
Ask HN: Anyone got any project ideas for fun office tools? - jukedill
Hi,<p>At the moment our office has a custom music player for a &#x27;democratic&#x27; song queue that plays on the speakers. Has any one got any other cool ideas of things that could be built to make the office more productive or fun?
======
mtmail
A traffic light that goes red when the office is too loud.

[https://rradczewski.github.io/ymmv/2017/06/Where-we-are-
goin...](https://rradczewski.github.io/ymmv/2017/06/Where-we-are-going-we-
dont-need-headphones)

(discussed here
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14582187](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14582187))

------
Jemaclus
I'll tell you something I've always wanted. I want a giant lever that's
attached to a "The Price Is Right"-style fixture with tons of tiny lightbulbs.
When I pull the lever, the light bulbs start turning on from the bottom to the
top. What's happening during this time is my unit tests are running, then it's
connecting to the server(s) to begin deployment. Once the deployment begins,
the top section starts flashing, and when deployment is complete, the top of
the fixture starts flashing "YOU WIN!!" or something, similar to a carnival
game.

Basically, I want deploying to be super boring under the hood, but SUPER
AWESOME in the office.

Another idea I had was one of those TNT detonator devices, with the handle
that you press downward, and it lights up a bunch of lights and then has a
little LED animated explosion on the wall. Or the giant hammer thing where you
slam a hammer into a thingy on the ground, and the weight goes flying up, and
it has to hit the top in order for the deployment to begin.

Ya know what, let's just take all carnie games and turn them into deployment
mechanisms. HOW AWESOME WOULD THAT BE??

Awesome.

...Someday...

~~~
jukedill
That's a cool idea, we deploy so many times a day though it's not a huge event
for us. But cool for some other companies for sure.

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superqwert
This sounds like an awful distraction

~~~
jukedill
Sure it can be at some times, but the morale boost of it and getting to know
peoples music tastes is worth the trade off. Depends on the person if it's
favourable or not, it isn't notoriously loud anyway, just loud enough to hear
if you concentrate on it.

------
zer00eyz
I don't have a particular project in mind but rather a broad suggestion.

Software is fun, but hardware is now "easy" \-- There are plenty of hardware
starter kits from places like adafruit and seed studio that you could drop
into your office and let people have at it.

A few hundred bucks (and lets face it that isn't a lot if your doing software)
can get you a lot of toys for people to play with and explore with.

------
8draco8
Have you heard about "Is the toilet free?" ?

[https://madebymany.com/stories/is-the-toilet-
free](https://madebymany.com/stories/is-the-toilet-free)

~~~
jukedill
on the right track with the ideas, this just wouldn't work for us as we have
multiple toilets

~~~
8draco8
I don't see the problem. Instead of on/off icon use number of toilets left and
you are good. You try to see the problem where there is none. It seems that
you are trying to force the office to be "cool" and "hip". Instead of putting
vending machines on each corner and playing distracting music trough whole
office because you read online that this is how facebook is doing, give your
developers some space, listen to them and what they need. Maybe they don't
need drone delivered sandwiches and prefer high end chair or good monitor.

</rant>

~~~
jukedill
I'd prefer not having anything monitoring the toilet habits of employees,
little bit creepy. And I think you are jumping to some wild conclusions, I'd
recommend making some rational thoughts before typing and not projecting your
self into everything you say.

------
tmaly
a "Thinking" sign that resembles the On Air signs in a radio studio.

