Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)
devblogs.microsoft.com
Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)
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Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)
#2This is a fun article but seriously lacking in details... musical frequencies crashing hard drives, including hard drives of laptops within earshot? That's a pretty extraordinary bug so I hoped there would be more elaboration. I also wonder if that patch to block those frequencies is still in effect.
Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)
#3This is a fun article but seriously lacking in details... musical frequencies crashing hard drives, including hard drives of laptops within earshot? That's a pretty extraordinary bug so I hoped there would be more elaboration. I also wonder if that patch to block those frequencies is still in effect.
Shouting in data center increases disk latency: https://youtu.be/tDacjrSCeq4
Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)
#4“ I would not have wanted to be in the laboratory that they must have set up to investigate this problem. Not an artistic judgement.”
Then what is it?
Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)
#5Adam Neely has a good video on this effect, explaining why it is specifically the Janet Jackson song in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-y3RGeaxksY
Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)
#6“ I would not have wanted to be in the laboratory that they must have set up to investigate this problem. Not an artistic judgement.” Then what is it?
A desire to generally not listen to one song loudly over and over? I think after the 1000th time, anyone is going to fall out of love with any song.
Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)
#7“ I would not have wanted to be in the laboratory that they must have set up to investigate this problem. Not an artistic judgement.” Then what is it?
If you were setting this up in a lab to test you'd be playing the same song on repeat trying to recreate the circumstances and effect, possibly at different volumes and playback speeds and other things until you isolated a particular portion that caused the crash. Then you'd play back that portion. And all of this would be at a level people could hear. So you'd be hearing the same song over and over in an otherwise quiet lab. Even if you liked the song, you'd hate it by the end of the day (or spend the day wearing earplugs).
Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)
#8[deleted]
Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)
#9Do read the follow-up, and maybe also the Adam Neely video about this, linked both there and in another comment here.
Re: Janet Jackson had the power to crash laptop computers (2022)
#105400rpm 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 drive replaced under warranty, did the same thing again and it died again after only a short while of using it on that HVAC unit.
After Apple replaced the drive a second time, I instead used a crash cart as a laptop desk and put a sign on the HVAC unit that read "Don't put laptops on here."