cjh@csin.UUCP (Chip Hitchcock) (09/19/83)
I have been randomly hanging around MIT for 10+ years now and (from what I've heard) suspect that technical use of "hack" may predate significant computer availability. "Hack" can be used in a wide variety of circumstances but it almost always includes the connotation of using something in a way the designers didn't intend, e.g. tunnel hacking (getting from one place to another via the steam tunnel network), or "hack" (noun) which can mean either an unorthodox-but-effective solution to a problem or an elaborate practical joke (anything from putting a nipple on top of the lesser dome to welding a streetcar to its tracks).