3100: Alert Sound

Alert Sound

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Title text: With a good battery, the device can easily last for 5 or 10 years, although the walls probably won't.

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Explanation

This is one of 52 incomplete explanations: This page was created recently by a BOT THAT GOES BOOP. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

Most computers play sounds to notify users of various events, such as a device being connected.

Randall proposes placing a small noise making device in the wall of a room that a computer is typically used in. Because the noisemaker is programmed to periodically play a "device connected" sound, this would cause concern for the occupant of the room.

Transcript

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[Cueball is sitting at his desk with a computer, surprised by a "Boop!" sound in the upper left part of the panel] Cueball: AAAAA! Cueball: I heard it again! Cueball: Where is that coming from.

[Caption below the panel:] It turns out living well is only the second best revenge. The best revenge is making a tiny hole in someone's wall and dropping in a battery-powered capsule that, every 6-12 hours, plays the alert sound of a USB device connecting

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Discussion

https://www.amazon.com/Funny-Pranks-Annoying-Noise-Maker/dp/B08KG6XHN1

The reviews are hilarious. 47.248.235.170 21:35, 9 June 2025 (UTC)Pat

Damn, someone beat me to it. If it didn't exist I was gonna make one and call it the "Randall 3100" aka "Black Hat 3100." 70.115.234.146 23:14, 9 June 2025 (UTC)

I think the original may be the Annoyatron, from Thinkgeek. I find references from 2007. Jordan Brown (talk) 23:35, 9 June 2025 (UTC)

Most smoke alarms are approximately 3100 Hz (the comic number). I wonder if this comic is a reference to the annoying low battery chirps from smoke alarms that can be difficult to locate. 2A09:BAC3:6227:1232:0:0:1D0:B9 00:49, 10 June 2025 (UTC)

Smoke alarms are supposed to be a lifesaving device, so WHY the hell to they chirp at such a wide interval?! If it was once every 10 seconds at least you'd be able to tell where it was coming from. And it gets even worse if you're in a public or apartment building with over a dozen of them. 24.177.125.170 06:51, 10 June 2025 (UTC)

But chirping that regularly would deplete the remaining battery much more quickly, potentially leaving the device dead before anyone was around to hear it.82.13.184.33 08:21, 12 June 2025 (UTC)

Devices like this but employing high frequency chirps have been around for at decades, notably from the specialty police and military supplier Shomer-Tec 71.36.121.121 03:44, 10 June 2025 (UTC)

Could a somewhat ‘living’ well dug on the ground the second best revenge in the joke? 物灵 (talk) 10:19, 10 June 2025 (UTC)

Ni shi zhongguoren ma? Wo shi meiguoren, but I think I misread "living well" the same way as you did. "well" as in "好", not "井". I was imagining some kind of horrifying well made out of meat. 205.185.98.6 18:05, 14 June 2025 (UTC)

Is this a reference to a previous XKCD? This feels to me strongly like I've seen something similar before, but I can't recall where. 2A02:5080:185D:FD9E:0:0:931:5001 11:19, 10 June 2025 (UTC)

Maybe you’re thinking of 1241: Annoying Ringtone Champion? Intara (talk) 12:17, 10 June 2025 (UTC)

Shades of the TellTale Heart. 192.183.232.193

A few years ago, I found that my laptop computer appeared to be beeping for about a minute every midnight. Somebody suggested to me it could be a smoke detector, but I eliminated that. Finally, I discovered that my weather station base station, which was positioned behind the laptop, had an alarm that had got switched on, default time midnight.--2A00:23C7:6700:9001:48C1:DEA:EA61:D57 09:40, 11 June 2025 (UTC)
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