
Blank screen if kids yell too much - ivoflipse
http://superuser.com/questions/545329/my-kids-yell-too-much
======
SoftwareMaven
I'm don't have enough information to know whether I like the attempt to
silence his kids. It would be easy to see kids that age getting out to control
to the point that damage to the computer occurs and noise is almost always the
first step towards that.

But holy crap! Half of this place seems like they want to be raising robots,
not individuals who all have their own needs and will need to be taught and
treated differently. Worse, I have a strong feeling most of them haven't
talked to a kid in years, much less ever raised one.

And these people are not just giving advice, but being highly judgmental.
Saying the father is _wrong_. I raise four kids with my wife. Two kids as a
single dad would be twice as hard at least.

Go walk a mile and see how your "build a robot" methodology works for your
kid.

(Sorry about the rant. I take fatherhood and other people judging it _very_
seriously. I came from an abusive household, and that is the only kind of
environment I would openly judge a father for. This is _not_ abusive, even if
it offends somebody's sense of logic.)

~~~
ChuckMcM
This. Got into a moderately long discussion with a co-worker about filtering
out access to MySpace (it was a while ago :-) and chat access for my kids when
they were younger. They were of the opinion that I was really damaging my kids
by creating this barrier between them and the 'real world' and it wasn't like
they weren't going to get there eventually. The conversation meandered into
manners, swearing, all sorts of things. It was only then that I realized they
didn't actually have kids, and said as much "So, you don't actually have kids
do you?" and they sputtered a bit and admitted that no, they didn't. But they
had a couple of nieces and nephews they knew pretty well and kids were kids. I
just thanked them and ended the conversation.

If you are not a parent, evaluating parenting strategies is not possible, just
like evaluating sexual positions if you're a virgin just doesn't work out. You
need to be 'experienced' as Jimmy Hendrix famously said, to flip the bit in
your brain associated with that experience before you can effectively evaluate
different choices. Sad but true.

~~~
001sky
_If you are not a parent, evaluating parenting strategies is not possible_

As devil's advocate, i would argue _this is not true_. There are externalities
to any strategy. And one can judge the impact of strategy X on people outside
the immediate family. This is perhaps a caveat outside the scope of the
context, but when evaluating things generally is worth pointing out.

~~~
abstractbill
I think it's not quite _literally_ true, but if you wanted to evaluate
parenting strategies and were not a parent, you would have to put a lot of
effort into observing parents (as opposed to just thinking about it a lot).

~~~
neumann_alfred
Since it's all just anecdotal anyway, I also like to think back to teachers
and other adults. As a general rule, those who treated me "as an equal" (not
an actual equal, but without condescension or trickery that wasn't for the
purpose of humour or pain/fright relief), I loved to learn from, did never
mind to be corrected by. The rest? I found holes in their facade and had at
them. Nature abhors a vacuum, and strong children abhor fake authority. Weak
parents think disrespect is the problem, when often enough it's their own
weakness. Children aren't "programmed" by nature to be a pain in the ass, far
from it. They are "programmed" to learn, to be curious, and to love even. It
actually takes quite a bit of fuckery to destroy that, but our society is good
at it. And then those kids become parents and perpetuate it.

------
bnegreve
I saw this yesterday and run this script all night:

while true; do sox -t .wav "|arecord -d 1" -n stat 2> /tmp/tmp; echo -n `date
+"%Y%m%d%H%M%S"` " "; cat /tmp/tmp | grep "Maximum _amplitude" | cut -d ":" -f
2 | tr -d '\n'; cat /tmp/tmp | grep "Midline_ amplitude" | cut -d ":" -f 2 |
tr -d '\n'; cat /tmp/tmp | grep "Rough *frequency" | cut -d ":" -f 2; done

and got this: <http://i.imgur.com/oD6ZKIg.png?1>

Interesting things: When my neighbor walks in his apartment above mine, it
creates a amp peak with low frequency.

I have no idea what are those approx. one hour long periodic variations in the
frequency, maybe my computer's fan or me snoring.

Anyway, pretty useless...

~~~
elteto
I look at that command line and feel amazed at what you can do with a command
prompt. These are the two things that strike me as incredible:

* You didn't write a single line of code (well technically you did write _one_ ), nor researched about sound APIs or any kind of sound analysis algorithms or theory.

* You used several tools that just seamlessly shared their inputs and outputs and each one _worked as supposed_.

Granted, you need to know some bash and figure out how every utility works and
the right command line switches to use, but still, pretty impressive.

