4 ms·

I cannot help but refer to this old, old joke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkenlights#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkenlights#Etymology (I u

by thesz 7y ago

I cannot help but refer to this old, old joke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkenlights#Etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkenlights#Etymology (I used to discern between program stages on 286/386 because sound of power supply was different for different loops)

divbzero 7y ago
Just as electric vehicles can have skeuomorphic “engine” sounds for safety [1] or aesthetics [2], I’d love to see a service that emits “fan” noise to track CPU usage. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle_warning_sounds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle_warning_sound... [2]: https://electrek.co/2018/03/07/jaguar-i-pace-artificial-motor-sounds-electric/ https://electrek.co/2018/03/07/jaguar-i-pace-artificial-moto...
- ChrisSD 7y ago
  I used to have something like that with an old machine with poor, spluttering cooling. You could really tell every time something processor intensive was running. It was actually quite useful at times. For example, if some webpage was constantly running some heavy javascript, the fans would soon alert me that something was up.
- hnuser123456 7y ago
  I have my motherboard set to run the CPU radiator fans a low-moderate speed at ~50 degrees C and below, but ramp up rapidly approaching 55+, with no hysteresis or gradual ease-in. I can absolutely gauge CPU usage on a second-by-second basis by fan noise. Any transient spikes cause an easily perceptible (but not overwhelming) wooshing.
joshvm 7y ago
Well it's true today as well. I know immediately that something's gone wrong if I'm training an ML model and the GPU fan spools down.
terlisimo 7y ago
Funny, I once realized my computer was infected with a virus because of the change in sound the HDD would make when launching Windows Commander. I had AV software running but the virus was new and undetected.
PavlovsCat 7y ago
I had something like that with my previous desktop (~ years ago, so not ancient) because the onboard audio was really crap or badly shielded, and amplifying the line-out and listening to that with headphones, every single application had it's own signature pattern of high-frequency chirping when starting up or doing certain operations, websites sounded different from each other when scrolling them. It was kind of neat.

by thesz 7y ago

divbzero 7y ago

Just as electric vehicles can have skeuomorphic “engine” sounds for safety [1] or aesthetics [2], I’d love to see a service that emits “fan” noise to track CPU usage. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle_warning_sounds https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle_warning_sound... [2]: https://electrek.co/2018/03/07/jaguar-i-pace-artificial-motor-sounds-electric/ https://electrek.co/2018/03/07/jaguar-i-pace-artificial-moto...

ChrisSD 7y ago
I used to have something like that with an old machine with poor, spluttering cooling. You could really tell every time something processor intensive was running. It was actually quite useful at times. For example, if some webpage was constantly running some heavy javascript, the fans would soon alert me that something was up.
hnuser123456 7y ago
I have my motherboard set to run the CPU radiator fans a low-moderate speed at ~50 degrees C and below, but ramp up rapidly approaching 55+, with no hysteresis or gradual ease-in. I can absolutely gauge CPU usage on a second-by-second basis by fan noise. Any transient spikes cause an easily perceptible (but not overwhelming) wooshing.

joshvm 7y ago

Well it's true today as well. I know immediately that something's gone wrong if I'm training an ML model and the GPU fan spools down.

terlisimo 7y ago

Funny, I once realized my computer was infected with a virus because of the change in sound the HDD would make when launching Windows Commander. I had AV software running but the virus was new and undetected.

PavlovsCat 7y ago

I had something like that with my previous desktop (~ years ago, so not ancient) because the onboard audio was really crap or badly shielded, and amplifying the line-out and listening to that with headphones, every single application had it's own signature pattern of high-frequency chirping when starting up or doing certain operations, websites sounded different from each other when scrolling them. It was kind of neat.