Contact The MIT Press Information on how to order from The MIT Press Access your saved shopping cart, e-mail list subscriptions, order history, address book, and other info in the Your Profile area MIT Press Home Page


March 2003
8 x 9, 190 pp., 125 illus., 16 color
$21.95/£16.95 (PAPER)
Trade

ISBN-10:
0-262-66137-3
ISBN-13:
978-0-262-66137-9

Related Links
MIT Museum OnlineOpen this site in a new browser window.
Read Excerpts at the MIT Alumni WebsiteOpen this site in a new browser window.
Find this book in a library
Nightwork
A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT
Institute Historian T. F. Peterson

Table of Contents and Sample Chapters

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.

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.


Reviews

"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





See Other Titles In:
MIT and Regional Interest
 MIT Interest
 
Join an E-mail Alert List


 
 
TECHNOLOGY PARTNER: Azility, Inc. TERMS OF USE | PRIVACY POLICY | COPYRIGHT © 2009