[1693] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: [Mit-talk] Re: dollar bill mural
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Courtney Shiley)
Wed Dec 14 12:51:00 2005
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2005 12:50:25 -0500
From: Courtney Shiley <cshiley@mit.edu>
To: David Z Maze <dmaze@mit.edu>
In-Reply-To: <y681x0ftx0t.fsf@contents-vnder-pressvre.mit.edu>
cc: mit-talk@mit.edu
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu
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Yeah, but was that because people liked it when tourists took their picture
while they were working? I used it because it was by far the most convenien=
t
cluster. I also liked the window because I could quickly see if there was a
machine open, but I didn't like people watching me. I simply tolerated it.
That was a cluster. This is a lounge. They are not the same thing.
MIT has, lately, been in an architectural phase of putting windows on
everything so random folk can watch you do your thing. Have you noticed the
sight lines in Stata, that let you study a grad student's workspace from
four floors away? And then there's the nano lab. This is a terrible trend,
and it should be resisted. Opaque is *good*. It provides privacy, comfort,
and a sense of intimacy. Glass is not very opaque. Walls, conveniently, are=
.
-C
On 12/14/05, David Z Maze <dmaze@mit.edu> wrote:
>
> Martha Angela Wilcox <angela@csail.mit.edu> writes:
>
> > A student lounge should be a comfortable place
> > to hang-out with friends. A fish bowl where international tour groups
> > (yes, one actually walked up and took a picture with me once when I was
> > in lobby 7 like I was some sort of mit statue), sketchy grad students,
> > or tired undergrads can oogle at people supposedly "hanging out" does
> > not sound very comfortable. In fact, being so close to such a
> > high-traffic area, it seems like the only way to make the lounge
> > somewhat comfortable would be to partially shield it from the
> > hustle-bustle of the Infinite.
>
> Before the current Student Services Center was built, the space in
> Building 11 where the current "quick-cluster" is was three separate
> Athena clusters and some other I/S-related space. The outermost
> cluster had all glass walls, and was commonly known as "the fish
> bowl", since every campus tour would stop outside of it to talk about
> Athena. This didn't stop it from being one of the heaviest-used
> clusters on campus; the trip to other nearish clusters (37-312, 4-035,
> 1-142, ...) could often get you a login faster than waiting for a
> machine in the fishbowl to open up.
>
> --dzm
>
> _______________________________________________
> MIT-talk mailing list
> MIT-talk@mit.edu
> http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/mit-talk
>
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Yeah, but was that because people liked it when tourists took their
picture while they were working? I used it because it was by far the
most convenient cluster. I also liked the window because I could
quickly see if there was a machine open, but I didn't like people
watching me. I simply tolerated it.<br>
<br>
That was a cluster. This is a lounge. They are not the same thing.<br>
<br>
MIT has, lately, been in an architectural phase of putting windows on
everything so random folk can watch you do your thing. Have you noticed
the sight lines in Stata, that let you study a grad student's workspace
from four floors away? And then there's the nano lab. This is a
terrible trend, and it should be resisted. Opaque is *good*. It
provides privacy, comfort, and a sense of intimacy. Glass is not very
opaque. Walls, conveniently, are. <br>
<br>
-C<br><br>
<br>
<br><div><span class=3D"gmail_quote">On 12/14/05, <b class=3D"gmail_sendern=
ame">David Z Maze</b> <<a href=3D"mailto:dmaze@mit.edu">dmaze@mit.edu</a=
>> wrote:</span><blockquote class=3D"gmail_quote" style=3D"border-left: =
1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;=
">
Martha Angela Wilcox <<a href=3D"mailto:angela@csail.mit.edu">angela@csa=
il.mit.edu</a>> writes:<br><br>> A student lounge should be a comfort=
able place<br>> to hang-out with friends. A fish bowl where internationa=
l tour groups
<br>> (yes, one actually walked up and took a picture with me once when =
I was<br>> in lobby 7 like I was some sort of mit statue), sketchy grad =
students,<br>> or tired undergrads can oogle at people supposedly "=
hanging out" does
<br>> not sound very comfortable. In fact, being so close to such a<br>&=
gt; high-traffic area, it seems like the only way to make the lounge<br>>=
; somewhat comfortable would be to partially shield it from the<br>> hus=
tle-bustle of the Infinite.
<br><br>Before the current Student Services Center was built, the space in<=
br>Building 11 where the current "quick-cluster" is was three sep=
arate<br>Athena clusters and some other I/S-related space. The o=
utermost
<br>cluster had all glass walls, and was commonly known as "the fish<b=
r>bowl", since every campus tour would stop outside of it to talk abou=
t<br>Athena. This didn't stop it from being one of the heaviest-=
used<br>
clusters on campus; the trip to other nearish clusters (37-312, 4-035,<br>1=
-142, ...) could often get you a login faster than waiting for a<br>machine=
in the fishbowl to open up.<br><br> --dzm<br><br>______________=
_________________________________
<br>MIT-talk mailing list<br><a href=3D"mailto:MIT-talk@mit.edu">MIT-talk@m=
it.edu</a><br><a href=3D"http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/mit-talk">=
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/mit-talk</a><br></blockquote></div>
<br>
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