Caltech Pranks MIT's Prefrosh Weekend 530
doughnuthole writes "Caltech students ventured to Massachusetts this past Wednesday to unleash a series of pranks at MIT's prefrosh weekend. They distributed shirts with MIT on the front and '...because not everyone can go to Caltech' on the back. They placed inflatable palm trees in the infamous Tomb of the Unknown Tool and around the great dome and floated Caltech balloons in building seven. A banner transformed Massachusetts Institute of Technology into That Other Institute of Technology. Saturday night a LASER spelling the letters C-A-L-T-E-C-H was directed at the top of the Green building. A full account of the pranks is located at www.caltechvsmit.com."
spelling? (Score:5, Funny)
Memo about admissions... (Score:5, Funny)
To: All Admissions Staff
From: Director of Admissions
In order to continue fundraising, we have to admit 40% legacies that are shit for brains. They can't read or write, but their fathers have us on an allowance, and we want the money. Plus, without legacies, there would be nobody there to say "You got me again, you silly nerd!". The other 60% will be merit admission, with 30% comming from India. Please be mindful that engish is their second language, and some of them might feel more at home taking baths in the Boston River. The other 30% are American Chinese students. Unlike the other 70%, they know american grammer and spelling.
But feel good, at least we are not Harvard. There legicies are dumber than our legacies.
In the name of academic nitpickyness . . . (Score:3, Funny)
Ahem. "Their legacies". I take it you're not part of the American Chinese 30%.
Re:In the name of academic nitpickyness . . . (Score:3, Funny)
A proud S.F.A.S.U. alumnus!
Ax 'em Jacks!
So there...
Re:In the name of academic nitpickyness . . . (Score:3)
Re:Memo about admissions... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Memo about admissions... (Score:4, Funny)
Hey now, I'm from Texas and I take offense at your sterotyping! While being Texan, I certainly do not tell everyone that I'm from Texas at the beginning of every conversation held right here in Texas. In fact, none of my Texan neighbors here in the great state of Texas go around telling the other Texans here in Texas that they're from Texas.
Who's Caltech, by the way? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Who's Caltech, by the way? (Score:2)
Oh, wait. Were you trying to be funny?
Re:Who's Caltech, by the way? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Who's Caltech, by the way? (Score:4, Funny)
You MUST be joking...
Re:Who's Caltech, by the way? (Score:5, Interesting)
On the other hand, I know about MIT damn well. When I've been to the ACM world finals, those bastards defeated my team (through pure luck, I'm sure). Two other our teams fixed that stain on honour later, of course.
And Caltech... who's Caltech?
Re:Who's Caltech, by the way? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Who's Caltech, by the way? (Score:3, Informative)
Real Genius was filmed there... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Who's Caltech, by the way? (Score:5, Funny)
So has anyone done any experiments to determine whether or not this theoretical college exists?
Re:news for americans stuff that 191 countries don (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:news for americans stuff that 191 countries don (Score:3, Informative)
Is it still arrogant if it's true?
FYI, there are actually a lot of other countries out there as good or better than MIT or Caltech. Of course, they're found in obscure, little-known countries like India, China, Britain, and Canada, but they're out there.
Names? As for England, Cambridge and Oxford are very good, both in the top 10 in a lot of fields. But Britain goes down fast after that. China's rising but not there yet, same for India. Canada doesn't have that many good schools, none of their best would top our top 20. That includes, for example, UToronto. You failed to mention Germany and Japan which would likely provide the best competition to the US, actually, after Britain.
Here's a list of the top schools compiled by a Chinese university: ed.sjtu.edu.cn/rank/2004/top500(1-100).pdf [slashdot.org]. I deliberately chose a non-American source to prevent any "bias.". Of the top 25, 18 are American. That's not the only authority, of course, but I'd love to see any measure in which well over half the world's top universities weren't in the US.
Perhaps if your "super-elite, best-in-the-world" US colleges focused a little more on their geography classes instead of their patriotism classes, you'd know that.
I'm familiar with many institutions across the world (and quite good at geography). And I've never seen one that profs in the sciences would routinely choose a job at as opposed to any of the top 5 US schools (say MIT, Harvard, Caltech, Berkeley, Stanford). The only ones that would offer competition would be Oxford and Cambridge. And I'm quite familiar with this situation. Probably different in liberal arts, but not science.
