bruit brute

I find increasingly that situation dominates choice of music. Riding the bus is, understandably, no place for Beethoven piano sonatas, nor for Metheny's solo (or duet with Haden) guitar - too much background noise. Usually though, the office is - absence of lyrics is good for concentration, calming influence is valuable.

That is, except for the brute. There's a laptop sitting across from me that makes as much noise idling (it has no concept of sleep) as a small Peugot, and more than my iBook at full BG2 power (I know nothing about game porting, but its slow, demanding and, in lieu of a full install option, accesses the optical drive almost constantly). My colleague never uses it, so it just sits there whining on the login screen, permanently. Ludwig van doesn't stand a chance.