Pump Up the Volume

This morning I was listening to some MP3s on my computer. A particularly fine tune came on (Holst's Second Suite for Military Band) and I wanted to crank the volume (I was wearing headphones so as not to disturb the cats or make the neighbors think I am any weirder than they already do). So I turned up the volume dial on my Toshiba laptop. Then I turned up the volume in Windows Media Player. Then I turned up the volume in the Windows Control Panel. Just for the sake of completeness, I walked around the house and also turned up other random volume dials (clock radio, stereo in basement, stereo in car) in case I'd missed anything.

Maybe a little change in UI design required?

Comments

• Anonymous
  March 20, 2005
  Word.
• Anonymous
  March 20, 2005
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  March 20, 2005
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  March 20, 2005
  I have made Chris Sells laugh. My day is complete. :-)
• Anonymous
  March 20, 2005
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  March 20, 2005
  I don't know. It sounds like a reasonable feature for Longhorn, but I've mostly been paying attention to what APIs it will expose.
• Anonymous
  March 21, 2005
  Just for reference:
  
  http://www.tomservo.cc/temp/lhvolume.jpg
  
  Not sure if that was just a concept or not. I think I played with it in the early Longhorn builds, but frankly, it's too long ago to remember.
• Anonymous
  March 22, 2005
  Cool!
• Anonymous
  March 22, 2005
  My HP laptop's volume dials are controlling Windows's overall volume setting, while Media Player volume control sets the volume for only itself.
  This way, I can ensure, the New Mail Notification "Ding" is not going to rip my eardrums.
  
  I think it's one of your competitor's media players who assumes power over my machine's volume and it's definetely not what I wish for.
  
  So I'd cheer a mixer control that would let me adjust the volume of all media applications, running or not.