The bios is a few megs large. Why not store sound clips and play them in case of an error?
Mind you, as it slowly succumbed to age (capacitor plague, most likely), it would start repeating "No CPU Installed, No CPU Installed..." as I watched it boot without issue. Once the sound driver was configured, it would stop.
Also the tiny piezo speakers frequently used on motherboards are often pretty bad at functioning as general purpose speakers. Something like voice might not be clearly audible through one of them. (And also, localization would be an issue.)
YT collection of Mac chimes (~48s): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkBcpXL94rA&t=48s
With this reverse engineering done already, someone should be able to write a decoder app for looking up the error codes.
Doesn't need to be 44.1K stereo and localised voice
In the context of audio, these are just called "overtones", and the "base frequency" is the "fundamental".
The amplitudes of the overtones are what give an instrument its characteristic timbre. It's what makes a flute sound different from, say, a sax, when they are both playing the same note.
You can actually see this on the spectrograms too. Square waves have only odd-numbered harmonics, so the frequencies should be like:
fundamental
fundamental * 3
fundamental * 5
fundamental * 7
etc.
I believe this is an attempt to enforce some of the permissions changes made around Marshmallow, I believe, where apps now request many permissions at time of use, and not at install. The compatibility layers are a bit 'ugly'.
An interesting side effect is that if you sideload an app that is in this state, Google Play will actually offer to keep it updated, even though it wouldn't allow installation initially.
That was a relatively major change, but there have been enough other changes since then, too, that they're trying to force developers to adopt – some of them "just" cause the hassle of adapting to the new APIs, some of them unfortunately definitively break some power user use cases without a suitable replacement.
> > This app isn't available for your device because it was made for an older version of Android.
I wonder if it really "doesn’t run on recent android devices", or if it's just that Google doesn't want you to install it (because it was made for an older version of Android and Google doesn't like that), and if you somehow downloaded the APK and manually installed it, it would run just fine. I suspect it's the later case... In my experience, other than the missing software version of the legacy hardware menu key, Android's compatibility with software made for older versions of Android is quite good.
I assume Google is looking at that value, comparing it to the current running API and blocking installation because the API the app is using is too old, with new permissions conventions that are built into the newer API versions running on more modern phones.
I believe they also limit(ed) installation of apps made for tablets on phone screen devices (and vice versa) through the devices' DPI settings.
I believe you can easily sideload these apps into Android and have them run mostly flawlessly, but Google Play Services blocks install probably to prevent people from installing old/possibly incompatible apps on their platform.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfUkI-n4jpo&t=23s
I'd guess most corporate fleet ThinkPad end users never saw the bird flapping its wings to fly as you moved it around the screen with your Trackpoint, but kudos to IBM (known for wearing suits at the time) for letting this bit of whimsy slip through to customers.
Maybe it was indicative of corporate flexibility that helped the ThinkPad introduce so many innovations and general technical excellence, and made it such a respected and beloved brand.
I adored that laptop. I loved how it felt, how it looked, how it sounded. I loved the beeps, I miss computers beeping and chattering to confirm that they are indeed powering on.
I loved the fan periodically revving every 30 minutes or so, reminding me that it was still alive but also putting into perspective that it had been utterly silent until that moment.
I still remember how the keyboard felt. Granted I wasn't doing much on it besides trawling through newsgroups and homework, but I haven't really come across a keyboard I've enjoyed typing on more.
The Filco keyboard I'm composing this comment on now isn't bad by any means, and I'm fairly happy with my Macbook's keyboard given its other strengths... but if I had the time, I'd find a way to get the 560E's keyboard on a laptop with a Chromebook Pixel's 2560x1600 screen and an M2 under the hood.
I had to explain it to my mother the other week over the phone.
A few weeks ago, I was boarding a bus with a brand-new mobile fare; I scanned the QR and it turned green and beeped, I guess twice or something, and the operator summons me back and he goes, "it has to beep once", so I shrugged, scanned again, got 3 beeps and a green light, message says, "already scanned" and I asked the operator "what does that mean?" and he didn't know.
Come in, C-3PO, where could he be?
But I love this very clever solution.
Had to use it a couple times when I worked at a repair shop.
A few months ago it developed engine trouble where the RPMs randomly increased and decreased – so much so that the engine would often just stop when the car slowed down. Not fun on a roundabout or making a right-hand turn – across a lane (driving on the left in Ireland).
The Haynes manual detailed a procedure where I could turn on the engine and connect two terminals of the diagnostic connector (OBD-I) with a thin wire. The engine light would then flash morse code patterns corresponding to various faults that (as listed in the Haynes manual). From this, I was able to tell that the problem was the “airflow meter circuit” and the issue was resolved by replacing the throttle body with that of a similar vintage.
This will be my last Lenovo...
Just the other day I had a few days when it even boot looped and I had to disconnect it, boot it to Windows, and only then connect it.
I guess the author now has the responsibility of writing a new app to decode the beeps that hopefully can last longer in the app store before it gets too old.
(I would freak out if the intro of Forbidden Forest started blaring from the speakers on startup)
I am curious about the postage codes used in Sweden since 2021. Instead of buying physical postage stamps, you can buy a code online. It is meant to be written on the envelope in the place where you'd normally place a stamp. It has 4 x 3 symbols all are numbers or upper case letters.
Looks like this:
A X X 2
T T 2 Y
3 M 3 5
I wonder if there is anything interesting in there like a time stamp, or if it is just a serial number.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DADcChMJqBY
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/institute/a24653/how-to-dia...
B) Glad to see I'm not the only one using ThinkPads and MacBooks.