Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT [Paperback]

Institute Historian T. F. Peterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 14, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0262661373 | ISBN-13: 978-0262661379 | Edition: 1

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A reminder that it is up to each generation to go where no man has gone before." Joanna Pawel New York Sun

"Nightwork...shows that students just want to have fun, especially engineering and technology students." Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Institute Historian T. F. Peterson has spent many years lurking in the corridors of MIT picking up gossip and monitoring hacks in progress.

Product Details

• Paperback: 190 pages
• Publisher: The MIT Press; 1 edition (March 14, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0262661373
• ISBN-13: 978-0262661379
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #495,546 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, but with a caveat., January 31, 2005

By 

Stacey Tappan (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT (Paperback)

This is a terrific, fairly comprehensive book of the highlights from MIT's long tradition of pranks. However, if you have already read Journal of the Institute of Hacks, Tomfoolery, and Pranks, you'll find you've read most of this before, and in better detail, with better-reproduced photographs (in my opinion.) The good thing about Nightwork is that this is includes hacks from more recent years than the other book.

For me, the time they spent on the new stuff wasn't nearly enough to justify buying a whole new book, but on its own and to someone who has never read its predecessor, it is an excellent and entertaining history.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And yet, the professor pulls off another Hack ..., December 6, 2004

By 

Jorge Martinez "Engineer" (Beaverton, OR) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT (Paperback)

I had a brief opportunity to read this book a while ago. There are plenty of stories about hacks that would make anyone go "why in the name of science these geeks wanted to do that?" And well, you are asking that about people that are pride of being considered geeks. But then again, with this book you will get acquainted with the all-time famous football game between Harvard and Yale where the winner was MIT (??), the 48 unit weight that "cracked" the dome and that the measure of the Harvard bridge is about 364.4 smoots + one ear

And for those of you lucky enough to have established contact with an MIT student/alum, ask them about the secret that lies within the Institute Historian T. F. Peterson and the "hack" that its right there in front of your eyes. Congratulations, you have been hacked.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting Hacks To Fascinate People, March 14, 2004

By 

roy christopher "frontwheeldrivedotcom" (Portland, OR, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT (Paperback)

The Massechussettes Institue of Technology has been host to the leaders of innovations in many fields: Artificial Intelligence, media and communication technology, open source development, and on and on. One of its lesser known areas of bleeding-edge innovation has been pranks and hacking. Well, Institute Historian T. F. Peterson is here to set that straight with Nightwork: A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT.

Long before the term 'hacking' was associated with computers (and pejoratively by the popular press), it was an MIT institution. MIT undergrads used the term to describe any activity that took their minds off studying and stress. In Nightwork, the best of the best of the history of MIT hacks is documented, photographed, and explained in great detail.

Some of the best (and most visible) hacks at MIT involve The Great Dome. For instance, to celebrate the 2001 release of the movie The Lord of the Rings, MIT hackers made a gold ring around the dome with red Elvish script, "authentically inscribed with Tolkien's text." In the same spirit in 1999, two days before the release of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, the dome was made up to look like R2D2 (pictured below).

Nightwork covers these more obvious hacks as well as the long history of pranks at MIT dating back to the 1940s: Interesting Hacks To Fascinate People. And lest the reader think this is all just mindless fun, a collection of explanitory and philosophical essays is also included.

Even if you're not a hacker or a prankster yourself, hack your bookshelf with Nightwork.