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Comment by lurk2 | Hacker News Reader

A “Do Not Disturb” door hanger costs $7 on Amazon.

And requires me to remember to get up and hang it before a scheduled meeting. Or not hang it when someone calls me and a meeting erupts. And I need to remember to take it down after each call. (If I don’t, then it’s just up all the time and might be taken as seriously as a Prop 65 Warning.)

Automations are really nice for certain things!

And I'm sure you've set up all the systems that make sure the complicated system is actually working and not dead weight or doing something unintended.

Versus, I dunno a door lock

sir, this is hacker news

obviously you need a remote motor that spins the sign to "do not disturb" when the meeting starts and then back around when it's over. and a sensor to verify it's in the correct orientation.

so you get the simplicity of the sign with the automation desired by the OP.

A webcam in the corridor that shows your office door from the outside, machine vision reads the image to know which orientation the sign is in. If a meeting begins and the sign is wrong, a little LED on the desk starts flashing red.

An alternative would be to spin the sign constantly around its center of mass while a meeting is in progress.

The meeting state coheres when the sign is observed.

nice! a clear application of quantum computing if i've ever heard one!

> Versus, I dunno a door lock

They just explained why a door lock has absolutely abysmal reliability.

"Making sure" the complicated system works significantly better than a door lock is actually really easy to do, because the door lock is so bad.

It's not about the price. It's because it's COOL - and because somebody did a fun thing with hardware and software, which is great!

Which is more expensive than an esp32 and a led panel, and less convenient.

A "Do not disturb" sign costs roughly zero with a pen and a piece of paper.

Also, I have no idea how out of touch you have to be to claim that a simple sign that costs a few bucks is less convenient than something that requires power, another peripheral that requires power, and network access.

Fortunately my home office has an abundance of both power and network access (especially compared to the scarce resource of human attention!)

Why insist on being so negative? It's a cool little project. Just keep scrolling if it's not for you.

Exactly! Do these things not bring people joy in the drudgery of routine solutions?!

> Also, I have no idea how out of touch you have to be to claim that a simple sign that costs a few bucks is less convenient than something that requires power, another peripheral that requires power, and network access.

If you go ask random people whether they'd rather update a sign several times a day, or plug it in and be done for a year, what do you think they'd answer?

> or plug it in and be done for a year

Until the network goes down or an element of the hardware fails, or you move and need to set it up again, or…

People liked the idea of smart homes, too, but they remain niche because you need the money or technical know-how to fix them when they fall over.

Well I didn't say be done forever, I said a year. I think that covers hardware failure and moving just fine.

If the network goes down, you're not in an online meeting.

And this is someone that has the know-how.

Or just embracing interruptions and responding to them like an adult.

dnd signs read "passive aggressive"

And for the cost of zero you get something which is never used because forgot, did not have time, forgot to take off, lost the paper and the meeting started, missed the meeting running to the door to put the sign, and many others.

It depends on what you mean by convenient. A sign has low set up cost, so is convenient to implement. But it has an extremely high operating cost, that adds two extra steps to every meeting, which could add up to 40 or more per week. Small things you have to do often add up, and a quick task is still a task you have to remember every single time.

An automated solution has a high start up cost and is much less convenient to set up or to “fix” if it goes down. But it has an almost zero operating cost, in that you don’t have to remember or perform any additional tasks for a meeting.

For me, automating small tasks I have to remember to do over and over and over is very valuable to me, as those are the things that take up valuable space in my “stay on track” mind and distract from bigger more important tasks.

>A “Do Not Disturb” door hanger costs $7 on Amazon.

"Please take a seat, I'll be with you in a few short hours."

Priceless.

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