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UIUC Unveils the Worlds Most Advanced Building

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the soon-to-be-an-ocp-offering dept.

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"

6 of 319 comments (clear)

  1. Damnit HAL, LET ME IN!!! by FrYGuY101 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you in. Your GPA is too low this semester.

    --
    "If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living."

    - Seneca
    1. Re:Damnit HAL, LET ME IN!!! by YoJ · · Score: 5, Informative

      This is doubly funny because in the movie 2001, HAL is actually designed at UIUC...

  2. "Modern" buildings tend to not age well by winkydink · · Score: 5, Insightful
    The old TWA terminal at JFK (round, swoopy curvy thing) and terminal 1 at CDG (aka the habitrail) both looked incredibly modern and futuristic when first opened.

    The UIUC bldg sounds extremely cool, but in 5 yrs folks will be smiling politely at the "hokey-ness" of the place.

    --

    "I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey

    1. Re:"Modern" buildings tend to not age well by epanastasi · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

  3. Microsoft "Buildy" by AtariAmarok · · Score: 5, Funny
    I guess they had to go and install "Microsoft Office... that is, REAL Office".

    Now, when you go down the hall, the "Buildy" mascot asks things like. "You appear to be walking to the bathroom. Would you like some help?"

    --
    Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
  4. Regression by The_Mystic_For_Real · · Score: 5, Funny

    This proves the point that all things human go in cycles. First computers were the size of buildings, then they shrunk down to fit in the palm, now they are becoming the size of buildings again.

    --

    _____

    Thank you.