Greenspeak is a specific variety of
hack, done on
MIT's
Green Building. The Green Building is 18 stories tall, most of which have long lines of rectangular windows. At night, the pattern of light and dark windows produces an effect very similar to a primitive array of
pixels. Since the Green Building was originally built, MIT students have used this resemblance to their advantage.
Greenspeak hacks include:
- A giant "EC ->" as an advertisement for the East Campus dorm during Rush
- An Oscar, in honor of Good Will Hunting. This hack made the front page of the New York Times.
- "Sox", in honor of the Red Sox being in the World Series. Unfortunately, a grad student who wasn't a fan had a well-placed window, and the resulting word read "Sux".
- The Hancock Tower, a glass-sided skyscraper across the Charles River from the Green Building decided to do its own Sox-supporting Greenspeak the next time the Sox made the World Series, and put a giant "1" in their windows. Unfortunately, the Sox lost-- so the next night, "2" appeared on the Green Building.
- A giant IHTFP appeared one Rush.
- "Fred", in honor of Fred the Dorm's advocates, showed up another year.
- A Christmas tree and smiling jack o' lantern both showed up for the relevant holidays in the 1970's.
- A volumeter, similar to those you'd normally find on your stereo, appeared in the top row of windows during the Boston Pops concert on the Esplanade one Fourth of July.