Facebook Hacked

When I drove by the Facebook offices in Menlo Park, CA on Thursday, January 19, I noticed that Facebook had gotten hacked.

Unlike most legislators and news media writers, I choose to use the word hack correctly. Hacking has nothing to do with computer security. The term hacker was coined in the late 1950s by MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club, and it means "someone who applies ingenuity to create a clever result, called a hack" (see http://tmrc.mit.edu/hackers-ref.html).

From what I can tell, the hack I saw at the Facebook offices was in the true spirit of hacking.

I first noticed it at around 3 p.m. (Pacific Standard Time) while I was waiting at a traffic light.

I returned in the evening to see if the hack was still there, and to take some more photos. Within minutes, a police officer arrived and asked me if this was my work. I had fears that I would be falsely accused of constructing the hack and returning to the scene to admire the fruits of my labor only to be arrested for vandalism. I masked my fears and spoke to the officer not as though he were just an armed law-enforcement tool, but a person.

Partly because I was unable to contain my glee over the hack, and partly to mask the fears induced by my cynicism, I think I had a wild grin on my face the entire time that I spoke with the guy. He was exceptionally kind to be my audience for as long as he was.

After I told him the hack was not my work, I took the opportunity to tell him the origins of the term hacker, and to explain how the term has been misused for many years. Then I enthusiastically told him how this hack was in the true spirit of hacking. 

After five to ten minutes of listening patiently to me, the officer touched his fingers to his ear to indicate that he was listening to his radio. Then he politely excused himself by saying, I would love to stay and chat, this is really interesting, but I have to go. Just when I was about to start talking about software freedoms too! Shucks.

This hack was still up when I passed it again Saturday morning (January 21).