Mikey writes to let me know about System Load, a freeware utility for OSX which contains the intriguing button "Try to play a scale on the power supply". Probably not a good idea, but... anyone tried it? (He found it at Ars Technica)
Posted by Tom Whitwell.
Comments:
I don't know about THIS program, but back in the 80s I had a program for my Commodore 64 that played "Daisy, Daisy" on the 1541 floppy drive. It was pretty cool... but boy, did I have a lot of recurring problems with that drive for some reason...
So you lot can try it out and let me know how it goes. ;)
This program is actually a diagnostic utility which addresses a specific problem peculiar to the PowerMac g5 line, where the power supply 'chirps' when the CPU loads. The 'problem' apparently has something to do with open resistors...or something, and while odd (and occasionally annoying) it only seems to manifest under certain graphics-intensive situations...and is pretty benign. Apple Support has avoided the issue, but it's well-known. (I know all this because I-- you guessed it-- use a G5.) I've used this utility, and it's actually pretty funny to hear the scale...though the sound is pretty faint, and way up harmonically . (The whole issue can be avoided by disabling the 'nap' function of the CPUs, though this can cause the internal temps to rise...)
As an aside, the 'fagintosh' comic is pretty funny...but I'd counter that anyone who prefers their operating system available to every piece of crap-ware and buggy code who wants to come in and squat-hump it...well, I dunno if they should be so critical. Unless you're making music on Linux, you don't have a whole lot to crow about...chirping hardware or not, I like knowing my music data is secure.
OSX is the most fluid,elegant, stable and superior GUI based OS in existance - anyone stating otherwise obviously has zero or little first hand experience of a modern OSX mac setup or rarely asks their XP to do little more than web browse or typre letters!.
This statement can be prooven in a court of law if need be.
I'm thinking of introducing a MT online swear/troll/crap spelling box for the comments, so if people have to gratuiously use words like "macs suck" or "mac roolz", then they can CLICK ON THE SWEAR/TROLL/DYSLEXIC BOX and make a donation to the charity of my choice...
Many years ago I was a photo editor. We all used Macs & loved them. Then work got a PC on the advice of Adobe because you could use this incredible thing called 'virtual memory' so Photoshop didn't keep grinding to a halt on big jobs. And it had 2 mouse buttons.
To a man, we refused to use it. For Months. We simply REFUSED to believe that a PC could be as good, let alone better, for a graphics job. Because, *drum roll please*
what planet are you xp tools on? osx is superb...we have both platforms here, and its hard to even want to use the pc....of course, if you like macs your a 'zealot' but if you like wndows you;re a wha? a boiled potato