You may not like it - but it IS true.
Re:Who's Caltech, by the way? (Score:3, Funny)
rj
Caltech to MIT: (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdotters to caltechvsmit.com (Score:2)
24 comments and the site is down
MIT Email (Score:5, Funny)
>Someone apparently released a number of balloons in lobby 7 with
>CalTech written on them. There is also a much larger Mylar Balloon
>with C.I.T. My initial reaction, and the reaction of most people I
>talked to was "C.I.T, what's that?"
>
>Several suggestions were made on what to do about this since if we do
>nothing the balloons will float mockingly over lobby 7 for days:
>
>-Remove the balloons tonight (might be able to get a number of them
>with a needle on a stick from the intersticial space).
>
>-release a second large mylar balloon that says "SUCKS"
>
>-Hack Caltech.
>
>one friend I talked to commented that she was friends with the moles,
>the "legitamate" hackers at CalTech, and they claim to have no
>knowledge of this and are busy with some other project. It would be
>good if we could find out who did this. Could it have been an overzealous prefrosh?
>
>
>As I said my initial reaction was "what is C.I.T? I have drafted an
>article that I hope to send to the Tech Newspaper. Offering an
>alternate explanation.
>Comments, and suggestions are highly encouraged as this is a first draft.
>
>Amilio
>amilio@alum.mit.edu
>
>
>
>>>proposed tech article follows below>>
>
>
>C.I.T Looses BALLoonS
>
>The Center for Incompetent Technologies lost all of their display props
>on the way to the activities midway today. Representatives from the
>research group lost numerous small balloons and a larger one bearing
>the group's acronym while crossing lobby 7, "We thought slip knots
>would hold," said Ben Bitdiddle director of C.I.T.
>
>The Center for Incompetent Technologies is a newly formed nationwide
>research group interested in developing ineffective, arcane, and
>generally useless technologies. "So many companies and institutes are
>focused on doing 'good research' and developing 'useful technologies'"
>said Mr. Bitdiddle accenting his comments with air quotes, "we decided
>there was an untapped niche market for useless technologies." The
>group's motto is taken from an episode of The Simpsons: "Aim so low
>that even if you succeed, no one will care"
>
>The smaller balloons were apparently leftover from numerous C.I.T
>events at Caltech. The balloons were custom printed for the school
>where the group is apparently very popular. Many of the poorly made
>balloons have already popped and are littering the floor of lobby 7.
>"We probably should have had some new customized balloons made, but if
>we wanted to do things well, we wouldn't be CIT."
>
>The lost balloons were originally mistaken for a hack, but
>representatives for the hacking community quickly corrected the error,
>commenting "No, that was just a screw up, hacks are generally more
>interesting and creative," Jack Florey.
>
>>>>>
>
Re:MIT Email (Score:4, Informative)
>the "legitamate" hackers at CalTech, and they claim to have no
>knowledge of this and are busy with some other project
Moles are nothing like the "Jacks" you have at MIT. Unlike whatever exclusive (and respectable, I'm sure) club there is for Pranksters at MIT, "Moles" means they live in Blacker Hovse. Blacker is a house, your equivalent of a dorm or a college. Granted they like building things, but trust me. The other thing they were working on that is referred to is their yearly get-drunk-and-get-laid-party, which was modeled after Escher paintings. Pretty cool, but pretty occupying. Pranksters at Caltech can be pretty much anyone; we do not need to be in a club to create things like this.
Just trying to clear it up
Also, the general sentiment at Tech is that MIT is full of douchebags until they do something cool in return, rather than say how our pranks are not real hacks. I'm looking forward to see what happens.
- Some Tech undergrad
PS The REAL Tech.
Re:MIT Email (Score:3, Funny)
Any college student that only gets drunk and laid one time per year clearly has more than enough free time to plan and execute pranks like these.
Lose/loose, the continuing controversy (Score:5, Funny)
To use both in a sentence: If you lose your dictionary again, I will loose my wrath upon you!
Or, to use some other tenses: Loosing her exquisite talent on me last night, she made it clear that she had long since lost her virginity.
