Slashdot Mirror
Cube Privacy Via Gibberish
fury88 writes "CNN is running a story on a new device created by Herman Miller to help with lack of privacy in the cube life. It's apparently a device that will spit out gibberish when you are talking on the phone. You record a few words as instructed by the device and when you are having conversations that may be private, it will spit out sounds that sound like a clone of yourself all talking at once. Frankly I have to think this would be annoying after awhile. As if dealing with your project manager sitting next to you wasn't enough, now you get to hear several versions of your Project Manager talking at once. Talk about insanity!"
"Did you get the memo about the TPS Reports?"
I can imagine them all saying that by default.
Almost everyone has a cell phone. When I need privacy at work, I just walk out of the building and talk on my cell. Scrambling my voice would be annoying to me and to my coworkers.
This idea has been around for years; it's why many banks and governments offices that deal with the public play musak over a speaker system. It's not for the listening pleasure; it's to make it hard to overhear other customers private conversations.
Could they make a portable one for people's cell phones? There are some calls that I'd rather not hear even half of. (As Ren and Stimpy would put it, "Repugnant, yet strangely compelling".)
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
In other news...
;-)
boa13 writes "There's a new device to help with lack of contents on your web site. It's apparently a device that will spit out dupes when you don't have time to properly read the stories submitted by your users. You post a story once and when you're running short of stuff to publish, it will spit out a rehash that sounds like it's new and fresh, but is actually quite stale, so that casual users will not notice that you don't do a proper job of moderating submitted stories. Frankly I have to think this would be annoying after awhile. As if dealing with improperly written and biased stories wasn't enough, now you get to research the linked articles to discover if it's that old AP story rehashed one more time. Talk about insanity!"
Pick up your mobile phone and go to a quiet corner.
.. ... ... would have a mechanic check it out. You never know when a car starts making funny noises - you might end up with an expensive to fix problem.
Actually do this anytime your talking on your mobile, confidential/private call or not, that way nobody will notice when you actually DO go out to talk privately
Also mastering the art of smoothly changing subjects when somebody walks in is very usefull:
You (on the phone): Tell me what you're wearing
She: I have my black silk negligee on
You: If i was there i would pull the straps, slowly let it fall down and then
*somebody walks in*
You:
I can imagine a device which translates Slashdot articles into spoken word, but I'm afraid my boss would notice if it talked about the same subject again and again and again and...
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
We already have white-noise generators in the ceiling of my dept, a call centre for a major corporate communications company. They do a nice job of dampening office echo, and creating a nice background noise that's also ideal for falling asleep to.
Other departments sound so quiet after this one. I prefer it.
To add a feature, any time you do math, it starts yelling out random numbers too add security:
8! 23! 42! 5432!
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
I can imagine the PHB being convinced by Wally to use it--when talking on speakerphone.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
... a dupe. Although TFA back then called the device an "Electronic Silencer" it seems to be the same product.
It's apparently a device that will spit out gibberish when you are talking on the phone.
Wait a sec, so you're saying that this magical device will spit meaningless gibberish completely free of intellectual content, designed to drown out anyone making any sense of what I'm actually saying?
What's the big advance? Isn't that what managers are for?
From TFA:
The effect is strange, though not as annoying as one would think.
Not so annoying, really? I'm somewhat skeptical...
Clone #1 : That sounds like a crazy idea.
Clone #2 : And that's $395!
Clone #3 : Isn't that old news?
Clone #4 : Geeeez...
Clone #2 : And that's $395!
Clone #4 : Geeeez...
Clone #3 : Isn't that old news?
Clone #1 : That sounds like a crazy idea.
Clone #3 : Isn't that old news?
Clone #4 : Geeeez...
The problem with Slashdot memes is that YOU INSENSITIVE CLOD!
The idea behind it isn't to stop people from listening in on private conversations, but rather to put people in a suitable mood. The latter tends to mean "willing to shop" in department stores, which I would guess is the main use of it.
Personally, I hate the idea behind this. Either it doesn't work, in which case it is annoying as hell, or it does work, in which case it's, if not unethical at least provocative (to me, YMMV).
But what I hate even more is that a lot of public places thought that playing "mood music" was a generally good idea without any other thought behind it. Stop polluting my ears now, please!
Also, Muzak has a website that is even more annoying than their sound pollution. Use at your own risk. (No, I won't provide a link. I hate them.)
I have this cool idea, kind of a low-tech version of your idea: Imagine some big rectangular pieces of some material that doesn't transfer sound (or does it badly) and place them between cubicles. Ideally those pieces should reach from the floor to the ceiling of the room with you cubicle. Now your privacy should be okay.
Linux is not Windows
Imagine some big rectangular pieces of some material that doesn't transfer sound (or does it badly) and place them between cubicles. Ideally those pieces should reach from the floor to the ceiling of the room with you cubicle. Now your privacy should be okay.
Those are called "offices." Some time ago, when you got an office job with a large company, you were assigned one of these "offices" to do your work. They even had these other novel things called "doors" which were like small wall sections on hinges that could be swung in and out of the opening used to go into and out of the "office." Imagine, your own space where the walls extended from the floor all the way to the ceiling, and a door to boot! These were popular in times where one also would frequently work for the same company for a long time and get additional perks such as "health care" and this other neat thing called a "pension" where the company continued to pay part of your salary after you worked for them for thirty or so years and stopped working, called "retirement."
(Yes, that is sarcasm you smell)
Government's idea of a balanced budget: take money from the right pocket to balance...oh who am I kidding?
But then my sympathy for people that expect the "right" to make or accept personal calls at work in the first place is somewhere in the vicinity of zero anyways.
If the conversation is work-related and still needs to be private, then one has a perfectly legitimate reason to have access to a telephone in a more private area than one's cubicle anyways. If the conversation isn't work related, one just has to bite the bullet and accept the fact that there is no reason why they should be afforded the luxury of increased privacy for such an activity. If they _REALLY_ need increased privacy for a personal call, they can ask their boss to see if he'll allow it. If personal calls are infrequent enough and the reason is legitimate, even if not work-related, they may permit it anyways.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'