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Ask Slashdot: Hacking Urban Noise?

b1tbkt writes "I live at the corner of one of the busiest intersections in my city (pop. 350k). Although I've replaced all windows, insulated, and caulked every square inch of the place, the fire trucks and cars with obnoxious stereos still regularly intrude on my home office. Most of the noise comes in through the windows. I'm considering mounting an oblong parabolic reflector in the ceiling above the windows with a steady feed of white or brownian noise directed into it (e.g., via a small speaker placed within the reflector) to create a 'wall' of sound that would act as a buffer to the outside world. Active noise cancellation would be nice, too, but that's probably more than I want to take on. I don't see any products on the market for this sort of thing. Does anyone have any experiences to share with similar homebrew noise remediation efforts?"

12 of 474 comments (clear)

  1. Re:George Bernard Shaw by jhoegl · · Score: 5, Funny

    My adaption to fart mufflers and loud base was a sound detector and a machine gun. If the passing car got too loud, it would track and fire.
    I havent built it yet, but one day...
    I wouldnt shed a tear for these obnoxious people. They disturb hundreds of people daily, so fuck em.

  2. Obligatory XKCD by whennegan · · Score: 5, Funny
  3. Re:are the windows.. by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 4, Funny

    Unless you can read, in which case he said that most of the sound is coming through the windows. I'm not really surprised, since the vast majority of problems I have ever dealt with are related to windows.

    --
    Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
  4. Use your stero by RNLockwood · · Score: 3, Funny

    Crank up the sound level on your stereo to really high levels and use it constantly to mask street noises. Magically, after a while, you won't need it any more.

    --
    Nate
  5. Re:And the motorcycles .... by Bill+Dimm · · Score: 4, Funny

    And the motorcycles.

    It's all about our narcissistic society. "Hey look at me! I'm special!"

    Yep. South Park did an episode on it, and nailed it as usual.

  6. Re:And the motorcycles .... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Motorcycles aren't about narcissism, they're about freedom.

    What?!?

    So, car drivers aren't free?

    I guess the Founding Fathers were all motorcycle riders then.

    So, I should give up voting and just get a bike if I want to be free?

    And I guess we should send motorcycles to North Korea and free the people there?

  7. Re:Get a Pair of Headphones by tsa · · Score: 4, Funny

    Headphones don't block noise and turning them up to block noise will damage your hearing.

    So they do help :).

    --

    -- Cheers!

  8. Re:are the windows.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    So you're saying he should try replacing his windows with linux? It might just work, I've certainly seen installations where I couldn't get any sound to come through linux.

  9. Re:It does not have to be far by citizenr · · Score: 2, Funny

    We're in London, after all.

    Yes, capital of a country which, except for miles and pints, went metric around 1970.

    Dont know about that, they still count money in pounds.

    --
    Who logs in to gdm? Not I, said the duck.
  10. Re:It does not have to be far by Loosifur · · Score: 3, Funny

    Really, cause I know a guy who tries to make pithy jabs at the US but can't manage to spell "imperial" or "Liberia" correctly.

    Oh, and if you love the TSA so much why don't you marry it, etc.

    --
    This unbiased moderation brought to you by the Porcine Aviation Group!
  11. Re:And the motorcycles .... by WGFCrafty · · Score: 3, Funny

    Motorcycles aren't about narcissism, they're about freedom. With the exception of Harley Davidson bikes, which are deliberately tuned badly to make noise, most of the good bikes (think Honda orr BMW) are actually pretty quiet, and, especially among older motorcycle drivers, they are far and above the most courteous drivers on the road, which seems kind of counter to the notion that they're narcissistic.

    If Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is anything to go on, they're not narcissistic, they're philosophers who go insane when they come to the conclusion that quality is synonymous with the Tao.

  12. Re:The motorcycles are for lazy people by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_Across_America

    Less than two weeks, fat ass.