Sophomoric pranks (Score:3, Funny)
I'd much rather stay in warm CA during April than go to MA. Invite the MIT whiz kids down and haze them in the relative comfort of your own hometown. For chrissakes, what fun is it to freeze your ass off over there?
Re:Sophomoric pranks (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Sophomoric pranks (Score:5, Funny)
I'd much rather stay in warm CA during April than go to MA. Invite the MIT whiz kids down and haze them in the relative comfort of your own hometown. For chrissakes, what fun is it to freeze your ass off over there?
MIT has a weather machine. It's always warm and sunny on prefrosh weekend. This one was no exception.
Re:Sophomoric pranks (Score:3, Interesting)
Argh... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Argh... (Score:5, Funny)
MIT = a freaking huge droid [mit.edu]
I don't know about you, but the winner is clear...
Re:Argh... (Score:5, Insightful)
My perception from the INFORMED public (in part from talking to both MIT and Caltech prefrosh, and my own experience at Caltech) is that Caltech is seen as a little more hardcore in the amount of work one has to do and in its nerdiness. To quote some MIT prefrosh I talked to just a few days ago (while posing as an MIT prefrosh on the bus from the airport.. yay free ride!), responding to why she isn't going to Caltech's prefrosh weekend next week, "I didn't even apply. I want to be alive in 4 years." Another one informed me that "Caltech students have the reputation of being the epitome of nerdiness."
I'm not convinced that this repuation describes the truth, though. From my own observations, the student populations seem very similar, though MIT's larger population perhaps makes it easier for it to pass as less nerdy to those who want to see it that way. On the other hand, prefrosh interested in hacking and nerdy delights will no doubt see a paradise ignored by those who want normal social lives but top notch science or engineering education. Caltech may have the same proportion of on-the-surface-normal kids as MIT, but their absolute smaller numbers make it more difficult for them to present a unified front, as if there's a population threshold a group must pass to be easily noticed.
Students at both schools seem to think they're getting the best science/engineering educations available in the world, and they probably are. Many also regret that fact because of the pain and sleepless nights such an education can lead to.
More questions? Do some research for yourself, in both Caltech and MIT tradition: http://www.google.com/ [google.com]
In conclusion, they're all fine houses.
BS... (Score:2)
I am not affiliated with any school. When I applied for colleges in the early 90's, I did not apply to either, although I did my research. MIT has been declining the past 20 years. Cal Tech is making a name for itself.
The only news out of MIT that I have read the past 2 years is kids getting drunk and dying. The news out of Cal Tech is they are playing with lasers and doing cool stuff.
MIT is at risk of becomming obsolete. 50 years ago Berkeley was a stud school. Today it is nothing special, no better than the University of Michigan or University of Texas. Berkeley rested on their laurels, and that is what MIT is doing.
Re:BS... (Score:2)
Re:BS... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:BS... (Score:5, Informative)
From 2000, but complete: Berkeley was the number 1 public university [ucop.edu] and 20th when counting in privates like Harvard and MIT. BTW, those two ranked numbers 2 and 3 behind number 1 California Institute of Technology aka CALTECH!
Re:BS... (Score:3, Informative)
Huh? According to the actual U.S. News & World Report rankings [usnews.com], Berkeley was 21 overall for undergrad for National Universities. It was, however, #1 for public institutions. A more relevant ranking here would probably be undergraduate engineering [usnews.com]. That list has MIT, Stanford, and Berkeley, in that order.
To be honest, in my experience, undergraduate engineering education at big research universities doesn't necessarily produce good practicing engineers.
Re:BS... (Score:5, Insightful)
First they were using a promo video that was at least 10-15 years old, that contained more than a few inuendos about parties and drinking that seemed a little bit out of place since it was a few years after Scott Kreuger's death. Also they were bragging about how the president of Bose Stereo taught a class there every year while the speaker system buzzed the entire hour and a half the presentation lasted. The school might have a ton of resources available but I would rather be at a school where professors actually cared about their students.
looking back, I definitely made the right choice. I'm confident that got more out of my education here at Notre Dame than I would have at MIT and had a lot more fun doing it too.
