Pat’s Point of View

I’m on-site at a client today, using one of their PCs, and I’ve discovered that I’m quite out of touch with the latest in desktop computing. I say that because I was taken by surprise by a new feature of this particular PC, an audible indicator for resource utilisation.

That’s right, when ever the processor utilisation went up, so did this whirring fan noise! It easily drowned out all other noise in the room. Who needs Task Manager when you can tell by the pitch (not to mention the futile desperation) of the sound your computer makes.

This came in very handy each time IE crashed. The browser would freeze up, and whoosh off the fan would go, struggling to deal with the burden. I kinda felt sorry for the poor little machine, it sounded so upset. You could hear its relief as I killed the offending process. (That’s a first for my blog…audio!)

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