Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#31

Post by hernan7 » Sun, May 01, 2011, 2:49 AM UTC

A throwback to simpler times. Back then many datacenters were just a room where you had a couple of desks with some PC's on them. Maybe a Sun pizza box or 2. And people would be there to listen to the machine play "Fur Elise" when the power supply failed.

In today's datacenters where you have lines and lines of racks receding into infinity, and where you need to use hearing protection whenever you need to get in for 5 minutes to power-cycle some stubborn switch, I don't see a solution involving "Fur Elise" being too useful.

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#32

Post by s00pcan » Sun, May 01, 2011, 3:38 AM UTC

I'm playing Portal 2 right now and just heard the line "Oh no. He's playing classical music." Fur Elise is playing. And it means exactly this! I would have never got the joke otherwise. But I suspect that was the reason this was posted.

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#33

Post by wilshire461 » Sun, May 01, 2011, 4:55 AM UTC

s00pcan wrote: post #32

I'm playing Portal 2 right now and just heard the line "Oh no. He's playing classical music." Fur Elise is playing. And it means exactly this! I would have never got the joke otherwise. But I suspect that was the reason this was posted.

It isn't Fur Elise that is playing it is Little Prelude in C Minor.

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#34

Post by Splines » Sun, May 01, 2011, 6:28 AM UTC

shaunkoh wrote: post #26

Why not play a recording that actually said, "CPU fan failing, call tech support".

It's the same reason why we still have beep codes and LED status indicators on our motherboards: You don't need to localize Fur Elise.

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#35

Post by StavrosK » Sun, May 01, 2011, 12:12 PM UTC

Splines wrote: post #34

shaunkoh wrote: post #26

Why not play a recording that actually said, "CPU fan failing, call tech support".

It's the same reason why we still have beep codes and LED status indicators on our motherboards: You don't need to localize Fur Elise.

In Greek, we call it "Για την Ελίζα".

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#36

Post by rbanffy » Sun, May 01, 2011, 3:41 PM UTC

zlapper wrote: post #28

shaunkoh wrote: post #26

Why not play a recording that actually said, "CPU fan failing, call tech support".

Because the music was in MIDI format, I guess.

MIDI would be overkill. A pitch-duration table along with the code to vibrate the speaker at the right frequency for the right amount of time would be far simpler.

Re: Microsoft Support: Computer Randomly Plays Classical Music

#37

Post by [deleted] » Tue, May 10, 2011, 12:16 PM UTC

rubyrescue wrote: post #22

ajarmoniuk wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working slot machines? Please tell me more...

visual studio 6.0 - help | about, then ctrl-shift while double clicking the visual studio logo. the code name for the project was... vegas EDIT: wow this isn't even on wikipedia. i feel like i'm revealing a MS secret. :)

[deleted]