pc speaker
 

How do I disable the pc speaker ( I do not want to hear "beeps" when I shutdown / press backspace too many times in vi / etc. )

Not sure if you can under Linux (yeah i'm sure there's a way but I've never come across it)... but you could always just pull out the cable that connects it to the motherboard :D

I use a laptop - so I don't really want to open it up.

you should be able to export "bell-style=none" under bash to stop it. alternatively next time you compile your own kernel, leave out pcskpr support.

"xset -b" worked for me