Jingle Bells Played With Graphics Card, Santa Wonders Why

As if the entire office full of guitar-controlled lights wasn't enough to make any holiday complete, some enterprising geek has taken it upon himself to give you a rendition of Jingle Bells played on his graphics card heat sink. He probably wont debut at Carnegie Hall, but I'll give him points for effort.

Finally..

[wallyhall]

Finally a use for that old GeForce 4 MX! Some people have far too much spare time...

Re:

[houstonbofh]

More than someone. What board and lonely guy saw this and said "I gotta post this to slashdot!!!"

Re:

[NeverVotedBush]

You mean bored?

I thought it was pretty cool. NI = National Instruments. I've used their software and hardware for years.

Re:

[palegray.net]

It's Christmas Eve. How many bored and lonely guys are posting to Slashdot?

What's worse is the fact that my wife is next door at the neighbors', I have a brand new bottle of whiskey downstairs, and I'm posting to Slashdot. Wow.

Re:Finally..

[NeverVotedBush]

It could be worse - your wife could be next door, you could be drinking heavily, *and* posting to Slashdot.

Re:

[palegray.net]

I'll get right on that.

Re:

[cavebison]

The only reason I can think you'd be drinking heavily at such a time, is you've seen the Robot Chicken Half-Assed Christmas Special.

Re:

[russ1337]

I'm watching the kid and enjoying a glass of wine & reading the "n, funny" posts on Slashdot.

Could be worse. We could've been born that Starwars kid, or Sting.

Re:

[NeverVotedBush]

I think Sting has it pretty good - he is rich beyond belief, has a pretty wife, and is into Tantric sex with her. My life should be so bad... ;-)

Dude.

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm next door, with your wife. We figured you might be posting to Slashdot, just thought we would check.

Re:

[palegray.net]

If that's not some funny shit, I don't know what is. Somebody please mod parent up. I'm ass-deep in that bottle of whiskey now, typing at about 20 words per minute trying hard not to make a typo. My wife has informed me that she would like some lovin', and I'm off to bed shortly. Goodnight, all, and Merry Christmas!

Dumbest video ever

[MerlynEmrys67]

Sorry, I was expecting someone to have found a way of controlling the video card fan to belt out jingle bells, or some strange hum in the graphics system. This... Now this is stupid. I mean what next - someone doing the same thing with glasses of beer, or bells, or ...
Give me my 30 seconds back

Re:

[wallyhall]

Perhaps some Guitar Hero controlled Christmas tree lights? Got to be the coolest cubical ever!

Re:

[FireNWater]

Mentos & Diet Coke?

Re:

[MrNonchalant]

Wait. So you have all of YouTube, all of College Break, and all of America's Funniest Home videos to work with, and this is the dumbest video ever?

Re:

[ters a-zA-Z0-9$_.+!*]

drink-get mix ; drink-get smash ;exit

Re:Dumbest video ever

[Dachannien]

How about an industrial motor?

I heard a story while I was working at a drive system design/assembly firm about a fellow who, back in the early days of digital drive systems, took a tape recorder, hooked its output up to an analog input on the drive, and used the signal of his voice on the tape to modulate the torque command to the motor, thus resulting in the motor vibrating out the sound of his voice.

Of course, the better stories I heard while I was there involved runaway motors tumbling across the shop floor (they're supposed to be bolted to the floor) or rotors breaking off through the motor housing and lodging in the shop roof. Fortunately, a greater understanding of digital drive systems and better safety practices made the union grievance the only scary thing on the shop floor while I was there.

Re:

[Matthew Bafford]

How about an industrial motor?

Or an F1 motor? For example, Renault:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Eoe8hEzdZ8 [youtube.com]

Re:

[petermgreen]

mmm, in that video it sounds like they aborted part way through the tune, I think I remember hearing a more complete version on top gear.

Re:

[revengebomber]

I heard a story while I was working at a drive system design/assembly firm about a fellow who, back in the early days of digital drive systems, took a tape recorder, hooked its output up to an analog input on the drive, and used the signal of his voice on the tape to modulate the torque command to the motor, thus resulting in the motor vibrating out the sound of his voice.

You mean like the HDSS [afrotechmods.com]?

Re:

[CastrTroy]

Maybe it's just me, but it doesn't even sound like it's in tune.

Re:

[BiggerIsBetter]

Here you go then: Tempest For Eliza [erikyyy.de].

You can use your (CRT) monitor to generate tones that can be received on an AM radio. It shouldn't be a stretch to make it play Jingle Bells.

Re:

[RzUpAnmsCwrds]

I was expecting the same thing.

