I can hear my graphics card: not in the sense that I have a powerful fan on it etc., but rather a confluence of two conditions has arisen. Firstly, I have absurd professional quality earphones (because my mom works at Shure). Secondly, The headphone jack on my PC is not particularly shielded from the electromagnetic effects of the rest of the machine. This mean I have been able to detect audibly the transmissions along various buses in my PC, most notably (as far as I can tell), the graphics output.

Dragging windows produces a faint crackling/buzzing sound. Larger windows produce louder noises. Maximization and minimization produce more of a beep. Progress bars tend to fizzle.

I do not think there is any useful application of this phenomenon, other than to tell whether the graphics bus is in use. It fascinates me nonetheless. I used to be able to determine the speed of a dial-up connection from modem noises.

Hmm. I think the keyboard may be involved as well. holding down "shift" brings on a rapid machine-gun rattle unrelated to any action onscreen... or not, as testing it on the desktop suggests. that rattle may be the text cursor refreshing.

That aside, Merry Christmas/Xmas/Atheist Kids Get Presents Day to all. The development of Christmas as a secular holiday is a strange but perhaps unavoidable phenomenon in our culture (brought about, paradoxically, through Christianity's dominance in the culture). It intrigues me, especially as the custom of gift-giving is now ingrained in our economic system as the make-or-break event for retailers.

Our economy is dependent upon the widespread acceptance of a tradition once tied to a religious celebration, which was itself positioned to compete with older religious ceremonies. I think there's a kind of hilarious beauty to the course of history sometimes.

Side note: scroll bars sound sqeaky.

I don't mean to belittle religion or the giving of gifts: I myself am now undertaking to read all the sci-fi novels I got today. First up: Heinlein, Stranger in a Strange Land, is engrossing so far. Other gifts: Leather jacket, baked goods, socks, sweaters, cash.