[HN Gopher] Sound of Colleagues
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       Sound of Colleagues
        
       Author : herbertl
       Score  : 65 points
       Date   : 2022-07-12 07:17 UTC (15 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (soundofcolleagues.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (soundofcolleagues.com)
        
       | devdiary wrote:
       | I am so going to use it
        
       | yoyopa wrote:
       | go dystopia
        
       | phoronixrly wrote:
       | Thanks, I hadn't realised until now that apparently I have office
       | PTSD...
        
       | k_sze wrote:
       | Doesn't seem to work on iOS?
        
       | jSherz wrote:
       | I wish it would save your slider levels, e.g. in the URL, so you
       | can bookmark your favourites.
        
       | FerretFred wrote:
       | Definitely needs That One Guy who tells "jokes" all day long, in
       | between telling us about his latest trailer/dog/bear weekend
       | escapade. _Say, did I ever tell you about ..._
        
       | byschii wrote:
       | also, from a previous post: https://soundsofthepub.com
        
       | remoquete wrote:
       | Or you'd just loop the menu sound from The Stanley Parable:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ8M6ElBk5s
        
       | keyle wrote:
       | Imagine the antisoundofcolleagues.com, an active listening noise
       | cancelling website!
        
         | blabberwocky wrote:
         | That's just noise cancelling headphones. But, come to think of
         | it, that should be a slider on this site, to turn down all the
         | other sounds...
        
           | ziml77 wrote:
           | If only. Noise cancelling headphones can block out droning
           | sounds but are limited to their passive isolation when it
           | comes to voices, especially higher pitched ones. A few years
           | ago I was positioned close to a woman who was always on the
           | phone talking loudly with vendors and there was nothing I
           | could do aside from risking hearing damage to make that
           | disappear. And now, while it's better since I'm not near her
           | anymore, it's still tough when multiple conversations are
           | going on around me all at once.
        
       | dreen wrote:
       | This page is proof everyone has different needs. I sometimes
       | struggle to read a single sentence with a single conversation
       | going on in the background.
        
       | sIacker wrote:
       | I wonder if anyone has proper research on wether this makes you
       | more productive or not.
        
       | bufordtwain wrote:
       | I prefer the background sound of rain, there are a lot of long
       | rain videos on youtube and I am very grateful to the people who
       | post them.
        
       | anotherhue wrote:
       | Needs two dozen slightly desynchronised 'upcoming meeting' alerts
       | playing unmuted.
       | 
       | The modern day call to prayer.
        
         | SlackingOff123 wrote:
         | This[1] was submitted a while back. Might be just what you
         | need.
         | 
         | [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29561296
        
       | boopmaster wrote:
       | I appreciate the toggle on volume, but it desperately needs some
       | kind of random silence insertion threshold as well, to space out
       | the distance more randomly. Like what if I don't mind hearing a
       | telephone, but it doesn't need to be every 30 seconds? I like
       | this project, dont' get me wrong. I just think each of these
       | components also needs a way to space out the time between cars
       | driving by etc., while presently there is only a volume slider.
        
       | kieckerjan wrote:
       | I had a colleague who used to sit across me. Really swell guy,
       | but literally every sip of coffee he took from his mug ended with
       | a smacking sound followed by a contented exhalation. Boy, did he
       | love his coffee! Believe me, I do not have misophonia but that
       | nearly drove me insane.
        
       | teddyh wrote:
       | Isn't "Room tone" really the sound of the HVAC?
        
       | turing_complete wrote:
       | Dystopian.
        
       | pjerem wrote:
       | Every time I stumble upon a project like this one, I'm impressed
       | that people would miss the sound of open space. I can understand
       | that people have some reasons to prefer going to the office
       | instead of WFH but, missing the sound of it ?
        
         | mstade wrote:
         | I'm this guy. I can't sit in a too quiet space and get anything
         | done, I'll go stir crazy. I usually work out of coffee shops or
         | on my balcony where I can hear kids playing in the yard, some
         | traffic, someone listening to radio a bit further away.. random
         | noise. Without it, after maybe 20-30 minutes I get antsy and
         | need to get out.
         | 
         | I could do without all the bird noises though, the sea gulls
         | here are incredibly annoying.
        
           | blablabla123 wrote:
           | Same for me. I mean for really difficult and focussed work I
           | prefer a very quiet place but for rather standard work an
           | open space is perfect, keeps me from falling asleep
        
           | prmoustache wrote:
           | All it takes is opening a window really.
        
           | kgeist wrote:
           | > I can't sit in a too quiet space
           | 
           | Music doesn't help? Everyone at our office has headphones on
           | with music exactly to stop hearing distracting background
           | noise.
           | 
           | Nothing really changes for me when I go remote - same music.
        
           | tayo42 wrote:
           | Radios and kids playing are the worst noises. Idk how you do
           | it. I like the sounds of birds lol.
        
       | edem wrote:
       | I don't get this. At literally all the places I've worked were
       | filled with people trying to shut this kind of noise out with
       | headphones...and now we have an app that recreates this horrible
       | noise? Why?
        
       | dspillett wrote:
       | Needs more irritatingly off-rhythm tapping of pens on desk and
       | feet on floor.
        