Re:BS... (Score:3, Interesting)
Instead, I went to WPI [wpi.edu], jokingly referred to as "that other tech school in Massachusetts". It's a fairly small school, focused on teaching undergraduates. The people are friendly, and just as nerdy as they are at MIT. A degree from WPI is pretty well-recognized within the Northeast, and I know a few undergraduates here who managed to get their MQP (aka senior thesis) published in a scientific journal.
In the end, I feel that I made the right choice. I picked a school that was small and personal, so I could excel in my studies, have a personal life, and still get a great education. I'm sure that would have been possible at MIT, too - but I don't regret the choice I made.
Re:BS... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Argh... (Score:5, Informative)
Search for the THES World Rankings (it's a pdf). Caltech has been the best training ground for young scientists for the past decade. Look at the data for yourself.
They get into better grad schools (again, data available online), have higher starting jobs, work harder, play more sports, enjoy much better weather, have a huge legacy (Feynman, Millikan, Einstein, Hale, Beckman, Richter, and more) and have much more depth in education than anyone out there. They write the important papers, and do the hottest research.
If you want to be a scientist, Caltech is the place to be.
Re:Argh... (Score:5, Funny)
I was doing some work at the Pasadena Police Department for a few days.
While I was there, the traffic seargeant asked me if there was anything I'd like to see while I was there. He was obviously thinking Hollywood, Movie Studios, Disneyland, the beach,
I really surprised him when I said that I'd like a tour of JPL. It turned out that the father of one of the cops was a scientist at JPL so it might just be possible.
The next day he told me that they couldn't set up a tour of JPL at the last minute because some big project was going on. I think it was a Mars launch that week.
So he asked what else I'd like to see. Again, he was thinking of the standard tourist sites.
My second choice was Caltech. That kind of shook him up a bit.
The seargeant called the head of campus security for Caltech and asked him to arrange the tour. Since I'm a computer type, he called up the computer center and arranged for us to meet him to give me a tour that afternoon.
So the next day, we went over for the tour. One of the people with me grew up in Pasadena, knew exactly where Caltech was, but had never been on campus at all. I was a bit surprised to find out it was right around the corner from the motel I was staying at while in town.
We went to the security office and the head of security showed us over to the computer center for the tour. We were on time, but the student who was supposed to give us the tour didn't show up for about 45 minutes. When he arrived, he said "Nobody has ever called us up for a tour. I thought it was some kind of joke."
So we looked around the computer center a little while. Then we went over to see the seismographs. I wanted to walk through the physics building, but the security dude couldn't believe anyone would actually want to do that.
The tour was a bit disappointing.
I call hoax. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I call hoax. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I call hoax. (Score:5, Funny)
They have enough engineers, they'll probably build one from scratch using an Apple IIe computer and pictures from magazines. And she'll take a shower with them, but the engineers will be too embarassed to take off their undewear in the shower.
Come to think of it, now it all makes sense. That is why they are trying to recreate life in the bio labs, all the early earth atmosphere tests. They want some pussy.
Damn crazy Cal Tech kids. What is next, filling a house with popcorn using solar rays??
Re:I call hoax. (Score:3, Funny)
Wow, going cross country... (Score:2)
Re:Wow, going cross country... (Score:5, Informative)
As I understand it, there's a series of one-way rivalries which goes something like so: Harvard targeted by MIT, which is targeted by Caltech, which is targeted by Harvey Mudd. Members of the targeted school are largely oblivious that they're the subject of said rivalry.
Hopefully getting this on the slashdot front page (which is widely read by folks at both Caltech and MIT) might escalate the current prank war. It should be fun to have an active prank trade-off going between both MIT and Caltech. Hopefully people have a lot of frequent flyer miles.
I have no idea how the Caltech students managed to find the free time for this, though. Maybe they're all seniors or something?
Caltech cannon heist (Score:5, Interesting)
I think the first cannon attempt goes back to '74 or even '72. They once got it on a pickup truck only to break the axle. Another time the fire hose was turned on them. By the mid 80's there was still a buzz about the cannon, but no serious efforts had been made for awhile. Mark Moeglein and I made a trial run as a frosh, with a pick up truck and a pair of bolt cutters, but all we did was cut the lock -- I don't know how we would have gotten it on the truck.
