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Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)

devblogs.microsoft.com

51–60 of 85 posts

Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably the goal is the avoid broken laptops, not to worry about who it's on.

I wonder if there is a name for the phenomenon where people do something that leads to negative consequences but they technically "did everything right". I have a friend who crosses the street without looking both ways and his argument is that if a car hits him "they're in the wrong", as if an accident doesn't occur that way.

>I have a friend who crosses the street without looking both ways and his argument is that if a car hits him "they're in the wrong"

in the U.S there seems to be a hatred of pedestrians among the driver class, and a tendency for police to let even the most egregious drivers off the hook when a pedestrian gets killed (as long as it's not a hit and run), therefore this does not seem a good strategy.

However, and this is if they are in the U.S, perhaps they are mildly suicidal and thinking that if they get run over and killed it lets them off the hook for suicide and whoever ran them over gets a few problems which just serves those jerks right. The misanthrope's answer on how to ease out of life.

Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)

#52
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Considering "follow-up" wording, it might have been added later, and might not really be true — but the important thing is that there is a correction now. So it's good a commenter here posted about it, because this might have led to the clarification being put in in the first place.

Follow-Up 2 has been there since at least Dec 2022: https://web.archive.org/web/20221231143310/https://devblogs....

Thanks for confirming that.

Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)

#53
post #50

The manufacturer worked around the problem by adding a custom filter in the audio pipeline that detected and removed the offending frequencies during audio playback. Too bad the manufacturer wasn't named; I quckly looked through a few laptop schematics from that era and didn't find anything that stood out as being a notch filter.

You wouldn't see it on the schematics, it's in the driver.

I imagine that it would also be quite difficult to realize such a narrow filter in hardware, 90 Hz is already quite low.

Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)

#54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Presumably the goal is the avoid broken laptops, not to worry about who it's on.

I wonder if there is a name for the phenomenon where people do something that leads to negative consequences but they technically "did everything right". I have a friend who crosses the street without looking both ways and his argument is that if a car hits him "they're in the wrong", as if an accident doesn't occur that way.

This is the old "I may be dead, but at least I'm right" argument.

Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)

#55
I know it's unrelated because this has an actual explanation, but I had an ex that stopped watches simply by wearing them for a while.

The model didn't matter, give them a few weeks, and they would stop. Put them aside for a while, they started back.

Never could figure out why, no particular behavior emerged, she changed jobs and houses and I couldn't see a pattern.

Fun that life is still full of weird stuff like this.

Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)

#56

I know it's unrelated because this has an actual explanation, but I had an ex that stopped watches simply by wearing them for a while. The model didn't matter, give them a few weeks, and they would stop. Put them aside for a while, they started back. Never could figure out why, no particular behavior emerged, she changed jobs and houses and I couldn't see a pattern. Fun that life is still full of weird stuff like thi…

Reminds me of the Pauli effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pauli_effect

Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)

#57

5400rpm laptop hard drives were notoriously sensitive to external force because of their thin metal construction and low power motor. I remember having a MacBook Pro with a Toshiba 5400rpm hard drive that failed shortly after I rested it on an HVAC unit in our server closet (the HVAC unit happened to be the perfect height off the floor for doing work while standing). Just to be sure that was the cause, I had the driv…

> "Don't put laptops on here." With an explanation why not? I feel like having that, instead of a "Here Be Dragons" note would be more helpful, so someone won't ignore the sign thinking "It'll be fine". Also it'd be funny if the sign is still there even though all* laptops have SSDs now...

Agreed. Commands without a hint of explanation are typically a sign of organizational dysfunction.

Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)

#58

I know it's unrelated because this has an actual explanation, but I had an ex that stopped watches simply by wearing them for a while. The model didn't matter, give them a few weeks, and they would stop. Put them aside for a while, they started back. Never could figure out why, no particular behavior emerged, she changed jobs and houses and I couldn't see a pattern. Fun that life is still full of weird stuff like thi…

Fascinating. Did she work in medical / hard science? I could imagine some exposure to radiation / magnetization could do this.

Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)

#59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "Don't put laptops on here." With an explanation why not? I feel like having that, instead of a "Here Be Dragons" note would be more helpful, so someone won't ignore the sign thinking "It'll be fine". Also it'd be funny if the sign is still there even though all* laptops have SSDs now...

Agreed. Commands without a hint of explanation are typically a sign of organizational dysfunction.

Disagree. Just follow what the sign says.

Do you use the same logic when approaching a "stop" sign while driving?

Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)

#60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. Commands without a hint of explanation are typically a sign of organizational dysfunction.

Disagree. Just follow what the sign says. Do you use the same logic when approaching a "stop" sign while driving?

I remember being told why we stop at stop signs when I was learning to drive.

Regarding the sign about laptops: do you want to be right, out do you want people to not put their laptops on there? If your goal truly is to stop people putting laptops on there, then account for people who may not follow the directions if they don’t know why.

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