DasBlinkenLights!
With all the talk of the new XServe, and updated powermacs in July ... I think everyone has overlooked the coolest feature of the XServe ... blinking lights showing CPU Activity! You can see a pic here:
<a href="http://www.apple.com/xserve/design.html"; target="_blank">http://www.apple.com/xserve/design.html</a>;
Its #3 in their little schematic. I think this is awfully cool, and I'm hoping it makes its way into the towers ...
Last night I was checking out my cube and my iMac, and I like the simplicity of the designs, even if the geek inside me yearns for more switches and lights ... and I thought "Damn, a real-time, in-hardware*, CPU utilization monitor would just be friggin' awesome! PCs get hard drive lights, but thats so passe, and so 70s. The BeBox had CPU lights on the case too (and they were all dual proc, If My Memory Serves Me Correctly). Sometimes you might want to tell at a glance if your CPU is busy, but you aren't using your mac (Maybe you're waiting for it to render some stuff in FCP or Photoshop or whatever). Ah ... nothing I like better than blinking lights!
* I don't know if you could do it 'in-hardware', so even if it were just a daemon process, it'd still be cool.
<a href="http://www.apple.com/xserve/design.html"; target="_blank">http://www.apple.com/xserve/design.html</a>;
Its #3 in their little schematic. I think this is awfully cool, and I'm hoping it makes its way into the towers ...
Last night I was checking out my cube and my iMac, and I like the simplicity of the designs, even if the geek inside me yearns for more switches and lights ... and I thought "Damn, a real-time, in-hardware*, CPU utilization monitor would just be friggin' awesome! PCs get hard drive lights, but thats so passe, and so 70s. The BeBox had CPU lights on the case too (and they were all dual proc, If My Memory Serves Me Correctly). Sometimes you might want to tell at a glance if your CPU is busy, but you aren't using your mac (Maybe you're waiting for it to render some stuff in FCP or Photoshop or whatever). Ah ... nothing I like better than blinking lights!
* I don't know if you could do it 'in-hardware', so even if it were just a daemon process, it'd still be cool.
Comments
<strong>You started a new thread for this why?</strong><hr></blockquote>
It deserves one you bloody bastard. I think the blinking lights are badass.
EXERCISE IN FRIVOLITY HAS SPOKEN. PAY HEED. AND MAKE IT SNAPPY. AND NONE OF THAT LOW QUALITY HEED. I WANT NAME BRAND HEED.
[ 05-14-2002: Message edited by: Exercise in Frivolity ]</p>
Anyway -- judging by recent designs -- I don't expect to see DasBlinkenLights? on the new Power Macs. The trend is towards seamless surfaces. I'd guess the Power Mac will have a smooth, metal appearance broken only by the drive slots.
Rather like a toaster, then... <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />
Maybe they could stick something like a <a href="http://www.griffintechnology.com/audio/pwrmate.html"; target="_blank">PowerMate</a>, with the pulsing blue ring, on the front. Imagine it slowly pulsing while the machine was asleep, or growing brighter as you turned up the volume... :cool:
No...
Blinkenlichter!
[ 05-14-2002: Message edited by: Nostradamus ]</p>
If I had a dual G4, I'd like the menubar to have a status display to show CPU usage using a high-res variation of these blinking lights.
In fact, I wish Apple would put another menubar at the bottom of the screen (in place of the dock) for these types of things and build in some functionality that taskmenubar has so I can easily switch or switch/hide between apps.
<strong>
It deserves one you bloody bastard. I think the blinking lights are badass.
EXERCISE IN FRIVOLITY HAS SPOKEN. PAY HEED. AND MAKE IT SNAPPY. AND NONE OF THAT LOW QUALITY HEED. I WANT NAME BRAND HEED.
[ 05-14-2002: Message edited by: Exercise in Frivolity ]</strong><hr></blockquote>
Way cool. I agree. This was one of the coolest features of the BeBox.
I use Spy in os X to keep an eye on the CPU. total waste of CPU cycles but I love it.
It would be cool to see a rack full of Xserve's dooing load share on a web site and watch as the highest of trafic loads are served.
