<p>When you’re finished pondering bedding and lofting, check this out:</p>
<p>This MIT student has a bit more to pack up in his dance hall dorm room</p>
<p>by christina wallace / metro boston</p>
<p>JUN 5, 2006</p>
<p>BOSTON While most college students are packing away their clothes and taking down posters to vacate their dorm rooms, MIT student Zach Anderson has a much larger task when dismantling his room for next year’s students.</p>
<p>Anderson and his roommate, R.J. Ryan, were the first students in MIT’s history to create a completely automated dorm room from scratch.</p>
<p>Anderson, an electrical engineer/computer science major, wired his run-of-the-mill room with a sophisticated security system, electric blinds, surveillance cameras, voice-activation, remote Web access and LED screens that constantly flash news and weather reports. He can control the lights with a sound of his voice and check to see if someone broke into his room through a remote access Web cam. Theres even a touch-screen panel installed next to the sink allowing him to hit a button at night to dim the lights and turn on relaxing music so he can fall asleep. </p>
<p>Gee – when I was in college the techiest dorm room had seven (count them 7) telephones mounted in various locations. I think they were rotary dial too!</p>
<p>Ummmmmmmmmmmm, he can move into MY place for the summer…I’ll trade room and board for some high-tech updates (like, ummmmm, a working garage door opener! <em>lololololololol</em>) ~berurah</p>
<p>I absolutely LOVE this kid!!! Can someone ship him down my way? Because I have a huge house he can redo at will - I’ll go away for three or four months and then come back, just surprise me - LOL</p>
<p>When at home, the robot answers to “Mom.” Push her button and see her 1. get to work picking up the dirty clothes. 2 start lecturing about neatness, social responsibility, moral fiber… Moms come pre-programmed even if they did not attend MIT.</p>
<p>An ideal Mom would not allow any of her buttons to be pushed. But, you realize, this is a platonic ideal, not to be found in real life. </p>
<p>Mom v.2 does long-distance, virtual cooking. It takes the form of CARE packages and recipes (such as the ones Mootmom has collected). She probably is standing by the telephone in case her recipe is not clear enough and some culinary crisis needs to be solved pronto, in real time.
Mom’s work is never done. I actually heard a prof say that she was going to be working late. To make sure that she got up in time for a 9:00 start of a meeting, she was going to call her mom to ask her to call and wake her up! So add alarm clock to other duties. Mom is also a walking appointment diary ("Did you make an appointment for your yearly medical check-up?), fashion consultant (“Are you sure you should be wearing this with that?”), and even personal shopper, social secretary, and many more.</p>
<p>What she is not, in whatever version, is shrink, especially when it comes to matters of the heart, as they say; or a dependable movie and music critic.</p>
<p>When I was in college, there was a group of students that were mechanically savvy. This was few years ago, before PC’s, in the Middle Ages, but they used to wire their door and doorknob for breaks so the admins couldn’t search room for unapproved items, like the still in their closet. They also wired the new theater building, with the licensed electrician just signing off on their work, because he didn’t have a clue! They also helped get the “borrowed” Mobil Pegasus horse onto the top of one of the men’s dorms and make sure it still lit up - adding neon, etc. We didn’t consider this “nerd” style. We all thought this was really cool!</p>
~berurah</p>