MIT's Bathroom Server

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Some of the undergrads wired Random Hall's (an undergraduate dorm) bathroom system up to the net so that you can visit http://bathroom.mit.edu and see which stalls on which floors are vacant, and if they're in use, how long whoever's been in there. It's a pretty good idea-- you can scout your stall from your dorm room, and watch it to make sure nobody's taken a s$#% there recently."

Sounds a little anal

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds a little anal if you ask me.

These kids are too smart...

[tulare]

Hehe. I mean, this could get interesting. Imagine what pranks you could pull - the most obvious would be to "cheat" the sensors so that the casual user would think that all the bathrooms are in use at some critical time - say 7am on finals week!
Now waiting to hear the Beowulf joke...

Alright!

[Auckerman]

For peats sake, Michael, you Slashdotted someones bathroom. You should be ashamed of yourself.

Not sure if I like this...

[Mr. Neutron]

So, if I've been wanking for the last 20 minutes, the whole world gets to know about it?

Great

[Anonymous Coward]

As if it wasn't enough crap on the net already!

The Smell

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder if they could add a smell-o-meter to monitor the toxicity of the air.

- DB

This is the worst than Textmode Quake

[Anonymous Coward]

Human Civilization has reached a new low.

Cool

[phalse phace]

but what would be even nicer is if we had a way to find out if the bathroom smelled before we went in. They could probably use the technology that's been developed by Digi Scents [digiscents.com], which would transmit scents over a computer. I think that they've gone out of business (correct me if I'm wrong), but their iSmell Personal Scent Synthesizer would be pretty handy. It basically consists of a speaker-sized computer device that attaches either to the serial or USB port and plugs into a standard electrical outlet. And with a click of a mouse, the device would release naturally based vapors. Now that'd be cool!

Useful stuff

[imevil]

It would be great to know how they implemented the monitoring in order to apply it to other useful daily needs. For example:

• HTCPCP: Hyper Text Coffee Pot Control Protocol (RFC2324 [ohio-state.edu])
• Coke machine monitoring: I remember the frustration of being in the computer lab, willing to get a cheap coke and having to go to the next building (coke next to the computer lab was damn expensive) and then finding NO COKE in the coke machine.

E

Microsoft

[Ford Fulkerson]

Yeah slashdot labels this as funny when it's done by some college students, but I'm sure you won't think it's all that funny once Microsoft start bundling the same functionality into the next version of windows.. (Windows TP?)

Oh dear god no!

[G-funk]

Am I the only one who thinks that slashdotting a bathroom is a bad idea?

"Mr peters, it's happening again. Slashdot has ddos'd our shitter. Dave and Frank have been locked in for 30 minutes since it went down... Mr Peters?..."

Re:Not sure if I like this...

[Anonymous Coward]

3 minutes after beginning physical stimulation

Unless, of course, he's on Prozac. Believe me, I've got eh... first-hand experience.

More monitoring!

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't it be nice to let the computer
unlock the door when someone has spent
to much time...

rh

Re:Cool

[windi]

Oh yhea, then, we would not only have to suffer through the smell while in the bathroom, we could transmit the smell everywhere in case we miss it. :-)

Really Great. ;-)

Statistics?

[MikeyNg]

I wonder what kind of statistics you could gather from this data... You could see which gender spends more time on the can. (I vote men) Simple statistical analysis would be neat. I'd like to know the arithmetic, geometric, and Gaussian means for duration. If you really applied yourself, you could probably differentiate between number one and number two, as that would most likely produce some sort of binodal distribution!

Does it also differentiate between riding the saddle and driving the porcelain bus? Those would make some interesting stats as well. OK, now I'm just being gross. It's late.

Re:Alright!

[evilviper]

Sorry guys, I know how bad it is, but you just can't go in there right now... It's been slashdotted.

Re:Not sure if I like this...

[Anonymous Coward]

I need movies and girls moaning on
the screen before I can ejaculate in any decent amount of time. This would be quite
awkward to do in a public restroom.

But hey, the stalls are wired, remember? I'm sure they could get some headphones and LCD displays in there. And it's MIT -- think of the bandwidth!

No CGI?

[wirefarm]

http://bathroom.mit.edu/cgi-bin/flush.pl?stall=1

;-)
Cheers,
Jim in Tokyo

Re:Statistics?

[Durinia]

you're right about the first one. For the second one, imagine gripping a steering wheel. You may also know it as: "Calling Ralph on the big white phone"

Re:Privacy?

[jareds]

But does the entire world need to know when and for how long you are using the bathroom.

It doesn't show who's using the bathroom, just that it's in use. It's not like you have to login with a username before you can get into the bathroom.

Would it be to much to ask ....

[Anonymous Coward]

for a mirror in a bathroom server?

the dread DoS attack

[StandardDeviant]

(denial of shitting)

seriously, there is such a thing as trusting your remote sensors too much... (the main reason spysats haven't replaces human intelligence sources)

Hacked

[yusing]

As I write, one stall has been "in use" for 47 minutes.

Somebody better go check for either a body, or an alligator clip....

FP!

[sharkey]

Great, now the cry of "First Dump!" will echo up and down the dorm halls.

Re:Privacy?

[Tim Macinta]

You know with all the privacy advocates around here you would think someone would think this is an invation.

Heh heh... let's just hope they're not tracking their users by the cookies they've eaten.