I used to do this as a data scientist. Sometimes training jobs would take an awkward amount of time like 30 minutes or an hour and I'd get sidetracked doing something else. So I just had it beep when it was done like an oven. Prevented me from having to check back every now and then or missing an email. We didn't have good chat integration back then.
Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
191–200 of 336 posts
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#192In around the year 2000, for career day I went to work with my uncle. He worked in IT for General Mills. Their office was very much a stereotypical poorly lit IT cave in the basement. All their computers were a constant barrage of custom pop culture sound effects for every action. Minimize a window and a computer would emit like a "Ooh baby" clip for instance. Place had the tone of a morning radio show. Seemingly eve…
I worked for a woman who had the Microsoft helper (like Clippy) but chose the cat avatar, and it would meow ALL day. It was funny for about 2 hours and unbearable beyond that!
Well, that's one way to get rid of open floor layouts.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#193From [1] The story of PING: ping goodhost | sed -e 's/.*/ping/' | vocoder He wired the vocoder's output into his office stereo and turned up the volume as loud as he could stand. The computer sat there shouting "Ping, ping, ping..." once a second, and he wandered through the building wiggling Ethernet connectors until the sound stopped. And that's how he found the intermittent failure. [1] https://ftp.arl.army.mil/~m…
macos has the "say" binary which is fun to play with for stuff like this
a billion years ago I piped say and some various noise files into ffmpeg to make audios that sounded like numbers stations, I don't think it would run anymore but it was a lot of fun :D
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#194If I am running a command that runs long enough such that my attention will drift but short enough such that I can't start something else, I'll append `echo "\a"` or equivalent. It's nice to know when the command completes. Loosely related, I am almost always running some white noise into my IEMs.
On osx you can use `say "long command is done"` or whatever is descriptive.
I’ve tried it, and since I work remotely the voice is too surprising for me.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#195The classic audio diagnostic on Linux/Unix is some beeps occurring and kernel debug text on all virtual terminals when something really horrible has gone wrong. If you want to make a beep in a linux console, try adding this to your shell scripts. It should trigger the default system "beep" sound. I used to include this in my scripts that ran really long tests or cluster jobs to wake me up and check the results. Sadly…
I remembered as I enabled this great setting, that I am usually very quick to turn it OFF because it causes the configured sound to play when you hit backspace at a blank prompt, which I tend to do when I'm thinking of what to type, or clearing lines, I just hit backspace excessively for fun. Unfortunately the bell causes me to get penalized for that, so I will probably disable it again.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#196Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, this. Imagine an elevator, gas pump, vending machine, or laundromat emitting sound effects constantly. Quite the dystopian hellscape.
> gas pump Most of them play advertisements while you fuel up. I hate it. The only thing that I like about New Jersey forbidding me from touching a gas pump is that I'm not subjected to ads for diarrhea medication or low-APR loans every time I fuel up.
> Most of them play advertisements while you fuel up
I guess this must be a US thing. The only thing my gas pump shows is how much money I’m paying and that’s it.
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, this. Imagine an elevator, gas pump, vending machine, or laundromat emitting sound effects constantly. Quite the dystopian hellscape.
Just wait until they integrate the devices with AGI + TTS and either tie it to your ad history or one-click purchasing. AI Fridge: "We noticed you're almost out of cheese. Would you like to make your dairy extraordinary today with Tillamook Sharp Cheddar? Say OK to order now!" Enfleshened One: "No. Please self destruct." AI Fridge: "...Take that back, or I'll wilt all your lettuce."
Enfleshened One: "Do as thou wilt."
Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#198From [1] The story of PING: ping goodhost | sed -e 's/.*/ping/' | vocoder He wired the vocoder's output into his office stereo and turned up the volume as loud as he could stand. The computer sat there shouting "Ping, ping, ping..." once a second, and he wandered through the building wiggling Ethernet connectors until the sound stopped. And that's how he found the intermittent failure. [1] https://ftp.arl.army.mil/~m…
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Re: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#199From [1] The story of PING: ping goodhost | sed -e 's/.*/ping/' | vocoder He wired the vocoder's output into his office stereo and turned up the volume as loud as he could stand. The computer sat there shouting "Ping, ping, ping..." once a second, and he wandered through the building wiggling Ethernet connectors until the sound stopped. And that's how he found the intermittent failure. [1] https://ftp.arl.army.mil/~m…
macos has the "say" binary which is fun to play with for stuff like this
I did something similar for finding which outlet a breaker went to. I connected my MacBook to the outlet, airplay to the TV so it was loud, then had it yell if the power was disconnected:
while ! pmset -g batt | grep 'discharging'; do; echo waiting; sleep 1; done; say disconnectedRe: Ask HN: Does anyone use sound effects in their dev environment?
#200Once, Apple had Sonic Finder.[1] It was kind of cute. Especially the part where the sound for dropping something in a move was deeper for a larger object.
[1] http://sonify.psych.gatech.edu/~ben/references/gaver_the_son...