Posted by firefoxd 5 days ago
I tried talking to him multiple times to no avail. He’d basically say “yeah I’ll pay attention no problem” but nothing changed for weeks.
Coincidentally at that time I was working morning shifts at a radio station. Those start really early so you gotta wake up at around 4am.
I decided one day to change my alarm (triggered on my Sony Vaio) from the peaceful iPhone-like tunes to System of a Down’s “Chop Suey”. I also decided to forget it on, on repeat, full volume, while leaving the apartment.
I don’t think 3 days passed before he knocked loudly at my door, moaning and complaining.
I told him: “you gotta understand, your TV was so loud I couldn’t sleep for nights on end, the old tune wouldn’t wake me up anymore. I had to change it. I’m so tired that I even forget to turn it off.
But yeah, I’ll try to pay attention to it”
Is it feasible to capture and directionally pipe audio back to a rude neighbor? Seems like it could be effective.
ah, so this is what they used in embassy attacks
Latest I've seen about it: "Secret 'discombobulator' weapon was crucial to Venezuelan raid on Maduro" - https://nypost.com/2026/01/24/us-news/trump-reveals-to-the-p... (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46754101 | 7 days ago | 6 comments)
I told her I heard her masturbating often and would just put my headphones on and check in 20 minutes. She said she didn't do that. I said "well, maybe you're listening to porn. All I know is I hear something".
She moved out the next day.
This is the typical tall tale that used to travel in every neighborhood as a warning, especially to scare kids from doing some things. Kids eat up these stories. Probably doesn't work that much in the age of phones and "pics (shorts?) or it never happened".
I don’t think the argument is it can never happen, but rather that at the time of writing of the guidelines it hadn’t. And that it is an argument that doesn’t advance the discussion. Complaining that HN is becoming like Reddit is one of the things which makes HN more like Reddit.
Usually morning people don’t change and are inconsiderate their whole lives.
The only real difference is how much you care about how your actions impact the environment and people around you.
I wake up early, because I work early, I don't make any sound, my flatmate (I rent a room from the company) works late and always stays up late, they make so much noise that they keep waking me up to the point that I had to report them to the company.
It doesn't matter if you're a night or a morning person, what matters is, are you considerate or not.
My neighbor is smoking on the balcony, and smoke goes to my home with little kids. I talked with him several times, didn't help. It's his territory, so not much I can do, besides closing the doors. But at least i can use this fake smoke detector with VERY ANNOYING random buzzer. It starts buzzing when i connect to it my iPhone via BLE. Makes it not as relaxing to smoke on the balcony as it planned to be for him. I'm going to train this mofo with reinforcement learning like a fkn Pavlov Dog.
1. https://old.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/1ojv6x4/smokin...
for example, the guy can start smoking inside, and it will always smell like smoke.
or, the guy can get his own buzzer.
i've had oversensitive neighbors sit there and bang on pots all night because fireworks or construction noise.
like another comment mentioned, apartments are just built really badly. you can hear anything. which leads to friends of mine complaining about stompers, but to me, they're clearly not stomping. they're just tip-toeing around as quietly as possible. when you get people actually harassing you daily, then you figure out the difference.
if you have to set up a machine or device, then you might be the bad neighbor. this is especially true if they don't set up a machine back at you. that means they're just taking in your harassment and not escalating.
people aren't total idiots. they figure someone is messing with them for their level 15 volume and keep it lower. For anyone with a TV, try putting your volume to 15. Is is unreasonable volume? It's very hard to say who is the psychotic neighbor. I've been on both sides: neighbors that were loud but normal (maybe they had bad hearing, or worked at night), and neighbors that were oversensitive, who were petty and bought machines and devices and sprays to really hurt all of the people who lived around them.
Playing loud music, your neighbours can hear it => you’re the problem
Smoking and having the smoke pollute your neighbours air => you’re the problem
if you cook some dishes, and some oversensitive person doesn't like the smell, then you're impacting them.
it becomes not so simple, especially when you are a building manager and two people have a problem with each other. it's not always easy to figure it out.
Then you have cases like a once per year loud birthday party. That's annoying. Are you really the problem if you do that once a year?
I can hear my neighbors televisions regularly. It's annoying yet I never thought they were a problem. However, another person in the building DOES think they are a problem. Partly because they don't understand that they need to compromise because the walls are so thin. Since the sounds are annoying, do they get to stomp around all night and get revenge with machines and devices? at that point, the petty revenge is probably the problem.
and for a building manager, it's not always easy to figure out which person is the unreasonable one.
Playing loud music, tv is not acceptable. Or smoking outside that impacts others.
Is your want to do that, live alone in a forest.
Plenty of times the fault is with the apartment, etc.: if the reasonable noise of me living disrupts my neighbors, that's bad design. Different people work different shifts - I don't see why the morning person should have to hold off on a morning shower just because the plumbing wakes up their neighbor, nor why the night-shift worker should have to hold off on doing laundry just because that wakes the morning person up.
