On 9/23/15, 7:53 AM, "NANOG on behalf of Joe Greco" <nanog-bounces@nanog.org on behalf of jgreco@ns.sol.net> wrote:
Maybe I've always listened to my music to loud and spend the bulk of time via ssh, but I've never felt a need for hearing protection in a DC, is this generally an issue for people?
Depends on how long and how noisy.
As I've gotten older, I find loud noise in general is less tolerable, so I've taken to always keeping a pair of earplugs with me. It makes being around loud music, etc., much more enjoyable.
Long term exposure to noise is widely considered to be a hazard, but walking into an average data center for an hour once a month is probably not that risky.
... JG
Depends on the type of "noise" too. Datacenters generate (more or less) white noise, which is particularly harmful long-term to the cilia in your ears because it excites all of them all of the time. A loud datacenter is much worse than a loud rock band, IMO. I personally use Bose noise-canceling headphones.