In '86 I was ASHMC president and had a bit of a prank reputation. ( I was nearly expelled for moving the stakes of New II/ 7th/ Case Dorm early in construction ). Jeff Hong and Steve Olson revived the idea of stealing the cannon and had made a few observational runs. They knew it was a big job and that it would take some money (hopefully ASHMC's) so they brought me in. I got some covert help from the administration -- the phone number of an alum, Bob DePietro, who had a construction engineering company -- and a promise to post bail if we got busted.
The DePietro connection was critical. We used his name to rent a flat bed truck and a fork lift in Pasadena. I don't think they would have given it to a 21 year college student with a visa card. There were so many logistics. We had to find 2 people with class 2 drivers licences to drive the truck and the fork lift off site -- Greg Felton and Tom Jed.
We also had the problem of where to park the fork lift. We planned an early Saturday morning raid. But had to pick up the forklift by 5 on Friday. The forklift was huge and clearly could make a trip on the 210 between Claremont and Pasadena. So I scouted around and found some road construction where they left the equipment over night. We picked the fork lift right at 5 and fortunately the work crew quit a little early. Tom Jed just drove it in behind the Pasadena equipment, parked it and took the key. Well, actually it wasn't that simple. Tom ran into a BMW on the way! As we would later discover, the hydrolic steering on the forklift was defective.
OK, so we had the hardware, but how we're we going to pull it off. We picked an early Saturday morning when most of Fleming House was off on a dorm ski trip. But still we needed cover. We decided to go in daylight and pose as a construction crew. Joe, after a stint in the army, was a bald 27 year-old Mudder. He was made foreman and H&M construction was born. Phony work orders were made and blue workshirts, overalls, and workmen flannels were aqcuired.
We could not think of one story that would fool everyone, so we came up with two stories. We told campus security that we had be contracted to take the barrel for polishing. There was no way would that the students have bought that lame story. So we told them we're just moving it to get access to a broken water main that was below. Still a little fishy, so we added some decoys. Tom, Steve, and Eric went in 15 minutes before to pose as Caltech students. Two playing catch and one reading. I think this was critical. Each time someone would come along, they would be suspicious. But then they looked around and saw other "techies" who seemed to think all was right so they moved along. And to add insult to injury, Byrne Sanford hid inside the dorm and shot 8 rolls of photos of the whole event.
Of course it wasn't all so smooth. Campus security was called almost immediately upon our arrival. I thought we were busted. But Joe our foreman played his role beautifully and made our story hold up. Once campus security was pacified, we knew we were going to make it. Also there was a Fleming house frosh who was up early and chatting with us. He gave us a bit of a scare, but by the end he was telling us stories of how people had tried to steal the cannon in the past. Poor frosh.
Unfortunately, the steering on the forklift was no good and we had to do it by hand -- two of us on each wheel, back and forth trying to back into a corner so we could lift the cannon. The wheels were so rotte
Re:Wow, going cross country... (Score:2, Informative)
In response, MIT... (Score:4, Funny)
MIT returns fire... (Score:4, Funny)
MIT wins (Score:5, Funny)
Last laughs (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Last laughs (Score:2)
Nah, I'm pretty sure Caltech's Segway police [caltech.edu] will be able to quickly respond to put out the fire.
Et tu, /. ? (Score:2)
We suspect that someone posted the URL to /.
MIT wisely chose a more effective prank (Score:2)
MIT pranks (Score:5, Informative)
I'm unimpressed by Caltech if they can't pull pranks that are better than the pranks MIT pulls on itself.
Caltech /had/ some talent... (Score:5, Interesting)
I still think the 1961 Rosebowl prank [museumofhoaxes.com] is one of the very best. But yeah, these latest MIT ones were lame.
And as a followup to that prank.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Nixon was a big football fan and decided to go see the Rosebowl game that year which meant the Secret Service had to scour the Rosebowl. As part of their checkout, they powered up the scoreboard and because Rosum had scrimped on his relays, they blew his circuit out. Debugging the blown scoreboard led them to his fried, and smoking, circuit. That would have been the end of it except some other Techies decided independently to pull the same prank. Except they didn't know the Secret Service was waiting for the first prankster to come fix his prank. Guess who ended up getting caught?
