jasoneckert 5 days ago | next |

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 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."

sahmeepee 4 days ago | root | parent | next |

Not hard drive related AFAIK, but I used to work in a media lab with about 30 mac desktops of around the powermac g4 vintage.

We noticed that the macs were rebooting unexpectedly when certain people were in the room. After a bit of observation we worked out that the call button on our walkie talkies could trigger a reboot from a couple of feet away, which turned out to be an awesome superpower if you'd had a gobful from an especially obnoxious student.

dhosek 4 days ago | root | parent | next |

I used to enjoy the fact that Intel iMacs came with a remote control that could be used to put the mac into “media mode” but that wasn’t paired to a specific Mac to mess with co-workers in the room by putting them in media mode inexplicably.

Moru 4 days ago | root | parent | prev | next |

We had that problem with computers when having the metal shielding off the cases. Every time someone in the vicinity got a phonecall on their Motorola 2880 (random model number, can't remember but one of the really old ones) the computers would bluescreen. This was at hackernights with all sorts of different computers running windows 95. If they had the metal shields off, many of them would bluescreen on phonecalls. Shields were off for having more cooling from external sources or friends helping with installing stuff or whatever, and the problems would go away when the shield was on again.

heywire 4 days ago | root | parent | prev |

I used to work for the point of sale provider for various golf events in the US. We were having circuit breakers on UPS battery backup units trip, seemingly randomly. We soon realized that we couldn’t key up our walkie talkies when standing near one.

netsharc 4 days ago | root | parent | prev | next |

> "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...

ruthmarx 4 days ago | root | parent | next |

> so someone won't ignore the sign thinking "It'll be fine".

If they do whatever happens is on them for assuming that.

Dylan16807 4 days ago | root | parent |

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

WilTimSon 4 days ago | root | parent |

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.

bryanrasmussen 4 days ago | root | parent | next |

>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.

jimmydddd 4 days ago | root | parent |

I worked with a group of other Americans in a part of Switzerland for a bit and we noticed that, even on relatively busy roads, if we even approached the curb from the sidewalk, cars would all come to a stop. Even if no formal cross walk area was nearby.

jappgar 4 days ago | root | parent | prev | next |

Because it's funny?

Life would be pretty boring if everything were explicit.

Also, sometimes explaining the rationale for a warning can backfire.

An "absolutely no smoking" sign at a fuel depot doesnt tell you _why_ you shouldn't smoke there... If it did, dumb people might think "We'll I'm not refueling at the moment so it will be fine."

"Here be dragons" is vague for a reason.

martinflack 4 days ago | root | parent |

I've lived in the US and UK and noticed what I think is a tiny cultural difference -- that signs giving instructions in the US tend to be brief and contain the instruction only; whereas in the UK I thought I saw more that add some text for a brief explanation or reason, if it wasn't obvious.

Gud 4 days ago | root | parent |

In the UK they love their safety labels. Only country where I’ve been where there’s a safety label on everything. It’s ridiculous.

euroderf 4 days ago | root | parent | prev |

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

otteromkram 4 days ago | root | parent |

Disagree. Just follow what the sign says.

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

nkrisc 4 days ago | root | parent |

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.

ruthmarx 3 days ago | root | parent | next |

> 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.

Why? If they decide to ignore the sign, and they fuck their laptops up, that's on them.

A note of direction doesn't need to justify itself. People that think they are owed an explanation so they can decide whether or not to follow a note are the problem here.

jappgar 4 days ago | root | parent | prev |

There are just as many people who will be more likely to disobey a warning if they hear the rationale. They might think "naw that HVAC unit couldn't do that. this sign is wrong"

Sometimes simple commands are better than explanations.

BiteCode_dev 4 days ago | prev | next |

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.

RobotToaster 4 days ago | root | parent | next |

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

codetrotter 4 days ago | root | parent |

> the supposed tendency of technical equipment to encounter critical failure in the presence of certain people

Is there an inverse of this?

Often times, people ask me to help them do something on the computer or with other computer related or electronic things. I walk over, touch the equipment without actually doing anything and their problem is instantly solved. Could be a printer that won’t print, even!

I don’t see any links in the See Also section about any “effect” like this.

Moru 4 days ago | root | parent |

That would be "Demonstration Effect" or "IT Support Effect". Happens every other support call.

I bet this is why half the older companies still have a tech person on staff. :-)

recycledmatt 4 days ago | root | parent | prev |

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

BiteCode_dev 4 days ago | root | parent |

Nope. Hotel, then airplanes.

rrrrrrrrrrrryan 3 days ago | root | parent |

Maybe using their watch hand to magnetize the hotel key cards?

BiteCode_dev 3 days ago | root | parent |

I thought about it but their colleagues would have had the same problem, yet didn't. Plus becomming flight attendant removed that activity.

