4 ms·
The great Rose Bowl hoax of 1961
- TriinT 17y agoSome more famous Caltech pranks at: http://www.globalprovince.com/caltech.htm http://www.globalprovince.com/caltech.htm
- _pius 17y agoCal-Tech's been trying to imitate MIT hacks for years: http://hacks.mit.edu/ http://hacks.mit.edu/
- TriinT 17y agoWith all due respect, I don't think MIT invented "hacks". MIT invented the name, though. MIT is older than Caltech. But Cambridge University is older than MIT. At Cambridge, they've been pulling hacks for centuries.
- _pius 17y agoI didn't say we invented hacks; I just said that Cal-Tech's been imitating ours for years. :P
- TriinT 17y agoWould you please care to provide some examples? I am neither a Caltech nor a MIT alumnus. Although I have never visited MIT, I have spent some time at Caltech as a visitor. When I was at Caltech, some people told me that the difference between these two schools is the mentality and maturity of the undergrad students: MIT -> high school Caltech -> junior high I didn't invent the joke. I am just the messenger ;-)
- _pius 17y agoVery funny ... I resembled that remark! :) About the imitation, I was more or less poking some good-natured fun at Cal-Tech, not actually calling them out. However, the Rose Bowl stuff in particular is derivative of the tradition of MIT hacks at the Harvard-Yale games that has been going on since at least 1948.
- TriinT 17y agoYeah, I have heard of the Harvard-Yale game hacks. I have also heard of the tradition of putting stuff on top of the great dome. I like this Star Wars hack: http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1999/r2d2.html http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/1999/r2d2.html Nonetheless, the coolest hack MIT has ever pulled off was to steal the Fleming Cannon from Caltech in 2006, imho.
- proee 17y agoShould be: "The Great Rose Bowl Hack of 1961" Three cheers for hackers!
- brandnewlow 17y agoTo be semantic, isn't this a crack? After all, the key to the whole scheme was breaking into the hotel rooms of the Washington U Cheerleading team. Without burgling their rooms, none of it would have happened.
- sp332 17y agoThe term "hack" is slang, and therefore has several different meanings based on context. Here, "hack" just means a really difficult prank. If it were computer "hacking", it would definitely be black-hat, since it was illegal, hurtful, and only benefited the hackers.
- redcap 17y agoI wouldn't call it 'black-hat'. While there is the aforementioned illegality (breaking in), it's a bit of a stretch to call it 'hurtful' as the only reaction was a bit of hurt pride. The stadium burst out laughing, so I wouldn't call it something that only benefitted the hackers either. In all it wasn't a malicious act nor done for profit, so I believe that associating it with the type of hackers who do behave that way is incorrect.
- dkasper 17y agoI love the imitation version at Hilliard, that's pretty close to where I grew up.
- fallentimes 17y agoI love the blatant link buying at the top of the article. The ticket industry is the king of this.
- bwhite 17y agoI first read about this is The Hacker's Dictionary. It contained an article about the amorphous definition of "hack" that includes this story and other classics: http://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon_44.html http://www.ccil.org/jargon/jargon_44.html