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."

Re:Nice tooling!

[networkBoy]

s/pronk/prank/
Easy typo seing as they are so close to each other on the keyboards... :x

BTW: http://web.mit.edu/jotong/Public/Photos/MIT/Caltec h%20Cannon%20Hack/photos/photo4.html [mit.edu] another pic of the ring on the canon ;)

Re:Gold plated aluminium brass rat?

[Anonymous Coward]

The name of the ring is the brass rat. It doesn't matter if the [actual] rings are gold or steel, everyone calls it the brass rat.

The brass rat on the cannon is gold plated aluminum.

Re:Gold plated aluminium brass rat?

[CrazyWingman]

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.

Only the Flems

[Anonymous Coward]

So who's gonna tell them that 6/7 (7/8, I guess, with Avery house) of the students are unlikely to be put out.

The Flems, on the other hand...

See, It's not really the _Caltech_ cannon, as such.

                                                                                                                  A. Mole

a big relief

[DCTsunami]

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:Gold plated aluminium brass rat?

[AlterTick]

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

I think the blurb is misleading in not making it clear the the Brass Rat [mit.edu] is a proper noun. Specifically, it is the amusing name given to the MIT class ring, which traditionally pictures a beaver, nature's engineer. Capitalize proper names, you tards! Oh, but I guess that would be considered "editing", and they don;t do that around here...

Check out the offsite link...

[HoosierPeschke]

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

Re:Gold plated aluminium brass rat?

[G)-(ostly]

To the contrary. I submitted an Ask Slashdot that was accepted and they actually edited some really stupid questions into it that I hadn't asked, which immediately resulted in a number of people questioning the source of my particular genetic line.

I think what you meant is not that they don't edit, but rather that they don't edit properly.

Pictures Mirrored

[Zackbass]

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

[OlivierB]

Pictures here [flickr.com]

Re:Those wacky Latin scholars

[Surt]

And just in case anyone is unfamiliar with military terminology:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&hs=GwX&lr=&clie nt=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&defl=e n&q=define:Howitzer&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct =title [google.com]

Re:Weighting

[texbot]

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).

Re:Rat?

[Fishstick]

their class ring [wikipedia.org]

The beaver, nature's engineer, is the school's mascot.

(oh wait, replying to a troll modded post by the time I hit reply -- oh, well)

Re:MIT hacks

[cinnamoninja]

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:a big relief

[pz]

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!

Wikipedia already updated

[Mr. BS]

Nice to see that Wikipedia is already updated [wikipedia.org] to reflect this change of location!

Props to MIT... good show!

Re:From an HMC mailing list

[Anonymous Coward]

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:Those wacky Latin scholars

[pz]

The motto at MIT is "Mens et Manus" (roughly, "mind and hand," or, as I prefer it, "science and technology"). Everyone at The 'Tute knows the motto.

Re:From an HMC mailing list

[frantzdb]

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

Impressive

[rdwald]

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.

Re:From an HMC mailing list

[Anonymous Coward]

To be fair, it is now against Pasadena city law to steal the cannon. One of the first things they tell frosh when they tell us the story is that we are not, under any circumstances, allowed to steal the cannon anymore. Apparently, after the first time we stole it [bu.edu], we stole it subsequent times and left it all around Los Angeles, which for some reason made them sore. If they don't enforce the rule and make MIT give it back, I for one will be sore.

David (HMC '09)

Re:the really brilliant bit of this caltech prank

[JourneyExpertApe]

Apparently, it's not a Civil War cannon, but a Spanish-American War cannon. From the Howe & Ser Moving Co. web page: [howeandser.com]

"Howe & Ser Moving Company has completed its latest job: moving a Spanish-American War cannon from the pits of Pasadena, CA to sunny Cambridge, MA."

Re:I want to know how they did it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Flemming House, and the other "south houses" are currently being renovated. The cannon, I believe, had been relocated to the lawn in front of the admissions house. Not only is it hard to lock something to a lawn (i'm not sure if it was locked to something else, but I recall it wasn't), the admissions house is on an honest-to-god road. Before the renovations, the cannon was less accessible. It would not have been difficult to pull a moving van up in the middle of the night and wheel it off without *students* noticeing it, though getting around Caltech security, which is literally headquartered across the street from the admissions house, took cleverness. Still, the cannon was a bit more accessible than when Harvey Mudd took it.

Definitely a great prank, and I'm sure Techers (Caltechers) welcome the opportunity to raise the level of ingenuity. I took part in last year's prank, and such a response was exactly what we'd been hoping for. Let the games continue!

Re:caltech students say- Good Riddance!

[qromodyn]

"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.

Re:Only the Flems

[Anonymous Coward]

I believe the answer to your question is "In double-wide trailers on the Avery lawn."

An 04 Flem

Re:Only the Flems

[Retribution]

Gotta give some sympathy to the Flems. For those of you who don't know, with the South Hovse rennovations going on, the cannon hasn't been located at its usual lockdown.

And just because Flemming happens to be the victim doesn't mean it's not game-on for all of Caltech. I'm looking forward to whatever comes next.

Loitering Old Lloydie ('02)

Re:From an HMC mailing list

[wyvern5]

I know it's real because I am the internal all-students mailing list moderator and I approved it.

MIT Hackers Appropriate Fleming Cannon

[Latent Heat]

No, not the Caltech cannon, the Fleming cannon. Glad someone set the record straight! Maybe this thing will bring the MIT dudes bad karma or something.

Re:caltech students say- Good Riddance!

[labreuer]

In case anyone doesn't bother to read the parent or didn't get it, here's the deal: MIT just helped a little less than 6/7 of caltech undergrads get back at a little less than 1/7 of caltech undergrads, employing a method that's an expellable offense. Being a member of the house that perhaps dislikes Fleming the most, I, a Page Boy, salute MIT!

Re:Wikipedia already updated

[piehole]

The warning was added on March 8, by 131.215.118.207...a caltech ip address. Either it was legit, or the MIT people had an inside man.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=House_Sy stem_at_the_California_Institute_of_Technology&dif f=prev&oldid=42804898 [wikipedia.org]

$> whois 131.215.118.207
[Querying whois.arin.net]
[whois.arin.net]

OrgName: California Institute of Technology
OrgID: CIT-4
Address: 1200 East California Boulevard
Address: Information Technology Services
Address: Mail Code 214-81
City: Pasadena
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 91125
Country: US

NetRange: 131.215.0.0 - 131.215.255.255
CIDR: 131.215.0.0/16
NetName: CALTECH-NET
NetHandle: NET-131-215-0-0-1
Parent: NET-131-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: MERCUTIO.NI.CALTECH.EDU
NameServer: TYBALT.CALTECH.EDU
NameServer: NSX.LBL.GOV
NameServer: TEPID.NI.CALTECH.EDU
Comment:
RegDate: 1989-01-19
Updated: 1998-07-29

RTechHandle: CI2-ORG-ARIN
RTechName: Caltech Network Operations Center
RTechPhone: [phone]
RTechEmail: [e-mail]

OrgTechHandle: CI2-ORG-ARIN
OrgTechName: Caltech Network Operations Center
OrgTechPhone: [phone]
OrgTechEmail: [e-mail]

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2006-04-06 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.