If it's any consolation, look at this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8W2AxXfbvM [youtube.com]

Re:

[fbjon]

Sorry, I was expecting someone to have found a way of controlling the video card fan to belt out jingle bells

Don't go giving people any ideas now. Next thing you know, a virus starts to spread that plays jingle bells by switching the monitor resolution really fast.

Re:

[nobaloney]

Back in the early days of the first TRS-80, my company Practical Applications, now out of business for many many years, issued a music program for the Radio Shack TRS-80. It relied on the non-shielding employed (or should that be the shielding not employed on that early personal computer, and we offered both a musical keyboard and also some available music.

The sound came from the speaker of any nearby AM-band radio.

I want my 36 seconds back.

[recoiledsnake]

Seriously, I was expecting something along the lines of a program that used the hum or whistle of the fan and speeded up or slowed down the fan to get the jingles. This isn't even funny.

Re:I want my 36 seconds back.

[Hollinger]

Here's a formula one car playing "When the Saints Go Marching In," [youtube.com] complete with blue notes from the exhaust ports.

Re:

[Kris_J]

And here's a scanjet playing something classical [youtube.com]. Sorry for being peasant and not knowing the tune.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

It's Für Elise [wikipedia.org] by Beethoven.

Re:

[NormalVisual]

At work we can make music using a Q-switched laser on aluminum plate. I need to see if I can get a video of that to put up on YouTube. :-)

Re:

[noidentity]

Hell, I was expecting it to play music by modulating power usage of the chip via what kind of instructions are executed, causing changes in the switching power supply noise.

Re:

[cthulhu11]

Back in the early 80's I had a text-graphic (popularly but misleadingly known as "ASCII graphics") program for the IBM PC that played Silent Night. When the song was done, the grandfather clock's pendulum kept swinging, etc., and the clock's ticking was effected by toggling the cassette interface. Since almost no "compatibles" had cassette interfaces, I used this as an example of how they weren't 100% compatible.

well, maybe the rhythm of Jingle Bells...

[harlows_monkeys]

I didn't hear a lot of the notes from Jingle Bells in there.

Re:well, maybe the rhythm of Jingle Bells...

[sentientbeing]

They were all there - just in the wrong order.

Parent is spam-obscured link

[sethstorm]

N/T

Re:

[Phroggy]

A few of the notes were there. It definitely sounded like a lot of them were missing, though.

I appreciate the effort ...

[eck011219]

... but that "Merry Christmas" at the end has a decidedly ominous vibe to it. Maybe a little more time out socializing and less time plucking at one's graphics card ...

Seriously, though, yet another interesting holiday re-use of equipment. My sarcastic comments aside, Merry Christmas back to him.

floppy drive motor

[Anonymous Coward]

There are programs that make the Commodore 1541 floppy frive stepper motor play tunes.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Here is an example video from YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gnMgmlKi_o [youtube.com]

Re:

[bdjacobson]

Check out Treewave; this guy uses a Commodore 64 and printer head moving back and forth to make his music.

Sleep.mp3 [qotile.net]

There's another song available free; also at treewave.com

You insensitive clod..

[sw155kn1f3]

I have a passive cooler on my card.. No jingle bells for me? :(

Re:

[jo42]

No fans on any video cards around here - we like our Peace & Quiet.

Santa Wonders Why

[FrostedWheat]

He's not the only one.

Seriously...

[skeftomai]

...ScuttleMonkey. You can do better than that. This is not news for nerds, and it does not matter.

It is,

[iknownuttin]

This is not news for nerds, and it does not matter.

I don't know. That guy sure looked nerdy to me and he did a really nerdy, maybe even dorky thing.

Re:

[tristian_was_here]

Do you think that could be his way of picking up chicks? Playing Jingle Bells using his GFX card heatsink.

'Software-only' solution

[quazee]

You know, some older motherboards have these 'singing' coils - if you write a simple loop that changes the power draw of the CPU roughly 500-2000 times per second, you can make audible sound.
I bet you can play Jingle Bells this way without having to take anything apart :)

Re:

[i.of.the.storm]

No, wasn't is referring to office not lights. Office is the subject, full of guitar-controlled lights is a modifying phrase. If you're going to be pedantic, at least do it right...

Re:

[i.of.the.storm]

Err, WTF who mods grammar nazism up? Granted I was being a counter-grammar-nazi but still... and I'm pretty sure you don't moderate things underrated unless they are actually downmodded. But oh well, what do I care free karma for me?

