The Matrix has you! (A.K.A - God must use Windows)
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I've got a real WTF for you all! Ever get an error message on life?
Here's a story that every conspiracy theorist, unexplained phenomenon
whiz, and Matrix fan out there will love. Let me preface this by saying
that I consider myself to be a pretty competent guy when it comes to
just about anything technical, and I feel like I have a reasonable
grasp on how the world works in general (Scientifically/Physically
speaking), but this has me absolutely baffled. If anyone could give me
any ideas on what may have caused this, I'd much appreciate being able
to go back to feeling sane again! ^^ So, with that said, onward to my
little story!
So today (Sunday, December 11th, 2005) at about 4:10 pm I am driving to
my parents house for dinner. My wife is in the passenger seat and my
little brother is in the back seat. We're heading down a neighborhood
road about a block away from my parents when I hear a sound, and a
quite loud one at that. I was a bit taken off guard, because we didn't
have the radio going at the time, and there were no other devices in
the vehicle that might make a noise except my cell phone, which
happened to be set to "silent" at the moment. Even stranger, however,
was that as a programmer/computer nerd I instantly, instinctively
recognized the sound, as I suspect many people would. If you have a
windows XP machine, you can hear it right now to:
C:\WINDOWS\Media\Windows XP Ding.wav
Yes, that's right. Out of nowhere I heard the windows default "Ding"
while driving around my parents neighborhood. The sound had no apparent
source, and sounded at if it were coming out of a nice pair of
(apparently invisible) headphones, and as I mentioned was quite loud.
At first I thought I was going a bit loopy, and started checking the
stereo and my phones. As I was doing this, though, my wife turns to me
and says "What was that?" My brother too. We all heard it, loud and
clear, a single, unmistakable "Ding."
Well, we all puzzled and joked about it for a bit as I pulled up to my
parents. My parents happened to be following us about half a block back
in my dad's little pickup truck, and as they pulled up behind us and
got out, my Mom overheard us talking and (here's where it gets weird)
asked "Wait, did you hear that noise too? Like a computer beep?" My Dad
apparently heard it as well, once again in very similar circumstances
and at approximately the same time. Every single one of us clearly
identified it as the windows "ding" noise, and none of us knew what it
came from. My sister, who was already at home, heard nothing, so
apparently it only happened to those of us in cars at the time.
Can you see why I'm a bit puzzled?
Quick fact's list: Five people total, all age groups, in two separate
vehicles heard the noise and we all agreed on what it was. Both cars
had their stereos either turned off or turned down completely at the
time. No computer equipment was in either vehicle. The sound had no
apparent source or direction, but definitely sounded as if it was
coming from within the car rather than from outside. I'm not sure if
both groups heard the sound at the same moment, or at the same location
on the street, but it was certainly close to one another.
And, well... that's it! We all heard a sound, none of us know where it
came from or what caused it, and we all think it's strange. My personal
theory? God must have switched to Windows, and some horrible error just
occurred. Prepare to be formatted within the next few days! ^^
Once again, if anyone has any ideas as to what may have happened, I'd
love to hear it, though I highly suspect that this is one of those odd
thing's that I'll never really figure out.
Thanks everybody for listening to my weird little tale!
-Toji
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Maybe some parts of your car has some built-in windows software and there was a crash?
I think you spend too much time on the computer though, thus you begin to hallucinate and hear computer sounds in real life. This is quite normal though, I wouldn't be too worried.
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Perhaps people in a house nearby had their home cinema system up too loud, by accident, and the window open, and then something happened, and you'd hear DING in a 100ft radius.
Were the car windows open?
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Nope, no open windows. (Otherwise it would make more sense to me...)
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Since we, in fact, don't live in a movie........I'm guessing it was a loud sound from outside the car. Crosswalks make loud beeps these days for the blind.........coulda been anyones stereo blaring outside......hell, it coulda been your radios, which you said were either off or turned all the way down. It's possible they were turned ALMOST all the way down such that normal volumes weren't noticeable, but one extra-loud tune you could hear. It would require both cars to have the same station set, obviously, but it's possible.
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Both cars ran over some object on the ground which produced the sound. Like a crushed metal can or something.
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Meh. Been there, done that. God didn't send you a windows XP ding. You heard a sound that sounded remarkably like one.
The human brain mutates stimuli into stimuli it's familar with. Think of the phenomenon of people constantly seeing Jesus and other saints in marble, french toast, cinnamon buns, and grilled cheese sandwiches. Objectively speaking these things in reality look nothing like jesus/the virgin mary/mother theresa. But the we WANT to see familiar shapes in objects, and hear familiar sounds, etc.
I, and several family members once heard the ICQ "message received" sound in a parking garage. Well, we heard a noise that, to our well-conditioned minds, sounded rather similar to it.
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@merreborn said:
Meh. Been there, done that. God didn't send you a windows XP ding. You heard a sound that sounded remarkably like one.
The human brain mutates stimuli into stimuli it's familar with. Think of the phenomenon of people constantly seeing Jesus and other saints in marble, french toast, cinnamon buns, and grilled cheese sandwiches. Objectively speaking these things in reality look nothing like jesus/the virgin mary/mother theresa. But the we WANT to see familiar shapes in objects, and hear familiar sounds, etc.
I, and several family members once heard the ICQ "message received" sound in a parking garage. Well, we heard a noise that, to our well-conditioned minds, sounded rather similar to it.
or you were being watched by the CIA from the back of that black SUV and he'd forgotten his headphones, and was chatting to his wife.
but i didnt give you that tip.
i cant stay any longer.
this might be my last comm for a while.......................
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Well, since a bunch of you heard it I'd say its not a hallucination.
Though, it would be a nice explaination. Used to have those horrible
ICQ sounds jumping at me all the time at least for 6 months after I
stopped using it. In any kind of circumstance. Since then I always turn
any and all system sounds of on any computer I'm using. ;)
