vadding

2 definitions found

vadding - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  vadding
  
     <games> /vad'ing/ (From VAD, a permutation of ADV,
     i.e. ADVENT, used to avoid a particular admin's continual
     search-and-destroy sweeps for the game) A leisure-time
     activity of certain hackers involving the covert exploration
     of the "secret" parts of large buildings - basements, roofs,
     freight elevators, maintenance crawlways, steam tunnels, and
     the like.  A few go so far as to learn locksmithing in order
     to synthesise vadding keys.  The verb is "to vad" (compare
     phreaking; see also hack, sense 9).  This term dates from
     the late 1970s, before which such activity was simply called
     "hacking"; the older usage is still prevalent at MIT.
  
     Vadding (pronounced /vay'ding/) was also popular CMU, at
     least as early as 1986.  People who did it every night were
     called the "vaders," possibly after "elevator," which was one
     of the things they played with, or "invader," or "Darth
     Vader".  This game was usually played along with
     no-holds-barred hide-and-seek.  CMU grad students were the
     known to pry open the inner doors of elevators between floors
     to see the graffiti on the inside of the outer doors.
  
     The most extreme and dangerous form of vadding is "elevator
     rodeo", also known as "elevator surfing", a sport played by
     wrasslin' down a thousand-pound elevator car with a 3-foot
     piece of string, and then exploiting this mastery in various
     stimulating ways (such as elevator hopping, shaft exploration,
     rat-racing, and the ever-popular drop experiments).  Kids,
     don't try this at home!
  
     See also hobbit.
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (1996-01-07)
  

vadding - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  vadding
   /vad'ing/, n.
  
     [from VAD, a permutation of ADV (i.e., ADVENT), used to avoid a
     particular admin's continual search-and-destroy sweeps for the
  game]
     A leisure-time activity of certain hackers involving the covert
     exploration of the `secret' parts of large buildings -- basements,
     roofs, freight elevators, maintenance crawlways, steam tunnels, and
     the like. A few go so far as to learn locksmithing in order to
     synthesize vadding keys. The verb is to vad (compare phreaking; see
     also hack, sense 9). This term dates from the late 1970s, before
     which such activity was simply called `hacking'; the older usage is
     still prevalent at MIT.
  
     The most extreme and dangerous form of vadding is elevator rodeo,
     a.k.a. elevator surfing, a sport played by wrasslin' down a
     thousand-pound elevator car with a 3-foot piece of string, and then
     exploiting this mastery in various stimulating ways (such as elevator
     hopping, shaft exploration, rat-racing, and the ever-popular drop
     experiments). Kids, don't try this at home!