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Physix Frontier · News Briefing Card (IT Home · Nov 9, 2026)

Engineer open-sources script that reports idle RAM to Altman daily

KEY FACTS

  • Altman said personal computers leave large amounts of memory idle for long periods, sparking consumer controversy.
  • Engineer IainKay developed a Bash script called Ram-Altman that automatically reports idle memory.
  • The script checks memory every 5 minutes and triggers an email whenever available memory exceeds 10% of total capacity.
  • Each user can send at most one email per day, and the script has been uploaded to GitHub and released for free.
  • The developer warns against sending emails at scale, since 10,000 participants would amount to a de facto DDoS.

KEY DATA

5 minutesMemory check interval
Available memory exceeds 10% of total capacityTrigger threshold
1Daily email limit per person
8 subjects, 10 bodies, 6 signaturesNumber of email templates

PHYSIX OBSERVATION

This is a textbook sample of expressing dissatisfaction through engineering: Altman's idle-memory claim is detached from real consumer usage scenarios, and the script turns an abstract controversy into a quantifiable daily reminder. The notable signal is that the developer himself pointed out the boundary between a joke and harassment - once an open-source tool spirals out of scale, the risk is often more worth watching than the original remark.

Source: IT Home report