I loved the paper! The technique its authors present is more elaborated, though: they mix different sounds extracted from nature, such as birds and wind, and allow mixing different streams to create something pleasant to a sysadmin's ears. I liked this paragraph in special:

"Due to copyright limitations on existing natural sound collections, Prof. Couch has spent many hours with a Telinga parabolic nature microphone and Sony DAT or digital minidisc recorder in search of the perfect bird."

Thanks for sharing this paper!

The snoop command on SunOS and IRIX had it in the 90s too.