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Knock Some Commands Into Your Laptop
An anonymous reader writes "For the first time, you can smack your computer and get a meaningful response! An article at IBM Devworks show you how to rap on the laptop case with your knuckles and have commands run on those knocks. Enterprising hackers have developed modules for the Linux kernel to take advantage of laptop integrated accelerometer sensors; with them the possibilities are endless."
...using Ralph Kramden's wife.
A MacOSX program called VirtuaDesktops has integrated this sort of thing, but it's still a bit finicky. You knock the laptop and it switches to the next desktop in the direction you knocked. It needs some debouncing because the recoil often just switches you right back to where you were.
[
IBM's warranty calls for failed drives shot through the roof.
I don't know about you, but I would not go out of my way to subject a laptop to sudden motion intentionally while the hard drive is running, no matter how well the hard drives are built. If I spend $2,000 on a laptop, I'd want the thing to last.
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
This has been around for months on the MacBook Pro in the form of Smackbook. The user simply hits his MBP to switch desktops. In this case, one of the desktops is running OS X, the other XP via Parallels.
Sunwalker Dezco for Warchief in 2016
Enterprising hackers have developed modules for the Linux kernel to take advantage of laptop integrated accelerometer sensors; with them the possibilities are endless
... that would be useful.
I'm waiting for them to enable the self destruct sequence on Dell laptops
...my laptop to detect opportunity when it knocks?
How 'bout compiler engines? Will it detect knocking in them?
Cloned foods give the statement "We had that last week!" a whole new meaning.
...usually when I hit my laptop, it's because it's already frozen.
The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
Maybe we should just start putting in different types of random sensors in laptops that can pull data from the emediate environment and see what the hackers can do with them. Some suggestions:
Gyroscopes for Orientation (pitch,roll,yaw)
More accelerometers
Altimeter
GPS
External temperature,humidity, pressure
Pressure sensors (which determine how hard the user is banging on the keyboard in aggrevation).
Thermal imaging
$7.95/mo, 200 GB disk, 2TBxfer, MySQL, PHP, RoR.
... What seems to be the problem?
"Uh, well, I was drunk and I, uh... My screen is cracked."
Boot Windows, Linux, and ESX over the network for free.
One knock for yes, two knocks for no, and three knocks for cancel
knock knock knock smack smack smack knock knock knock
It looks like you're calling for help.
Would you like help?
* Telegraph CQD RAPE RAPE STOP NEED HELP PDQ STOP
* Just signal your distress without help
Constitutional rights may be respected, repealed, or modified; but they must never be ignored.
What they need to do to install the sensors int the monitors of desktops because that's were the average user will hit they computer.
My guess is that most people get fixated on the monitor or don't realize that if they wanted to do damage then need to strike the components that actually do the work.
I think I think, therefore I think I am.
Aside from the fact that encouraging people to gradually ruin their notebook's hard drive, this idea is the next "MOUSE GESTURING".
Write press release - introduce a few whiz-bang apps or games - stumble over an article about the concept ten years later and laugh at the idea all over again.
At least it's not the next Z-Board.
1. chair impact detected
2. sell microsoft stock
3. buy google stock
4. profit!
Lots of fun at the coffee shop.
I'm not a Troll, it's reverse psychology.
... that everyone's new password will be "shave and a haircut"
So, will this allow a true port knocking protocol to be implemented?
"Why isn't the USB port working?"
"Knock first!"
"Help, help, come see the vviolence in the system... help, help, I'm being repressed!!!"
GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
Typing ls was too much for people?
This is even cooler - using Virtual Desktops, Shadowbook, and Parallels Desktop, you can switch between OS X and Windows just by waving your hand over the ambient light sensor in the MacBook Pro ...
Peep a video here:
http://blog.medallia.com/2006/06/shadowbook.html
Cheers!
I would hate to get owned by someone who didn't even have their laptop open.
It would be a great way to input Morse Code into a laptop. It could be integrated into a program which teaches Morse Code and would be fun to learn.
the more they over-think the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the pipe
Future of laptop communications between laptop and its owner...
Laptop owner (trying knock commands): knock knock
Laptop: who's there?
Laptop owner: me
Laptop: me who?
Laptop owner (frustrated, tries again): knock knock
Laptop: who's there?
Laptop owner: your owner
Laptop: your owner who?
Laptop owner: want your owner to knock you on the ground again?
Laptop: okay, okay, no need to become violent!
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." Albert Einstein
I've been able to slap some sense into my windows for quite some time now. It comes built-in to X11.
First off, choose a cursor theme in which the cursor for moving a window is a hand, such as any of the comix cursor themes in Debian. Next, on those rare occasions when a program misbehaves, hold down the Alt key to warn the window. Finally, click and drag the mouse anywhere on the offending window briefly, while the Alt key is still held down.
Congratulations, you've just slapped some sense into the misbehaving window.
It must be Windows. It needs half a gig of RAM and a hardware-accelerated graphics card just to run Solitaire.
Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious man page of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, to page down I started tapping,
On the case of laptop rapping, rapping to see one page more.
`'Tis a kernel module,' said I, `understanding taps galore -
Only this, and nothing more.'
Why doesn't the gene pool have a life guard?
A completely obvious application:
Whack the monitor with your right hand to produce a carriage return and a ding.
Would that not be totally retro-cool?
With reasonable men I will reason; with humane men I will plead; but to tyrants I will give no quarter. -- William Lloyd
The sudden motion the sensors were originally designed to sense was the first stage of it starting to fall off of a desk or table, onto the floor. If it took very much shock energy to trip the sensor, it would be totally useless - since it would basically be asking the hard drive to shut down after the computer already hit the floor.
Therefore, the sensors are very sensitive - registering a response to levels of shock well below what would actually harm a spinning laptop hard drive. (If your drive was fragile enough to crash because of someone lightly tapping on the top of the notebook's case, or giving a light tap to the side of the unit to switch virtual screens, it would also die whenever someone tried to move around to get moer comfortable with their laptop in their lap, or adjiust the position of the lid, or.... (you get the idea).
This stuff seems perfectly harmless to me, as long as users exercise some common sense. (Obviously - it was NEVER a good idea to whack your computer hard on the side or top!)
Now what I want to see is software that monitors the knocking and phones home to us if one of our users is smacking the crap out of one of our laptops, so we can spring in on them and catch them in the act. That would rock.
I'm really trying to think of how this would be useful in any way. Sure it's a pretty cool gimmick to be slapping your laptop around, especially for all the folks out there with sadistic tendencies, but can it really accomplish anything that couldn't be accomplished with an ordinary laptop? Which would be easier, switching desktops by hitting Ctrl+F2 or reaching up and tapping the side of your laptop screen? It takes longer and is a waste of energy. (I mean, isn't that the reason people are so crazy about Vim and Emacs? The fact that you don't have to lift your hands from the keyboard?)
I will admit that being able to lock and unlock your computer through a series of taps is pretty nifty, but the same feature could be accomplished through timed keystrokes and so forth. And people have already mentioned possible affects on the hardware.
It seems to me that this will be more of a niche product, sort of like the thumbprint scanners seem to be nowadays.
What? All these jokes about knocking on laptops and nothing about bash errors?
bash: shave-and-a-haircut: command not found
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass