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Comment by Zenst | Hacker News Reader

Well went thru the links and not one sound clip I heard of this noise - which I find equally just as odd, lots reports of the noise and clips of people getting there slot of TV fame, but not one link to the actual noise - least what I gleaned thru.

So who knows, just equally as odd no recordings I could find of this noise, though there must be some out there somewhere I'd imagine if it is that much of an issue.

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Yes, but article clearly states the neighbours can't stop talking about it. They're so busy talking about it that they haven't made time to record it.

Be patient. As soon as they all stop talking about it we can hear the noise.

What a BS linkbaity vaporous article. For all anyone knows Apple could be repairing an AC unit. Oh, and while I'm in a ranty mood. Aren't all labs "mysterious" from the outside?

That would hardly explain the hypervigilant security people harassing bystanders on public property and thoroughfares.

Isn't hypervigilant security normal for Apple?

No: I cut through parking lots and walk right next to lots of other Apple buildings in Sunnyvale. Occasionally I would see a guard in a car, but I'd never get stopped or questioned.

Given the ubiquity of sophisticated cell phones and other recording equipment, it's best to regard the lack of a recording as strong evidence that it does not exist. Just as if multiple people claimed the Loch Ness Monster had surfaced in San Francisco Bay but somehow there were no photographs of it.

It is incredibly hard to record silent noises with standard equipment.

Cell phones have shitty mics (because physics).

You would need a condenser microphone for low level noises. Around $100.

TV camera crews have them, not even one stood around waiting for the sounds?

Even better, hang it from a 20' cable below a drone and fly it over. Stream the audio back in case they somehow manage to disable the drone. I'm sure lots of people in the Bay Area have the equipment right now to do this, just a matter of if anyone cares.

You'd need a good wind blocker on the mic, and you'd get a lot of drag from the 20' cable, but this seems doable.

Pardon my ignorance, but is it really feasible for a drone to carry a 20 foot cable with a mic? Wouldn't it drag pretty far behind the drone, making it unwieldy? Wouldn't you need 20 additional feet of clearance to avoid obstacles? There aren't a lot of tall buildings in Sunnyvale, but there are birds and other drones in the sky.

I think this thread is a bit pie in the sky and a bit of "just for fun" impracticality, but I do think one of the bigger octo drones, carefully piloted, could pull it off.

Ah, drones seem so magical and powerful to me that I didn't pick up on it :)

Remote-activated cable reel. Roll it up and get into position, then lower the skyhook. Pack it back up and fly off into the sunset! Now I want to do this. Yes you'd need a big wind screen (they make those and they're not crazy expensive) and a fairly large drone to deal with the extra weight of a condenser mic + XLR cable + 48v phantom power circuit + any reel mechanism, but considering the payload capacities of current drones in the 1-2kg range for a DJI Phantom 2 ( http://www.phantompilots.com/threads/flying-at-high-density-... ), it would require some engineering (and maybe removing the mic from the heavy casing or finding a really light mic), but definitely not impossible or even very challenging to do with off-the-shelf stuff and a bit of diddling.

In a few years we'll just have autonomous micro-drones flying directly into Apple's secret buildings streaming video back.

a few years? who's to say it's not already happening?

Why not a video drone ?

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