Comments on: When government efficiency descends into insanity

By: Will (green)

Will (green) — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 07:19:31 +0000

We have those sorts of motion sensors linked to the lights in the computer lab in the library here at Central Washington University. As a testament to their ineffectiveness, I once had the lights turn off with five users in the lab. All nice and spread out, too.
Also, I get up and check all the computers and another lab every twenty minutes or so.

By: Cyde Weys

Cyde Weys — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:55:59 +0000

I don’t see that motion sensor idea working anyway. When I’m sitting at a computer coding there really isn’t a lot of movement, and if the sensor is behind me, it isn’t even going to pick up finger movements. Not that it would be sensitive enough to pick them up anyway.

Yarrrgh, whatever happened to light switches?

By: arensb

arensb — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:37:31 +0000

When a friend of mine was in grad school, the university installed motion sensors in the grad students’ offices, which were supposed to turn off the lights if there was no one in the office.

Unfortunately, my friend was hidden from the motion sensor by a bookcase, so every 15 minutes or so, he’d have to lean way back and wave his hand around the bookcase. Another solution was to tie a ribbon to a fan, and put the fan within line of sight of the sensor. My favorite, though, was the suggestion to get one of those novelty dancing Coke cans: people in the office usually have music playing, which would trigger the dancing. So in effect, it converted a motion detector into a sound detector.