Later Steve
CPU indicator lights on a Powermac would be utterly redundant and a total gimmick, good for impressing fools but seen as cheap and vulgar to anyone who knows how to use a computer.
Sheeze, sometimes it seems like the only one's interested in Macs are vain fools. If you're interested in processor load, use the CPU monitor, you tool!
OOOOoooh, but WAIT! I've got an even better idea! A FLASHING LIGHT TO INDICATE THAT THE POWERMAC'S CASE IS OPEN!!! It would be right on the front of the tower, and if the side door was open, then the light would blink! That way you would know if the door was open!
Imagine an 8 x 8 array of lights, they could make some pretty cool patterns. OR signifiy something for the system. Like, if there were an "X" at start-up, it would tell you that you were in Mac OS X. Applications and possibilites are endles. And when you are sleeping, ahhhh, there has to be something cool for that....
Also, just watch how people are now going to be on which Xserve gets the highest load first.
"Go! Go! Forget about the high powered bus! Max yourself out!" they would say <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" /> <img src="graemlins/smokin.gif" border="0" alt="[Chilling]" />
I need to get some sleep
<strong>Those lights are on the rackmount because they are designed to be run without a display. Powermacs are run with displays, hence the presence of the CPU Monitor application, which communicates far more detailed information about processor activity than a few blinking lights can provide.
CPU indicator lights on a Powermac would be utterly redundant and a total gimmick, good for impressing fools but seen as cheap and vulgar to anyone who knows how to use a computer.
Sheeze, sometimes it seems like the only one's interested in Macs are vain fools. If you're interested in processor load, use the CPU monitor, you tool!
OOOOoooh, but WAIT! I've got an even better idea! A FLASHING LIGHT TO INDICATE THAT THE POWERMAC'S CASE IS OPEN!!! It would be right on the front of the tower, and if the side door was open, then the light would blink! That way you would know if the door was open!</strong><hr></blockquote>
I wonder what sort of functions a light array could have on the AI boards......I can think of one or two, such as warning you before you waste time reading a post.....
:eek:
That isn't German and besides, German isn't cool.
No...
Blinkenlichter!
<hr></blockquote>
Well, some guy once said:
[quote]Ich bin ein Berliner.<hr></blockquote>
which translates to:
[quote]I'm a big, jelly donut.<hr></blockquote>
...and every still loved it.
Then this German dude even gave us a quote for a Gonad the Barbarian movie:
[quote]That which does not kill us, makes us stronger.<hr></blockquote>
That was from Fred (Nietzsche), right before God killed him.
So, in my opinion, in the language that uses "updaten" as a seperable verb, and Das PeekinTuben (periscope), DasBlinkenLights? rock. Remember, this was the High Fidelity project, you know-- like graphic equalizers?
I would pay to see this feature in the towers, because I like pretty, blinking lights.
<strong>Those lights are on the rackmount because they are designed to be run without a display. Powermacs are run with displays, hence the presence of the CPU Monitor application, which communicates far more detailed information about processor activity than a few blinking lights can provide.
CPU indicator lights on a Powermac would be utterly redundant and a total gimmick, good for impressing fools but seen as cheap and vulgar to anyone who knows how to use a computer.
Sheeze, sometimes it seems like the only one's interested in Macs are vain fools. If you're interested in processor load, use the CPU monitor, you tool!
OOOOoooh, but WAIT! I've got an even better idea! A FLASHING LIGHT TO INDICATE THAT THE POWERMAC'S CASE IS OPEN!!! It would be right on the front of the tower, and if the side door was open, then the light would blink! That way you would know if the door was open!</strong><hr></blockquote>
Hey, seriously man, why are you such an ass? You are so incredibly vain. The only people interested in Macs are vain fools because they think blinking lights are cool? Shit, man, do you use your Mac to do anything but read AI and post acrimonious, hateful messages to people you don't know?
People like you are the bane of the internet, and a dime a fücking dozen.
Cheers, cockmonger.
<strong>
Hey, seriously man, why are you such an ass? You are so incredibly vain. The only people interested in Macs are vain fools because they think blinking lights are cool? Shit, man, do you use your Mac to do anything but read AI and post acrimonious, hateful messages to people you don't know?