~~~
dllthomas
This is the advantage of living at the command prompt. If you're mostly
working through GUI (or CUI) interfaces that hide those details it can be
somewhat convenient in the short run but you trap yourself: the effort needed
when you want to do something complex that requires that knowledge is now
suddenly much greater, because first you need to learn how to talk to each of
the components of that pipeline before fitting them all together. I'll still
need to check a man-page or two for less familiar functionality or a less
familiar utility, but that's much better than checking five (the number of
commands in the above pipeline that are passed at least one switch) and that's
assuming you know which commands you'll want to be using in the first place.

~~~
Camillo
Two things to note, though: 1) the script as given doesn't actually generate
graphical output, just a text file; 2) something like Quartz Composer would be
perfect for doing this with a GUI.

~~~
elteto
I have used Automator before (I think this is what you refer to) and also
graphical programming languages as LabVIEW (not for scripting, of course ;)
and I still feel very constrained when compared to using a command line or
writing a script. I feel that the gain in simplicity comes at the expense of
flexibility: when chaining program blocks/elements together you are
constrained to what the original designers of the language thought were the
most common use cases.

~~~
Camillo
You need to do less thinking and more listening, friend. When I say Quartz
Composer, I mean Quartz Composer.

------
anigbrowl
Fast forward to 2030...

    
    
      ...
      for (int month = 1, month <=12, month++)
      {  
        printf ("You never call. I'm your Dad you know. :-( ");
      }

~~~
blazingfrog2
This is appalling. Without knowing the OP's life circumstances or much about
the dynamic of human relationships for that matter, jumping to this kind of
conclusions only make for a witty post, at best.

Raising kids who will want to "call their Dad" once grown up is hardly about
letting them make as much noise as they wish at age 4.

I sometime envy how some people view life as a simple If-Then-This-That...
Much easier to sleep at night that way.

~~~
anigbrowl
Well, that's how I feel about automating the parenting of 4 and 5 year olds.
I'm not saying he should let them make as much noise as they wish - although
he probably should, some of the time, I'm a quiet-loving person myself. I am
saying that he's better off telling them in person. If he's tired of doing so
and automates that task away they're learning something from the experience,
but not necessarily what he intends.

------
gregpilling
I have noisy kids. Three of them. They make lots of noise when playing games,
when watching TV, and right now are making lots and lots of noise (at 7.33am
on a Saturday morning) by playing in a cardboard box that holds a bathtub (we
are remodeling a bathroom, it goes in Monday).

Kids are noisy. I have dealt with it by installing a solid door at the end of
the hallway. No scripting required. Occasionally I tell them to quiet down if
they get out of hand. Kids are noisy, that is just part of the experience.

~~~
CodeMage
_I have dealt with it by installing a solid door at the end of the hallway._

Read the comments on SuperUser. He's a single dad. Being unable to hear what
your 4 year old kids are up to is a bad idea when there's no one else to
monitor them.

~~~
angersock
My parents suggested that it was when we had gone quiet that they started to
worry. My recollections of childhood seem to confirm this heuristic.

~~~
X-Istence
I was recently talking to my boss, and my dad confirmed this, it is absolutely
true that when suddenly the kids are quiet that you start worrying as to what
they are up to =)

------
skreech
It seems wrong to teach your children that the machine is a person.

Why not tell them "I put a script in the machine that will shut down the
screen if you yell too loud"?

Same result, more truthful method.

~~~
ajuc
> It seems wrong to teach your children that the machine is a person.

In 2100 your comment will be evidence of wild anti-AI sentiments popular in
our backward times.

~~~
angersock
ahahahahhahaha yeah okay

when duke nukem forever is ported to common lisp running on the hurd

suuuuure

Edit: More seriously, trends in AI seems to be running towards statistical
analysis and away from anything that might resemble actual "sentience"--even
were we to define such a thing. I doubt that an overgrown Bayes engine would
take offense at anything I do.

~~~
Evbn
Brains also tended to run towards statistical analysis.

------
Tichy
Great answer: "You have done this so many times manually that you feel you
need to automate it... Doesn't that suggest to you that this method isn't
working? "

~~~
Evbn
Yeah, I feed my kids every day and they still want more. Feeding must be
wrong.

------
DanBC
The children are four and five.

