V7
= V =
vanilla
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!
See also hobbit (sense 2).
--The Jargon File version 4.3.1, ed. ESR, autonoded by rescdsk.