Re:MIT pranks (Score:2, Informative)
Re:MIT pranks (Score:2)
Re:MIT pranks (Score:4, Informative)
MIT has yet to have a movie made about their pranks.
Re:MIT pranks (Score:2)
Sounds like an Onion headline... (Score:5, Funny)
I just love these (Score:4, Interesting)
C.I.T. == california institute of technology (Score:2, Funny)
"That Other" Institute of Technology
"That Other" was changed to "The Only" by the M.I.T. kids.
These pranks prove which school is better: MIT (Score:2, Insightful)
Would anyone at MIT have entertained, even just for a moment, traveling to California to do something similar to the California Institute of Technology? I doubt it.
Not to say that Caltech isn't one of the top engineering schools in the country: of course it is. But it doesn't enjoy MIT's prestige, and these pranks just go to enlarge that prestige.
Huh? (Score:5, Interesting)
The year was 1961, and it was the Rose Bowl, which is held in Pasadena California. Now this is also where Caltech is located. Now Caltech doesn't play in the Rose Bowl ever, they don't play 1A ball for that matter, but some students form there decided to get in anyhow.
That year, the Washington Huskies had an elobrate halftime show planned. It involved not only the band, but a set of cards that the audience would display. The way it worked was audience members sitting in the selected section had a bunch of coloured cards, and a sheet of instructions, telling them which colour to hold up on which cue. The cheerleaders then called cues, and the cards went up to form pictures.
Well a group of Caltech students, later known as the Fiendish Fourteen, decided to alter what happened. They broke in to the room where the instructions sheets were stored, took them, made alterations, made copies, ageded the copies, then replaced them. Nobody noticed that a switch had been made.
On game day the modified sheets were distributed and during halftime the show commenced. Most of the images were left largely unaltered, expect for minor changes, so no one knew what was happening. PRoblems started on the 12th image. It was supposed to be a huskie, but had been altered to look somewhat like a beaver (Caltech's mascot). The 13th image was worse, it was to spell out "HUSKIES" but Caltech reversed it to say "SEIKSUH". Seeing this, and figuring it for a fuckup, the cheerleaders quickly called for the next image, which read "CALTECH" in block letters.
The band stopped playing, the stadium went silent, and the announcers were speechless. It couldn't have been more perfect, as the cameras were focuesd on the crowd at the time (halftime shows were broadcast then) and it went out on national TV. After a few moments silecnt, laguhter broke out. The band left the field, and the final image was never called.
Now that, my friend, is a prank, and it's one of the things Caltech is known for. It's an odd university, with a somewhat different sense of humour, but that certianly doesn't make it bad. That they traveled to MIT to pull a prank is not supprising, like I said, they've done better.
FYI: If this stuff intrests you, read If At All Possible Involve a Cow by Neil Steinberg. It was there that I orignally heard of this great prank.
Re:Huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
You've obviously never been to http://hacks.mit.edu. If the only Caltech prank worth talking about (which I assume it must be since two separate people felt the need to put the whole story on here) was 35 years ago, that's sad.
If this stuff intrests you, read If At All Possible Involve a Cow by Neil Steinberg.
This book also mentions some MIT hacks. But if you're more interested, check out the three [amazon.com] separate [amazon.com] books [mit.edu] that have been written solely about MIT's hacks.
mirror (Score:4, Informative)
Those of us at MIT... (Score:2, Insightful)
Related Reading (Score:2, Informative)
If at All Possible, Involve a Cow: The Book of College Pranks
by Neil Steinberg
Very fun reading.
3 little pigs. (Score:5, Funny)
http://www.bash.org/?482717
Eyewitness (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Eyewitness (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Eyewitness (Score:2, Interesting)
Prank war rules (Score:5, Interesting)
From http://www.caltechvsmit.com/overview.html [caltechvsmit.com]:
Both Caltech and MIT require that students put in a lot of hard work studying math and science. Because the stress is so intense, we students at Caltech believe that pranks are an important, if not essential, way to relax and have a little fun. We are familiar with MIT's tradition of hacks and hope that we can merge the cultures at the two schools, if only for a short time.
We propose that MIT joins us in a pranking/hacking war. As you may have already noticed, we struck first, so now it is MIT's turn. Obviously the distance between schools poses a great difficulty, but we believe that MIT students will find that this difficulty can be overcome. In fact all of the pranks need not even be on the other school's campus so long as the pranks are made public enough through the media.
