   The Matrix has you! (A.K.A - God must use Windows)
  Here's a story that every conspiracy theorist, unexplained phenomenon whiz, and Matrix fan out there will love. Let me preface this by saying that I consider myself to be a pretty competent guy when it comes to just about anything technical, and I feel like I have a reasonable grasp on how the world works in general (Scientifically/Physically speaking), but this has me absolutely baffled. If anyone could give me any ideas on what may have caused this, I'd much appreciate being able to go back to feeling sane again! ^_^ So, with that said, onward to my little story!So today (Sunday, December 11th, 2005) at about 4:10 pm I am driving to my parents house for dinner. My wife is in the passenger seat and my little brother is in the back seat. We're heading down a neighborhood road about a block away from my parents when I hear a sound, and a quite loud one at that. I was a bit taken off guard, because we didn't have the radio going at the time, and there were no other devices in the vehicle that might make a noise except my cell phone, which happened to be set to "silent" at the moment. Even stranger, however, was that as a programmer/computer nerd I instantly, instinctively recognized the sound, as I suspect many people would. If you have a windows XP machine, you can hear it right now to:C:\WINDOWS\Media\Windows XP Ding.wavYes, that's right. Out of nowhere I heard the windows default "Ding" while driving around my parents neighborhood. The sound had no apparent source, and sounded at if it were coming out of a nice pair of (apparently invisible) headphones, and as I mentioned was quite loud. At first I thought I was going a bit loopy, and started checking the stereo and my phones. As I was doing this, though, my wife turns to me and says "What was that?" My brother too. We all heard it, loud and clear, a single, unmistakable "Ding."Well, we all puzzled and joked about it for a bit as I pulled up to my parents. My parents happened to be following us about half a block back in my dad's little pickup truck, and as they pulled up behind us and got out, my Mom overheard us talking and (here's where it gets weird) asked "Wait, did you hear that noise too? Like a computer beep?" My Dad apparently heard it as well, once again in very similar circumstances and at approximately the same time. Every single one of us clearly identified it as the windows "ding" noise, and none of us knew what it came from. My sister, who was already at home, heard nothing, so apparently it only happened to those of us in cars at the time.Can you see why I'm a bit puzzled?Quick fact's list: Five people total, all age groups, in two separate vehicles heard the noise and we all agreed on what it was. Both cars had their stereos either turned off or turned down completely at the time. No computer equipment was in either vehicle. The sound had no apparent source or direction, but definitely sounded as if it was coming from within the car rather than from outside. I'm not sure if both groups heard the sound at the same moment, or at the same location on the street, but it was certainly close to one another.And, well... that's it! We all heard a sound, none of us know where it came from or what caused it, and we all think it's strange. My personal theory? God must have switched to Windows, and some horrible error just occurred. Prepare to be formatted within the next few days! ^_^Once again, if anyone has any ideas as to what may have happened, I'd love to hear it, though I highly suspect that this is one of those odd thing's that I'll never really figure out.Thanks everybody for listening to my weird little tale!-Toji   
You should start a religion around that.As a side note, attempting to open up the Windows XP Ding sound through Firefox produces about 5 dings and then nothing, no evidence that it had played at all.   ;  Your whole family is going crazy.   ;  OMG so I am not going crazy you heard it too!!I am not joking I have heard this before as well and right off the bat was able to tell that it is the common windows ding sound. At first I thought it was comming from my radio because I listen to a radio station that is totaly computerized but I heard it a couple of times when my radio was turned all the way down. Just as clear as ever and right in my ears.   ;  That's totally weird.  Do you mind if I link to it on ghosts.org and see if anyone has suggestions?EDIT:  When I was younger I once heard a sound that sounded almost exactly like a sound made by an old Macintosh computer.  Unfortunately, either I was alone or I was the only one to hear it.   ;Quote:Original post by Oberon_CommandAs a side note, attempting to open up the Windows XP Ding sound through Firefox produces about 5 dings and then nothing, no evidence that it had played at all.;  < pot   ;  I was laying in bed once and heard the sound that Windwos plays when you log off. Fortunately it was only my nieghbor who had thier windows open and volume on thier computer up.   ;  So THAT'S why atheists use *nix.   ;  You probably just ran over a cat. That's all. A fat greasy cat. It hit the muffler.   