🪙Millennial Gold, Exploding Fuses, and Random Computer Music

Fur Elise is that you?

Mar 28, 2022

Hey everyone! How are you doing this week?

Easter is right around the corner - and I didn’t get the chance to process that St. Patrick’s day was already two weeks ago.

Here in Tennessee, we’re having a pretty serious cold front come through this week. Down to the 40’s!

There’s a meme that goes around every year about Tennessee weather. We’re currently in third Winter I believe.

Personally, I’m ok with all of these until “Summer the Sequel.” There’s nothing sadder than pulling out the winter clothes and not being able to wear your favorite sweater because it’s still 88 degrees outside.

Have you seen The Batman yet?

My expectations were completely blown away - it’s seriously contending for my favorite Batman movie - and I loved Nolan’s trilogy.

It’s WAY more focused on the detective elements - rather than flashy tech. This Batman has to rely wayyy more on his observation skills than on owning a tank with missile launchers.

AND THE CAR. I was skeptical when I saw it was just an overhauled muscle vehicle, but it won me over after that scene with the Penguin.

Gets me really excited for the Twisted Metal show Anthony Mackie will be starring in.

Oh - before I forget, here’s a link to my online NFT gallery. These are the favorites I’ve collected since last year. Currently - my favorite NFT is this one by Felix Schlater.

Check this out! It’s a 1 of 1 from Felix’s Rosko & Friends collection.

It’s so cool!

Let’s dive on in.

🪙Millennial Gold

I’ve always wondered how the old world of “gold and silver” would make an inroad into the millennial consciousness.

Not many collect Gold or Silver coins like previous generations.

There’s crypto solutions like PAX Gold, but what about real gold “in the hand?”

How do Marketers sell the “robinhood” generation gold?

Well - by going the subscription model that Millennials eat up like free samples at the grocery store. You subscribe to everything else - why not gold too?

And we get to keep it too. It’s ours! Our own . . our . . . preciousssssss

My friend recently shared a company called Acre Gold with me. It’s a subscription gold service, and you can subscribe to getting gold bars for the price of $50 a month.

Once your monthly payment adds up to 2.5 grams of gold - they ship you your physical gold bar.

Well - micro nugget I should say, but gold is gold.

There it is! A little itty bitty bar of gold. Based on current gold prices, it looks like you’d get one delivered every 3 months or so.

Heck - based on the size, it looks wallet-sized, just in case you need to trade using gold?

For that moment when cash and credit fail, keep your wallet gold close by. LOL

I wonder how Acre Gold works on the backend - How much of an upcharge are they making - or - Do they buy the gold when it dips and sell at some sort of “stable” price?

Articles from 2019 seemed to indicate that their initial plans were $30 a month - but that may have just been an introductory offer.

In any case - along with your gold - you receive a soft touch box with a display drawer - so you can show off your gold to friends.

That’s an interesting element in and of itself - the idea that you’d show it off to your friends. It elevates the asset to the “clout” level of an NFT or a nice gaming PC.

Check it out at the link!

GOLD

💥Exploding Fuses

Did you know that when the Nintendo Switch updates, it explodes?

Seriously. It blows a fuse with every update.

The boot loader verifies a specific fuse, FUSE_RESERVED_ODM7, to prevent downgrading.1 Each software version expects a different number of fuses to be blown — if more than is expected, it fails to boot, and if less, it’ll blow those fuses and then proceed to boot. Blowing a fuse is irreversible— once it’s been set it can never be undone. (source)

The goal is to prevent users from modifying their Switches using exploits in older versions.

Once the fuse is blown - you can no longer downgrade to a previous version. You’re stuck - trapped in the version Nintendo wants you to have.

How many fuses are there to play with? 32 - So Nintendo can push out 32 fuse blowing updates over the life of the device.1 Read more about this here, courtesy of Jon Luca’s research.

If you’re unfamiliar with Nintendo in this area - they really, really, really don’t like people who get outside the box and mess around with their Switches.

Switch Games are fun, but what about running PSP games on the Switch? or Steam?

Like this . . .

Homebrew enthusiasts are forever caught in a battle with Nintendo - searching for weaknesses in a great wall of software and hardware defenses.

Allegedly, there are still two ways to avoid the “fuse blowing” trick that Nintendo has been employing. Jon Luca mentions them here.

I’m convinced that many modders are adrenaline junkies - just like those people flying around in Squirrel suits.

You’re only one line of code away from turning your device into a paperweight. Will it work? Will it fail? Will I get to experience Windows 11 on my Nintendo Switch?

Hey - I get it. I regularly sign up for beta programs of different apps. The Spotify beta version two months ago almost bricked my phone - I had to start from scratch.

Go check out the daring escapades of the the Switch Homebrew community at the link! It’s wild how much work they’ve gone to to find their way around Nintendo’s defenses.

NH Switch Guide

🎵Random Computer Music

Picture this - you’re sitting at your computer working on a Excel sheet in the early 2000’s - and suddenly Fur Elise starts playing from your computer . . . .

WHAT

Unfortunately, I never had the opportunity to witness this madness as a kid - and it tends to be my computers that mess up.

Why does it play music?

No, it’s not a sanity test.

During normal operation or in Safe mode, your computer may play "Fur Elise" or "It's a Small, Small World" seemingly at random. This is an indication sent to the PC speaker from the computer's BIOS that the CPU fan is failing or has failed, or that the power supply voltages have drifted out of tolerance. This is a design feature of a detection circuit and system BIOSes developed by Award/Unicore from 1997 on. (source)

Honestly - I’d expect that to be a feature that might be mentioned in the manual?

Hey - if your computer is playing music, your fan isn’t doing so well.

Here. See it happen in this ancient 2007 YT video.

Searching for this topic on the internet surfaces a lot of ancient topics and threads from over a decade ago - as people tried to figure out why in the world their old computers played music at random.

Here’s some fun stories . . .

I had this problem about a decade ago and IT at my company couldn't figure out what was wrong. They thought it was a virus, so they reformatted the HDD and reinstalled windows. That didn't fix it so they then installed a new HDD. That didn't fix it so they put in new RAM. That didn't fix it either so IT claimed I was playing a prank on them. (source)

This would be terrifying.

Holy shit. As a small child, I was awoken at 3 AM by my computer playing Fur Elise. I did not go back to sleep. Thanks for making me remember that. (source)

Personally, I agree with this commentator.

I read that Beethoven goes about sabotaging these old motherboards 'cause he gets royalties every time one malfunctions. (source)

Go check out the ancient thread for more tales! It’s a fun read about a bizarre obscure issue.

Why Fur Elise?

Need more to read? This Hacker News thread from 2011 is fun too

MOAR RANDOM MUSIC

🐙The Land of Random

Random? Random!

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