The rules of the contest are simple and are essentially the same as Caltech's prank ethics and MIT's hackers' code. Pranks should be reversible. No permanent damage should be done and the pranksters must provide some sort of contact information on a note so they can be contacted if things are damaged. The note need not contain names, but it must be a reliable way to contact the pranksters.
Pranks should be creative and display some form of originality. Novel ideas, particularly novel ideas involving technology, are generally well received, but repeats are strictly discouraged. We suggest that those wanting to participate make themselves very familiar with the history of pranks and hacks at both schools in order to prevent repeating pranks.
Finally, we wish to inform MIT students that Caltech Prefrosh Weekend is next weekend. It may not be possible to organize something so quickly, but we have faith in the ingenuity of MIT students. We hope to see you all in Pasadena soon.
As a side note, denial of service attacks are lame. Anybody can do that. Wouldn't your time be better spent trying to put a '2' on the scoreboard?
Does anyone else think... (Score:2, Insightful)
Sorry CIT, but you only seemed to have proven to the rest of the world how lame you are (and I didn't even go to either of these schools).
Re:Does anyone else think... (Score:4, Funny)
The "Harvard Pep Squad" ran up and down the aisles of Harvard Stadium at The Game [between the Harvard and Yale football teams] Nov. 20. They had megaphones in hand and their faces were painted as they encouraged the crowd to hold up the 1,800 red and white pieces of construction paper they had handed out. It would read "Go Harvard," they said.
But the 20 "Pep Squad" members were actually Yale students. And when the Harvard students, faculty and alumni held up their pieces of paper--over and over again--they spelled out "We Suck" in giant block letters the whole stadium could read.
Yalies Michael Kai and David Aulicino, both of whom are to graduate next year, had to overcome great adversity to realize their dream. They originally planned to do this a year ago, and rather than handing the pages out, they taped them to the seats. "The prank derailed when security guards, trying to clear the stadium out during a pre-game bomb scare, asked Kai, Aulicino and their cohorts to leave."
In the year since, they rethought their plan:
They created a system to have the Harvard crowd pass out the 1,800 cards themselves. The "Harvard Pep Squad" went to each row and handed out a pre-ordered stack of the red and white papers. In five minutes, Kai and Aulicino said, all the papers were passed out.
It took a great deal of planning, however, including a road trip to Boston. Kai and Aulicino attended the Oct. 9 Harvard-Cornell football game in Cambridge, simply to scout out the stadium and count the number of rows.
They also created "Harvard Pep Squad" T-shirts and even fake Harvard IDs. "It was almost sad," says Dylan Davey, another Yalie who joined in the gag. "There were all these grandfather and grandmother types--and they all had big smiles, saying, 'Oh you're so cute, I'm so glad you're doing this.' I felt bad for about two minutes. Then I got over it."
Source of the laser? (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyone know how this is so?
Two "inscription" hacks... You be the judge. (Score:3, Insightful)
(1) recent hack by the west coast school [caltech.edu]
(2) a classic inscription hack [mit.edu]
It's clear which of the two is more thoughtful, creative, and true to the spirit of hacking.
Re:Two "inscription" hacks... You be the judge. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:this is news ? (Score:3, Interesting)
um... (Score:4, Funny)
The topic is MIT and Caltech, not much nerdier than that!
Re:um... (Score:5, Funny)
Why does the person wearing the T-shirt in that photo has 2 lumps on his chest?
Fulminate of Estrogen (Score:5, Funny)
That would be a rare example of what is known as a FE-Male. Fulminate of Estrogen infused male. Handle with caution as they can be extremely volatile, but with proper care can be quite nice to have around.
Re:Fulminate of Estrogen (Score:3, Funny)
Oh, much like any other high explosives? If you're careful and not unlucky you'll get a great bang?
Re:this is news ? (Score:2, Funny)
DoS (Score:2)
It was DoS attacked it before it was /.ed.
If it was insecure why didn't MIT just deface it and then brag about it by changing the score and leaving a noten like the rules say to do?
