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Apple silent on mysterious noises from Sunnyvale complex
- zardo 11y agoWhat the hell is he building in there? We have a right to know. http://youtube.com/watch?v=JaLjwSpZ6Cs http://youtube.com/watch?v=JaLjwSpZ6Cs
- jarmitage 11y agoHe has no friends but he gets a lot of mail
- poopsintub 11y agoSad comment. Downvote hell to you!
- joezydeco 11y agoHow about, oh I dunno, actually posting a recording of the noise?
- poopsintub 11y agoYou want the author to add a random buzzing sound to add more credibility to the article?
- PierreRochard 11y agoYes.
- joezydeco 11y agoPerhaps someone out there on the planet is familiar with the noise, compared to a random neighbor describing it as "buzzing".
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- PhasmaFelis 11y ago"sheets of metal slamming, clanking, almost a grinding sound." (...) "whine or hum that rises in pitch, like industrial machinery winding up."
- GirlProgrammer 11y agoI seriously believe they are working on a Fusion Reactor.
- Zenst 11y agoWell went thru the links and not one sound clip I heard of this noise - which I find equally just as odd, lots reports of the noise and clips of people getting there slot of TV fame, but not one link to the actual noise - least what I gleaned thru. So who knows, just equally as odd no recordings I could find of this noise, though there must be some out there somewhere I'd imagine if it is that much of an issue.
- 13thLetter 11y agoGiven the ubiquity of sophisticated cell phones and other recording equipment, it's best to regard the lack of a recording as strong evidence that it does not exist. Just as if multiple people claimed the Loch Ness Monster had surfaced in San Francisco Bay but somehow there were no photographs of it.
- aw3c2 11y agoIt is incredibly hard to record silent noises with standard equipment.
- 21 11y agoCell phones have shitty mics (because physics). You would need a condenser microphone for low level noises. Around $100. TV camera crews have them, not even one stood around waiting for the sounds?
- seanp2k2 11y agoEven better, hang it from a 20' cable below a drone and fly it over. Stream the audio back in case they somehow manage to disable the drone. I'm sure lots of people in the Bay Area have the equipment right now to do this, just a matter of if anyone cares.
- nitrogen 11y agoYou'd need a good wind blocker on the mic, and you'd get a lot of drag from the 20' cable, but this seems doable.
- exabrial 11y agoInduction furnace?
- th0ma5 11y agoHeh. This reminds me of the mystery in the movie The Burbs.
- dream000 11y agoI stay right besides sunnyvale apple office but have never heard of anything! :/
- DrScump 11y agoThis isn't at the Sunnyvale office; it's an unbranded black site. Perhaps they interrogate their Google captives there as well; it's just about halfway between Apple and Google HQs. It's a theory.
- jasonkostempski 11y agoProbably just testing a new sleep app that triggers the Inception horn through giant Beats speakers when you reach REM stage.
- poopsintub 11y agoComment not good enough. I am elitist god and down-vote you now!
- STRiDEX 11y agoAnother article from Mercury News. http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_29558045/apple-silent-mysterious-noises-from-sunnyvale-complex http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_29558045/apple-silent...
- dang 11y agoThanks. We changed the URL to that from http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Neighbors-can-t-stop-talking-about-a-loud-hum-6858193.php http://www.sfgate.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Nei..., which sees less substantive.
- reality_czech 11y agoApple is just generating some buzz.
- oddevan 11y agoDid you read the article? It's not a "buzz," it's a "loud hum." :P
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- l33tbro 11y agoNot sure if how company who netted $18 billion in their last quarter needs to generate buzz. Either way, bringing a car to market is a wise move for Apple never struck me as a great idea. I've always suspected there's just too much good will and little-guy championing for Tesla to make Apple's offering a thing we want to own. Tesla vehicles are also incredibly well designed, aesthetically pleasing, and have a tonne of respect for laying the groundwork for this emerging industry. Could it have been better for the brand to partner with Tesla and restore some credibility? Not sure. But I do predict they'll call this thing the Apple Auto.
- pavel_lishin 11y agoNow I'm just hearing a loud woosh.
- grizzles 11y agoSince EVs are very quiet, it could be a rolls machine, which is basically a treadmill for a car. They are used for running tests on vehicles and are outrageously loud. They can be used during prototyping. In a car factory it's at the very end of the assembly line and sometimes used for debugging vehicles that have come off the line with issues.
- evm9 11y agoIn the automotive industry, we call them dynamometers. Though you'll never hear anyone say that, we just call them dynos.
- Serow225 11y agoNot necessarily, it could be a rolling road, which is more similar to what the OP described.
- dsmithatx 11y agoA rolling road is another term for a chassis dynamometer.
- jackgavigan 11y agoI thought a dyno is a mechanism that a standalone engine can be rigged up to on the bench to test it under (typically computer-) controlled conditions, measure its output, simulate different driving conditions, etc.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- beamatronic 11y agoI'm expecting overhead drone imagery on YouTube in 3...2...1...
- poopsintub 11y agoOh no, a joke. Downvotes for you now!
- vecter 11y agoI see you making sarcastic comments about all the silly noise that's being added to the thread. This is exactly the kind of noise we want to avoid on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10933288 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10933288.
- CamperBob2 11y agoI don't see why it's a joke, personally. If you want to know what's going on, flying a drone over their fence is an obvious (if illegal) thing to do.
- y04nn 11y ago"One reason why Apple could be working at night is that electricity is cheaper then" Is the author serious?
