:vadding: /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] n. 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 AI Hackers Dictionary
Related:
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....
