ERIC S. RAYMOND writes about trying to quiet a computer. My old computer sounded like a Harrier taking off. My Dell is so quiet it’s hard to tell it’s on. That’s how I “quieted” my computer. Eric’s approach is a bit more hands-on.

When recording music into the old computer, I threw a comforter over it, which worked pretty well when coupled with pointing the microphone so as to pick up as little as possible. One thing that Eric touches on that is absolutely right is that volume is only part of the issue: the pitch of the noise is also important. Best: “white noise” from rushing air. Worse: multiple discordant pitches from different cooling fans, drives, etc. The intrusiveness (in recording) and fatigue level (in just working) from different kinds of noise varies much more than the volume.

I don’t think designers of computers — or other noisy products — give this much thought, but they should. Noise is a qualitative matter as much as a quantitative one.

Natch, one of Eric’s commenters says “get a Mac!” Problem is, lots of music software that I use — especially the superb Sonic Foundry Acid Pro — isn’t available for the Mac. And there’s just nothing comparable to Acid.