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y agoAre you? http://www.pge.com/en/mybusiness/rates/tvp/toupricing.page?WT.mc_id=Vanity_TOU http://www.pge.com/en/mybusiness/rates/tvp/toupricing.page?W... Instead of a single flat rate for energy use, time-of-use rate plans are higher when electric demand is higher. This means when you use energy is just as important as how much you use. Winter has two rate periods: off-peak and partial-peak. Summer has three: off-peak, partial-peak and peak. During peak periods, defined as weekdays from noon to 6 p.m., May through October, your business's electric rates will be higher. In return, time-of-use rate plans at all other times will be lower than the peak rate. All business customers will transition to time-of-use rate plans over the next several years, as required by the California Public Utilities Commission.
- JBReefer 11y agoDoesn't California also have some the most expensive electricity in the US?
- aetherson 11y agoIf only Apple could afford their PG&E bill.
- GFK_of_xmaspast 11y agoResidential rates appear to be reasonably high (9th highest if I read this right: http://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/ http://www.eia.gov/electricity/state/) but (a) presumably they're not exactly smelting aluminum and (b) don't they have a giant money pit that Tim Cook dives in Scrooge McDuck-style.
- ceejayoz 11y agoWe're talking about a company with $200 billion in cash lying around. They could build a few large nuclear plants without making a significant dent in that pile of money.
- Dysanovic 11y ago"sheets of metal slamming" - it's probably the FBI trying to break into the facility ;)
- drudru11 11y agoQuite obvious. The sound and the apple car is just them trying to get a DeLorean to travel back in time. That way they can get Steve Jobs back.
- poopsintub 11y agoPoor comment. I am smarter than you and down-vote with multiple accounts!
- drudru11 11y agoWow - nobody thought this was funny?
- tiredwired 11y agoMaybe Dr Dre setup a studio there for Beats Music.
- Diederich 11y agoPerhaps they are working at night because it would make it very difficult for personal drones to get good imagery.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- microtherion 11y agoCircumstances do not permit me to comment, but I would advise the neighbors to stock up on silver bullets and pray that the containment field holds.
- JJJJkkkk 11y agoI'm curious about the words "working-class neighborhood". Is this tongue-in-cheek? I've been trying to find housing in that area and it's on par with East Bay, if not worse.
- STRiDEX 11y agoI rented over there after college. I think working class is accurate. Lots of work trucks parked in the street, caltrain in the backyard and families with not a lot of income.
- kejaed 11y agoIt's probably just Bubbles working away on his carts!
- dghughes 11y agoMaybe Apple didn't hear the question?
- Animats 11y agoLooks like a small data center under construction by converting an existing building. Large amounts of HVAC equipment for the size of the building. Cooling towers. Big fuel tank. Cummins Diesel emergency generator, size around 1MW. Lots of electrical conduit on outside of building.[1] Picnic area and half basketball court. Several construction trailers on site, so some remodeling is going on. Beeping trucks and banging on sheet metal sounds like HVAC work. It's annoying the neighbors because it's directly across a drainage ditch from suburban houses. Nobody likes nighttime industrial construction opposite their backyard. [1] https://goo.gl/maps/dcK3MjKdh822 https://goo.gl/maps/dcK3MjKdh822
- relevant_thing 11y agoA residential area in Sunnyvale seems like an inopportune place to put a data center.
- pgrote 11y agoIs there a recording of the noises?
- jrockway 11y agoThis was quite the sensationalist piece. Maybe something is going on, but maybe the explanation is more boring. Since everyone is taking wild guesses, allow me to partake: The building is Apple's HR center. The people there mostly write reports on health insurance utilization. The noise is office remodeling. They do it at night because people are working during the day. I have it on good authority that there are several capacitors in the building. They're mostly used to filter the output of switching power supplies. Why right now, there are probably hundreds of capacitors inside your house! Give me a break.
- tlrobinson 11y agoAnd a "repair garage"!? What could that possibly be used for besides a secret new Apple car?
- ishdieisbd 11y agoMy conspiracy theory: "Guys, turn these loud speakers on tonight. Trust me the press will go nuts!" Must be nice to be Apple :)
- stevetrewick 11y ago"Something is going on in there...I can't tell you what" And people say investigative journalism is dead.
- nonuby 11y agoGetting a head start on their own pre-mined crypto-currency? In reality probably just something mundane, Apple does secrecy well, and this would just be amateur
- calgoo 11y agoQuestion: Do you not have noise complain laws in the US? I mean if some company is producing that noise, waking people up, I would start calling the cops on them every time it happens. And regarding the security guards, maybe a daily pick-nick on the public property outside the buildinge would be a nice way to point the middle finger at them :) Just my two cents...
- etrevino 11y agoWe have noise complaint laws, sure. They're different depending on the jurisdiction, of course, but they exist. And as for the security guards, it doesn't sound like they're protecting public property. Depending on the laws in that area publicly accessible does not imply that people are allowed there, just that they can easily get there.
- d_theorist 11y agoMy God! Reversing trucks that make a beeping sound! Bangs! Thumps! This is quite extraordinary. Certainly not the kind of thing you would expect from almost any warehouse or industrial facility of any kind in the world.
- brador 11y agoSomeone go throw a drone up and get a live feed with audio. Problem solved.
- ljdmd 11y agoIt's so real in fact, theres a new website for apple car fans called applecarfans.com