The answer is that everyone thinks they’re the normal one. And everyone generally is normal.
I’ve objectively been a bad neighbor in the past. Early 20s me loved loud music. But late 20s me learned how to be considerate of the music volume.
I’ve also had crazy neighbors. One neighbor of mine complained constantly, immediately after moving in, that the communal laundry area light was left on, and I kept promising to try and do better. Of course, I made plenty of mistakes and often forgot to turn the light off when leaving with a full basket. One day he just took the (low powered LED) bulb away like they were his! Was I the poor neighbor wasting electricity? Was he the psychopath who thought he could forcibly control the entire apartment buildings access to light? It’s all in the story telling.
So the security team manage all the lights in the utility areas, whereas the uncommon areas (e.g., terraces; their doors usually kept locked by a bolt on the inside, because we sometimes get prowlers/intruders on the rooftops: monkeys from nearby jungle!) are operated by security or tenants/owners, on a need basis.
Of course, for smaller complexes, where a dedicated security team (or even a lone night watchman) is not feasible, it is advisable to install automatic lights on common areas (but not for stairs, etc., otherwise it is a safety risk), so this avoids altercations between users.
For inner rooms (such as a laundry area), a two-way switch setup helps - one switch in the room, and one on an accessway or way outside (preferably one of those acrylic translucent light switch (which lights up when switched on)), so it is easier to spot if it is left on.
You clearly haven't met that many people.
"You know how dumb the average person is? Well, statistically, 50% of people are even dumber than that."
It was definitely a quote in Discworld Noir though.
> Have you thought about moving into a house with no neighbors? Otherwise, have some respect for others IMO
What about the smoker having respect to the person he forces to smoke? (you can't be quick enough to close your window, the smoke has already invaded your home once you smelled it). Your rights end where my rights start. You have no right to invade my personal space with your toxic smoke
If the guy has to go to these passive aggressive lengths instead of going straight to the apartment management with a complaint more likely than not the smoker is allowed to smoke on his balcony.
Causing a noise disturbance and potentially impacting several neighbors at once because he doesn't like one particular neighbor doing something he signed a legal document agreeing to when he moved there is kind of silly. It's like becoming a member at a cigar lounge and then complaining when the guy in the chair next to you lights one up.
Sure enough, after a while the neighbour learnt their TV only worked if they kept the volume down in the evening.
But I wouldn't know where to start. :-\
- Hackers, Steven Levy, 1984
A good fire doesn't release much, if any smoke. It burns it up instead.
A good woodstove is worth the money.
I'm in Christchurch, New Zealand which gets winter smog,. The city council enforces rules and woodburners need to meet strict emission standards. They regularly tighten the rules so that if you want a woodburner you need to replace it every 15 years or so.
But they do still smell.
The rules have radically improved the air quality here and we now get much less smog than when I was a kid.
Outright banning open fires and coal years ago made a big difference too.
I'm not sure what happens if you don't follow the rules. A neighbour can make a complaint and there will get taken seriously and I believe they have a van sometimes checking too. Although I've personally never heard of anyone actually getting caught.
What's that supposed to achieve? Also what do you do if you build your own woodburner/fireplace?
I suspect part of the rule tightening is to slowly squeeze to get rid of fires altogether (the outcome with the cleanest air).
> what do you do if you build your own woodburner/fireplace?
You couldn't afford to do it legally (I expect emissions testing is expensive). I don't know what the penalties are for illegal woodburners/fireplaces. My personal experience is that it isn't enforced. I'd guess penalties can be avoided unless you're a repeat offender with a complaining neighbour.
Note that outdoor braziers are legal AFAIK. Although Outdoor fires have some restrictions - especially if very dry and high fire risk.
Firewood is not cheap for heating. Even if you have free trees then it costs a lot of time (in my experience) and often equipment or transport is expensive too.
Here's some historical data that shows very significant improvement over 25 years: https://www.ecan.govt.nz/your-region/your-environment/air-qu...
The smog was horrific before 2000 when those statistics start. Apparently low air quality was implicated in many deaths per year here.
An honest answer at least and something i hope we don't see here. But I think similar legislation is going to become common trough the EU (something is already on the books i believe) and is already a thing in Germany.
It's silly too in a time when most still heat with fossil fuels, pumping up more and more that could be avoided and i can build a fireplace with outside air intake or get a damn near ancient finish masonry heater that's far more efficient than anything one can get at the store.
>Firewood is not cheap for heating. Even if you have free trees then it costs a lot of time (in my experience) and often equipment or transport is expensive too.
I live in Western Europe but it's been cheap. If I counted up the time invested and compared it to equivalent time worked for money to spend on other heating with fossil fuels then it comes out far far cheaper. Even if i add some egregious estimates for the cost of a chainsaw, trailer and wheelbarrow it's still only a fraction of the cost.
