Show HN: Working productively in a coffee-shop: virtual Vienna cafe ambience

"Excuse me sir, other customers would like to use the couch. I'm going to have to ask that you order something or leave. Thank you."

This is pretty cool. It really feels like a crowded area, with the clinking and everything. My favorite thing is the rain button. Because I'm from Seattle, and let me tell you insert lame rain joke.

I really like this.

One suggestion: it's a bit jarring that some links (eg "HD" and "turn out the lights" on the main page) navigate you away without warning, especially if you're enjoying the mix of sounds you have going and you lose them. Maybe you could look into onbeforeunload or something?

this doesn't work well over my Mom's earthlink dialup.

Not long ago I downloaded a tool for Mac OS X that had a selection of cafe ambience recordings. While it did make working at home - alone - modestly more tolerable, it was not long before I stopped using it then returned to the cafes.

It's not just the sound but the actual presence of other people that matters to me.

Consider the position of Kuro5hin's trane, a huge fan of virtual reality, artificial intelligence, 3-D printing and other newfangled technologies.

Trane asserts that terrorism would be a thing of the past if we were to only set the terrorists up with VR goggles, so they could cut the heads off of simulated victims.

Trane so far, doesn't buy my argument that the terrorists would not find true satisfaction that way.