Sometimes MIT catches on fire.

Ok, maybe not actually, but sometimes MIT thinks that it catches on fire. On more than one occasion I've found myself outside in the snow or in the rain, waiting for the strobe lights to stop blinking before heading back into the dorm to resume whatever I was doing. Sam '07 wrote a nice entry about this experience here.

This year Burton-Conner has been fairly lucky. As a dorm we're only had about 5 fire alarms since orientation, one of which was a drill. Simmons, on the other hand, is getting slapped around by the fire gods as if it was nothing more than an obnoxious insect buzzing in MIT's face. Chris '12 probably knows more about this than I do, but the gist of it is that Simmons has had somewhere around 10 to 15 fire alarms since the school year has started. For a period of about two weeks they were CONSTANTLY outside, waiting to be let back in. You can actually hear the Simmons fire alarm from my kitchen, which is what happened a couple of weeks ago.

I heard an alarm and looked out the window, only to see Simmons flashing, students leaving, and firetrucks parking. I watched the scene for a little bit and then noticed the Simmons LED display.

Simmons LED display? You see, Simmons Hall has a bazillion little windows in order to make the building look taller than it actually is. Students have realized that the windows look a lot like pixels, and as such have created a scrolling LED display that can be read across the river in Boston, or from my kitchen window.

Anywho, Simmons was "on fire" (which actually means that somebody didn't understand that when you smoke inside the dorm the fire alarms go off) and the firetrucks were all outside. The LED display caught my attention and I couldn't help but laugh, because obviously the residents of Simmons were getting a little exasperated by the amount of fire alarms. Here's a glimpse at what it was displaying.

Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)

Haha nice.
You know, for the year I lived in Simmons, I never had ONE fire alarm, although I did set off a few alarms at the beginning of the year exiting secretly-alarmed doors.

Posted by: Ken Haggerty '11 on October 29, 2008

5 bucks says it was a nooby hacker!

Posted by: Ehsan on October 29, 2008

you can delete comments? because there were 3 before me comments just now

Posted by: deng on October 29, 2008

Personlly, from an intellectual perspective, I think it might have been Santa.

Posted by: Eric Clapton on October 29, 2008

i love that LED display so much
i wonder whose room this is, or if it's a lounge

Posted by: cristen on October 29, 2008

Haha, that's really cool. I love MIT.

Posted by: Stacy on October 29, 2008

You just lost 5 bucks, Ehsan. The Simmons display is under Simmons residents' control. It actually began as someone's class project, not a hack, and it was never taken down because it's so damn entertaining.

Posted by: 0 on October 29, 2008

and the LED lights are in front of the Simmons gym, so not a room or lounge. =)

Posted by: 0 on October 29, 2008

Nice post!! I love the first sentence: "Sometimes MIT catches on fire." Haha.

I couldn't watch the Youtube video; network connection is currently bad over here.

Posted by: Banerjee on October 29, 2008

5 alarms = lucky???
the only one that has rung where I live was a fire drill.

Posted by: '11 on October 30, 2008

During Parents' Weekend, visiting my son in Simmons, we actually ventured into the gym to look at the lights. Outside it was flashing "Go Sox".

Posted by: 0 on October 30, 2008

And -this- is why Next House is invincible. We've only been subject to a drill

Though.. what happened yesterday around 10am in the main buildings?

Posted by: Vivi '12 on October 30, 2008

I love the things I learn about MIT from these blogs.

Posted by: Liz on October 30, 2008

Awesome! I can see the LED display from my room at Next, and it's always fun to see what it says

Posted by: Steve Levine '11 on October 30, 2008

Note this was never a class project.

Posted by: 0 on October 31, 2008

Damn, these blogs remind me why I love MIT.

Not the fire alarms, however, that's just damn annoying. Lol.

student: *showering*
alarm: ay bb
student: *expletive*

Posted by: 0 on October 31, 2008

Haha, nice, another reference to Sam.

Posted by: 0 on November 1, 2008

Am I the only one who has noticed that except Yan and Ahmed, the new bloggers(Class of '12) have hardly been blogging?
We miss you guys. Start writing again.

Posted by: tree on November 1, 2008

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