on January 4, 2004

MIT Hacks have been posted so many times in comments here that this isn't worth a FPP. Pretty much everyone knows about them... a quick Google search turns up at least 23 occurances of just the words "MIT Hack"

Please note in the posting guidelines that Matt suggests posting things that most people haven't seen [...] before.

You've posted enough links, nthdegx, that you should know better.
posted by SpecialK at 3:18 PM on January 4, 2004

Thanks, nthdegx, I hade forgotten about these. Caltech has a history of pranks as well.

Jeez, SpecialK, who pissed in your Cheerios this morning? If you look at the links in your 23 search results, only two of them are related to these MIT links; the others are unrelated pages that happen to have the two words on them. As far as I can tell, it hasn't been the subject of a FPP, and who knows, maybe most current readers haven't seen it. If this were a true double post, a call-out is fine, but scolding a poster because the topic was mentioned in two comments over a year ago seems excessive.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 3:40 PM on January 4, 2004

SpecialK, I thought twice I'll admit. What swayed my decision was the fact that there are some wonderful people that don't live on the internet the way I do who may not have seen the site before. That, and the fact that the site continues to be updated means even those that have seen the site will see something new if they care to look. Anyone bored with the site is free to overlook the post.
posted by nthdegx at 3:48 PM on January 4, 2004

You've posted enough links, nthdegx, that you should know better.

Don't be a douche bag, you douche bag.
posted by The God Complex at 4:01 PM on January 4, 2004

I think if you Google ANY front page topic you'd get many results... I don't think that's how we measure whether or not to post a link. The idea is that not everyone knows to Google "MIT Hack" out of the blue...

I for one haven't seen it before. Leave it to MIT students to do a Star Wars prank of such proportion.
posted by swank6 at 4:02 PM on January 4, 2004

SpecialK, it's been what, three decades since you've had sex?
posted by jon_kill at 4:58 PM on January 4, 2004

I *so* want to high-five jon_kill. Returning to the topic, I hadn't see anything on this before, and enjoyed the post.
posted by mojohand at 5:12 PM on January 4, 2004

SpecialK didn't have his bran this morning.
posted by republican at 6:37 PM on January 4, 2004

I dimly recall an article on hacks like these in an OMNI magazine issue of yore that mentioned diassembling a faculty member's Volkswagen Beetle, then leaving it reassembled in the professor's office -- with the engine running.
posted by alumshubby at 6:49 PM on January 4, 2004

Personally, if I was working at MIT, I'd be worried about what appears to be truly useless security.
posted by biffa at 2:05 AM on January 5, 2004

Oooh, I had missed the Wright brothers on the dome. and here's a list IHTFP phrases.
posted by dabitch at 9:11 AM on January 5, 2004