Comments on: Coffee break- phone day in the coffee shop

By: gavin miller

gavin miller — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:36:17 +0000

James, try this approach:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Vp6H9hR4nIM

By: DrCaffeine

DrCaffeine — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 04:46:20 +0000

I hope that Weight Watchers group were buying adequate coffee and snacks to compensate the owner for fencing off 1/3 of the shop from other customers. But its quite dissapointing to hear that they were so arrogant and self-absorbed that they did not restore the furniture upon leaving.

By: Jazz1

Jazz1 — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 03:02:34 +0000

Follow-up comment. Yesterday I went to my local coffee shop and found a full one third of it had been cordoned off by a group of Weight Watchers comprised of about five women. They fenced off an area using coffee shop furniture in front of the gas fireplace. I had to listen to their testimony about their personal struggles. I finally used my headphones for a little silence.

I was amazed when one of them got down on the floor and starting doing push-ups. They left the place without restoring the furniture. A coffee shop employee had to re-set the furniture. The employee told me it was the third such group he had that morning,

By: Hostgator Reseller

Hostgator Reseller — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 02:41:51 +0000

Noise-blocking headphones – that plus the Wind, and you’ve yourself the ultra-portable rig.

By: DrCaffeine

DrCaffeine — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 00:15:07 +0000

To combat the scourge of noise pollution I think we need something more sophisticated than cell phone jammers (because people would also use VOIP and you don’t want disrupt wireless access). These days, if you attempt to enforce silence in a library, you may face indignant allegations from the culprit that you are infringing on their freedom, and on their unruly children’s freedoms — despite the fact that they are infringing on your free right to a quality environment of quietude.

Maybe some sort of powerful, active noise cancellation targetting human speech frequencies and cell phone ring tones. And take a leaf from the military with their new acoustic HFI (hostile fire indicator) technology used to target the source of sniper fire, and use it to spotlight (literally) those who exceed a certain noise threshold in the hope that it will shame them into shutting the **** up. (Or automatically fine them, like in the Stallone film, Demolition Man.)

By: AndyT

AndyT — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 23:38:40 +0000

I have experienced LOUD coffee shops too, but have you been to a public library lately. OMG, they have become almost daycare centers with unruly and loud infants everywhere and no respect for silence at all. And I don’t even want to get into all those cell phone ringtones and idle chit-chat worthless conversations being broadcast through the library. I think we need certain noise-free zones established that would require cellular jamming devices (like they use in India and other countries). We can start by madatory jamming in Libraries and Theaters. Coffee shops could be put to a vote and be optional at each site.

By: Isaac

Isaac — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:07:38 +0000

I always keep a pair of earbuds in my bag that are used *only* with my laptop. This way I never leave them at home – they’re either in my bag or I lost them completely which is very rare. The Sonys (http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665376489) are cheap enough (in comparison to the laptop itself anyway) that you could have two in your bag, one as a backup. Simple solution but it’s what I finally had to do after almost going nuts one two many times with exactly your situation.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 21:02:27 +0000

> constant buzz of conversation and activity, which I don’t find distracting at all.

Constant buzz is one thing, hearing very clearly half of a not very exciting conversation happening at the table next to mine is an entirely different thing.

By: DrCaffeine

DrCaffeine — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 11:21:03 +0000

Oh noes! Shaekspeare would not be amused at my use of an illogical 20th century word with a double negative pairing. Irregardless, ain’t it lucky teh old Bard didn’t make up any words :-)

(Actually, I didn’t realize “irregardless” was controversal until just now when I checked on Wikipedia. Looks like this blog is improving my vocabulary too!)

By: Bob

Bob — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 09:58:54 +0000

In the words of Stewie Griffin:

Any person who uses the words “irregardless”, “a-whole-nuther”, “all-of-a-sudden” will be sent to a work camps.

I’ll let Steve Smith explain why…

“Irregardless? That’s not even a real word. You’re affixing the negative prefix ‘ir-’ to ‘regardless’, but, as ‘regardless’ is already negative, it’s a logical absurdity!”

By: DrCaffeine

DrCaffeine — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 04:31:48 +0000

Irregardless of my comments earlier, what I love about working for a couple of hours in a coffe shop is the constant buzz of conversation and activity, which I don’t find distracting at all. In fact, it seems to fade away as a steady background noise, helping me to concentrate far better than in an office environment where periods of silence are more punctuated by loud calls, interruptions, etc.

By: DrCaffeine

DrCaffeine — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 04:27:23 +0000

“none of the Starbucks I frequent is usually packed enough that there aren’t any empty tables.”

All of the Starbucks here (in Japan) seem to be constantly packed to capacity, and I’m sure their rent is astronomical.

By: DrCaffeine

DrCaffeine — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 04:26:14 +0000

“I am a BusinessWorld member of Regus/HQ and for $300 a year get access to all their locations and more.”

I didn’t know about that fascility! I tried finding a price here in Japan, but they don’t publish prices and you seemingly need to negotiate with a sales representative.

By: Oliver

Oliver — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 03:58:58 +0000

Regarding compensating the coffee shop — none of the Starbucks I frequent is usually packed enough that there aren’t any empty tables. And if it gets crowded, I usually leave because it gets too noisy/distracting anyway.

If they didn’t want to me to spend up to two hours a day there (which I rarely do), then why would they give me two free hours of Wifi with my Starbucks card?

The coffee place I frequent most often (a small non-chain local place) has free Wifi, good coffee and great snacks. I don’t think they have a problem with me hogging a table for an hour or two.

By: Dave Zatz

Dave Zatz — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 22:17:48 +0000

“Question: Are you compensating the coffee shop adequately for lost business while you hog a seat for an hour or two? That’s the big problem with people who feel entitled to use a coffee shop for their office, and nurse a single coffee for an hour or more.”

An interesting point. In my case, we pay T-Mobile $20/mo for Hotspot access and I have a Starbucks card I use that entitles me to 2 free hours of WiFi a day. I usually spend 90 mins to start my day – enjoy my drink, catch up on reading, hit one post. I sit at the tiniest table or the bar, and I’m pretty sure I spend more at Starbucks per year than anyone I know. However, the Panera is another story. I see people lingering there all day (with the free WiFi).

By: Andy Abramson

Andy Abramson — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 16:49:48 +0000

JK,

I gave up coffee shop for anything more than social type of meetings, or as some call it “social communications” that are less business, more friend oriented.

Instead I am a BusinessWorld member of Regus/HQ and for $300 a year get access to all their locations and more. They have free water, coffee and Internet access. Read this post and see how it means more to me than a Starbucks Black Card and free WiFi.

http://andyabramson.blogs.com/voipwatch/2009/01/the-regus-poster-boy-is-a-familiar-name.html