Not to mention it happened during the hollidays too.

It's probably more life style related, but I was there during said life style and couldn't figure it out.

segasaturn 5 days ago | prev | next |

This 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.

anyfoo 4 days ago | root | parent | prev | next |

I wouldn't call it a "bug", more "unfortunate physics". Still possible to guard against that, specifically. (There will always be more "unfortunate physics", for example I bet that the hard disk also fails if I smash it against a wall at 100mph, but nobody's going do care designing a consumer HD that stops exhibiting that specific behavior.)

hunter2_ 4 days ago | root | parent | next |

I'm not sure that the definition of "bug" is so narrow as to exclude unfortunate physics, given that it began as literal bugs before becoming metaphorical bugs. Erroneous human influences on software seems slightly farther from the original than peculiar physical influences on hardware!

astrange 4 days ago | root | parent | prev |

There's more physics issues with the speakers themselves; especially for something like a laptop speaker in a small enclosed space, it's totally possible to blow it out by turning the volume up too high.

There are various ways to protect against this, easiest being to just limit the top volume. If this is done in the official audio drivers then watch out if you decide to install Linux.

narrator 4 days ago | prev | next |

You know the cheesy ending in a dumb TV show where they play a song and the plot gets resolved? They should have had one where the evil guy is going to use his laptop to do something sinister and then they play "Rhythm Nation."

kugelblitz 4 days ago | prev | next |

I have another, different oddity. Whenever my colleague and I stand up (or also sit down?) on the desk, his Dell monitor would turn black for a few seconds. I don't remember the specifics, but I think it was mostly just the two of us, when other people say down if was fine.

Even if he's sitting on a different table, the moment I sit down his screen would blank for a few seconds then continue to work normally.

I also get electrocuted easily when I use the escalator. It almost doesn't matter what I wear, so it might have to do with my skin or it's conductivity? But that's just a wild theory that would need to be checked.

Edit: Some research seems to point to the static electricity from the chairs.

alargemoose 4 days ago | root | parent | next |

If they use a docking station, there’s a known issue with DisplayLink video output from gas spring chairs causing EMI spikes that disrupt the video signal momentarily when you sit down or stand up.

> “Surprisingly, we have also seen this issue connected to gas lift office chairs. When people stand or sit on gas lift chairs, they can generate an EMI spike which is picked up on the video cables, causing a loss of sync”

The linked support doc also links to a white paper analyzing the issue. https://support.displaylink.com/knowledgebase/articles/73861...

gphilip 4 days ago | root | parent | prev |

> I also get electrocuted easily when I use the escalator.

You get shocked easily when you use the escalator.You wouldn't be electrocuted more than once.

kugelblitz 4 days ago | root | parent |

That's true :D, thanks for the correction!

I think I was still in German mode, it's called "electric punch" (Stromschlag) if translated literally, my brain went the easy route and tried to find the closest match.

userbinator 4 days ago | prev | next |

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.

pjc50 4 days ago | root | parent |

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

cenamus 4 days ago | root | parent |

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

vlovich123 4 days ago | prev | next |

> And of course, no story about natural resonant frequencies can pass without a reference to the collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in 1940.¹

Yes it can because it turns out it wasn't an issue with resonant frequencies & it's just promulgating an incorrect (but catchy) story.

> Just four months later, under the right wind conditions, the bridge was driven at its resonant frequency, causing it to oscillate and twist uncontrollably. After undulating for over an hour, the middle section collapsed, and the bridge was destroyed. It was a testimony to the power of resonance, and has been used as a classic example in physics and engineering classes across the country ever since. Unfortunately, the story is a complete myth.

> You can calculate what the resonant frequency of the bridge would be, and there was nothing driving at that frequency. All you had was a sustained, strong wind. In fact, the bridge itself wasn't undulating at its resonant frequency at all!

I recommend reading the article but the long & short is it's something called "flutter" and they even have a video of the problem.

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/startswithabang/2017/05/24/scie...

jdiff 4 days ago | root | parent | next |

There's a footnote indicated by the superscript 1 in your quote:

> ¹ Follow-up 2: Yes, I know that the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse was not the result of resonance, but I felt I had to drop the reference to forestall the “You forgot to mention the Tacoma Narrows Bridge!” comments.

Damned if you do, damned if you don't, and damned if you do both, even.

necovek 4 days ago | root | parent | next |

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.

jdiff 4 days ago | root | parent | prev |

The commenter quoted a section of text that included a reference (the mentioned superscript 1) to the footnote, it was already there.

ptero 4 days ago | root | parent | prev |

It's closer to "damned if you knowingly make grossly incorrect statements even if you put a small footnote saying OK, I know it is not correct". And damned right that you are damned in this case :)

I would much prefer a reference to the event with the clarification, in the same paragraph, that it is due to a different phenomenon. My 2c.

colechristensen 4 days ago | root | parent | prev | next |

This is a pretty... dubious refutation.

