on 26 May 2009Just saw an advert for a computer power supply that described it as ‘very silent’. What’s ‘very silent’? Surely it’s either silent or it isn’t?
The ad went on to quote a noise level of 30dBA. On the logarithmic decibel scale, that’s ten times louder than 20dBA, for which the standard example is ‘rustling leaves’. Rustling leaves can’t be silent, or they’d just be leaves. How can something ten times louder than a non-silent thing be silent? Or if a computer with this type of fan really is ‘silent’, what’s the word for a fanless computer? And does it suck noise out of the room?
adambanksdotcom Apple founder @ronaldgwayne has had several careers; on this showing, tech policy punditry could be a keeper