Not quite as useful as this, but https://github.com/rbanffy/selectric-mode also makes your computer sound more serious.
An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
41–50 of 454 posts
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#42That's pretty hilarious. Until recently I didn't think of the CPU fan as an auditory cue for how hard your system is working. But now I can remember times that excessive fan noise has prompted me to investigate the cause of excessive usage.
I had a habit of touching the strip of metal above the keys on my old macbook air, since that heats up before the fan becomes audible.
The sensible approach, of course, is to add a load monitor to the menu bar; now with my new m1 macbook, I can simply make the appropriate noises myself, as necessary. This is the UNIX way.
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#43This is funny. For the last ten years I've used Mac laptops as my primary machine. Of course the fan noise was a great auditory clue to tell me to check out Activity Monitor/top for rogue processes and help me optimize which tasks took too many resources.
I didn't realize how much I relied on that cue until I temporarily switched to a Mac desktop machine during the pandemic when I didn't need to travel. The desktop fans pretty much stay at 1200rpm all the time. I think I've seen them spike once. I'd forgotten how much better desktops can be for some things.
Now I'm looking for a better remote access solution so I can consider sticking with a desktop at home and then maybe just an iPad for travel with good remote access and file sync.
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#44Wondering if it's just me: I bought an M1 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM, based on reports saying that RAM management is much more effective than with Intel CPUs. Ever since, I'm really struggling with load management. I typically have Chrome open with 20-30 tabs, plus a couple of Electron apps (Notion, Slack, Google Calendar), and my MacBook frequently slows down to a crawl or gets stuck entirely. Simple commands - "cl…
Anecdotally, the M1 feels very performant with 8gb (I have MBP and Mini 8gb variants) compared to my 16gb Intel MBP and my 32gb Hackintosh.
That said - it’s not magic. 30 tabs in Chrome is a lot if you’re not using a tab suspender extension. But one thing I do notice is that when a Rosetta 2 app is running, the entire machine seems to take a hit. I would check the architecture of your apps and see if you have any x86 apps running.
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#45Pre M1, I've always preferred a PC. When I'm using a laptop, especially doing real work, they heat up, the fans go crazy, the laptop is hot to the touch and everything slows down. It almost makes you anxious. You're wondering if it's about to crash or go on fire. I've always kept a Desktop PC on the go for this reason, a well cooled desktop just doesn't have these issues. With a laptop, I always feel like I'm comprom…
Same here, it’s like a freaky experience. I run mostly from the browser but have a couple of things going at the same time. One thing I noticed is the blazing fast typing on the Mac. There is an ever so small lag on windows in perceptible when using it. But, when you type on the Mac you notice it, and the brain just feels good using it. I have no idea if this is a real thing, but it’s similar with scrolling, you touch the track pad and things move. Independent of the load I’m running. Now, that many applications are moving to M1 compatible I’m thinking of replace my windows box with a mini+two external hard drives. I can’t imagine what will happen when they release a new processor. This one does more than enough.
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#46This is useful! Every so often Docker acts up or a Youtube video hidden in a tab somewhere or some silly mistake opens tons of Postgres connections on my M1. Previously the only cue was hitting the critically low power (10%?) at 6 hours instead of 12. Now there's this app. Thank you!
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#47No troll, the fan shutting off was how I knew my app had compiled and I could start debugging. With the M1, I now have to check the cpu usage history occasionally.
Honestly I believe that as developers we don't use audible feedback enough in our tooling. Imagine diagnosing your app health like you could diagnose your connection speed of a dial-up modem.
i stick the OS's equivalent of `bell` at the end of long-running scripts :)
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#48Does it have an option permanently to scramble the video a month after the warranty runs out?
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#49Wondering if it's just me: I bought an M1 MacBook Air with 8GB of RAM, based on reports saying that RAM management is much more effective than with Intel CPUs. Ever since, I'm really struggling with load management. I typically have Chrome open with 20-30 tabs, plus a couple of Electron apps (Notion, Slack, Google Calendar), and my MacBook frequently slows down to a crawl or gets stuck entirely. Simple commands - "cl…
> plus a couple of Electron apps I’m afraid that might be your problem right there :(
I confirm. Embedded nodes each take a few hundreds of megabyte. It looked cool when we had 2 electron apps out there, now with so many of them good by ram.not mentioning apps developed in a few months rather than years, packed with features to become more memory hungry than the OS. MS Team is a particular offender.
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#50Pre M1, I've always preferred a PC. When I'm using a laptop, especially doing real work, they heat up, the fans go crazy, the laptop is hot to the touch and everything slows down. It almost makes you anxious. You're wondering if it's about to crash or go on fire. I've always kept a Desktop PC on the go for this reason, a well cooled desktop just doesn't have these issues. With a laptop, I always feel like I'm comprom…
A bit of a tangent but I am quite impressed how Apple's marketing campaign was so effective that they've managed to redefine what PC (personal computer) means