Slashdot Mirror
Computers/Keyboards + Dorm Room = No Zzzzzz?
mmortal03 asks: "Not until recently, by living with a roommate in college, had I noticed how annoying mouse clicks and keystrokes could be to someone who is trying to sleep. Often, one of us will be up using our computer while the other is tring to catch some z's. Whether it's just to do some late night browsing, type a draft of a paper, read an important email, or whatever else, the clicking of the mouse and typing at the keyboard can drive the other up the wall. Some temporary solutions have been using alternate keyboard strokes instead of mouse clicks, and going to use the school's own computer labs, but those are only open so late, or so early. I would like to hear from Slashdot users as to what their solutions have been, in the dorm rooms, for this matter. Besides the clicks and taps, another bother is that, when the lights are off, our monitors light up the room like small lamps. Outside of handing each other earplugs and eye shades, are there any available input devices that lack the noisiness, or screen filters that dim the light output of monitors outside direct viewing, that might solve this problem? Any other ideas?" We've touched on this subject tangentially, twice
in articles from December. Do you have other hints or suggestions you want to pass on?
Would be simply to be considerate of the other person, and not be using the computer at ghastly late times in the night, or very early times in the morning.
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
My roommate could (and did) sleep through ANYTHING. So I suppose my solution to the problem is to shop for roommates until you find one for whom such kludges are unnecessary :)
use a laptop and move to another room.
I've worked in the common areas in my dorm (ok this was ten years ago) for rather long hours since I wasn't willing to power up the mastadon gateway 2000 486 desktop I had in 1993 and keep my roommate up. we also used to avoid using the impact printer at 4am as a mater of priciple...
I'll touch on a couple things, as a roommate.
First off, if you're the ass typing late at night on an old IBM keyboard that CLICKS loudly, you're being a dick; be polite, I know you're in college, but you'll have better relations if you chip out the $20 for a quieter keyboard and mouse.
Secondly, don't be the retard that has to type up something major late at night. Get your work done soon, it's better to come in late from partying, than to type away for an hour, while your room mate is sleeping.
Common sense, c'mon people.
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I have to completely agree with this. A fan is by far the best way to get a good night's sleep through about anything, especially once you train yourself to sleep with it. I have two cats that run around the bedroom (with hardwood floors) all night playing or otherwise rattling about. Installing a ceiling fan was the best thing I ever did, although a simple box fan worked okay, too.
Long, cute, or funny Sigs are just another form of over compensation, used by geeks, nerdz, etc.
Don't use the computer while your roommate is trying to sleep. Really. It's rude. OK, maybe that's a bit harsh, but it's the reason most colleges have quiet hours. Technical solutions (a shirt over the monitor, etc.) are, in my experience, unlikely to work. They can even breed resentment if the problem continues.
I had this same problem last year at university; my roommate would stay up until 3-4am surfing, gaming, and doing nothing in particular. Which annoyed me. And occasionally I would come in and surf during the day, when he was trying to take a nap. Which pissed him off. We eventually decided on clear rules; i.e. he would either read quietly or leave after 1am (when I usually went to bed), and if he was asleep when I got back from class during the day I would take my laptop and go to the library.
Also, ask yourself if you really need to be using the computer at three in the morning. Couldn't you do that paper a couple of days in advance, instead of 5 hours before your class starts next morning? Living with a roommate demands a certain amount of flexibility. You may have to rearrange your time.
The bottom line is that this problem really needs a social solution, not a technical one. You need to talk to your roommate and set clear boundaries that benefit both of you, so you can get your work done and also sleep. For me that made the difference between a great friendship and icy silence, which was the direction things were heading before we worked it out.
When I roomed with somebody who loved tech as much as I did, the policy was "Hour of the day be damned -- if it's cool, do it!"
It's the same as complaining that your roommate smokes. The solution? Room with a non-smoker.
My roommate in college was a late night studier.. he'd often be up until 4AM studying. Which meant doing anything from reading in bed with a lamp turned on to using the computer. At first I found it very difficult to get to sleep.. but I figured I'd get used to it. And I did pretty much. Not much of a story, I know.
But I did find that often when I found it difficult to sleep, it wasn't really because the light or clicking was so annoying that it was impossible to sleep, it was more just built up resentment against my roommate that he could be so incosiderate while I was trying to sleep! Once I got over that it was pretty easy to doze off no matter what he was doing.
I dont know, it just sounded like a similar situation by the way the submission was worded. Like the fact that he was doing something potentially annoying while you were trying to sleep bothered you more than the annoying thing itself. I could be wrong.
Nonsense. Active noise cancelation may generate some noise of its own in the amplifiers, but that's a side-effect unrelated to how it is intended to work.
Furthermore, many people find something like white noise soothing and don't get a headache from it at all. If any kind of sound made us ill, we wouldn't have survived as a species. It's only some man-made sounds that suggest danger that are a problem. Key clicks fall into that category.
A shared dorm room is for sleeping, nothing else. Have your roommate pick up his laptop and go somewhere else. Dorms have common areas and universities have computer rooms for that purpose.
There are technical solutions, but they are expensive and miss the point.
If you have your own living area, then stay up late. If you live in a dorm, stick to the *agreement* you *signed* with the college when they allocated you dorm quarters.
If that agreement states you can stay up at all hours, keeping your dormmates sleepless, then you have the right to do that. Otherwise, control yourself and go to sleep at night!
Oftentimes people don't pick their study and work habits - it's just who they are.
"...it's just who they are"? I am surprised - just how self-absorbed has society become?
Just "change who you are". Habits *can* be changed. It's not like someone has asked you to grow back a missing leg.
Although you are basically right, the numbers you have are all wrong, and it change the argument as well.
As far as I know, The average pressure of any sound wave (measured over more than one wavelength) must be zero. Other wise the world would continually increase in pressure. For instance, in your example, if the incoming sound was between 1 and 10 atm, that means that the average pressure due to the noise is 5 atm, much much higher than normal pressure of 1 atm.
Also, noise cancelling doesnt change the average pressure, so even in your example (if it worked that way) the average pressure in your ear would still be 5 atm with noise cancelling.
The biggest thing is that all sound waves must fluctuate between -n and n. Like -1atm to 1 atm relative to the standard pressure (for an absolute change of 0atm to 2 atm). That btw would be a huge amplitude but that is besides the point. The noise cancelling simply uses a reversed wave form to lower the amplitude of the waves there fore lowering the magnitude of the sound. It doesnt not increase the pressure on your ear.
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I ran into this problem somewhat as a freshman. But, it was normally me who was the one up late at night tapping away on the old keyboard. My roommate confronted me and I decided to try and cut back on the computer usage. It turned out to be good for me because I found that my late night browsing habits were counterproductive and were excessive. I cut back on it and used the computer more efficiently when I needed to work.
After that problem was worked out we both realized that the 2billion watt street lamp outside our window was just as bad as the clacking of keyboards.
This problem was remedied when my roommate and I and some friends were playing some football on the green and I absent-midedly grabbed ahold of the lamp post and swung around it. Instantly the lamp post swung towards the ground and I could do nothing but slow it as my leverage wasn't enough to hold it up. We all sprinted to our dormitory and holed up for the evening. For the rest of the quarter there was an orange cone over the lamp post's old position and we could sleep easily without the hindrance of a real bother.
Bottom line, you'll both be more productive if you do what you need on the computer during the day and stay away from too much pointless browsing at night. For me it was video game sites and random humor sites. For my roommate it was Snood. You can identify these things and get rid of them without the need to purchase quieter peripherals.
A long story for a short answer, but that's what I have to say....
what?