alt Hacker NewsPretty neat. It tangentially reminds me of when we used to be able to hear HDDs clatter away, or waaaaay back when we used be able to hear EM interference from whatever was going on in a computer.
There was an episode of Cowboy Bebop, where a mechanic held a wrench against an engine cowling to see how much it vibrated (likely a real thing people do with real engines?) and, of course, the computer sounds in the Enterprise-D, along with blinkenlights.
All this seems like the same kind of "translate data into a form humans can perceive." I'm not sure what immediate value this utility has, but I like it.
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I still have a computer that produces slightly different noise (coil whine?) depending what it's doing. Fascinating behavior.
The wrench thing is real. My approach to a DIY mechanic’s stethoscope is to stick the handle of a screwdriver against my ear and the tip on whatever I want to listen to. Great for figuring out what part of the machine a noise is coming from.
I forget where I read this (maybe PG's blog?) but I read some early 2000s startup had some kind of mechanical device that responded to website visitors, so everyone in the office could hear the traffic in realtime.
I also heard stories of professors who would know a program had a bug based on the sounds the computer was making. (Back when they were slightly slower!)