Pimpin' ain't easy...

But moving the Annoy-a-tron around is. Big J doesn't seem interested in trying to locate it any more, so I amuse myself by sneaking in and moving it around his office, cycling between the different bloops, turning it off for an hour or two at a time. I get a warm feeling every time I'm near his end of the building and I hear a chirp or beep.

The return of the status report

Lawls:

"Continuing to determine source of beep in my office."

Quiet desperation

Day 2 begins. I forgot to turn the 'Tron off last night before I left, so it's still going today. Like clockwork, it went off during the morning programmer's meeting. Big J sighs and looks at the wall, where he now thinks the beep is coming from. "Yes, the beep is still with us," he says resignedly. "I'm going to turn everything off today and wait to hear it again. Maybe I can figure out where it's coming from." Briefly, I feel pity for him, then I start laughing and struggle to stay silent. By the time he looks my direction, I'm under control again. I screw my face up to look like a guy who's curious and amused (but not too amused) by his plight.

I'm considering switching it to the other beep today (the 2kHz one without 'static') just to mix things up. I also had fun imagining the chaos that would ensue if I could somehow get the device into his car, or even better, his backpack. "The noise-- it follows me!"

More to come.

Can't stand the heat...

Man, I'm glad that's not my office. We had a 45 minute long meeting in Big J's office, and that chirping about drove me mad. Kudos to the other devs for giving uniformly unhelpful suggestions on what it might be:

"Is that your cell phone charger?"
"Could be your GPU fan..."
"Dunno, it sounded like the AC or something."

Greg suggested I turn it off for a week or so, let him get comfortable with the silence again. That may be too long, but a day or so of quiet might be nice. Or maybe we try the 2kHz setting. I'll leave it to a vote: should Big J get a rest? Or should we keep the heat on?

Once more unto the breech

Annoy-a-tron: ACTIVATED.

Big J put on a brave face, but I can tell this is going to be a rough day for him. It's easy to get comfortable in the new office he's set up for himself, but that noise is back. What could it be? He's going to retrace his steps, think about everything he moved around. Maybe moving the UPS set it off again? Maybe it wasn't the UPS? What seemed so simple and sure, the obvious answer to the problem, has now become murky and unclear again. This is the apotheosis of programmer's madness: the Heisenbug.

So today we'll let our little device run its course. I'll keep posting as often as I can sneak by and chart the progress of my plan, without arousing suspicion.