There's an app opportunity here. Write something which captures audio, timestamps it with millsecond accuracy, annotates it with GPS info, and sends it to a web site for correlation. When you want to find some noise source, get a few people to walk around running this app. Then the site can locate it from the time differences, with a much longer baseline than human inter-ear distance.
Everything Is Getting Louder
171–180 of 316 posts
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
Find the speaker/chirper/noisemaker and disable it, using wirecutters if necessary. Black tape works great on LEDs.
I have a roll of black stickers that get stuck on everything. Latest offender though is a power board that has an LED near the USB ports. I've covered where it's supposed to shine through, but its bright enough that it shines through the USB ports as well. Even if something is plugged in to them! Is it generally safe to assume that cutting a noisemaker (or LED?) off wont break the rest of the product?
If you can open it enough to cut the led, why not just wrap the led in tape while you've got it open? That should cut down on the light leakage through the usb ports.
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#173For me the trigger is TVs. I've been renting a flat in a poorer area for over a year now. The walls are a lot thinner than in other places. There are a lot of people today (mostly 50+ year-olds) who cannot fall to sleep without the TV on. My neighbor is one of them. And the thing with TVs is that the most irritating sound frequency they emit is the one that is barely audible when you're in the same room, but when you…
I sold my previous house precisely because of noisy neighbors (or rather their dogs). Their three dogs lived in the backyard permanently no matter what the weather - never seen them walked. Talked to the neighbors twice about the noise - no action. Called the cops at 3 in the morning - still nothing. Finally, I decided to sell the house and move somewhere where there is low dog density. I developed a dislike for dogs…
I live with an endless barking dog. It isn't mine, but it wakes me constantly.
If there has been peace for a while and it barks, I can feel my entire body change "mode" to stressed. It is uncanny. Even if mentally it hasn't bothered me, my body still goes into battle mode.
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#174Why are we building data centers in the desert? From an efficiency perspective, it just seems like a comically bad idea.
Because the land price is very low.
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#175For me the trigger is TVs. I've been renting a flat in a poorer area for over a year now. The walls are a lot thinner than in other places. There are a lot of people today (mostly 50+ year-olds) who cannot fall to sleep without the TV on. My neighbor is one of them. And the thing with TVs is that the most irritating sound frequency they emit is the one that is barely audible when you're in the same room, but when you…
Real-estate agents know they can light up the churn-rate in a neighborhood by just moving in one neighbors-from-hell family as it is a self-reinforcing process. This is the reverse of gentrification.
Fanning these waves of uplift and deterioration at the right frequency is what brings home the bacon.
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
I sold my previous house precisely because of noisy neighbors (or rather their dogs). Their three dogs lived in the backyard permanently no matter what the weather - never seen them walked. Talked to the neighbors twice about the noise - no action. Called the cops at 3 in the morning - still nothing. Finally, I decided to sell the house and move somewhere where there is low dog density. I developed a dislike for dogs…
...and now you know why nosy HOAs are so common even though people always talk about hating them.
It should be possible to have a simple rule requiring noise not to cross into a neighbor's residential property, without having a dedicated organization of busybodies collecting dues and micromanaging everything with a constantly changing set of restrictions.
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#177Whoever decided to make cars beep when you lock or unlock them did humanity a disservice in my view. I don't think the small benefit of helping the driver locate their vehicle outweighs the shear number of times that has woken people up.
Is this an American thing? In Europe I never ever hear cars beep when locked/unlocked, just the mechanical sound of the central locking and flashing the hazard lights once when unlocked, double when locked successful and tripple when lock failed(door not closed properly). Having your car make a loud sound for lock/unlock just creates more noise in the neighborhood.
Many years ago, a my landlord’s son had a car alarm that talked. When he locked the car, it would say “System armed”. (The first time I heard that, I nearly freaked out.) And when unlocked, it would say “Alarm deactivated”. Whoever invented this, may have thought it really cool at the time. Fortunately, I never found out what it would say if the alarm went off.
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
My apartment is bordered by around 100 housing units, and a large number of car parking spaces. Very few of the cars beep anymore, but a large number honk their horns whenever (loosely) anyone gets in or out of the vehicle. To those of us with especially poorly-placed apartments, this gratuitous honking throughout the early morning, day, and night is always annoying, often jolting, and sometimes awakening. I understa…
My Tesla honks when it locks and I'd prefer it did not. But if it were silent, I wouldn't know when it fails to lock because someone didn't fully close their door. I wish they'd do a Subaru beep instead. Or just send me a push notification on my phone. Having it honk in my garage every time I walk away gets a bit irritating.
My car (most cars?) just flashes all the turn signals. One long flash on lock, two short ones on unlock.
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
Instead of moving, isn't it much less trouble to kill their dogs by throwing some poisoned food over the fence? That's what people usually do with noisy animals and asshole neighbors.
What happens if you get caught? The neighbor could also go berserk when finding out, I imagine there's not too many suspects.
How could they know who did it? It could be any one of their neighbors, and most lots have 5 adjacent lots.
In a place I used to live, there was a rooster that would constantly crow. Someone killed it. I wasn't involved but I'm certainly glad it happened. That rooster was driving the neighborhood insane. The police were useless in that situation. They never cared about noise complaints.
Basically if the state doesn't take care of these problems, people will. And when they do, it's not pretty.
Re: Everything Is Getting Louder
#180For me the trigger is TVs. I've been renting a flat in a poorer area for over a year now. The walls are a lot thinner than in other places. There are a lot of people today (mostly 50+ year-olds) who cannot fall to sleep without the TV on. My neighbor is one of them. And the thing with TVs is that the most irritating sound frequency they emit is the one that is barely audible when you're in the same room, but when you…
I use Howard Leight’s Max every night during sleep to keep my sanity.
They’re great. But the sound of my own heart beat is annoying. And I’m worried about if I’d hear the smoke alarm.