Got this from the Time Management for System Administrators book

ping hostname | tr : ^G

To get the ^G (or system beep), you will need to press CTRL-V and then CTRL-G.

My server was down due to the usb drive issues, so having this line allowed me to work on other things, while waiting for the data center to restart it. Also useful when doing cabling.

Sound when used appropriately, can be a very user friendly notification tool on the status of your systems.