MIT Hackers Appropriate Caltech Cannon

Bob Hearn writes "Some Slashdotters might remember the story Caltech Pranks MIT's Prefrosh Weekend from a year ago. MIT Hackers have gotten even. Sometime in the middle of the night, Caltech's famous cannon appeared at the base of MIT's Green building. A plaque in front of it reads: 'CALTECH CANNON April 6, 2006 MIT hackers posing as the Howe & Ser Moving Company Appropriated this cannon on March 28, 2006. It later appeared on MIT's campus with the addition of a large brass rat made of gold-plated aluminum. In honor of its previous owners, the cannon points towards Padadena, CA.' The brass rat (MIT ring) is really a rather impressive bit of aluminum machining. Harvey Mudd College previously stole the cannon, in 1986, but later had to give it back."

We Must Not Allow a University Cannon Gap!

As dean of your University, I have worked with the financial office and the office of the provost to appropriate two grants.

The first will be a large scale grant to beef up our offensive against all other universities by using the rocket and aerodynamic sciences departments to further develop a V3-Schneider program. Remember, we care not about the surrounding buildings of our targets, but only require a half mile 'radius of terror' so that we can effectively instill fear into the hearts of other academic institutions.

The second grant will go to the physics department so that they can develop hilarious Rube Goldberg booby traps around our V3-Schneider platform in an effort to reduce sabotage. Another part of it will go into a free weight old fashion stationary trebuchet aimed at the one lone road into the University. In the event of an invasion, all incoming vehicles will have flying refrigerators to contend with.

Remember people, this is war and we will not waver or falter.

Gold plated aluminium brass rat?

Come on, it's either aluminium or gold plated - there's no brass in there at all.

Re:Gold plated aluminium brass rat?

The ring itself is referred to as a "brass rat" [wikipedia.org] around MIT because it's gold (brass-ish colored) with a beaver (rat) on the face. The version on the cannon is gold-plated aluminum.

MIT hacks

Ahhh, the one reason why I would have considered going to MIT. So many of their hacks [mit.edu] are truely inspirational.

IHTFP : Interesting Hacks To Fascinate People

Re:MIT hacks

For those not in the know, IHTFP actually stands for "I Hate This F* Place"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IHTFP [wikipedia.org]

-Cinnamon

Re:MIT hacks

No it doesn't. It stands for "I have truly found paradise". That's what I told my boss when I put an IHTFP poster on my cubical wall, and I'm sticking to it.

Cannon Fodder

Now MIT can truly claim more bang for the buck.

*Scoff*

MIT's website slashdotted in only ten minutes?

What kind of sysadmins are they!?

Re:*Scoff*

MIT's website slashdotted in only ten minutes?
What kind of sysadmins are they!?

Give them a break, they just got finished with the first physical exertion of their lives.

a big relief

It's actually a big relief to us to hear that MIT has it. For the last week, we've been wondering where the hell it got off to. The administration thought filed a police report for grand theft. MIT stole it in the early hours masquerading as contractors. Security stopped them, but they social-engineered their way out of it, and security let them go.

Re:a big relief

I was fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to have attended both MIT and Caltech, and spent sufficiently many years at both to have understood the hacker culture and the relative prowess of the campus constabulatory.

Bottom line: Caltech's security guards are rent-a-cops; MIT's are policemen. I cannot recall a single incident in my six years at Caltech where security responded to a call fast enough to see perpetrators. I personally committed a number of, ah, acts at leisurely pace because there was no reason to hurry. I've been to the rooftops in the middle of the day countless times. It's no big deal. You cannot do the same thing at MIT with such cavalier ease because the campus has been hardened against hacking, and the MIT Campus Police are reasonably quick to respond, and reasonably quick-witted.

Kudos to the MIT group for pulling off an impressive feat!

Re:a big relief

Bottom line: Caltech's security guards are rent-a-cops; MIT's are policemen.

Never been to Caltech, but when I was at MIT [mumble-mumble] years ago, I think the primary job of the Campus Police was to make sure we didn't get arrested by the Cambridge Police.

Check out the offsite link...

See Subject: Howe & Ser Moving Co. [caltechcannon.com].

From an HMC mailing list

Subject: Caltech cannon
Date: 28 March 06 19:56:34 PST
To: [HMC internal mailing list]

Howdy,

Did anyone steal the Caltech cannon Monday night/Tuesday
morning?  They called and said it was stolen and were hoping it was here.

Chris Sundberg
Associate Dean of Students
Harvey Mudd College

Re:From an HMC mailing list

I'd be surprised if the HMC administration didn't ask the students.

