That reminds me of a couple tricks I used to use in the old days. As an alarm clock I'd do:
$ sleep 28800; while :; do cat /etc/termcap; done >/dev/audio
I found that termcap had just the right mix of structure and randomness to make an annoying noise that was really hard to sleep through.
Another classic was:
$ ping -f hostname >/dev/audio
When you have zero packet loss, "ping -f" would generate an endless sequence of '.' and '\b' characters, resulting in a constant tone. When there is 100% loss you only get the '.' characters and the sound will stop. In between, you'll get a progressively noisier sound. Then just turn the speakers on your SPARCstation all the way up and crawl around the lab, flexing the 10base2 cabling until you find what segment is causing that irritating intermittent problem!
Another classic was:
When you have zero packet loss, "ping -f" would generate an endless sequence of '.' and '\b' characters, resulting in a constant tone. When there is 100% loss you only get the '.' characters and the sound will stop. In between, you'll get a progressively noisier sound. Then just turn the speakers on your SPARCstation all the way up and crawl around the lab, flexing the 10base2 cabling until you find what segment is causing that irritating intermittent problem!