People like you are the bane of the internet, and a dime a fücking dozen.
Cheers, cockmonger.</strong><hr></blockquote>
<strong>
Hey, seriously man, why are you such an ass? You are so incredibly vain. The only people interested in Macs are vain fools because they think blinking lights are cool? Shit, man, do you use your Mac to do anything but read AI and post acrimonious, hateful messages to people you don't know?
People like you are the bane of the internet, and a dime a fücking dozen.
Cheers, cockmonger.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yeah, well vain bimbos are the bane of the Mac user community! I can't stand wading through threads here at AI posted by superficial, vain airheads who get woodies over flashing lights and spend their days fantasizing about their next Sharper Image purchase to impress their yuppie scum brethren. Oooh, Oooohh, dude I got a Bimmer! I'm soooo cool, look, I have such fine taste, I'm the sorta guy who appreciates quality! PLEASE! This sort of upper class trash is the bane of human society.
I see you hurled the name "vain" right back at me, but you don't understand, see, II had a REASON to dis this thread....but with you, I apparently touched a nerve. As is often the case, I'm dead on, because I have to deal with vain, materialistic muthas on a daily basis and they painfully bore me, it's agonizing, really. People who's ideas and thought patterns are conditioned by corporate marketing are defeated humans, bastardized souls who've given themselves to the herd and submitted to the shepherds. And of course the shepherds are today's deity, the corporate bosses who rule our planet as unelected officials. The power of television and materialism...who is really owned by those bright, flashing gadgets that commonly adorn yuppie filth?
Cherio!
PS: Don't make me taunt you a second time, or I'll be forced to make you my bitch!
[ 05-15-2002: Message edited by: Junkyard Dawg ]</p>
OOH PRETTY BLINKY LIGHTS! I WISH I HAD THEM PLASTERED ALL OVER THE FRONT OF MY TOWER! THAT WOULD LOOK SO L337!!! I'LL GO START A THREAD TO DISCUSS JUST HOW REVOLUTIONARY AND AMAZINGLY NEAT SOME LITTLE BLINKING LIGHTS MIGHT BE! WE CAN SPECULATE ABOUT THE COLORS AND MAKE UP FUNY REASONS WHY WE WANT THEM! EHEHEEHEHHHEEHEHE
For the sarcasmically challenged, the preceding was not to be taken in any serious vein.
You want them because they look cool, but sysadmins use/need them to view activity, loads, communication, operation. You don't need them. For pete's sake, they're some little blinking lights.
On the PC side there are lots of after-market lights, meters, and displays for that show everything from fan speeds to processor loads -- so there is obviously a market for such things.
Why not put processor load lights on the Mac towers? Do you really think having them would hurt sales?
Not every one needs a CPU meter, however it is something that isn't easily replaced. Considering that professional video and audio is done using PowerMac equipment and both are having more and more real-time manipulation abilities, it seems like blinkenlights would be a useful option for a number of people to whom Apple cater. The Xserve would be an option except that despite its definite usefulness Apple needs to clarify their position with creative professionals and the 28" deep form factor doesn't fit most audio hardware racks. And yes, I think blinkenlights are kind of cool. Just because I like watching VU meters while recording doesn't mean they aren't useful and the same thought goes for blinkenlights.
[ 05-15-2002: Message edited by: percolate ]</p>
<strong>That isn't German and besides, German isn't cool.
No...
Blinkenlichter!
</strong><hr></blockquote>
No, "Blinklichter"! :-) It is a word on its own, not a combined one. By the way, about a year ago, to use randomly german words in the newspapers seemed to be cool, i remember stuff like "Weltpolitik", "Finanzpolitik", etc.
Regards,
Powerbook
Kind of like the touch sensitive switch on top of the Cubes? That was a total gimmick, but it was a cool total gimmick.
Also, I know how to use a computer, and I don't see it as cheap and vulgar. Ha ha! I have found a flaw in your logic!
Just be glad we don't want one of these:
<a href="http://www.xoxide.com/pctachometer1.html"; target="_blank">http://www.xoxide.com/pctachometer1.html</a>;
I'll bet G4s rev higher than P4s!