I was a Mudder in '86 when we took the cannon. As far as I am concerned, the point of the prank was taking the cannon and preventing Caltech from taking it back. That was a success, and there were some seriously frustrated students in Pasadena. Keeping it wasn't really the point. Mudders loaded the cannon in a truck and drove it back Caltech after being asked by the Mudd administration. It was an exciting ride with an escort of Caltech people swerving at the truck on the freeway.

We had what seemed to be a very one-sided rivalry with Caltech. I'm still embarrassed by the T-shirts which read "Caltech: A division of Harvery Mudd College; but Caltech didn't seem to know that HMC existed. (For those who don't know, both have outstanding undergraduate programs in science and engineering). Caltech has a long history of pranks, so it they were a natural target for Mudders. I hope Caltech shows better character this time around.

Re:From an HMC mailing list

I'm qute sure it's real. (Mudd '03)

Impressive effort

I can't rtfa because it's slashdotted. Stealing a cannon isn't particularly clever. On the other hand, if I understand correctly, MIT is on the east coast and CalTech is on the west coast. These guys get an 'A' for effort.

My own favorite first year engineering trick: Many years ago people arrived at the main building of the University of Manitoba to find a stump in the middle of the lawn. Everyone was up in arms. Who cut down the stately old pine? It was quite a while before someone realized: "Hey, there was no tree there in the first place."

Re:Impressive effort

Wouldn't it be interesting if they created a duplicate cannon, and hid the original one somewhere near Caltech? Last I checked, airlines don't let you check cannons, and a 3,000 mile drive wouldn't be my favorite thing to do (though they had time to do it).

Re:Impressive effort

Yeah, seriously. Of course this 'Los Angeles' -- I don't think I've heard of it. I think it's somewhere past Needham, but if it isn't inside 495, I guess it isn't important.

News Update

This just in.... Caltech responds by posting the story to Slashdot to bring down MIT servers.

Those wacky Latin scholars

If you pronounce the "&" as the Latin "et" (from which the & letterform was based) it's "How et Ser Moving Company". And they don't even force Latin on the MIT students any more.

Re:Those wacky Latin scholars

See...now I read it differently. From their web page (http://howeandser.com/ [howeandser.com] it sounds more like "How We Answer" (the previous Caltech prank)...one moving company...two linguistic jokes...funny guys those engineers.

DAve

Response

In response, Caltech destroyed MIT's web servers by submitting the story to Slashdot. Caltech: 2, MIT: 1.

Weighting

I note that the http://www.caltechvsmit.com/ [caltechvsmit.com] seems updated to reflect this hack. Perhaps I'm mistaken, but if not I have a question.

Caltech pulls a number of silly little pranks that, to be quite honest, no one really noticed, and garners 6 points for their "feud" with MIT... MIT students socially engineer themselves into being able to steal and drive Caltech's cannon across the United States, point it back at Caltech and install a large (really well made) brass rat onto the barrel of the cannon and create a plaque commemorating the heist.

All that's worth one point? Pff.

Not that I really care or anything; it's like my attitude towards the Red Sox... it's not until they're in the playoffs or the series that I pay attention.

Re:Weighting

I am running the caltechvsmit.com site. The one point was for last years retaliation against the "The Other IT" banner. They get at least 10 points for this; I haven't decided yet. (I am arbitrarily keeping score).

Pictures Mirrored

Since you all killed our webserver I put the pics up on our personal server: http://donkeykong.mit.edu/cannon/ [mit.edu]. It's only an old AlphaServer DS20 so play nice.

Flickr Pictures Here

Pictures here [flickr.com]

Re:Wikipedia already updated

Wikipedia was already updated even before the Slashdot submission. The really interesting bit is this [wikipedia.org] change history of that page. The current text replaces this:

"It is rumored that Harvey Mudd will attempt to steal the cannon again this year in celebration of the 20th anniversary of their original theft. Be warned. Thankfully Dabney house has planned ahead, and relocated the cannon to a safehouse in Compton."

So, was this "relocation" the actual MIT appropriation?

Caltech Alumni Reaction

I've polled various Caltech alumni, and here's a snippet of their reactions:

• That's awesome!
• That's awesome!
• That's awesome!
• This is an outrage! I can't believe they let this happen! <grumble grumble>

(I give you zero guesses as to which one used to live in the house to which that cannon is most closely identified.)

I hope this gets current Caltech students off their collective keister to do something. No notable pranks in recent years, and they're most currently known for hiking up Mt. Wilson without appropriate equipment (come on, even alumni know that it's c-o-o-o-ld up on Mt. Wilson). If this causes an increase in Caltech-MIT prank warfare, then I'm all for it. Let the arms race, um, continue!

As an alum myself (BSEE, 2000) I say let MIT have it. It belongs to Harvey Mudd anyway.

caltech students say- Good Riddance!