MOD PARENT DOWN (Score:2)
Re:The Last Caltech/MIT prank... (Score:5, Funny)
In their own words [harvardsucks.org], or as told by the Yale Daily 'News' [yaledailynews.com].
Re:The Last Caltech/MIT prank... (Score:2, Funny)
Don't worry... (Score:5, Funny)
I remember meeting a kid from Cal-Tech, and to this day his impression remains with me. I have never met such a mix of intellect with insanity. He was working for the summer at Northwestern University, and I spent a couple days at his rented house (which a friend of mine from high school was renting with his girlfriend, there were 6 people living in this old house). Anyways, this guy had a pet spider, but not any spider, a black widow. And one night he wanted to cook for all of us. He boiled a big pot of water, Dropped in a head of chopped lettice, and two slices of american cheese. He then served it to us with so much pride. Later that night I broke out a huge jug of Vodka and a half gallon of OJ. We were making screwdrivers that were nearly see-through. After his first glass, he started crying about how he's never been with a woman. By his second glass, he was singing in chineese. He could not finish his third glass, he fell asleep on the floor right there. So the next morning we wake up, and I look in his fishtank, and the black widow is gone. I ask him what happened, and he said he felt bad for it and let it lose the night before. I asked where, and he said "I don't remember, maybe in your room" FUCK! I left that day, and never returned.
Re:Is that the best they could do? (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, but the prospect of getting laid by a fellow nerd girl, that is much better than banging some loose sorority girl who puts as much thought into riding a guy as washing the dishes. Just going throught the motions. Now imagine a nerd girl, laughing through her nose when you tell her a joke, getting goosebumps when you touch her, one that has never been penetrated before. That is why the Cal Tech guys traveld 4,000+ miles to MIT. And anyone who knows anything about getting Nerd girls, knows there is a competition at the end that usually ends with synthasizer music and a robot dance.
MIT = Revenge of the Nerds
Cal Tech = Real Genius
Take your pick. Dance with bugger grabbing a moo-moo's ass, or have someone put a micro-speaker in your tooth and tell you "this is god, stop playing with yourself".
Ahhh... the highjinks of college life.
Re:Speaking of pranks... (Score:3, Interesting)
See here [mit.edu] for a slightly outdated list of winners and charities; Chuck Vest (Make a Wish Foundation) won in 2004 and Prof. George Verghese (Doctors Without Borders) won in 2003. The 2005 winner will be announced tomorrow evening, and will be presented with the four foot long, left-handed aluminum wood screw.
Re:fool me once (Score:2)
Re:fool me once (Score:4, Insightful)
First, I don't think we see MIT as a rival in a "we win you lose" sort of way. But let's assume that we do in a "we want the best frosh we can get and a lot of people are considering both schools" sort of way.
A typical Caltech freshman class has about 215 students. MIT's have on the order of 1,000. This means that the schools admit around 500 and 2500 students, respectively. MIT, then, has at LEAST 2000 students in it's prefrosh pool that don't even have Caltech as an option (in a given year), so that even if Caltech took all of the students that are chosing between Caltech and MIT (I don't know the number, but probably more than half of total Caltech admits applied and were admitted to MIT), MIT would have at LEAST about 4/5 of its prefrosh pool in tact. If, on the other hand, Caltech lost all of the students deciding between the two, it's pool of prefrosh would decrease by 1/2.
Such a "rivalry," then, is understandably more important to Caltech than MIT, due to Caltech's small size (which, by the way contributes to lots of its awesomeness).
Regarding a pranking rivalry, I don't think one has really existed in the past at either school. But wouldn't it be cool if there was one? Lots of cool stuff might happen. That was kind of the point of Caltech's work this weekend. We're suggesting a pranking rivalry, in good spirit. Looking at the response, it looks like MIT might agree, but let's keep it in good spirit. Pranking/hacking should be fun for the pranker and the prankee. If you give a good joke, you should be able to take a good joke.
Prankers/Hackers at Caltech and MIT have a lot in common, and should have more interaction. Anyone up for an ice cream social? I'll provide music and a laser light show (much better than the one that was projected on to the green building... there will be more preparation).
Re:Frosh? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:That's just great. (Score:5, Insightful)
Dude, if you have to ask why a prank between Caltech and MIT is being covered on Slashdot, why are you here?