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About this siteFor six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul Tuesday, June 01, 2004To Quiet a Whirring Computer, Fight Noise With NoiseNew York Times (free registration required): "The constant drone of a computer cooling fan can be annoying. But a professor at Brigham Young University has taken an unusual step to mute this noise: more noise, produced in just the right quantities from tiny loudspeakers that surround the fan. 'We make anti-noise,' said Scott D. Sommerfeldt, a physicist who created a noise suppression system with his students. It is the latest example of a technology called active noise reduction, or noise cancellation, well known from its use in headphones designed to block out the low rumble of jet engines."I've been on an anti-PC-noise jihad for a few years now, and it's nice to see work being done to remove the annoying PC fan sound at the source. It's only a matter of time before I switch my PCs over to water-based cooling solutions, though I'll try a nearer term solution for my office--moving the servers into a closet in the basement--first. PC noise, of course, is only a small part of the overall "noisiness" of our society, and it's something I'm very sensitive to, as my neighbor, the owner of a previously loud, constantly-barking dog, can attest. From the roll out of quieter rubber-enhanced highways in Arizona to using noise-cancellation headphones on airplanes, there's a lot we can do to reduce the noise in our lives. This is important stuff, people, and it's amazing how often we don't understand that. [ Posted at 9:08 AM | Permalink ]
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