Guitar Hero Lights

[cobryson]

So then how 'bout the Slashdot users mod up the Engadget Guitar Hero controlled Christmas light article so it makes the front page? The YouTube link is here...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkyrcW24USI In my opinion the work and ingenuity in this are a little lesser than 32 synchronized channels of Guitar Hero goodness. Disclaimer: My brother and I are the architects of the Guitar Hero (Frets on Fire) light display, so yes, I am self-promoting a bit. Thanks for your help!

Re:

[symbolic]

That was pretty clever. It has "geek" written all over it, and for those that deserve the title, it is one to be held with honor.

Re:

[caferace]

More critically, you deserve credit for convincing your management that that is actually work. Bravissimo! ;)

So what is it?

[neokushan]

Festive spirit, or incredibly slow news day?
You decide!

Re:

[mikesd81]

I think a little of both...

Re:

[19thNervousBreakdown]

Really.

*blank stare*

Damn

[Rip Dick]

If this guy ever did manage to get laid, making this video must have made him a virgin all over again.

What we expected (kinda) : Scanner music

[Scrameustache]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1tatiU2ha0 [youtube.com]

Vivaldi spring, happy easter everyone ;-)

Andy Warhol got it wrong . . .

[Trongy]

15 minutes is too long.

Tribute song

[davidwr]

Graphics Card, Graphics Card,
Strum that heat-sink loud.
More fun than an FPS
Under MS WinXP!

Now for something less lame...

[jay-be-em]

Wow, I was expecting some sort of ingenuity, not some dude plucking on a video card fan.

This is much more impressive: http://youtube.com/watch?v=0rA-zhTJuFU [youtube.com]

Re:

[the_humeister]

Just tried it. It doesn't work.

Re:

[DTemp]

I hope you seriously didn't just try that... 120VAC and 1.5VDC are different... NO that TV could not be powered by it.

Re:

[Jesus_666]

Mark Erickson, is that you?

Re:

[Zak3056]

Wow. Someone really must have been in the Christmas spirit to mod that post "informative." Here's a hint: 1.5VDC != 115VAC.

Re:

[mikiN]

That depends. When A,C,V are all unequal to zero, and A = 0.013043478D, 1.5VDC == 115VAC .

Re:

[sepelester]

rofl

Re:

[Poromenos1]

That's not more impressive. It might even be stupider than TFA.

Swoooooosh!

[jay-be-em]

And you might be even dumber than both.

Boy, that's lame

[Colin Smith]

Playing a tune on a graphics card heat sink...

This is how real engineers do it.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=mfWj1JZEntI [youtube.com]
 

Re:

[neminem]

Mod this one up, please.

I Think It's Cool

[CarbonRing]

To all the dorks who misread the post and expected something different: get over it. It says played on a heat sink not played with the fan.

I think it's pretty creative and well done for a 37-second YouTube video.

Not what I expected.

[dosun88888]

I figured he wrote some routines that somehow generated motion in the card due to the field changing relative to the magnet in the fan or something (thereby generating sound).

I don't think that I should have expected that, but I did.

Oh Yeah?

[Tablizer]

My harddrive started making clacking sounds, so I tuned it to make xmas songs and its far better th%.~`,. ; `

sound card and am radio

[grumling]

http://www.erikyyy.de/tempest/ [erikyyy.de] is using a video card to make music.

Keep your day job

[T1girl]

Honestly, this makes the http://www.links2love.com/christmas-dogs-cats-jingle-bells-songs.htm [links2love.com] dogs barking Jingle Bells and cats meowing We Wish You a Merry Christmas sound like The Hallelujah Chorus.

Re:

[GastonTheTruck]

At least it's not dogs and cats living together.

unique

[sepelester]

Unique only in that this could possibly be the worst, most unsatisfying non-news i've ever seen on /. Title says it all. Hilarity ensues. In Soviet Russia, accordion plays geek. Yoda not present in memory tech of the week is. WTF is wrong with you people?

Why it is on slashdot???

[boltik]

I paly on heatsinks too. I can play Beatles, Metallica, Nightwish, e.t.c. . And i found that you get the best tune of CPU heatsink. It just that i always run out of free time on my hands on B#...

Re: Jingle Bells Played With Graphics Card

[SigmundFloyd]

meh.

Dragon 32

[Fleetie]

Back in 1982 or 1983, when I had a Dragon 32, which output its video and audio via a UHF modulator to a TV, I noticed that various on-screen black-and-white (especially) patterns would cause buzz to come through on the TV audio channel (through which the Dragon's deliberate sound output also appeared). Some reader of a Dragon-oriented magazine also noticed this, and submitted a program to draw such patterns to the screen as to cause a "tune" to be heard via the mechanism of this "buzzing" interference betw