Re: [Palindrome] mystery hunt rooms (warning, ridiculously detailed)

[Sofiya Vasina <sofiya sonic net>]

I think (E) is preferable over (B), assuming we can get a land line
and make use of that phone jack.  One large room should be enough to
hold us all for the first 9 hours.  Plus, we wouldn't have to do much
setting up in the additional room(s) if we keep all the equipment and
valuables in the main room.

Sofiya


On 12/9/05, Michael Korn <mikekorn gmail com> wrote:
> Hi.
>
>  Here's my take on the room situation.
>
>  Movable tables are a must.  Restricting to rooms with movable tables, 
> and
> removing "singleton" rooms, we are left with:
>
>  (A) 4-145, 4-149, 4-153:     phone jack, net drop, adjoining.
>
>  (B) 4-261, 4-265:     net drop.
>
>  (C) 26-204, 26-210:     net drop.
>
>  (D) 26-302, 26-310, 26-314, 26-322, 26-328:     net drop.
>
>  (E) 56-154, 56-169, 56-191:     phone jack, net drop, not next to each
> other, 169 and 191 not available until Friday at 9 PM.
>
>  (F) 13-4101, 13-5101:     phone jack, on different floors.
>
>  Presumably we would want two rooms out of these.  It seems clear that
> option (A) is the complete package and should be our first choice.  
> Options
> (B), (C), and (D) are all pretty similar.  I would rank these in the 
> order
> (B), (C), (D) simply because the rooms in (B) are the largest, and (C) 
> has
> the advantage that we wouldn't be right next to another team.  As for (E)
> and (F), one could argue for the pros and cons of either.  56-154 is 
> large
> (1036 square feet), so we could keep all our stuff in the main HQ and not
> have to worry about stuff getting stolen from the secondary room.  On the
> other hand, it's somewhat annoying to have to wait until 9 PM to move 
> into
> the secondary room.  Option (F) gives us the usual benefit of two rooms, 
> and
> if I recall correctly, the rooms are right next to a staircase, so 
> getting
> between them should be very quick.  But it doesn't have a net drop.  I
> prefer (E) over (F) myself.
>
>  Personally, I think any of these 6 options would be acceptable.
>
>  Of course option (A) is the best choice.  Among the others, I am having
> trouble deciding whether I prefer (B) or (E).  In favor of (E) is that it
> has the phone jack, which is nice.  Also, I remember that one one the 
> major
> hassles of having non-adjoining rooms is the necessity of keeping both 
> rooms
> continuously occupied so that people's stuff doesn't get stolen.  By 
> having
> a large room and a small room, we could keep all our valuables in the big
> room, meaning there's only one room we need to keep an eye on.  The other
> room(s) could be used for food, sleeping, or further puzzling.  In favor 
> of
> (B), on the other hand, is the fact that those two rooms are next to each
> other, and we'd have them right from the start of the hunt.  Also, the 
> rooms
> in (B) are in a less busy part of campus, so there'd be less concern 
> about
> always having the door shut and so on.
>
>  Anyone else have any opinions on (B) vs. (E)?  (Or any of the choices 
> for
> that matter?)
>
>  mike
>
>
> On 12/8/05, Carol A Meyers <carol mit edu> wrote:
> > Hello,
> >
> > For those of you who are concerned about land lines, I figure it is 
> > worth
> > mentioning that my cell phone should be better than the one we used two
> > years ago.  Different providers have varying levels of coverage around
> > MIT-- and Verizon's is the best.  T-Mobile, which is what I believe we 
> > had
> > two years ago, is the worst.  (For what it's worth, Cingular is next 
> > best
> > and Nextel/Sprint is in the middle.)
> >
> > However, of course a land line would be more solid than any of these.
> >
> > >From what I can tell, the only rooms with moveable tables and chairs 
> > >that
> > also have a phone jack are the rooms 4-145, 4-149, and 4-153, and 
> > 56-154.
> > I dunno if a phone jack is more important to you guys than tables.  
> > There
> > is one other possibility if we are willing to have one room with desks 
> > and
> > one room with tables that does include a phone jack-- 36-153 and 
> > 36-155.
> >
> >
> > Carol
> >
> > On Thu, 8 Dec 2005, Dan Berlin wrote:
> >
> > > I whole heartedly agree on the land line front.
> > > As for the network setup, the wireless setup @ MIT makes for easy
> networking
> > > all around.  The only thing that we NEEDED the hard-wired network for
> was
> > > the printer (which I no longer have access to).  If we find another 
> > > high
> > > speed printer, chances are, it will need a wired network connection.
> > > DB
> > >
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Scott Purdy [mailto: smpurdy btinternet com]
> > > Sent: Thursday, December 08, 2005 16:20
> > > To: palindrome cosmos phy tufts edu
> > > Subject: Re: [Palindrome] mystery hunt rooms (warning, ridiculously
> > > detailed)
> > >
> > >
> > > After our experiences of the past two years, I would personally rank