Christchurch doesn't use much fossil fuels. Coal, Coal gas[1], Coke, and LPG were used in the past for home heating. Electricity generation can come from coal when hydro lakes get dry. Utility Solar will replace that usage.
I use firewood for heating when I'm using the living area but I'm not sure I'd replace the current woodburner. I currently use gas for hot water for showers but LPG is getting more expensive so when the gas califont fails it will be replaced with electric heating.
I have access to free trees, but I've been slowly finding that my "free" firewood is expensive (because I value my time highly). I'm not sure how to account for the risks of hurting myself, or the benefits of exercise!
We had a massive problem with smog, and although the regulations definitely have some bad side effects, the regulations have worked.
[1] https://www.engineeringnz.org/programmes/heritage/heritage-r...
https://predatorfreenz.org/toolkits/know-your-target-predato...
But we burn Siberian Elm wood that grows (and dies) on our property, and even when the stove is working at its best ... jeez, I feel embarrassed for how much we stink up the neighborhood. Burning elm wood is just inherently nasty in terms of the smell.
It's particularly embarrassing because a lot of neighbors use pinon in their stoves and that makes parts of the village basically like walking into a cafe with the best smelling chili you've ever eaten (while remaining outside!).
Some of it precious, too. Like black walnut.
The purpleair map has been awesome to at least make the problem visible. I hope they are using it to aid enforcement on spare the air days.
“Residential wood-burning is the biggest source of particulate matter and soot/black carbon in Europe” https://www.fern.org/publications-insight/latest-evidence-on...
“domestic wood-burning is the largest source of particulate pollution in the UK. Only 8% of the UK’s homes burn wood, but this accounts for around 21% of the total PM2.5 emissions, whereas all traffic on the UK roads produces 13%” https://medium.com/the-new-climate/why-the-environmental-mov...
It shows.
So the onus in on you to show that smoking cigarettes doesn’t cause lung cancer despite the overwhelming amount t of scientific evidence that it does.
No, I noticed the opposite. They demonized tobacco, and lung cancer rates went dowm precipitously.
That's "true" in the sense that it's the CVD (Cardiovascular disease) and COPD (Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) that are way more likely to take them out first.
Lifetime Smoking History and Cause-Specific Mortality in a Cohort Study with 43 Years of Follow-Up
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4824471/
Sure, you absolutely can be 98 years old sucking back on a deathstick, just like you might find yourself screaming "suck it" as you take home that giant lottery cheque with some winnings.
Pachinko's a hell of a game .. but still the house wins.
40 Years of Living, Then Death (with simulated smoking) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGxDVXGRQpY
Life is a MLM: Death, Death, Death https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxoODPQ4CTM
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/US-cigarette-sales-1900-...
ChangeTheAirFoundation.org
It seemed like the biggest change in air quality in recent years came from the tragic earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 knocking down all the unreinforced-masonry chimneys, though.
If you had dry wood to hand of course you'd use that in preference.
Not a problem with a properly designed HEATAS approved wood burning stove and properly seasoned beach wood.
Being daft enough to buy an inefficient, unapproved stove and/or and burn unseasoned green wood is ridiculous. Not to mention its illegal to sell small quantities of unseasoned firewood in Blighty; large amounts to season yourself are fine.
EDIT: If you disagree with the above, then get off your arse and write a rebuttal saying why! Downvoting simply because you disagree (rather than because the text doesn't add to the conversation) simply turns arguments into a popularity contest and is turning this place into another Reddit. (A statement of fact, no matter what the old HN guidelines say about Reddit).
There are definitely sensitive people who have either misophonia rage, or PTSD from something, and they can't handle normal levels of city noise.
on top of that, some apartments simply allow smoking inside. If they always use the balcony, they're really doing you a favor.
if you are worried about emissions, you really have to think about cars and refineries and jets, and even restaurants. These are incredibly out of control when it comes to pollution and disease.
in my experience, if you're buying machines and building devices, and your target refuses to play that game, then it's clear who the adult is, and who the child is.
I hear some gunshots during hunting season, echoing across the valley, but they'd be drowned out by the frogs singing--they're way louder.
Wait until these guys start telling you you don't need a truck.
I don't mind the gunshots near my house during hunting season, because I have good neighbors. Those shots mean my freezer is getting stocked with venison.
A huge swath of it borders my property, as I'm the last house up the road on my mountain.
I don't mind 'em at all, though. I think it's locals, just folks I haven't met. They keep it clean and they go up far enough I can't hear anything besides the rifle crack.
After speaking with them didn't help ... my next response was to religiously water the garden at the same time with my jet spray ...
I have amusing videos (from our CCTV) of our neighbour regularly diving for cover from an "accidental" spray of water.
