I found some chatter about Beeps at Osterman's blog that indicates perhaps what some people are still doing, but I think I've forgotten too much ancient history to figure out all of what they're talking about, or perhaps I just never got into that. The chat is a couple of years old.

I don't see a "solution" there, but it might be of interest for the curious. Osterman says he filed it as "Microsoft History, Fascinating geek stuff, Audio," which I guess describes the conversation.

John