Who is monitoring them while they are playing video games?

It's reasonably easy to calm children down when you need to, you just need to
learn some techniques. These techniques would probably require someone to be
in the room for them to work, but once you've succeeded in calming down the
over-boisterous behaviour they'd be okay.

And, of course, children enjoy being boisterous, so I hope they get
opportunities to let off steam in a more appropriate setting. Soft play
rooms[1] are good, as are parks and gardens and some games in the home.

The adult could investigate various parenting courses. "Webster Stratton" is
an example of a respected course.

[1] In the UK you might have a Sure Start centre near you with a soft play
room for hire. These are lovely because you will be in the room with your
child alone, and you can really enjoy the experience. There are also
commercial providers such as Play Barn which will be full of screaming,
crying, poorly supervised children and stressed harried parents. This is, for
some people, a hellish experience.

------
alan_cx
Um......

Get a stick. Stand over child. If child makes noise, hit child with stick.
Repeat until child quiet, becomes adult, or gets stick. If child gets stick,
leave home.

And that is the "British" way. :)

~~~
alexjeffrey
_was_ the British way

~~~
alan_cx
Ah, the good olde days!!

------
dzb
I would be careful with the solution of turning off the screen. My young
cousins would go straight for the reboot in such a situation.

~~~
Fargren
Even if the game continued to make sounds? That should give him at least a
moment's pause.

------
glass-
Children make too much noise. Children don't get to use the computer for a
week.

Eventually children will learn and stop making too much noise. This is a
parenting problem, not a technical one.

~~~
maeon3
When you use this manipulation to get your way to your kids, the kid watches
you, and you find yourself the lab rat of a psychological manipulator far more
capable then yourself. And the kid uses tricks you never heard of to shape
your behaviour. Which causes a feedback loop of who can trick the other into
doing what they want better.

Then you end up with a dysfunctional family. Funny joke, but there are serious
child education problems in this joke. It's like laughing at a baby seal
getting kicked around by teenagers. It's hilarious to people who are
emotionally present-oriented. yolo, if it feels good, then it's good.

~~~
pretoriusB
> _When you use this manipulation to get your way to your kids, the kid
> watches you, and you find yourself the lab rat of a psychological
> manipulator far more capable then yourself. And the kid uses tricks you
> never heard of to shape your behaviour. Which causes a feedback loop of who
> can trick the other into doing what they want better._

It's not a manipulation or a trick.

It's a "reward system". You get X only if you do Y. Period.

It has worked wonders for ages. Still does in most parts of the world. The US
has a messed up system that ends with annoying, over-self-indulged, entitled
children and adults.

~~~
Cushman
> The US has a messed up system that ends with annoying, over-self-indulged,
> entitled children and adults. [citation needed]

~~~
nmcfarl
Walk outside. My god, yesterday some guy didn't like me walking in the
crosswalk, when he wanted to make a right turn so he swerved into the oncoming
traffic lane to make his right (and cut me off). This versus wait 5 seconds.

Annoying, over-self-indulged and entitled. Also damn dangerous.

~~~
Cushman
Where I live in America, pedestrians seem highly obedient of walk signals and
drivers seem highly observant of crosswalks.

You got me as far as "confirmation bias". Still looking up that citation?

~~~
nmcfarl
Where I live in America, Seattle, has a amazing reputation for pedestrians
being highly obedient of walk signals and drivers being highly observant of
crosswalks (and generally polite).

But in fact everyone I know who commutes on foot has been hit by a car in the
last 5 years. No one’s been hurt badly, thankfully. (I don’t think anyones
even gone to the hospital in that time period - unlike the bicycle commuters I
know.)

I know that's small sample size - and poorly chosen - still it suggests bad
things.

~~~
Cushman
> still it suggests bad things

Well, _yeah_. Human beings are not equipped to operate motor vehicles safely,
and there is a mountain of evidence to support that fact. It doesn't have
anything to do with parenting, though.

------
mosselman
Have fun automating something that will prevent them from smoking or
something, since you haven't taught them to listen to you, but to the computer
by then.

~~~
Tichy
Hooking up a smoke detector to the XBox should do the trick :-)

------
ck2
How about a feedback headset where the local loop from the microphone has such
high volume that a whisper is rather loud.

Of course that won't work if the game doesn't need a headset but you could
disable external speakers and make it only work via the headset.

------
tlrobinson
Now if only this worked with other peoples' kids on Xbox Live...