"Sorry. I'm just watering our plants, sorry about that".
I wish I could say this solved it ... but the subtlety of the point that their smoking was impacting the enjoyment of our home, in the same way as my water spray was impacting his enjoyment of his garden was lost on them ...
We eventually settled it the old fashioned way. Not with pistols or swords ... but an old-fashioned chat after reporting them to the local council.
Luckily the problem is resolved ... but largely due to the threat of the Council taking action against their landlord.
The only solution is leverage ...
Thank goodness smoking is becoming rarer here and is no banned pretty much everywhere indoors and near entrances.
I don’t mind if people have a vice (I’ve got mine) but keep me out of it.
[citation needed].
I have celiac disease and a wheat allergy, which presented at the age of 3 comorbidly.
If I ingest gliadin, my immune cells take the gliadin, run a nice little check on it, and then raise holy hell and destroy my gut villae.
If I come into contact with wheat, I get a histamine response. Even a bag of (organic, locally produced) wheat flour opened in the same room as me used to be enough to make my airways close up.
This is absurd if you know anyone with a gluten intolerance. They have an immune reaction to organic wheat (so no glyphosate) but not to any other non-organic non-gluten produce (like oats, chickpea flour, etc. which have glyphosate).
You didn't write anything to argue about. You wrote that you like the smell of weed. Well I think most people don't when they're not enjoying it, but that's only my experience with people, I haven't run a poll on the subject. I would certainly be bothered by it if it was constant.
Then you started the rant, in the most stereotypical way, X is all lies. There seems to be plenty of evidence that any particulate pollution is detrimental to health, so this is not even about your particular vice: people don't want to breathe shit you're burning.
They’re more pleasant to coexist with because they let their smoke drift into my home instead of their own? What? They’re just externalizing the negatives of their own vice.
a) are aware that their smoke isn't dispersed enough by the breeze / open space to be unnoticeable.
b) know there is someone close enough who isn't like them and other smokers, and is really bothered by the smoke.
They do, however, go smoke on their balconies since they were made aware smoking inside is bad for their roommates/family.
So, many of them are more likely than not reasonable people. They _could be_. While you _proved_ that you aren't, by not communicating it (or at least not mentioning it as if it isn't the most important reason why they are "awful people"), just judging them and holding a grudge.
In this very comment you again showed that you don't care enough to understand others who you might disagree with, because I am just rephrasing what I already wrote, since you replied like I didn't.
They're awful people because they are drug addicts who insist on making their unbearable smoke part of our lives too.
what the hell man, that is an awful thing to say, have some compassion
> our lives
if "our" is to mean people with such an awful opinion about addiction, then I wish it on you
Also, you should remember my comment was about the route of administration. A drug you take is your choice. An airborne drug works its way into your system whether you want it or not.
"Just leave them!" Yeah. Ok.
Try empathy, it's free.
Fine, I'll take the bait.
I moved here by choice, my "ancestors" have nothing to do with Hong Kong.
I also don't wage a war against my neighbours who are simply trying to "enjoy a smoke".
I still don't appreciate when my house smells of cannabis when I leave the window open and don't turn on the fans I have in the balcony.
My neighbours could turn on a fan to dissipate the smoke, they don't it's inconsiderate, but I'm not going to ruin their day over it.
Moving over this, does not make any sense, the whole argument of "If you don't like it then leave" reeks of ignorant entitlement.
YOU are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
It stinks, it has a reek. People don't like the way it smells, and smoking it around others who aren't smoking is just plain rude. Smoke your sacred herb, but do it where it won't make people wonder why it smells like a skunk died nearby.
And you'll note, I don't stop them, nor complain - I merely WISH they were a little more considerate in their partaking of the herb, I'd be less irritated.
Additionally, they don't have "every right" it's entirely illegal here, but I've no interest in calling the police over it - as again, I just wish they were naturally a little more considerate over their use of shared space than having a desire to punish them over it.
If your mind is so open, why are you so closed and selfish towards other's view points?
Sorry, you are just selfish.
I've no desire to persecute anyone, yet once again you assume I do.
All I ask is that my neighbours use a fan, it doesn't bother me enough to interfere with them, I just WISH they could be a little less selfish. They aren't, and in the grand scheme of things it's fine.
You seem to intentionally misrepresent what I state and play the victim.
Indeed cannabis is fully legal in many jurisdictions and it's becoming more and more common - I'm not convinced by your "life and death" narrative here in the slightest.
No - I don't care much what happens to you, I don't know you from Adam. However, nor do I care how much or how little of your sacred herb you smoke.
I merely ask that if you find yourself around others, have some consideration for them. Wishing someone would put a fan on while they smoke, out of good will is hardly a conspiracy scale persecution.
If you can't grant others this courtesy, I'm still going to leave you alone. I may however post a vague post on the internet indicating displeasure for certain people's lack of manners and respect for others.
