The sound comes from the default system sounds of Windows XP, the Microsoft operating system released in 2001 that defined a generation of home computers. Its critical stop and error alerts became familiar from years of popups, crashes and frozen programs. Long after XP was retired, clips and remixes kept the chime alive online, including short musical versions credited to creators remixing the original ding. Editors now reuse it as shorthand for a technical failure, a bad idea, or anything that has stopped working.