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?

Comments

Rearrange the room a bit

[Bastian]

My roommate and I had this problem when we were in college, too. We ended up solving the problem by rearranging the room so that there was not line-of-sight from the beds to the desks by placing the back of the desk towards each bed. We also bought some styrofoam insulation and put it between the beds and the desks, and hung comforters alongside the desk if someone was going to be up late. This damped the noise quite a bit, and blocked the light.

Before that, we bought a quieter keyboard (and just shared it between both computers) and turned the brightness on our monitors way down - in a dark room, there's plenty of light to see a monitor that's set too dark to be able to see well during the day. This helped a bit, but not enough.

Re:Get a fan.

[Anonymous Coward]

No. Sound is additive. While you create one noise with the fan, you still have the original noise.

Going stictly by physics, that's correct. But people hear things based on psychoacoustics, and a sufficiently loud fan WILL prevent you from hearing quiet keypresses and mouse clicks (see this page for an explanation, including mathematical formulas).

The people using IM with sound probably have their speakers too loud. Go over to their desk when they're not around, and turn the speakers down or off.

Become a labbie..

[molo]

If you're a geek already, why not go that extra mile and become a computer labbie? You get the access codes to the labs and can keep them open all night. You also get in good with the faculty and sometimes even get paid to do something you would be doing already.

-molo