While I do enjoy both sex and travel, this doesn't seem the appropriate forum to discuss it in.
I can’t stop cigarette smoke from seeping in to everything in my home if I leave the windows open. Also, smoking is not a necessary part of life. You can’t live silently.
It’s not the same.
They could just not smoke, or smoke far away from the building where it won’t bother anyone.
> Where else do you think they are going to do it?
I don’t know, I’m not the one smoking. That’s their problem to solve.
I don’t think they’d like it if I left a bucket of rotting fish on my balcony.
It’s your problem not theirs. It bothers you, not them. They probably don’t even know it bothers you. Are you really surrounded by smokers and cannot open a window all day and night? Dude, let me tell you… you’re making your own life difficult. There are full buildings where smoking is forbidden. Make your own life easy, don’t harass others with your truths. If you don’t care why do you expect others to care.
> I don’t think they’d like it if I left a bucket of rotting fish on my balcony.
Are you comparing a cigarette smoke to full infestation?
Victim blaming 101. Oh you've been raped? Your problem, it bothers you, not the rapist.
In the built up area I live in, you'd really struggle to find anywhere to smoke that doesn't risk bothering someone. That's city life.
> I don’t think they’d like it if I left a bucket of rotting fish on my balcony.
Yeah, they'd shut the window.
The sound of children playing is a normal part of human life, inseparable in fact from life.
The smell of cigarette smoke is neither.
It is not possible for the human species (or any form of mortal biological life) to exist without children.
If you want to try to define the latter observation of reality as “abnormal”, fill your boots.
- civilisation is currently more at risk from overpopulation than depopulation
- just because children need to exist doesn't imply they need to exist in apartment buildings
- just because children exist doesn't imply that they need to play outdoors on balconies
- just because children exist doesn't imply that there can't be limits on how much noise they can make, and when
etc etc
Boy am I glad I grew out of that mindset.
Do you smoke? These comparisons are quite odd unless you don’t realise just how strong the smell is.
A full range of scientific evidence, extending from the molecular level to whole populations, supports the conclusion that secondhand smoke causes disease. The scope of this evidence is enormous, and encompasses not only the literature on secondhand smoke but also relevant findings on active smoking and on the toxicity of individual tobacco smoke components.
356 links to supporting studies and works
Are those who smoke on a top floor balcony also awful? Are those who smoke on a balcony of a multi-storey building they live alone in also awful people?
Want to cancer yourself and stink to high heaven? Absolutely 100% fine by me.
Just don't drag anyone else into it.
The neighbor has some sort of device that emits extremely loud, extremely high-pitched (but not ultrasonic; or at least, not exclusively ultrasonic) noise. The family member thinks its some sort of anti-rodent thing. Whatever that means in suburbia, as there are, of course, nigh-endless squirrels, rabbits, birds, etc. all over the place. The yards are all fenced, so probably no deer at least in the back yards.
But it is absolutely annoying to just get what amounts to a DoS attack on your ears when you're trying to have a pleasant conversation with someone in the sun.
Of course, the elders in the family hear nothing, and the pitch is truly that high, that yeah, older people might not still have hearing in that range. "Unfortunately" for me, I still have ears.
YMMV...
20 years in an apartment in the city was enough for me, as I grew older I realized there are too many things outside of my control if I want silence and peace of mind.
Sound pollution is a very real baseline stressor.
I have no water except the one I bring when I buy food weekly/every two weeks. I'm still renovating/building so I'll have a well in the future.
I heat my home with wood that I cut on my own property, I enjoy this very much. It's a workout that also produces something of value.
The drawbacks can be many depending on what kind of lifestyle you're after.
Sartre said "if you are lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company".
I do mountain biking, nordic skating and I have a dog; it works for me. A lady friend might be nice eventually :]
It's silent, I can hear my own heartbeat; civilization is 30 min away.
This is in Sweden.
I find comfort in these quotes however:
“It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” — Jiddu Krishnamurti
and…
“I look crazy but I'm not. And the funny thing is that other people don't look crazy but they are.” — eden ahbez
The drawbacks for me are that "town" is about an hour away. But amazon delivers here.
There's no city life, no ordering to-go food or pizza, no movie theater, no ice cream runs to sonic. You have to plan ahead. Socialization happens online or with people in your own home, pretty much exclusively.
It's often hard to find anyone to fix your stuff--you become a framer, a plumber, a roofer, a mechanic. I consider this a net benefit, but it can be taxing at times.
That being said, not everyone does it quite like I do. All my neighbors have jobs in the city, for instance.
What's happening to make us a minority here is at the minimum:
- Younger people are less sensitive to noise, go out more, and generally don't understand how distressful it can be
- Some people are light sleepers as well as get cognitively overloaded, needing relatively quiet environments to relax. People like me are in a tiny minority.
