Microsoft reveals Janet Jackson song could damage laptops – even if it’s not playing on them | Science & Technology News

The music video for Janet Jackson’s 1989 hit Rhythm Nation was impressive in terms of its choreography and direction.

Its misty noir style has won numerous awards, including the Grammy Award for Best Long Form Music Video.

But the incest pop music video also has something else – the power to break a laptop with it Microsoftand not just the stuff it’s playing.

In a blog post this week, the company’s lead software engineer, Raymond Chen, said a colleague recently shared a story with him about his days providing product support for Windows XP.

“A major computer manufacturer discovered that playing music videos for Janet Jackson‘Rhythm Nation’ will damage certain laptop models,” wrote Mr. Chen.

It’s not just this manufacturer. The investigation found that playing music videos also caused some of their competitors’ laptops to crash.

But the strangest discovery has yet to come.

It doesn’t even need to be a laptop to play music videos. Simply playing a music video on one laptop can cause another nearby laptop to crash.

“It turned out that the song contained one of the natural resonant frequencies for the 5400 rpm laptop hard drive model they and other manufacturers used,” explains Mr. Chen.

The problem is similar to how an opera singer can break a glass by singing a particular tune.

Because sound is simply a sound wave, there is a wavelength or frequency for each material that can produce the most vibration, known as the resonant frequency of the medium.

As for the affected laptops – shipped circa 2005, according to a vulnerability report filed by The Miter Corporation – that frequency appeared in Janet Jackson’s music video.

Miter describes the issue as a security flaw that could allow an attacker to force a system crash using audio cues from the Rhythm Nation music video.

Thankfully, today’s laptops won’t have the same problem – Microsoft says the manufacturer has added “a custom filter in the audio pipeline to detect and remove offending frequencies in the process.” audio playback”.