startup chime
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Apple's Mac startup chime now a registered trademark
Ever since the first Mac was sold back in 1984, Apple's computer line has emitted a beep or chime when starting up. It's kind of a way of saying "Hello" to you while letting you know that the computer is going to start going through its boot process. That startup chime is now a registered trademark according to a post on Patently Apple. The startup chime is referred to by the US Patent and Trademark Office as a "sensory mark," and was defined on Apple's original trademark application as "a sound mark consisting of a slightly flat (by approximately 30 cents) G flat/F sharp major chord. Want to annoy your friends or family by playing that startup chime over and over, ad infinitum? You can download it from the USPTO here.
StartupSound.prefPane
This one is for all you folks who hate the OS X startup sound. StartupSound.prefPane allows you to control the volume of the startup chime on any Mac running OS X 10.4 or later. This little prefPane is in beta, and the developer recommends that you back up your important data before you install it (which is always a good idea).I enjoy the startup chime, so I see no reason to use this but I suppose someone out there is angered every time they hear it.[via Slash Dot Dash]