- Cities are the future, they're the greener option, and you're supposed to prefer the dense apartment life instead of the car one, on ethical grounds.
So when I detailed my suffering several times here on HN, and suggested dense cities are not mentally healthy for many people such as myself, I got downvoted. There's a bit of politics behind city living that folks who don't have cognitive sensitivities around noise just won't relent from.
When I was younger I lived in a large shared house, constant activity and people coming and going, music always playing, I loved it then.
Now I live in a very soundproof apartment, literally never hear anyone else (our neighbours right next door had a party until 4am with loud music, etc. We didn't hear a thing). I love this now.
As I get older I've gotten more and more sensitive to other people's noise. I find people playing bluetooth devices to be acutely, intensely, irritating. I can't just ignore it, it annoys and distracts me too much.
I've become that grumpy guy who asks people to turn their music down or wear headphones (almost always a negative experience for everyone involved). I talk to management at restaurants and pubs and ask them to turn the music down (mixed results on that one). I have taken a table at restaurants and then walked away because the music is too loud.
It is weird, because this is my reaction to the situation, so I'm responsible for it. A city is not a quiet space, and we can't really expect it to be. But at the same time, the lack of consideration for others is shocking. Walking around playing music on speaker is basically saying to everyone "f*ck you, I'm more important than all of you".
It's the subway/train/restaurant usage of phones to spool Tiktok/IG shorts with the sound on, and other noise, that I find maddeningly annoying.
But everything (in the US at least) is very loud, including restaurants. I don't understand why. It's far less likely to happen in W European capitals. As if Americans are extremely loud and love to be engulfed in constant noise. At least, the US and I'd say much of the Caribbean is like this as well.
Is it because we're old that we're bothered? Have things gotten worse? Did we or It change?
Unless your soundproofing is thicker than the bass sound wavelength (10m+) it's not physically possible.
I know people who live in standalone houses and complain about people across the street having parties because bass vibrations come over
It's all very psychological. Good for you though
Why? It’s one thing when it is completely silent – that would be absurd –but when it is full of noise pollution? Rude, loud people, constant shitty music blaring out of every spot.
But I agree, that doesn't give everyone carte blanche to be a cunt.
It’s not just bass tones—low-frequency vibrations travel through everything. I live in a five-story pre-WWII building, and sometimes, when a neighbor runs their washing machine early on a Saturday morning, I don’t even hear the spin cycle. I just feel it, lying in bed trying to squeeze in a little more sleep. It’s an odd sensation, not painful, but definitely not pleasant.
Based on the behavior of real estate in our area (high density suburbs of NYC), I don't think we're the only ones? Condo prices have either fallen or remained static while SFH have skyrocketed.
Another thing that happened by itself was my neighbour with whom I shared several walls moving out. His landlord put the apartment up for sale, but a year later there are still no takers.
I'm seriously considering buying it if only to keep it empty and my place peaceful.
Nonsense. This has 100% to do with manners and how your parents taught you. When I grew up making a noise in an apartment was a grave offense, because you make a nuisance for your parents and neighbors.
> - Some people are light sleepers as well as get cognitively overloaded, needing relatively quiet environments to relax. People like me are in a tiny minority.
Double nonsense. I don’t have statistics, but given how bad modern mental health is, I don’t buy that only a tiny minority has problems with sleep.
> - Cities are the future, they're the greener option, and you're supposed to prefer the dense apartment life instead of the car one, on ethical grounds.
You should’ve started with this. I would’ve just skipped the whole message. Complete, utter nonsense.
Unless you believe in the “eat-ze-bug” future, the greener option is to:
- reproduce less
- raise living standards
- drastically increase productivity so we don’t need so many people
- AI + Space exploration
That said TFA's author is a real dick and that is seen in the way he writes. You don't "teach" your neighbors and you don't program them in a pavlovian way. He obviously has got an inferiority complex and he's expressing it by playing though in the way he writes.
Sure you do. Punishment of bad behavior is a basic social rule. Words were exchanged. All they had to do was listen, understand and stop the bad behavior. Had they done that, things would not have escalated beyond a polite conversation. Unfortunately, people often choose overt disrespect instead. They choose to challenge the other guy to do something about it.
If anything they should be glad the punishment was as civilized as this. There are many places in this world where it could easily escalate to actual violence.
Agreed. But there’s a reason that guy apparently felt no worries about closing the door in OP’s face. Perhaps the likelihood of it escalating was slim. And there’s a reason why OP didn’t knock again.
In the resolution you propose in another comment, deviance doesn’t cease. It transfers to the guy who thinks he can correct people’s behavior with technology. But I need to remind myself where I’m saying this at.
Not as slim as he had hoped.
People feel free to close the door on others because they are used to a life without violence. Their implicit thinking is "I'm not even gonna consider what this other person wants because what's he gonna do about it? Nothing." They think there is no way they will be held accountable for their actions. That's magical thinking.
