Get the *bleep* out

The PC speaker beeps irritate.

Here's how to turn the beep off for X window:
xset b off

Here's how to turn the beep off for bash:
Edit .inputrc (or /etc/inputrc if you want this systemwide) to reflect:
set bell-style none
Set the bell-style to visual if you want a visual bell instead.

For vim, edit the .vimrc to contain
set visualbell