
Secrets of the Caltech Cannon Heist Revealed - Anechoic
http://alum.mit.edu/pages/sliceofmit/2013/02/28/secrets-to-the-caltech-cannon-heist-revealed/
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fatjokes
So now a prank is also called a hack? I know it's MIT so by association
everything they do is a hack but come on.

That said, awesome prank.

~~~
mbrubeck
"Hack" has been used in this way at MIT for about 50 years, possibly longer
than it's been used in the narrower computer-related sense:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacks_at_the_Massachusetts_Ins...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacks_at_the_Massachusetts_Institute_of_Technology#Cultural_aspects)

~~~
judk
It's cute to see kids complain about old folks using slang that the kids
didn't know they inherited from the old folks.

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jessaustin
Comments on TFA indicate that most of Caltech is indifferent towards the
cannon. This is apparently the totem of some particular dorm.

~~~
saryant
For those not aware, Caltech's dorms are called "houses" and each has its own
personality. Some are more nuts than others (I dated a Page girl for long
time).

Some are known for their pranks, some for their love of certain types of
alcohol. It's a frat system that (almost) every student joins, rather than the
typical less-cohesive dorms seen at most of universities in the US.

My outside perspective is that the house system leads to some very destructive
tendencies but those within Caltech love it.

~~~
nieve
When I was there in the early 90s the house system had serious flaws, but in
part that was because I was in Blacker - then one of the most inclusive,
friendly, gender-balanced of the houses (though not without issues). Page was
notorious for (self-)destructive behavior and though that was probably unfair
it'd become enough of a self-selecting culture that they did live up to it
more than most houses. I think most of the serious problems were more products
of a small undergrad body (800 total) largely isolated from the surrounding
community, lots of pressure plus a remarkable level of sleep deprivation, very
bright people with a lot of personal issues, easy access to cheap drugs &
alcohol in bulk, and a huge gender imbalance. Stress-induced
breakdowns/flaming were common, group stalking & sexual harassment were common
enough to have their own term (glomming) and sexual assault may have been
common as on most other campuses despite geek culture's self image, harassment
& assault by faculty was swept under the rug, blatant homophobia may not have
been common but LGB students tended to be quiet about their orientation (trans
students were dead silent), and the administration was basically uninvolved,
untrusted, and authoritarian (to most students' minds).

I think the house system was a mixed bag there, it kept some people closer to
each other than was healthy but it also provided some level of support for a
lot of us. I suspect things have gotten much worse since I was there, though.
The only honor code I've ever seen work was the largely self-policed "No
member of the Caltech community shall take unfair advantage of any other
member of the Caltech community" and the administration was clearly
communicating that they no longer expected students to be capable of following
it. My impression is that the morale effects of that really cut into the
effectiveness of a system that had helped keep pranks from escalating to the
really dangerous or outright damaging, cheating low, and aggression of any
form very rare. It was mostly worked because it was too simple to have real
loopholes, the community fetishized it, we got a lot of benefits from keeping
it working (take home finals, lab keys, etc.), and fundamentally it kept the
peace. The administration still has a page describing it, but my impression is
that as a social construct it's a hollow shell of what it was.

TL;DR? The house system was less damaging than most frats due to self-
selection for house membership, but that also concentrated some really
unhealthy behavior and the rest of us were already pretty broken without the
houses helping.

~~~
saryant
I saw what happened at Caltech during the rash of suicides in 2009/2010 and
watched as a number of people I knew (including my now-ex girlfriend)
tailspinned into very destructive behavior and IMO house culture exasperated
the problems. Depression led to some drawing themselves more into the
destructive tendencies of certain houses which put them in over their heads
and unable to emotionally sustain themselves.

House culture and the alcohol/drugs that comes along with some of them became
their primary escape from the academic pressure of Caltech and the social
pressures that came with being in the middle of a suicide cluster.
Unfortunately, that doesn't help with depression, just pushes it aside
temporarily. Truly a painful situation for those involved.

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danso
Great to see this insight coming from MIT:

"The solution to all hacking problems? Social engineering."

