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Is the Toilet Free?

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Re: Is the Toilet Free?

#121

Post by mcroft »

aortega wrote: post #72
zo1 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you're basically saying that you're only a "hacker" if you do stuff with hardware. That is completely upside down, if not borderline elitist. Building stuff and "hacking" has no requirement for hardware. It hasn't been that way for a long while. Now excuse me while I gladly take our Raspberry Pis, Arduinos and "software" thingimaggigs off your precious lawn.

Chill dude, call yourself a hacker if you wish, has no strict definition anyway. I believe "fun" and "easy" projects have no merits, them being hardware/software/whatever (unless you are in high-school) It's nice to make one once in a while, but if you only do fun and easy projects then you are wasting your life. You should try to push yourself to make things that are not easy. Get outside your comfort zone. Doing st…

You might have a point from a technical perspective, but I think these kinds of technically easy projects show their worth in other ways.

In this case, the builders had to think about their users, the best way to notify people, the kind of notifications which would work best (active/passive) and in doing so, they've just strengthened those neural pathways that are involved in this sort of customer-focused thinking.

The fact that it's technically easy just means that it was a lightweight thing to do which didn't take up much time at all and generally improved morale. I think that's a good thing.

Re: Is the Toilet Free?

#123

Post by threedaymonk »

jhardcastle wrote: post #119
YokoZar wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the easiest ways to do this is to declare the bathrooms unisex, especially if you have a serious gender imbalance at work. I worked at a startup office that had a (typical) 80% male to female ratio, but the building was designed with two male and two female toilets. These were the types of bathrooms that had a single toilet, a single seat, and a door for the whole thing, much like a bathroom in your home. Havi…

The video/gif on the article shows both men and women entering and exiting. There is only one LED. There is only one website. The diagram only shows three stalls. I venture to guess that this bathroom is already unisex.

All three cubicles are indeed unisex. (I used to work there.)

Re: Is the Toilet Free?

#124

Post by threedaymonk »

bagels wrote: post #111

Does your office violate Osha standards for employees per toilet? http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CFR-2013-title29-vol5/xml/CFR-2...

Well, theirs doesn't: it falls outside the purview of OSHA via the loophole of not being in the US :-) In fact, the relevant UK legislation is marginally stricter, and permits up to 50 people at work for 3 unisex toilets: http://www.hse.gov.uk/contact/faqs/toilets.htm . That's five fewer than the US Labor Code.

I did note with amusement this line in the US code:

(2) Construction of toilet rooms. (i) Each water closet shall occupy a separate compartment with a door and walls or partitions between fixtures sufficiently high to assure privacy.

US toilets gave me quite a culture shock: the partitions and doors are so short, high off the floor, and full of gaps that they certainly did not "assure privacy", at least not compared to what I'm used to.

Re: Is the Toilet Free?

#125

Post by jmharvey »

taejo wrote: post #96
jmharvey wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know the current status of the bathroom server, but when I was living in Random, certain bathrooms would be taken offline on Jewish days of rest (since activating the door switch could be considered prohibited work). So it's possible that the server is offline today for Passover.

Work during Passover is not prohibited, though.

My understanding is that work is prohibited on the seventh day of Passover.

Re: Is the Toilet Free?

#126

Post by jmzbond »

jmzbond wrote: post #112

A little torn about this. Reading through the comments, and kind of agree that the project is an interesting representation of hacker culture, and certainly stimulating/ morale-boosting to work on... But on the other hand, I'm just a little bit sad that some clearly intelligent people have put time toward this problem instead of pressing issues like hunger or violence or any other number of social problems that are p…

Was the downvote because this opinion, expressed in a hopefully respectful way, was just… not welcome?
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