The Multifunction In-Dorm Automation System

October 11, 2010 10:22 PM

The MIDAS - multifunction in-dorm automation system - offers a complete, torturously elaborate system for controlling every aspect of dormitory life. Note especially the emergency party mode button, and Seagalvision, the spy camera in a can of Seagal-branded energy drink.
posted by nicolas léonard sadi carnot (13 comments total)

I thought I saw this before, it was linked in this comment back in 2008. Still neat, but I doubt the kid still is in the same dorm by now.
posted by mrzarquon at 10:26 PM on October 11, 2010

It's good to see Mini-ITX being put to good use. I built one in a cookie tin four years ago, and it runs as a common internet and music machine to this day. It kinda sucks a video (VIA chipsets never had good linux drivers), but it's a solid machine. It got to four months of uptime at one point, pretty good for a system running as a desktop...
posted by kaibutsu at 10:48 PM on October 11, 2010

Is it OK that I think the most exciting piece of the Party Mode equipment is the oscilloscope?
posted by Dr Dracator at 10:55 PM on October 11, 2010

Why implement a mode that you will never, ever use?
posted by secret about box at 11:02 PM on October 11, 2010 [7 favorites]

Somehow I imagine that were the party button pushed, it would be a party like Al Gore's party when Lisa bought his book. A single record comes out, is placed on the turntable, and everyone sits still and listens carefully.
posted by Ghidorah at 11:19 PM on October 11, 2010

I'm reading it in Peter Sellers' Dr Strangelove voice.

The third button initiates a relax mode which turns off all the lights except the ambient colored lights which give the room a peaceful feeling. In addition, the blinds are shut and relaxing rhythms play from the speakers. A "romance" mode is in the making.

Of course, Mister President, an enormous network of computers, with a system of tape memory banks, will select amongst guests to ensure that only those potential partners are chosen whose—ah—sexual characteristics are of a highly stimulating nature. Ziss is simple to understand?
posted by Fiasco da Gama at 11:53 PM on October 11, 2010 [5 favorites]

Nothing in an MIT dorm room is truly permanent. But sometimes it captures the interest of the Wall Street Journal. MIDAS was made by the same dudes whose security talk on the MBTA's ticket system got canceled by court order.

Down the hall is the lounge containing the Emergency Pizza Button. That was itself preceded by the undocumented-by-the-press-at-the-time Movie Mode button, which when pressed would close the doors to the lounge and turn off the nearby overhead lights.

The lounge is also home to one of the world's oldest webcams, and down the hall is one of the world's most misleadingly-salaciously-named webcams.

Also worth noting that this is the home of the Time Traveler Convention (official site).
posted by breath at 12:29 AM on October 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Why implement a mode that you will never, ever use?

Sounds like someone has failed to
FEEL
THE
ENERGY
posted by Uppity Pigeon #2 at 2:34 AM on October 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Black lights over dorm room beds probably leads to some embarrassing forensic discoveries.
posted by device55 at 6:58 AM on October 12, 2010 [3 favorites]

I could pretty much reach everything in my minuscule dorm without having to get up.
posted by HumanComplex at 7:57 AM on October 12, 2010

LCD Monitor w/ Auto Winamp Visualation

fail
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:07 AM on October 12, 2010

A "romance" mode is in the making.

But somehow, I doubt it will ever come to fruition. Unnecessity is the mother of inertia, or something like..
posted by FatherDagon at 11:46 AM on October 12, 2010

Well, I didn't go to MIT. But I do recall at my U our "party mode" typically involved leaving the dorm room.
posted by caution live frogs at 12:14 PM on October 12, 2010