       | rcarmo wrote:
       | Needs someone coming up to you and asking if you have a minute
       | every 30 seconds
        
         | FerretFred wrote:
         | THIS ^^^ !!!!!
        
         | KMag wrote:
         | ... or the person tapping you on your shoulder to inform you
         | that you're wearing headphones, your IM is on do-not-disturb
         | and you're not sitting in your usual desk (but still responding
         | to email).
        
         | philote wrote:
         | Also, the sound of someone in the next cubicle eating something
         | crispy with their mouth open.
        
         | actually_a_dog wrote:
         | That's the office dog.
        
       | smcleod wrote:
       | One of the many things I don't miss at all from office work.
        
       | PeterStuer wrote:
       | If only the reverse existed. A lightweight piece of software you
       | can play through your speakers to disappear all that noise from a
       | real office environment.
       | 
       | I guess the industrial grade hearing protector industry would
       | take a major hit though.
        
         | Kosirich wrote:
         | I don't know how noisy the office you are referring to is, but
         | I found that using noise cancelation headphones
         | (bose,sony,jabra) and having Grey Noise (
         | https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/greyNoiseGenerator.php ) does
         | produce good results while not being distracting.
        
           | soco wrote:
           | I used the paid subscription of brain.fm and was very happy
           | with it (when I has in the office, that is). Just be warned,
           | it's eating up lots of bandwidth and data plan.
           | 
           | https://www.brain.fm/
        
             | philote wrote:
             | I'm currently listening to brain.fm! I'm not sure how well
             | it actually influences your brain to concentrate, but I
             | find it's at least a decent semi-conscious reminder to stay
             | focused. And it does also help drown out other noises.
        
           | PeterStuer wrote:
           | I have a Bose Quitcomfort 35 set that I use for travelling. I
           | can't stand the "pressure" in ear feel for a long time when
           | the noise cancellation in turned on.
           | 
           | Besides, while they are good in cancelling e.g. aircraft
           | engine noise, the active part does nothing to prevent e.g.
           | human voices, and even high end headsets are far inferiour to
           | dirt cheap industrial hearing protection where passive
           | isolation is concerned.
           | 
           | I don't want to have to drown out ofice noise by blasting my
           | ears with noise. I find having to wear any head/ear device a
           | nuisance, and I tried a lot (fwiw cheap on ear Sound Blaster
           | Jam V2's were unexpectedly comfortable and also great
           | sounding to boot).
           | 
           | I have tankfully worked from home for the most part of the
           | last decade (no, what was called WFH during the Covid
           | lockdowns is not the same at all).
        
         | seydor wrote:
         | You mean white noise
        
           | SomeBoolshit wrote:
           | That's just switching from one kind of noise to another.
        
             | sokoloff wrote:
             | Sound/speech masking is incredibly effective. We had a
             | trial system in part of our old office and in the area
             | covered by the system, it felt natural but when you knew to
             | listen for the reduction in perceived
             | annoyance/disturbance, it was much lower.
             | 
             | It's not white noise, though:
             | https://cambridgesound.com/learn/sound-masking-101/
             | 
             | (The trial was winter of 2019, then something happened in
             | spring 2020 to keep us from going forward...)
        
           | steanne wrote:
           | no?
           | 
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colors_of_noise
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | wildmanx wrote:
         | Office designers on the European continent have come up with an
         | ingenious invention for this: Individual offices!
         | 
         | Site managers in North America rarely want to hear this, since
         | it's more expensive and supposedly prevents close collaboration
         | and encourages slackers, but that's just a bunch of BS. It's
         | absolutely fantastic to just be able to close your door and
         | have peace and quiet if you need to get into flow. Much better
         | than being forced to wear headphones all day, for noise-
         | cancellation or forced-music-listening instead.
        
           | wreath wrote:
           | > Office designers on the European continent have come up
           | with an ingenious invention for this: Individual offices!
           | 
           | Where did you get this idea from?
           | 
           | At best, companies have _team_ rooms that hosts 5-8 people
           | but not individual offices.
        
             | wildmanx wrote:
             | I work in Europe at a nice company with nice offices. It's
             | beautiful.
             | 
             | Most of the time we all have our doors wide open, it's
             | glass doors, mostly glass walls, very bright, very modern.
             | Everybody is welcome to stop by at any time when the door
             | is open. Door closed means "please don't disturb unless
             | it's an emergency". People close doors to have longer
             | discussions, to have confidential discussions, or to have
             | peace and quiet.
             | 
             | The doors basically serve the same purpose as headsets.
             | They just make more sense and are more ... human.
             | 
             | Yes, some offices house more than one person. Typically 2,
             | some have 3. But the employees in this situation are quite
             | content with this and could request single offices at any
             | time.
        
           | bearmode wrote:
           | We have a big problem with open plan offices in Europe as
           | well. Individual offices are far rarer than open plan.
        
             | kgeist wrote:
             | We have special closed cubicles which aren't assigned to
             | anyone on every floor (I don't know their name in English)
             | which can be booked if you want isolation but they're in
             | such demand that they're often unavailable.
        
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       (page generated 2022-07-12 23:03 UTC)