MacHack

The conference was atypical of computer conferences in many ways. Keynotes were generally delivered at midnight. The focus of the conference was less on attending sessions and more on developing "hacks": displays of programming, scripting, configuration, or other techie prowess. Hacks were presented in a raucous Friday night show and recognized at a Saturday banquet. The best-received hacks were those developed on-site during the three-day conference, and those that embodied both remarkable technical skill and utter impracticality. Hacks that were perceived as having some utility value were penalized.[1]

Rather than being held in a vibrant or popular location, the first MacHacks were held in the Holidome in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After a few years, the conference tried one year at what has become known as the MacHack from Hell. Subsequent MacHacks were held in an indistinct Holiday Inn along the Southfield Freeway in Dearborn, Michigan, adjacent to a CompUSA, a Wendy's, a Chili's, and not much else.

One of the key events each year was Bash Apple,[2][3][4] typically involving one or more brave souls from Apple taking feedback from the angry mob, sometimes for hours on end. Jordan Mattson was one such Apple representative, engaging so regularly and earnestly that the phrase "It's all Jordan's fault" became a mantra of MacHack.

The MacHax Group held the First Annual MacHax Group Best Hack Contest at the second MacHack in 1987.[5] The Hack Show generally started at midnight, and ran as late as 5AM. Prizes were awarded to many of the contestants, generally inexpensive and tangentially related to the name or nature of the hack. Unbeknownst to most of the attendees, a key goal of prize selection was to see just how outrageous items could be and still have contestants being willing to take them home. During the Dearborn years, the official and beloved hardware store and key purveyor to the contest organizers was Duke's Hardware. Winners were selected by ballot at lunch later that same day, and awards awarded at dinner. The top prize was the coveted Victor-brand rat trap modified to say "A-trap". A-trap is a reference to the Motorola 68000 A-trap exception mechanism which Apple used to great effect in the creation of Macintosh[6] and provided the foundation for much of the hacking enjoyed by attendees.

MacHack's small, informal ethic, and on-site coding challenges have been carried on by a number of conferences; for example, the C4 conference was explicitly created as an attempt to fill the void left by the end of MacHack.[7]

• Sleep is for the weak and sickly
• Kill Dean's INITs
• It's all Jordan's fault
• Who makes the rules?
• MARKETING!!!
• 72 Hours Caffeine and Code

• Doug Clapp
• Scott Knaster
• Original Macintosh development team reunion: Andy Hertzfeld, Randy Wiggington, Daniel Kottke, Caroline Rose, Jef Raskin and Bill Atkinson - 2001[8][9] Scheduled to appear, but unable to attend: Guy 'Bud' Tribble, Bruce Horn[10]
• John Warnock
• Cory Doctorow
• Eric Raymond - 2000 "open source sermon"[11]
• Dave Winer
• Andy Ihnatko
• Steve Wozniak - 1997, 2001[12][13]
• Rob Malda
• Tim O'Reilly
• Ken Arnold
• Jordan Hubbard
• Ted Nelson (who may still be speaking in the Savoy Room)

• C4 (conference)

• MacAddict magazines
• The Institute (IEEE, Piscataway, New Jersey); Volume 18 number 6, September 1994; page 16, "After 5" column

• Official Site note the ironic catchphrase
• Official FAQ last updated April 7, 2003
• 180 Years of Hack P.D. Magnus' brilliant historical examination, circa 1998.
• Will Hack for Food! Coverage of MacHack from 1998 through 2005 from TidBITS