Most distracting noise in your office

Muffs would solve the problem but the comp might fail soon. :shock:

They must be very large muffs to fit on a computer….

You think that's annoying?

This afternoon I was typing some code in my "home office" and the couple in the next apartment started making love… very noisy, screams and all. It was so ridiculous I thought for a moment maybe they were watching pr0n or perhaps somebody was getting raped. I resisted the urge to blare some very annoying music back towards the wall I share with them…

But usually it's just the sound of the fan on my computer. It's getting noisier. I suppose I should take it out and dust it or somethin'.

@hybinet:

You think that's annoying?

This afternoon I was typing some code in my "home office" and the couple in the next apartment started making love… very noisy, screams and all. It was so ridiculous I thought for a moment maybe they were watching pr0n or perhaps somebody was getting raped. I resisted the urge to blare some very annoying music back towards the wall I share with them…

But usually it's just the sound of the fan on my computer. It's getting noisier. I suppose I should take it out and dust it or somethin'.

That sounds like my first day at university…

Anyway considering my office is wherever I am noisy things tend to be, snoring people on planes, the tv, cats the usual.

@sleddog:

They must be very large muffs to fit on a computer….

Funny, I built a bookcase once and part of it was designed to keep my iPaq (minitower) quiet. But of course it wasn't entirely airtight or soundproof, I used pegboard for ventilation.

Looking forward to buying a solid-state laptop one of these days, I love my peace and quiet.

@ferodynamics:

iPaq (minitower)
Those were the days when Apple didn't sue the living shit out of anybody for using the "i" prefix. Or did they actually sue HP?

My office is usually a Starbucks. I sit in the back. I wear headphones connected to my iphone. They're white. People leave me alone.

Apple released the iMac in 1998, and Compaq started using the iPAQ name in 2000. Back then, the iMac was the only iProduct, and I don't think it was really a big enough success to justify Apple going after people for using iNames. Certainly, it (and the return of Steve Jobs, since it was pretty much the first new thing from Apple after his return) was the turning point for the company that took them from the brink of bankruptcy to being the third largest public company in the world. Which is kind of scary.

our office is very quite..

what you can only hear is the sound of the keyboard being hit by the fingers..

:D

@JiNJiNG:

our office is very quite..

what you can only hear is the sound of the keyboard being hit by the fingers..

:D

This can sometimes be the biggest distraction, depending on the types of keyboards in your office :P

We just moved into a new office, which is still partially under construction. That can be a tad distracting ;)

One of the team leaders has his mail notification set to the old Windows 95 "Ta-da!" sound and has stamped his foot down saying he has to have it enabled.

Considering he gets about at least 20 emails per hour, this is amazingly annoying.

@hybinet:

You think that's annoying?

This afternoon I was typing some code in my "home office" and the couple in the next apartment started making love… very noisy, screams and all. It was so ridiculous I thought for a moment maybe they were watching pr0n or perhaps somebody was getting raped. I resisted the urge to blare some very annoying music back towards the wall I share with them…

But usually it's just the sound of the fan on my computer. It's getting noisier. I suppose I should take it out and dust it or somethin'.

http://xkcd.com/316/

Song birds in the bushes outside my office window. It was cute at first but soon got very tedious. Eventually I downloaded some MP3's of various birds of prey, cracked open the window, put the speakers on the window sill and cranked up the volume. Worked.

The blonde girl that sits behind me!

Aside from the beat from the frequency drift of the cooling fans on a very expensive piece of very solid-state equipment, I'd have to say the most annoying sound in my lab is – every few minutes -- CLICK! goes the clock.

CLICK!

@hoopycat:

Aside from the beat from the frequency drift of the cooling fans on a very expensive piece of very solid-state equipment, I'd have to say the most annoying sound in my lab is – every few minutes -- CLICK! goes the clock.

CLICK!

Your clock clicks instead of ticks? You might want to get that checked out!

My office is pretty quiet. Although the keyboard typing sound makes me mad, but I have gotten used to it now. Other than that no more distractions.

Surprised no one mentioned That Guy in every office who talks on the phone at an unnecessary volume.

@mwalling:

Surprised no one mentioned That Guy in every office who talks on the phone at an unnecessary volume.

OMG I have a new one of those now! He's definitely needs volume control.

You lot should try working in a shared office where the guy on the next desk seems to have a competition with himself everyday… "Can I make more noise when I eat today than I made yesterday". Nothing like the sound of smacking lips and wet chewing to throw you off your game.

Me…Apparently.

There used to be a problem with a guy three offices down the corridor - in a period he played music. That made it impossible to concentrate on my work. Unlike with phone calls it doesn't help to close the office doors, you still get that "ompa ompa" bass through the walls.

Fortunately that stopped (but needed several rounds of talking).

There's also a screeching noise outside if I open the window - I have concluded that it must be from the air conditioner for the computer server room - and it's just enough annoying that I can't keep the window open for long.

@hybinet:

@ferodynamics:

iPaq (minitower)
Those were the days when Apple didn't sue the living shit out of anybody for using the "i" prefix. Or did they actually sue HP?

While I was going to/working at college we used the Cisco "iPhone" voip phones. Lawsuit summary.

My room is adjacent to the bathroom. I hear lots of flushes. It's not even that annoying once you get used to it, it's just the most annoying sound here.

At one point all members of our technical writing team were all in the same office, and within a few months all but one of us bought mechanical keyboards. Headphones quickly became standard issue, followed by nerf darts and other small throwable items to get each other's attention.

@alexfornuto:

At one point all members of our technical writing team were all in the same office, and within a few months all but one of us bought mechanical keyboards. Headphones quickly became standard issue, followed by nerf darts and other small throwable items to get each other's attention.

Ugh, the sound of one mechanical keyboard drives me to insanity…

Take it from an I.T. geek: open up your computers and clean the cakes of dust out of the processor fan area. The fan goes into high gear because it's hot and it's hot because it's clogged with years of dust.

A very loud noise coming from your server typically means it is overheating due to dust in heatsinks, as the firmware ramps up the fan RPM to compensate. Open it up and clean it, and the noise will go away in 90% cases. Replacing thermal paste is also necessary once in a while.

There's nothing terribly noisy in my office, and I have a set of industrial ear mufflers anyway. However, my home neighbours are enterpreneurs, I think, because they're drilling for oil every day.

"Replacing thermal paste is also necessary once in a while." Er, no. Only if you move, replace, or otherwise dislodge the heatsink.

Yeah, thermal paste does decay, and under high loads, continuous operation and dusty heatsinks it decays faster. In general server heatsinks do not require maintenance as much as e.g. gaming GPU would, but they still do need maintenance, esp. when you get a second hand box or take over an operation that's been maintained by god knows who

"Does decay": Hm.. citation needed.

And if it decays due to dusty heatsinks then it's not closed, it's been dislodged, and that's a different case obviously.

Well, to be specific, oil-based compounds do not decay, or at least do not decay meaningfully. Other types of paste may. WIth GPUs a factory based paste can expire within 2-3 years of intermittent use, especially if the heatsink isn't cleaned with dust. With server equipment I had it happen maybe twice, with very old boxes, so maybe at year six or so you might wanna start reviewing boxes for elevated temperature…