I was scrolling Hacker News on my phone today—or is that just a ‘me’ thing? I noticed a 2022 blog post from MSDN/Microsoft resurface detailing a bizarre issue: 5400 RPM laptop drives crashing when playing Janet Jackson’s ‘Rhythm Nation.’
The resulting Hacker News thread features a fascinating conversation on the topic
I also found a clip from Steve Gibson’s Security Now podcast [Episode 855 – 23rd of August, 2022] where he discusses the absurdity of the situation
Normally, it’s Taylor Swift that makes my hard drives fail, but that might have more to do with smashing whatever is playing the music with a metal baseball bat like some kind of sleep-deprived “Rage Quit Michael”
It’s worth a read if you haven’t explored this strange rabbit hole yet