The wind excited a vibrational mode of the bridge which caused it to kind of fail and when parts started breaking more modes were activated and it fell apart.

It's being sold as this gotcha! it's a myth! it wasn't _really_ resonant frequency!

And like... I studied aerospace structures... sure "flutter" is a bit of a better explanation, but saying "resonance" is a myth is a bit silly. Complex structures have lots of vibration modes. The first fundamental frequency can be picked usually and called _THE Resonance Frequency_ or whatever, but it's not like something anybody really places that much emphasis on being the boss in charge of all the vibration.

Myth != terminology nitpick in a layman's explanation

But you get a lot of layman going around correcting people and calling things myths.

It's like Internet people arguing about "just a theory", nobody who actually does science really cares at all about the precise meaning of the word "theory".

WalterBright 4 days ago | root | parent |

The movie of the galloping bridge looked like resonant frequency to me.

Back at Caltech, the dorm halls had poured concrete walls. Naturally, some students got a signal generator, a power amplifier, some speakers, and installed the speakers at the node of one of the halls (the halfway point).

Then turned it on, and tuned the frequency until it matched the resonant frequency of the hall. The energy in the halls quickly built up until the entire building was going whomp whomp whomp. Except that the frequency was too low to hear.

You just got a feeling that something was very very wrong. Residences would come out of their rooms wondering what the heck was going on.

A fine prank!

Of course, that was exciting the resonant response with a driving resonance frequency, which is not what happened at the Tacoma Narrows bridge, which had a different way of exciting it as already explained.

WalterBright 4 days ago | root | parent | prev | next |

At Boeing, I worked on proving the elevators would not flutter. It wasn't about a driving force being at the resonant frequency. It was about the interaction of spring rate of the system and the force pushing on it.

The same thing happens if you stretch a rubber band in front of your lips and blow on it. Increasing the stretch will increase the frequency.

Musical wind instruments work the same way.

P.S. the elevators did not flutter in flight test or in service. Phew!

ryandrake 4 days ago | prev | next |

My first thought was that filtering a set of frequencies out from the laptop's sound output doesn't seem to be a good solution that addresses the root cause. This only corrects it for those laptops running that OS software, and does it at the cost of reducing the quality of the device's audio for all applications. What about other laptops playing the song, or just living room speakers playing it? What if I, as a user of the laptop, was doing audio processing and needed the sound card to faithfully output frequencies that I commanded it to play?

But there's a follow-up article that addresses all of that: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20220920-00/?p=10...

TLDR is it's cheaper to throw your audio quality under the bus than to recall the defective laptops/drives and replace them with a design that works. :(

avianlyric 4 days ago | root | parent |

You’re making the assumption the tweaks to the audio subsystem made a material change to the quality of the audio output. It’s not like laptop speakers are very good to start with, or like laptop sound cards ever faithfully reproduce the sound they’re asked too.

Getting good audio out of a laptops speaker in 20% hardware and 80% audio filtering anyway. No laptop speaker (even Macs[1]) sounds good without significant processing to workaround the physical limitations of tiny speakers mounted in a non-ideal chassis.

As for other speakers, sound pressure drops off following the cube law. So a speaker millimetres away from the hard drives which have substantially greater impact than speakers outside of the laptop. Of course if you crank the volume enough it’ll eventually cause an issue, but given there doesn’t seem to be widespread reporting of this issue, it looks like that wasn’t too much of an issue.

[1] https://github.com/AsahiLinux/asahi-audio?tab=readme-ov-file...

gpvos 5 days ago | prev | next |

Do read the follow-up, and maybe also the Adam Neely video about this, linked both there and in another comment here.

hyperhello 5 days ago | prev |

“ 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?

pclmulqdq 5 days ago | root | parent | prev | next |

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.

astrange 4 days ago | root | parent | next |

My car stereo likes to automatically play the first alphabetical song in my phone's music library when I start it. Kind of annoying, but not enough to replace it over.

aidenn0 4 days ago | root | parent | prev |

Yeah, I had to listen to part of the All-4-One version of I Swear hundreds of times while reproducing a bug. It's not pleasant.

anyfoo 4 days ago | root | parent | prev | next |

I would not have wanted to be in a laboratory that is set up to play my most favorite song very loudly over and over again, either.

I don't think it's an artistic judgement.

Jtsummers 5 days ago | root | parent | prev | next |

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).

bitwize 4 days ago | root | parent |

One of the reasons why Cortana was deprecated was the reports of beleaguered IT professionals having to listen to dozens of chattering Cortanas as they set up a fleet of new corporate laptops.

klyrs 4 days ago | root | parent | prev | next |

I don't want to sit next to a cannon when it's going off. No artistic judgement on the 1812 overture; I just don't wanna be there.