~~~
pi18n
I have a solution for that. The more a person says "faggot" the more images of
men kissing they see in the game. A homophobic 13-year-old would be totally
horrified by this whereas a reasonable adult that (somehow) didn't use the
word as an insult wouldn't care.

~~~
abcd_f
> _A homophobic 13-year-old_

Do you seriously think 13-year-olds are homophobic? They just repeat what
their peers say like parrots. It doesn't really matter to them what it _means_
as long as it sounds offensive and they can pronounce it.

~~~
pi18n
If peer influence is the cause the perceived shame of viewing men kissing will
have the same effect.

Also what I presented is not a serious solution to kids acting like jerks.
Kids would just invent new words to get around a filter like that.

They need some kind of JerkRank algorithm to allow players to rate other
players and machine learn what kind of people are compatible to game with each
other.

------
UnoriginalGuy
Can anyone explain how the OP's solution works, in particular the chvt 3/7? I
looked up chvt and it seems like it would switch a different terminal into the
foreground, but this raises more questions than it answers.

Like how does he know what 3 and 7 have on them? And would this work on a
windowing system? And why does it appear as if the screen has turned off?

~~~
mappu
Are you running linux currently? You have a number of virtual terminals,
commonly Ctrl+Alt+F1 through Ctrl+Alt+F7, with 1-6 running text consoles and 7
with your X11 session on it.

If you boot into the GUI and spend all your time there, then although 1 will
probably contain remnants of the boot process, 2-6 will be unused, a blank
screen with some text in the corner.

------
markokocic
What's up with those submission title editing lately? There was nothing wrong
with the original one, and the new one is so "inspring" that I wouldn't even
click there unless for checking is this yet another title edit.

------
gyardley
Good lord, just discipline your children.

Set clear rules, make sure they understand those rules, and follow through
with enforcing those rules.

~~~
CodeMage
You left out the most important step: make sure kids understand the reason for
those rules (other than "because I say so"). Speaking from my experience with
my parents, yours is a great recipe for having your kids think you're an
asshole when they're older.

~~~
gyardley
I don't think my parents are assholes. Sure, I did when I was a teenager, but
that's because I was egocentric and had poor impulse control - in short, a
teenager. Thank god my parents were doing their job instead of trying to be my
buddy.

~~~
Karunamon
Because explaining a reason to teenagers (who despite having a lot of bluster,
are usually fairly bright) is somehow asking too much.

You use terms like "because I said so" with a 2 year old who _literally_ can't
understand why you shouldn't play in the street.

Don't insult other people's intelligence, much less your kid's. There's no
excuse for that.

~~~
abstractbill
Agreed, but...

Funnily enough, my 2 year old understands _exactly_ why she shouldn't play in
the street; Every time we go for a walk around the block and a car passes us,
she tells us all "look out for that car, it might hit us!".

And then again, I know plenty of other 2 year olds who can barely talk, let
alone say something like that.

And then I know 2 year olds who have dexterity and body awareness that makes
my daughter look like she's walking around with a blindfold and her arms tied
together.

If being a parent has taught me anything, it's that kids are just _incredibly_
different from each other. Oh, that, and that nothing good can ever come of a
parenting thread on Hacker News ;) So many strongly held opinions from such
small samples (often zero!).

~~~
Evbn
Kids are also like the parrots, though. They can say things they don't
understand.

------
protomyth
4 and 5 year olds make lots of noise. When they are not making noise and being
extremely quiet, they are doing something they shouldn't. Why would you want
to screw up this parenting warning mechanism?

------
bjhoops1
This makes me so happy. I've got my first on the way in about a month. I'll
have to bookmark this for future use...

------
kakuri
SNR is way too low in this discussion thanks to non-parents posting. Peace
out.

------
pretoriusB
Beat them when they yell?

------
simplexion
Wow... why did this guy think it was a good idea to have children if he didn't
want children? "Hi, I need a script to kill fun. I hate when children are
having fun."

~~~
dasil003
To be fair, no one has the first clue what they're getting into when they have
kids.

~~~
alan_cx
And its only once you do have them that you realise how much you didn't want
them...

~~~
Tichy
Or vice versa, how much you wanted them.

~~~
alan_cx
Yeah, I suppose I do like one of my kids. Hmm, good point.

;)

~~~
Tichy
I'm guessing you only have one kid :-)

