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[Michael Czeiszperger <czei AT webperformanceinc.com>]

On Thursday 13 June 2002 09:46 am, you wrote:
> One really neat
> feature of the unit they demoed, was that it could generate audio tones to
> indicate the status of the unit. If the unit was not working properly, you
> would call the plumber, place the phone next to the unit, and push a button
> to generate the status tones, and based upon the tones, the plumber would
> (hopefully) troubleshoot the unit remotely.
>

That's a great example of audio feedback, and is often more intuitive than 
having a bunch of blinking lights or a numeric code. Just like people get 
used to the sounds that mechanical things make, and can tell when they "don't 
sound right", the same feature can be designed into other devices that 
wouldn't otherwise make sounds. The original Macs, for example, would make a 
happy major chord sound when booting normally, but would play various "bad 
sounds" if there was a memory error or some other problem.

-- 
Michael Czeiszperger
czei AT webperformanceinc.com