Comments on: The canary in the coal mine http://blog.sarabura.com/2010/03/11/the-canary-in-the-coalmine/ How to manage evolving information within corporations and on the internet Fri, 03 Feb 2012 19:05:05 -0800 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 By: Visual pattern recognition | Information Architecture http://blog.sarabura.com/2010/03/11/the-canary-in-the-coalmine/comment-page-1/#comment-180 Visual pattern recognition | Information Architecture Sat, 08 May 2010 12:54:26 +0000 http://blog.sarabura.com/?p=206#comment-180 [...] one I touched on in an earlier blog, where I proposed that programs that monitor real time data use sound feedback to help grab our attention when something has changed in the data that is coming [...] [...] one I touched on in an earlier blog, where I proposed that programs that monitor real time data use sound feedback to help grab our attention when something has changed in the data that is coming [...]

]]> By: martin http://blog.sarabura.com/2010/03/11/the-canary-in-the-coalmine/comment-page-1/#comment-110 martin Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:39:31 +0000 http://blog.sarabura.com/?p=206#comment-110 Good points. I think that IT workstations will start to ship with sound cards once they find a good use for them. There's always after-market sound cards too, of course. And I'm thinking way beyond "BEEP". How about text-to-speech "Network subsystem 24-0 is unavailable" for explicit warnings and error conditions... Computer and systems manufacturers need to start thinking more like Apple and less like IBM. Good points. I think that IT workstations will start to ship with sound cards once they find a good use for them. There’s always after-market sound cards too, of course. And I’m thinking way beyond “BEEP”. How about text-to-speech “Network subsystem 24-0 is unavailable” for explicit warnings and error conditions… Computer and systems manufacturers need to start thinking more like Apple and less like IBM.

]]> By: Andy Hayward http://blog.sarabura.com/2010/03/11/the-canary-in-the-coalmine/comment-page-1/#comment-109 Andy Hayward Wed, 24 Mar 2010 16:19:22 +0000 http://blog.sarabura.com/?p=206#comment-109 I agree that sound is a powerful and yet often neglected information tool in IT. When there's something wrong, or even just a little off, on my motorcycle, I can tell just by the rhythm or the tone of the exhaust. How often do you recognize when something's bothering a friend just by their voice on the phone? However, using sound on web sites or intraweb sites would be problematic. Many companies don't provide sound cards or speakers with the standard issue desktop machines. And then I also think of the few times that I've seen it used in IT, like the system beep that's supposed to tell you when you've hooked something up backwards while assembling a desk top. Apparently I'm supposed to know that a BEEP bip BEEP means that the RAM isn't seated correctly, and that bip BEEP bip means the power supply isn't sufficient... I agree that sound is a powerful and yet often neglected information tool in IT. When there’s something wrong, or even just a little off, on my motorcycle, I can tell just by the rhythm or the tone of the exhaust. How often do you recognize when something’s bothering a friend just by their voice on the phone?

However, using sound on web sites or intraweb sites would be problematic. Many companies don’t provide sound cards or speakers with the standard issue desktop machines. And then I also think of the few times that I’ve seen it used in IT, like the system beep that’s supposed to tell you when you’ve hooked something up backwards while assembling a desk top. Apparently I’m supposed to know that a BEEP bip BEEP means that the RAM isn’t seated correctly, and that bip BEEP bip means the power supply isn’t sufficient…

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