People really shouldn't ask that question. There are a lot of things that can be done about virtually any situation. People would do well not to forget that.
"What are you going to do about it?" is a challenge. It's refusal to negotiate and a direct challenge to escalate the situation. "If this matters so much to you, then you had better do something about it". Not only does it escalate, it insults the other person. They have no choice but to escalate because the alternative is to be seen as weak which costs respect, especially if the exchange happens in front of peers.
> It transfers to the guy who thinks he can correct people’s behavior with technology.
Yes. The situation has escalated. The other person can either submit or escalate even further. Perhaps into physical violence.
Hope the hacker has a gun and is able and willing to use it. You know. Just in case. Plenty of people out there willing to die over real or perceived slights.
No matter the case I agree that he’s making a gross estimate. I think that he [door man] collected evidence to support his estimate about his neighbor will before this happened. I’m not here to stick up for door man but I’m certainly not going to give remote guy a pass and then philosophize about aggression as to why.
Often talks of violence come from a place of resentment. They’re fantasies. If someone who you have even a limited familiarity with slights your capacity for violence they may have been given reason to. Talk about ‘how things are done’ but only from the perspective of the brute makes me wonder if there’s any familiarity with handling brutish behavior other than by proxy.
Passive aggression is a more frequent outlet than a more managed sort. If it leads to results like the one described here it’s easy to view it as the lesser of two evils, and sure, you can argue that. But the evil persists both in the rudeness and passivity of both parties. The former is readily identified and criticized. The latter often isn’t.
Just two people exercising their freedoms. Officially, nothing happened. It's just two guys randomly using their TV remotes at roughly the same time. If police had been called, they wouldn't have been able to do anything about it.
Yet a game was played. One turned up the volume, the other remotely turned off the TV in response. On and on it went until the volume would no longer get turned up. Victory.
Note that the neighbor never figured out who was doing it. There's no way to know what he would have done in that case. Maybe nothing. Maybe something.
I'm just saying hackers should probably think twice before liberally applying their boundless ingenuity to social problems like these. It can work wonders. It can also escalate things so far beyond their control that it's not even funny. They could easily end up on the receiving end of some serious conditioning of their own.
Most likely because they’re entitled westerner who grew up with laws that protect against physical violence, but not mental abuse.
For the same reason corporal punishment doesn't work even on an average intelligence child. They quickly figure out that probability of getting punished again is not 100% and even if, that's just cost of doing business - sometimes it's worth it.
If they can muster defiance, it's only because you weren't violent enough. If someone is defiant enough to play probability games with you, just punish them 100% of the time instead, even if they did nothing. He was probably doing it some other time where you didn't catch him, so it's warranted.
There's always someone willing to escalate things further. Things will escalate until someone discovers their limits and backs down. Consequences range from being quietly hated, to being ostracized, to being actively fucked with, to being beaten up, to being straight up killed.
Smart people don't fuck around and find out. They check their behavior so that they don't step on other people's toes for no reason. Violence very often comes with instructions on how to avoid it. Don't do this, and I won't do that. All they have to do is listen and follow the instructions.
The outcome where the obnoxious neighbor learns his lesson and stops his bad behavior is the good ending. The behavior stops, the situation de-escalates and peace is restored. If they keep up their defiance, things will only keep escalating further. Somebody could get hurt.
"Stop making a noise or I'll beat you up"
vs
"Quit complaining about the noise or I'll beat you up"
Your position just means every disagreement comes down to a physical fight. Is that how you want to live?
Willingness to use violence to get what you want is not inherently linked to being in the right.
> Is that how you want to live?
The threat of violence is always present. It's just that in "civilized" societies it's often indirect and abstracted. People don't usually get violent, they pay lawyers to complain to the courts which have the power to order police to commit measured amounts of violence on their behalf if necessary.
When negotiation fails and police is unlikely to help, people quickly revert to taking matters into their own hands.
Of course they do. Some of the smartest people out there are habitual risk takers. We wouldn't have organised crime if it weren't for people smart enough to not get caught or killed early on.
Your method doesn't take into account that the person you're targeting also has a brain and they will use it against you and also that they have as much power as you do.
Overall you're describing a power fantasy, not reality.
Never claimed otherwise. As I said, things tend to escalate until someone discovers their limits and backs down.
I discussed this in more detail in a sibling comment thread:
Better windows don't help either - but they're great for noise outside. The only thing that helps against horrible neighbors is moving. If you've never learned that lesson, you've never had horrible neighbors.
Having lived next to a terrible neighbour for over 20 years, I can confirm a horrible neighbour never changes into a considerate one. And often they're the ones that never sell or move (why would they, they're having a great time..). Almost all the neighbours properties around here have been sold a few times, but not him.
