[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!