> > > phone jack above adjoining and defer to someone with a better grasp
> > > of our network setup to clarify whether a wired net port is still
> > > necessary. Cell phones have been notoriously inconsistent in the
> > > past, and last year's direct phone line served as an enormous boon. I
> > > would also add that while I have high hopes for Phys Plant's ability
> > > to produce a quality Hunt, if there are problems with it, our phone
> > > time will increase sharply. With Kappa Sig two years ago, this meant
> > > a heavy cell phone burden, and I would prefer to place that on a land
> > > line which isn't going to have reception, battery, etc. issues.
> > >
> > > Scott
> > >
> > > At 01:07 PM 12/8/2005, Carol A Meyers wrote:
> > >> Hello Mystery Hunters,
> > >>
> > >> Thanks to those of you who sent congratulations.  :)  Our team 
> > >> rocks.
> > >>
> > >> OK, here's the news on the mystery hunt rooms.  Most of the rooms 
> > >> are
> > >> the same as last year, with the notable exception of the *two rooms 
> > >> we
> > >> had last year,* (26-204 and 26-210) which have been remodeled and 
> > >> are
> > >> completely different.  Most notably, they no longer contain phone
> > >> jacks, there is no longer a door between them (though they are still
> > >> next to each other, of course), and they are supposed to have a 
> > >> wired
> > >> connection but I believe it is in a locked cabinet I couldn't get 
> > >> into.
> > >> On the plus side, the furniture is about a million times nicer; it's
> > >> modern moveable tables and chairs.
> > >>
> > >> I consulted with Mike Korn (who has been helping this team with 
> > >> rooms
> > >> longer than me) and he prioritized the team's room preferences as
> > >> follows:
> > >>
> > >> (1) some kind of internet access.
> > >> (2) When put together, sufficiently large for everyone on the team 
> > >> to
> > >> be there at the same time.
> > >> (3) Movable tables and chairs.
> > >> (4) Net drop.
> > >> (5) Adjoining.
> > >> (6) Phone jack.
> > >> (7) Good location, nice-looking, blackboard space, whatever else.
> > >>
> > >> (1), (2), and (3) should be easy enough to get-- everywhere at MIT 
> > >> has
> > >> wireless now, and there are plenty of rooms of varying sizes.  A 
> > >> lot of
> > >> places have (4), although our old rooms no longer do.  (5) is pretty
> > >> rare; only a few rooms on campus satisfy this now.  (6) is rare too,
> > >> but not as rare as (5).  (7) I suppose depends on your opinion.
> > >>
> > >> The only rooms on the list that satisfy *all* of these things are
> > >> 4-145, 4-149, and 4-153, which are all three adjoining.  I'm 
> > >> guessing
> > >> these will probably go to a bigger team, though, since they have the
> > >> capacity for tons of people.
> > >>
> > >> (If you want to check out what rooms do and don't have, you can look
> > >> at:
> > >> http://student.mit.edu/roominv/roominv.cgi)
> > >>
> > >> So we will probably have to settle without a thing or two.  4-261 
> > >> and
> > >> 4-265 have everything other than the door between and the phone 
> > >> jack,
> > >> so I think they make a good second choice.  Our old rooms (26-204 
> > >> and
> > >> 26-210) would be a good choice if I would feel confident that we 
> > >> could
> > >> get in the magic locked cabinet, or if people don't feel as strongly
> > >> about having a net drop.
> > >>
> > >> After that, the rooms on the third floor of building 26 are also
> > >> decent; none of them have a door between or phone jacks, but they do
> > >> have MIT cable, which I suppose is an added bonus occasionally.
> > >>
> > >> Finally, there is 56-154, which has everything we want but it is 
> > >> only
> > >> one room.  (Albeit, it is a room that seats 56 people.)  I suspect 
> > >> that
> > >> people won't like this, but I figured I'd throw it out.
> > >>
> > >> Anyway, all that babbling is to say that I think our preferences 
> > >> should
> > >> be:
> > >> 1) - 2 out of 4-145, 4-149, 4-153
> > >> 2) - 4-261 and 4-265
> > >> 3) - 26-204 and 26-210 (our old rooms; I'll ask about the locked
> > >> cabinet)
> > >> 4) - 26-3xx rooms
> > >> 5) - 56-154
> > >>
> > >> Let me know if you object to this, or if you have any other 
> > >> opinions.
> > >> I can register the team this weekend, once we get this sorted out.
> > >>
> > >> Thanks!
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> Carol
> > >>
> > >> P.S. If we wind up not having a phone jack, we can use my cell phone
> > >> (it has a 617 number).  It is free after 9pm on Friday and on 
> > >> weekends,
> > >> and so we would just need to go a little easy before then.  I have
> > >> Verizon, which works OK (though not wonderful) in most parts of 
> > >> campus.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
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> > >>
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> > >
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> > >
> > >
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