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Freshman MIT Students Automate Dorm Room
Inessa writes "Two freshman MIT students have automated their dorm room, complete with a big red party button which generates an instant party. Their custom-engineered system is called MIDAS, the Multi-Function In Dorm Automation System. According to the MIT News office, "Gone are the light switches and glaring fluorescent lights of a typical dorm room. Zack Anderson and RJ Ryan's room has several lighting schemes, remote web access, voice activation, a security system, electric blinds and more ... With the touch of one red button, their dorm room becomes a rave. The lights go out, the blinds close, the displays read, "feel the energy" as a voice repeats the same phrase over a deep bass beat.""
This inculcation of curiosity and resourcefulness is what makes studying at MIT truly unique. No wonder it is one of the premier educational institutions in the world.
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Concept is nice, but really, in a dorm room of that size the party mode is pretty useless. Adapt it to a basement/dining room, and we can talk.
Why, when we were in college, we couldn't afford to have all of that expensive automation gear. We had to get up off of our asses and actually turn lights off on and on, and we liked it that way. In-room fridge? Hah! We were so poor, we had to keep a little piece of Velveeta frozen on the dorm room window sill, saving it up for our big Friday night celebrations. But tell that to kids today, and they won't believe you. No sir.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
All programmers are lazy. Why do people program? To make things easier... because we're lazy!
Right. MIT students automated their room. Isn't this a dog-bites-man story?
One man's -1 Flamebait is another man's +5 Funny.
Now comes the hard part: make friends to utilize their party room.
It's all a nice setup, but when happens when these kids have to move out of that dorm? (Due to a pile of dirty laundry growing legs and chewing on wires)
After running a few LAN parties, I know full well, set up is half the time of take down.
So assuming these boys have been at this whole Dorm Party System for a couple of months, dare I say a year? How are they going to take all this down?
I bet everything has been screwed or nailed in, modified and altered to accommodate all this equipment. Who allowed them to do this? Last time I checked you weren't allowed to mess around with dorm rooms.
So are they going to sell the whole system to the school as an example to future students how useful MIT is? Or will they sell it to another group of freshmen?
They are going to have to move out sooner or later. I feel bad for the system. Its either going to be torn down or abused as a teaching resource.
Nice system and all, but -10 practicality. Maybe it would have worked better in a house or apartment. They should have worked more in how it looked and how it was to be set up instead of just building it.
With some planning they could have made some money, but I won't mess up my dorm and forfeit my damage payment for the system.
-10 Practicality, -5 Damage Deposit, +5 L337ness...
They can afford to go to MIT, so I'd imagine that these gadgets are just a drop in the bucket to them.
Laziness is one of the key hacker virtues along with impatience and hubris. Larry Wall invented entire programming language so that he could be lazier.
-mkb
Sorry, but I would not dump all MIT grads in the same bucket. They're just like anyone else - there are the folks who can't work with others and need to do things their own way, even when their way is the hard way, and then there are the truly brilliant and personal folks. I've worked with MIT grads at software companies and some of them have been simply amazing - although not the best. The absolute best architects and programmers I have worked with were the folks who picked up programming out of necessity on the job back when standards were only beginning to emerge, and loved the work so much they went to technical schools to immerse themselves in good programming and design courses. I suppose it comes down to experience and practicality; if all you know is theory you're not going to be any good in solving real-world problems.
I would not discount all MIT grads based on one negative experience you've had.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
I personally do not care much for the fracas and rukus of the normal college parties for meeting women. Try a library or a coffee shop. Be interesting even when not intoxicated.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Dude... they go to MIT. Have you been there ?
The chicks are geeks. Some of them are probably reading this now, and hoping to have a chance to check it out. Many will understand MIDAS well enough to build their own.
Basically these guys have designed a perfect solution for their environment. It might not work that well at another school, but at MIT they have it made... for a while at any rate. Like most geeks the chicks at MIT will want to see upgrades, new versions and bugfixes.
Don't post innacurate information
If you do, I swear by my pretty floral bonnet I will end you.
I've spoken to a lot of managers at high-tech companies that won't hire fresh MIT grads because a)they don't know anything actually useful and b)they think they know everything, so when they're doing something wrong, they don't listen to coworkers, team leaders, and managers.
As a manager at a high tech company, my experience has been entirely different. While we don't get a lot of MIT graduates coming to the west coast, the ones who have worked for me have been fantastic in terms of being bright, energetic, as well as good with both working on technical problems and dealing with people. I'd believe that a school like MIT could produce some freaks, but I'd love to get more of the same of what I've experienced in the past.
All sex is paid for.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
I'd imagine MIT grads are a lot like grads from other schools. They have a couple advantages: the reputation and difficulty of courses that they passed, and the environment. Being surrounded by people as talented and enthusiastic as you works wonders.
However, what's vastly more important than simply getting good grades for the top jobs and especially graduate work is demonstrating your ability. Come out of any halfway respectable school having published a paper in a decent journal (or at least written a good paper), done some sort of other neat research, written (and sold!) some great programs, etc, and you have a huge advantage over someone who's merely got the grades and the school rep.
Professors in college are mainly there to teach you how to properly teach yourself and give you the fundamentals in the field you've finally chosen. As long as you got a couple professors who know what it is to research and work in industry that aren't total bums, they should be able to impart all the necessary wisdom to you. Being instructed by Nobel Laureate Professor X. Winnar or Fields Medalist Q. Bert Hawtsauce is nice for letters of recommendation, I'll give them that, but in my experience hasn't shown much of a difference as far as undergrad learning.
To make up for the environment at my smaller and less tech-oriented school, I spent semesters and summers abroad at programs targeted to people in my situation. Going to those programs were invaluable, they were funded by the government, and they gave me a chance to really get immersed in my subject with students who felt as passionately about it as I did. It also gave me some amazing contacts in terms of notable names in my field, one of whom has offered to fund my grad studies.
So really, like most other things, it's your talent, the effort you put in, and lots of plain dumb luck. Had I chosen a more highly ranked school I would've come out of undergrad with amazing amounts of debt, and I don't know if I would've really improved on my grad outlook. This way, I have something like $10k in low-interest government loans and I'm getting fully funded with a very nice stipend at a good grad school.
Trust me- EVERY college has a drug and alcohol abuse problem. Even the goody-goody religious ones.
If you just look at women as sexual objects then I'm sure you'll end up with someone who will be manipulative. On the other hand, if you actually like women, and are careful in your selection process, you might actually find something more meaningful.
"sweet dreams are made of this..."