[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!
[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {ADVENT}{hack}]