LostFocus

A weblog by Dominik Schwind

I have nothing to say, really.

Fuck off.

Cherry G80-3000

By Dominik Schwind

Nach fünf langen Jahren unter meinen Fingern hat die Macally-Tastatur, mit der ich bisher im Büro gearbeitet habe, langsam aber sicher den Geist aufgegeben – Teile der Tastatur waren so durchgeleiert, daß schon ein Windhauch die Taste auslöste, während andere Tasten kaum noch bedienbar waren.

Also habe ich das gemacht, was jeder gute Angestellte macht, wenn was “mit dem Computer nicht geht:” ich bin zu den Admins gerannt und habe gejammert. Das Resultat war dann eine Cherry G80-3000.

Cherry G80-3000

Hervorragend. Ich war noch nie von einer Tastatur so begeistert.

Der Kollege hat sie bereits als Schreibmaschine bezeichnet und ich fühle mich auch schon wie Ron Swanson.

Sometimes it takes years

By Dominik Schwind

However, to make good software, requires lots of thought, trial and error, evaluation, iteration, trying the ideas out on other users, learning, thinking, more trial and error, and on and on. At some point you say it ain’t perfect, but it’s useful, so let’s ship. That process, if the software is to be any good, doesn’t happen in 24 hours.

Dave Winer

The Rise of the New Groupthink

By Dominik Schwind

The one important exception to this dismal record is electronic brainstorming, where large groups outperform individuals; and the larger the group the better. The protection of the screen mitigates many problems of group work. This is why the Internet has yielded such wondrous collective creations. Marcel Proust called reading a “miracle of communication in the midst of solitude,” and that’s what the Internet is, too. It’s a place where we can be alone together — and this is precisely what gives it power.

via The Rise of the New Groupthink – NYTimes.com.

Inception at the office

By Dominik Schwind

I might have mentioned it before – either here or over on the Twitter – that I am working at a rather noisy office. It’s just something that happens when you put four guys in a room. Someone is always eating something or mumbling or drumming on the table. Keyboards aren’t that silent, either and don’t get me started on scroll wheels. It just can’t be helped.

And then there are discussions. Usually about work-related stuff, but also all too often about why thing X sucks or why people who do thing Y must be stupid.

So, at some point, one either gets used to it, tries to mask the noises with music or tries to find some other way to cope with the constant audio distractions.

This afternoon, I decided to go and check what happens when I run the Inception App at work. And the results are pretty astonishing, really. Stuff that would usually annoy me – nuts getting taken out of an aluminum bag and chewed noisily, random sighs and curses – turn into weird, yet beautiful soundscapes, the distraction becomes audio art.

It’s still distracting as hell, though and I don’t really get any work done because I am too busy listening. I guess I’ll have to think of something else.

Consumerization of IT

By Dominik Schwind

The great IT freezeout. [via]

White Noise

By Dominik Schwind

I think I have mentioned it before that for me it is not that easy to get into that state that we like to call “the zone” and the ambient noise in a four-person office isn’t helping. Especially with chronic carrot-eaters, mumblers, sigh-ers, table-drummers, burpers and loud-music-with-crappy-in-ear-headphone-listeners as office mates.1


All the loud dubstep doesn’t help to cover up the carrot-eating noise. Maybe some carrots need to be delivered Mr. Smith-style.
April 29, 2011 3:38 pm via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite
@dominik
Dominik Schwind

So first I turned to music. Randomly playing my iTunes library was a complete disaster. Switching between bubblegum pop, heavy metal, elektro and 80s synth-stuff makes for an interesting listening experience, but does not help with concentrating on work. Quite the opposite, actually. Same, of course, with my last.fm mix station. For a while the dubstep-station on last.fm worked, but not really, either.


I now listen to rain and ocean sounds. NOT HELPING.
May 4, 2011 10:45 am via EchofonReplyRetweetFavorite
@dominik
Dominik Schwind

Now I have a white noise software running that gives me ocean and rain sounds. That’s nice. It does not help. For one, it fuels my Wanderlust, which is acting up like mad lately anyway. Also, if I turn it loud enough to drown out the noises, I’ll go deaf.2 And especially the rain part makes me need to pee a lot.

Anyway, all of this complaining is not really the point I wanted to make. The sounds to cover up quite a bit of noise, they do fade into the background and I can concentrate a bit. At least until the next carrot.

The really interesting thing happens when I switch off the software though. My brain got so used to everything being muted down by rain and wave sounds, that when those are missing, everything else sound very very clear. I was surprised how hyper-aware of even small sounds you get after switching off a white noise generator. My steps even on the carpet, the sounds of the water when washing my hands, the droning of the aircon in the washroom, cars going by, the “I need lunch” sounds in my stomach, the phone ringing three doors down the hall, the breeze around the building’s edges. Everything gets REALLY intense.

Is that how taking drugs is like?

  1. I’m not really blaming them. I tap my foot, I type pretty hard, I use the scroll wheel on my mouse and I tend to hum along to the music I listen to. I am sure they’re just as annoyed by me as I am with them when it comes to office noises and that’s understandable and okay. [↩]
  2. And believe me, I did consider that as an alternative for a moment. [↩]