https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blinkenlights

Has some nice photos. More welcome!

And on the modern computer, there is:

Blinkenlights: PC Binary Emulating Visualizer

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31473846

https://archive.ph/GgGeZ

I was always fascinated by stories from older professors about how they could hear when something had gone wrong with an algorithm, because the sound would be wrong.

In my case, I could hear when some Windows malware (its indexer, updates, etc.) was running, because the computer would make funny noises. These days, everything is so silent, and the LEDs are gone, I only notice from the lag!

I sometimes wish there were still sounds, and more besides (e.g. sounds for strange network packets, and so on).

You can do a lot "artificially"; I set it up so my computer makes a frog croak sound when the LLMs finish cooking, and I have a colored orb in my notification bar showing the packet loss.

Yes! I know it! (And I’m not old at all.) I saw it at, as I recall, a model train exhibition when I was very young, and I found it so hilarious I’ve never forgotten it. In fact I was quite surprised when I eventually learned it was a well-known thing, considerably older than I am.

Stuff like this is even more funny if you can actually read German. :)

I have a letterpress print of this from the Cambridge (UK) museum of technology when I was a kid (so about 30 years ago I guess!). I love the juxtaposition between letterpress and the idea of relaxen und watschen der blinkenlichten