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UIUC Unveils the Worlds Most Advanced Building
Eagle5596 writes "The University of Illinois at Urbana
Champaign, one of the top Computer
Science programs in the world has just officially opened their new $80
million Siebel
Center. The department head describes the building as a
single computing entity, meant to be programmed and to interact with those
in the building via RFID tags in their ID cards.
This is probably one of
the biggest and most expensive projects in ubiquitous computing ever
launched, touching on all the important issues in this field, from privacy to the ultimate question about the usefulness of such a system. Several papers are covering this including the Chicago Sun Times, and the Chicago
Business"
I'm going to have to disagree. Although there are parts that look odd and half finished, like the metal beams jutting out over the entrances, walking around the back and seeing the gigantic wall of glass is kind of cool. And it's purdy on the inside. Reminds me of DCL, actually.
Considering that the only scientifically-verified consequence of overexposure to radio waves is radio burns -- and that only happens at very high energy densities -- I wouldn't worry about cancer.
"They redundantly repeated themselves over and over again incessantly without end ad infinitum" -- ibid.
Oh... and sure, the building's nice, too.
--
"It's better to have an attention span and not need it, than to need whatever it is we were just talking about."
- Mayor {Powerpuff Girls}
Well, I being a current inhabitant of this "amazing" building... have yet to see this wonderful technology. Sure, I didn't really read what's been said in the papers about it, cus I know what's actually happening here. It's really stupid, the whole building. When I first walked in, my inital reaction was that the 70's threw up on it. They still haven't finished building the damn thing. And it's got way too many bugs (just like a CS building should....) like the pretty light fixtures that hang in the conference rooms cast a lovely shadow onto the projector screen. Plus, the screen in my conference room doesn't have a switch to lower it. But it's nice to know that a screen should exist. They've just installed all this RFID stuff and touch screen kiosks today... so it doesn't look like crap for the Grand Opening.
I wouldn't believe all the hype if I were you. Just like everything else, including the project I'm supposed to present at this Siebel Center Open House, it's a lot of buzzwords and catch phrases...it doesn't really do what I say it does... But a man can dream can't he?
But on another note, the elevator shafts provided a lovely rappelling trip... to bad they had to install elevators in them. (Which I mananged to crash and get stuck on the 3rd floor...like software-wise not bloody death crash)
But I'm stuck here until I graduate... what fun it will be to break the rest of it. It is however nicer than our old building... Thank you Mr. Siebel for giving us a lot of money before your company started to fail, and thanks for not asking for it back.
All electronic locks I have ever seen default to unlocked when the power goes off. This is the way they are built, not wired. So if the power goes out, they WILL unlock (and they did unlock too, when the power went out). This is probably required by the fire code so that people are not trapped in a burning building.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
This is doubly funny because in the movie 2001, HAL is actually designed at UIUC...
The doors are locked with traditional magnetic striped cards, it's only inside the rooms that RFID tags are used help configure the room. It's amazingly secure, so secure that I cannot enter the rooms I need to do my project in, and if I step out for some fresh air on the fourth floor balcony I will not be able to get back in.
Usually when you purchase an electronic lock you can choose between a Fail-Safe and Fail-Secure variant. With Fail-Safe the lock unlocks when electricity is remove, and you can get what Fail-Secure does.
Surprisingly enough, I just happened to visit this building this past Monday. I was taking a visit to UIUC (thinking about transferring there) for the first time, and was referred to this building, since I'm a CS major.
When I was in there Monday, all kinds of work was being done on the building--I would have never thought it'd be done so soon. I absolutely loved the architecture though, very very cool. And I can't count how many "50 inch plasma screens on wheels" I saw in the various rooms.
And just think, all that above deeply impressed me, and I didn't even have a clue that the building was going to be a giant computer/the first of its kind.
Nothing disturbs me more than blind loyalism towards some unrealistic and over-idealistic notion of one's nationality.
i took some; they're .
I used to live in Urbana. The only things worth a crap in Urbana-Champaign are the university and Wolfram Research. The story goes that Stephen Wolfram didn't want to find a new apartment so he started the company there.
-B
US News and World Report (2003 mirror): UIUC is #5.