[HN Gopher] AWA's Acoustic Hood - Effective Silencing for Office...
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       AWA's Acoustic Hood - Effective Silencing for Office Printers
        
       Author : zdw
       Score  : 27 points
       Date   : 2023-04-23 17:04 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (computeradsfromthepast.substack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (computeradsfromthepast.substack.com)
        
       | emeraldd wrote:
       | Tandy used to have a humongous case like that you could put
       | around a wide format dot-matrix/daisy wheel printer. The outer
       | surface was painted that classic trs-80 grey and added a good
       | 3~4inches in all dimensions around the printer and worked
       | surprisingly wheel. With the case closed, the printer was quiet
       | enough to sit next to while it was running, otherwise it was
       | annoying being out the same room with the thing.
        
       | NotYourLawyer wrote:
       | >the final solution
       | 
       | Bad word choice...
        
         | chihuahua wrote:
         | One office, one printer, one acoustic hood!
        
         | bheadmaster wrote:
         | Honestly, if you hadn't pointed it out, I personally wouldn't
         | even notice. In context of iterative improvements, the term
         | fits naturally, there isn't any alternative I can think of that
         | means the same thing.
        
       | timthorn wrote:
       | The generic term used to be "hush covers," if I remember
       | correctly. The printers of the day could be pretty noisy
       | blighters.
        
       | tyingq wrote:
       | The band printer attached the VAX at my school was extremely loud
       | and jarring. Much worse than a dot matrix printer.
        
       | linker3000 wrote:
       | Yeah, commonplace in offices in the 1980s. We had several,
       | including one for a very 'industrial' CMYK ribbon Mannesmann
       | Tally MT490, which had a metal platen! It was a really
       | impressive, fast dot matrix printer which we had hooked up to a
       | VAX 11/750.
        
       | qwertyuiop_ wrote:
       | I almost read that as a new service from AWS "AWS Acoustic Hood"
        
       | teambob wrote:
       | Fun fact: the awa building is clearly visible in the helicopter
       | scene in The Matrix
        
         | emmelaich wrote:
         | It was the tallest building in Sydney for quite a while and is
         | now heritage listed.
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AWA_Tower
         | 
         | The AWA company was founded in 1909.
        
       | cronix wrote:
       | I do similar with acoustic foam and my computer case. Basically
       | built a case around the case. Now my mics in the audio studio
       | never pick up fan background noise.
        
       | gnicholas wrote:
       | This reminds me of the acoustic covers the use at Jamba Juice, to
       | mute the noise of the blenders.
        
       | nickdothutton wrote:
       | I smile every time I hear the 9-pin scream at an airline gate.
       | The sound of my youth, playing around with a Z80, 1200/75 modem,
       | centronics cable, and fan-fold paper.
        
         | WWLink wrote:
         | When I was a kid I inherited an old 8088 and a 24-pin panasonic
         | dot matrix from my dad's office when they retired it. The
         | computer was ok, but the printer was amazing. Sadly at some
         | point I had too many issues with the paper feed and decided to
         | toss it. I do regret doing that, but it was huge and heavy!
         | 
         | That printer could definitely wake the dead. And it shook the
         | old (very sturdy) sewing machine table I had it on lol.
        
         | djmips wrote:
         | Why do some airlines still use 9-pins?
        
           | odiroot wrote:
           | Cheap, low-maintenance, easy to troubleshoot?
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | timthorn wrote:
           | Dot matrix printers can print two or more copies
           | simultaneously using carbon paper.
        
       | KRAKRISMOTT wrote:
       | I read it as AWS Acoustic Hood
        
         | psrikanthm wrote:
         | Hehe, same with me. And started thinking how they would have
         | achieved that.
        
       | EvanAnderson wrote:
       | I printed my "underground newspaper" on a Panasonic dot matrix
       | printer back in the 90s. One night I came up with the
       | "innovation" of placing a box over the printer to mute the sound
       | (so my parents wouldn't hear the printing and admonish me for
       | "wasting" paper and ink, or worse, ask what I was printing). It
       | seemed like a great idea until I noticed the printer was stopping
       | every so often. Concerned, I pulled the box off and was met with
       | a wave of hot air. My young self didn't realize that dot matrix
       | printers get hot. Apparently the obvious heat sink fins on the
       | print head didn't register with me.
        
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       (page generated 2023-04-23 23:01 UTC)