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Headphones in Corporate Culture?
TheGreatOrangePeel asks: "In an ever increasing sea of white-earbuds in my office, I broke from the mainstream and recently purchased the iAudio X5 to help pass the downtime I experience behind cube walls. I've got a decent set of headphones, but recently I've discovered that being able to hear the rap-tap on the cube frame is sometimes a problem even with the volume cranked way down and considering how my current headphones are about ready for retirement anyway, I thought I would start shopping around for a new set. The problem is that most of mid priced headphones out there are designed to block out real world noise. The Sennheiser PX100 look like they may fit what I'm looking for, but I question the durability of folding headphones and I thought I would see what my peers on Slashdot prefer. What I'm looking for is a set of headphones with (1) good sound in a wide variety of music (2) in the $30-$99 range that (3) will let me hear the warnings of imminent attack at work by co-workers, and the alerts at my monthly LAN parties from allied gamers."
Amen. My pair of Pro-35s has served me well for many years. The sound is adequate for casual listening, and the open-air design is more appropriate than blocking out the world. They're fairly light, reasonably durable, and very comfortable. Find 'em on sale for $20 more often than not.
:)
If you want to make a statement, get a pair of bluetooth headphones. Pair them and a regular bt headset to your computer. Velcro the headset to the wall of your cubicle with a sign saying "intercom". Set the computer to pipe music to the headphones until the intercom button is pushed.
Just plug a microphone in. Make sure it's sinsoid and not cartoid type, since sinsoid picks up sound in any direction.
Put on your headphones, then adjust the mic mix till you hear the desired amount of background noise.
ThinkGeek has its C.H.I.M.P., which is basically a convex cubicle mirror. Works well enough:
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http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/accessories/29
I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhauser gate.
I find that wrapping the iPod bud headphone wire over the back of my ear and letting them dangle lets me hear the music fine and still hear my surroundings.
Seconded. I recently went a step up from my old pair to the PSC 250's, which have a closed design and noise cancelling, for about $100-110. The increase per price isn't as dramatic as the 100's though, which are nearly impossible to beat for their size and price, and the submitter wanted to be able to hear people, anyways.
Definitely go Sennheiser. The sound reproduction is excellent. Personally I use and recommend the PXC250s. They are noise cancelling but they won't interfere with your ability to hear people talking to you. They just cancel out steady noise like the heating units or a power supply fan. The difference there will surprise you though. They work very well on airplanes and come with a several connectors for that purpose. They also come in a decent carrying case.
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
Monitor mirrors are for HR and Marketing drones... I much prefer the strategically-placed CDs (data side out) pinned to my cube wall and aimed the appropriate direction with additional pushpins behind them. It amazes me that nobody catches on until I specifically point it out to them.
Note that AOL CDs (while rarer these days) or any other free, pressed discs work best (as they are the shiniest); most CD-Rs don't work so well.
A secondary advantage of a mirror, is that when you look into it, you shift the focal length in your eye compared to staring at the monitor, which helps reduce eyestrain.
Altenatively, you could get a cheap webcam to point over your shoulder, and monitor the video in a window. But that seems like overkill. (But this is Slashdot, so who knows?)