Well, I can tell you that 6/7ths of caltech (undergrads) is happy about this (OK actually the caltech majority graduate students don't care, because they've been in lab for the last 24hrs). The cannon belongs only to a single undergraduate house (a mandatory housing system based on dining halls from a Harvard tradition, named for the guys who funded the buildings). That house of Freudian Fame is Fleming, whose denizens are known for walking around in red athletic shirts with Big White "F"s on them (yep, no kidding). They were the jocks when I was there, and retained more of the fraternity look and feel, though Page house may well have out done them in the last year by trying to haze their freshmen in the mountains. It's amazing what the socially inept, and impractical minded will lamely copy from others.

The cannon has been RF'ed (HaXXored) a bunch of times (yes, I served time at the Institute). Mostly this has been done by the other caltech students (shock!, awe?), but it was determined to be one of a very few objects that were un-touchable by the administration to prevent on-going student horse play. It was one of the few things you could be expelled permanently from school for (or simultaneously blow several heads off with large quantities of spaghetti). Instead we bricked in the front of Fleming one night, or changed the Hollywood sign, or flooded and froze the hallways, and we got in trouble, but not big trouble. The cannon has been turned around to face Fleming (on one night before they were set to fire it... they still get 4 times a year?), and everyone (from another house) has wanted to apply more permanent silence by the use of LN2 (use your brain), but it was forbidden by the honor code. Not only you, but your house would be punished. The Flems can go get it for all I care.

The truly sad thing is that the administration seems to have taken a line in the last 10 years against any pranks. Anything interesting has largely been forbidden by the Administration (by which I mean, when the police come after you the Institute attorneys won't be on your side). Unfortunately, caltech isn't big enough for the Administration to trip over its own feet enough, it's a bit too nimble and "all knowing" for the Institutes good. Plausible deniability can be a good thing. As I mentioned to the deans when I left (low these many years ago), I felt it had turned from a school of higher learning, to an Institute of lower liability. (On that topic, has anyone noticed how that guy from Numbers is trying to look just like Gary Lorden?). It's sad to see, but they've tried to stop lock picking, tunneling, bon fires, and every other form of fun... I hope they wake up now, and realize that if the students don't train security regularly, the Institute will be publicly humiliated for it.

p.s. for reference caltech is never capitalized except in formal communications
p.s. the Board of Directors will try to get the LA times not to run any story related to this

Parentheses, braces, brackets, and other standard forms of indicating meta information have ceased to function. Ceasing communication.

Re:caltech students say- Good Riddance!

"Caltech" is capitalized sometimes like that, but never in mixed case, ie "CalTech" or "Cal-Tech" or "Cal Tech" are all wrong. A few old timers are allowed to call it "CIT", but that is considered quaint. BTW, for non-techers, an "RF" is a Rat Fuck, a prank that entails freezing a rat in liquid nitrogen and smashing it to bits in someone's dorm room. RF has come to mean any prank now.

Impressive

As a Caltech student, I feel the need to respond to all the "On noes! Grand theft cannon! Involve the police!" comments. By any measure, this was a good prank. I have nothing but admiration for MIT for doing this. Admiration and the need to get even, of course. But no hard feelings.

Materials Science

A BRASS rat. whose composition includes neither copper nor zinc.

MIT's materials science program sure has come a long way...

Re:The Eighth Commandment

The primary difference between the Caltech cannon and your car is that the Caltech cannon has been tacitly agreed to by all parties as a legitimate target of "pranksterism"--with the understanding that eventually either Caltech will be given the opportunity to get the cannon back through some sort of stealth, or the MIT students will pay to return the cannon in perfect shape. (Meaning that the MIT students are presumed to be willing to make Caltech "whole" by returning the cannon.)

This is different from your car, where the car is understood to belong to you, is your personal property, and is not tacitly understood by anyone to be a suitable target of prankerism.

The fact that the Canon was taken from Caltech means that it is being used in the manner which everyone invisioned it would be used.

Note, by the way, that Caltech demanded Harvey Mudd to return the cannon on threat of legal action only after Caltech students attempted to negotiate with Harvey Mudd's administration in good faith for a number of ways to recapture the cannon--including air-lifting it and moving it in the middle of the night. When Harvey Mudd declined all such negotations, it was clear that Harvey Mudd wasn't playing along, that the act of "prankerism" became an act of theft, and that's when the lawyers were called in.

If Caltech are the rightful owners...

What prevents them from going to MIT and just taking it back by force?

The worlds biggest brass rat

http://www.swiss.ai.mit.edu/~gjs/gjs.html [mit.edu]

Re:I didn't realize theft was a "hack".

too bad it isnt theft. There is an understanding between the schools