I guess the "T" in 'M.I.T.' really stands for "Tardis"

[Neroon]

The Doctor visits M.I.T.

The creativity, execution and relevance of the hacking culture at MIT never ceases to amaze me.

 

[Winterwind]

Am I missing something? All I see is the Tardis on the roof, either photoshopped or someone put a a replica up there. What does that have to do with the hacking culture?

 

[Neroon]

I'll let the author of the photo explain it. You can find this entry on the Flickr page itself, by clicking on the photograph.

"It is a "hack" (prank) for the start of the academic year at MIT. New student orientation begins this week. The MIT website has a gallery of hacks from over the years: hacks.mit.edu "The word hack at MIT usually refers to a clever, benign, and "ethical" prank or practical joke, which is both challenging for the perpetrators and amusing to the MIT community (and sometimes even the rest of the world!). Note that this has nothing to do with computer (or phone) hacking (which we call "cracking")."

 

[The]

^Nice! And being at MIT, I'm betting that more than a few people will recognize the significance of said Police Box...

 

[Samurai8472]

Master
In
TARDIS

!!!

 

[Mark_Nguyen]

Given that the TARDIS blueprints are in the DoD mainframe (as referenced on "Eureka" last week), I'm not surprised some clever hackers have gotten ahold of them and put one on their roof.

Mark

 

[Winterwind]

I'll let the author of the photo explain it. You can find this entry on the Flickr page itself, by clicking on the photograph.

"It is a "hack" (prank) for the start of the academic year at MIT. New student orientation begins this week. The MIT website has a gallery of hacks from over the years: hacks.mit.edu "The word hack at MIT usually refers to a clever, benign, and "ethical" prank or practical joke, which is both challenging for the perpetrators and amusing to the MIT community (and sometimes even the rest of the world!). Note that this has nothing to do with computer (or phone) hacking (which we call "cracking")."

Interesting. So they have a different definition of "hacking" at MIT. And someone photoshopped a Tardis onto the roof. Cute but nothing to write home about. If they actually built a Tardis and made it dematerialise, then I'd be impressed.

 

[jbny67]

^^

It's not a photoshop. It was built and placed on the roof.

 

[Tom]

I'm from MA they do that sort of stuff every year, I remember when they made the top dome look like R2D2

 

[Winterwind]

^^

It's not a photoshop. It was built and placed on the roof.

Which is what I'd said in my initial post, either PS or a replica.

I'll definitely give them credit for being more entertaining than the daft things university students do in my city.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I'll let the author of the photo explain it. You can find this entry on the Flickr page itself, by clicking on the photograph.

"It is a "hack" (prank) for the start of the academic year at MIT. New student orientation begins this week. The MIT website has a gallery of hacks from over the years: hacks.mit.edu "The word hack at MIT usually refers to a clever, benign, and "ethical" prank or practical joke, which is both challenging for the perpetrators and amusing to the MIT community (and sometimes even the rest of the world!). Note that this has nothing to do with computer (or phone) hacking (which we call "cracking")."

Interesting. So they have a different definition of "hacking" at MIT. And someone photoshopped a Tardis onto the roof. Cute but nothing to write home about. If they actually built a Tardis and made it dematerialise, then I'd be impressed.

It's not a "different" definition of hacking, it's just the original definition that non-techies are unfamiliar with. Your average guy on the street thinks hacking is about breaking into computers, but that's only one kind of hacking.

Clever pranks are also hacks, since the original definition of hacking is more about finding clever solutions to problems (yes, even silly ones like "how do I get a replica TARDIS onto the roof of a campus building?")