Nice idea. You can also have a CPU usage monitor in your app bar.
An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
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Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
PC originally meant "IBM PC desktop clone". Apple was different because it's hardware wasn't compatible with PC software (for mainstream users).
"PC" was "personal computer" years before the IBM PC. Just look at old computer magazines.
The whole reason the phrase "IBM PC" existed was to differentiate it from the other PCs that already existed. "IBM" was the adjective. "PC" was the noun.
Because of its success in offices, "IBM PC" became just "PC" the same way other words like "omnibus" became just "bus" because it's simpler to say.
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#93No 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.
> Honestly I believe that as developers we don't use audible feedback enough in our tooling.
Allow me to point out a very cool project I saw in the early 2000s, which unfortunately seems to have been abandoned and forgotten: http://peep.sourceforge.net/intro.html (Peep (The Network Auralizer): Monitoring your network with sound).
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#94That'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.
Oh, yes. This has been an ongoing problem with "sleep mode", which users think means "off", but isn't really. Some Windows docs for hardware makers indicated that "sleep mode" should stop the fans, to maintain the illusion that the machine is "off". Some machines do that, and some stick to temperature-based fan control, so the fans continue to turn if the machine is warm. Some users then complain that sleep mode does…
And this is how I ended up buying a second Nintendo Wii. They turned off the fans and fried themselves.
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#95Pre 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…
As a hardware nerd I always kind of like that moment when the CPU starts really working and you hear fans spin way up. The auditory feedback is like a throwback to a more mechanical age, like a manual transmission vehicle where you can judge when to shift by engine speed.
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#96Wondering 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…
Seconded. I have 30+ tabs open (though in Firefox), alongside VS Code, Obsidian (a notes app, but with web views), Spotify (web views), and I don't frequently run into serious performance issues.
I do try to avoid Rosetta quite a bit though (right now I have no Intel processes in Activity Monitor).
Also check Messages.app hasn't run away with the CPU. Sometimes it seems to do that :(
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#97Wondering 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…
Well it definitely is more efficient but RAM is still RAM… Swapping whole 8 gigs will make your system sluggish no matter what. I feel like 8GB is fine if your usage is really light, but swapping more than 70% will slow it down extensively.
On the other hand there is a whole camp of people who run heavy dev suites on 8GB and don’t have these issues, so it might really be a faulty line. It’s the first version in the end.
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#98Pre 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 touc…
Typing lag is such a sad result of all our modern computing abstractions.
https://www.extremetech.com/computing/261148-modern-computer...
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#99In 10 years' time we gonna get an app that simulates the battery going off.
Re: An app for M1 Macs that plays the sound of a fan as CPU usage goes up
#100Pre 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…
I think this is an Intel "feature". They can't upsell you faster CPU's without trading heat and noise. Glad to see Apple is following a much more sensible approach.