A review, attempt number 1.

The term "hack" exists at least since fifties, and at first it had nothing to do with computers, designating "any activity that lead to an interesting and unusual solution, or caused nondestructive mischief". "A History of Hacks and Pranks at MIT" uses "hack" in this broad term. It describes hacks performed by MIT students since 1920-s. There are probably hundreds of hacks described, and to build a classification schema for this compendium of misbehavior was a non-trivial tasks by itself. As a result, the contents table resembles Borges' famous classification of animals allegedly found in a Chinese encyclopedia "Celestial Empire of benevolent Knowledge".

This wouldn't be a problem by itself, but unfortunately, the contents table serves as a reference point for multiple "see something" links, and I had to repeatedly scan the two pages of contents, when I wanted to see what I was recommended to see. Life would be so much easier if "see something" links were equipped with page numbers!

The hacks are described in a factual, rather dry and detached manner, which, frankly, makes dull reading. Descriptions can vary in length from a couple of pages to a single sentence:

On a steamy August day in 1987, hackers erect a papier-mache snowman on the small dome.

That the text is dense with MIT proprietary vocabulary doesn't help (am I supposed to know what "Infinite Corridor" means?) Neither do black-and-white, low-quality photos -- a big part of the hacks is classified as "visual", and it would help if you could really see an artifact, rather than to read about it! In fact, many of these photos are color, as you can see on the IHTFP Gallery, so there is no excuse to render them black-and-white in the book.

In short, I had to struggle through the first half of the book. Things were easier after this critical point -- I searched the book for "MIT-English dictionary" and indeed, there was "Glossary of MIT Vernacular" at the back. More important, I realized than I need to employ my imagination. Reading about "performance" hacks, for example, reminded reading a cookbook -- all the ingredients are described, yet you might still be not sure how the dish is supposed to taste.

In a scene reminiscent of the abduction of Joe Buttle in the movie Brazil, the unsuspecting student was stuffed into a body bag and carried away. Leibowitz was then asked to sign a receipt for her return, sign for his copy of the receipt, and for the commando's copy of Leibowitz's copy of the receipt.

By the last page I became a victim of the Stockholm syndrome -- I liked the book. Or, maybe more accurate, I liked the content (just check Al Gore Buzzword Bingo or the Case of the Disappearing President’s Office) -- now does anybody plan to publish "Encyclopedia of MIT hacks"?