Lucky we've been lucky with our other neighbours who are (currently, and most of the owners of the past too) all very nice people.
We'd love to move, but we really like the location, house and garden. That and anything similar is priced out of our range.
We used to think we got really lucky with the price of our place, but maybe no one bought it because they knew the neighbour that lived there.
But yeah, if you can move, move. Don't hang around hoping things will get better, they usually don't.
A friend of mine had a prolonged conflict with a neighbour who lived off of his dad's money and who would pound his Porsche at any time he would feel like it.
Anyway Poland, but not even Poland, ME - just Poland.
The problem is also that the moment you walk outside you're bombarded with all the sounds of the city. ANC headphones exist but so do air-pollution masks, I don't think that's the way forward or at least that's not how I want to live my life.
Sure you do, if:
1) your neighbour is an absolute cunt
2) their parents failed to raise a responsible human being
3) law won’t protect you
4) you can’t easily move
5) you don’t use violence
Then you have all the rights to teach the cunt some manners.
Naturally, in response I propped those speakers to the same wall and played whale calls at a low volume any time I wasn't home.
That's not "interference" in the technical sense.
Interference actually causes signal degradation, distortion, or loss.
This is the system "working as expected" technically. It was just set up wrong.
But it is "interference" in the sense that that is what the word "interfere" means.
Inter + ferire = to strike one another. Makes sense.
Bonus point: the aforementioned -fer ('bearer', like conifer or aquifer) is distantly related to ferīre, as it is to English to bear, Greek phérō ('to carry'), Slavic brat ('to take'), Sanskrit bhárati ('to carry'), etc. I suppose ferīre itself must be the result of semantic drift along the lines of 'to carry/bear' -> 'to bring forth [blows]' -> 'to strike/hit'.
I guess, but I don't really think of interfering as a mutual thing. I see interfere more like intervene or interpose, where the subject of the verb inserts himself between two other things. (As, in the example above, "my" neighbor places himself into the middle of the relationship between me and my television.)
If I'm interfering with you, it is not necessarily the case that you are also interfering with me. And it certainly couldn't be said that "we are interfering [end of sentence]" in the same way that it could be said "we are fighting".
The use of with to mark an indirect object does tend to suggest that the sense of the verb was more mutual at an earlier point, though.
One could argue that "interference" is not entirely a objective technical definition, but also subjective w.r.t quality of the service expected.
Also, in this scenario, if the two remotes were to transmit simultaneously, it is possible both boxes could have received some mangled, unregonizable waveform due to the interference.
I mostly used it for turning volume down in waiting rooms or at bars, but a bar was also where I figured out most of their TVs tend to be set to the same control because they had a few with their sensors in a line where I was sitting and they all went off together while I was programming it.
One of the phone features I miss most, after the 3.5mm jack. Nobody needs to hear loud daytime TV in a waiting room.
Third party app. Un-uninstallable
That Samsung apparently didn't pay enough coz after 3 years I had taskbar ads from that app that couldn't be removed.
Nowadays I just use my flipper to do much the same
I had way too much fun screwing with the TVs at school.
Sometimes, when the remote is too far, I control my TV with it.
Most times when I row, it's for half an hour or so, but it can be up to 45 minutes to an hour, or sometimes up to an hour 40, or rarely 3.5 hours (I row a marathon once or twice a year).
There are two components to the noise it makes: there's the whirr of the gear as I pull on the chain, and the rush of wind from the fan it spins.
I think the whirr is more prominent/annoying. I've carefully crafted a box to fit over the section of the rower where the gears are. That dampens the noise a great deal. There's still the opening where the chain goes in, so if anyone has ideas for that I'm happy to hear them.
I also have foam pads for the thing to rest on, in case it vibrates at the feet (I don't think it does).
At my old high-rise apartment I'd row until midnight, and no one ever complained. Now I'm in a brownstone, so I'm keeping it to before 10pm. Hopefully that's enough that I'm not a bad neighbor.
A Flipper Zero would be the modern equivalent, I suppose. I like the idea of being able to turn off devices in a certain radius - but I don’t like the idea of everyone having one. Having ultimate power over the wireless noise in my immediate vicinity - awesome .. but seeing someone empty their pockets at the airport and a Flipper Zero in the inspection box - not so fun.
It’s going to be a wild and woolly future, the more these kinds of shenanigans become relevant.
He also did a considerably more expensive one that worked on Furbies, which "chatted" in sync using infrared, and told every Furby in the room to stop talking and go to sleep immediately.
If you had child back then, or you babysat one, you'll know why this one was his biggest seller.
RF remotes are harder to hack together but similar principle. Whether IR or RF, the codes are common across all devices of the same model/protocol.
Pick up a cheap CCTV infrared floodlight, gut it, and gate it with Ye Olde Bloody Great MOSFET driven by your TV-Be-Gone microcontroller.