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Knock Some Commands Into Your Laptop

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the wake-up dept.

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."

25 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. multiple desktop switching by Speare · · Score: 4, Informative

    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.

    --
    [ .sig file not found ]
    1. Re:multiple desktop switching by Jeff+DeMaagd · · Score: 4, Informative

      Definitely not the "first time", though maybe a first for Linux.

      I think there is a video called "SmackBook" that demonstrates the use of the software you described. I thought it was posted on Slashdot.

    2. Re:multiple desktop switching by Rude+Turnip · · Score: 5, Funny

      The most amusing of the Macbook motion sensor apps is Macsaber, which creates various lightsaber sounds in response to you swinging around your laptop. It's fun for the first 5 minutes until you remember how much your Macbook cost.

      --
      Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
  2. Within moments of this article being posted... by DietCoke · · Score: 5, Funny

    IBM's warranty calls for failed drives shot through the roof.

  3. I don't know about you, but. . . by kimvette · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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
    1. Re:I don't know about you, but. . . by antifoidulus · · Score: 4, Funny

      btw. hitting your wife is so 70's. Now its all about hitting computers.

      That is where most of us get our sex anways.....

      --
      Monstar L
  4. This is not new by SuperMog2002 · · Score: 5, Informative

    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
  5. pffft ... by Average_Joe_Sixpack · · Score: 4, Funny

    Enterprising hackers have developed modules for the Linux kernel to take advantage of laptop integrated accelerometer sensors; with them the possibilities are endless
     
    I'm waiting for them to enable the self destruct sequence on Dell laptops ... that would be useful.

  6. So I can use... by NoseBag · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...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.
    1. Re:So I can use... by twiddlingbits · · Score: 3, Funny

      No knocks to worry about if you write High Octane Code!

  7. Won't work for me... by x2A · · Score: 5, Funny

    ...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
  8. random sensors..... by eggoeater · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
  9. Thank you for calling IBM Warranty services... by RulerOf · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... 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.
  10. Knock knock! by modecx · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.
  11. Hmm.. something useful here by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    1. chair impact detected
    2. sell microsoft stock
    3. buy google stock
    4. profit!

  12. SmackEdit by HTTP+Error+403+403.9 · · Score: 4, Interesting
    There is another Mac OS X app called SmackEdit. It simulates a manual typewriter and when smacked on the side, it performs a carriage return including the bell ring.


    Lots of fun at the coffee shop.

    --
    I'm not a Troll, it's reverse psychology.
    1. Re:SmackEdit by pesc · · Score: 4, Informative

      It simulates a manual typewriter and when smacked on the side, it performs a carriage return including the bell ring

      On the typewriters I have used, the bell doesn't ring when you do a carriage return. It rings when you reach a certain column so that you know that you are beginning to reach the end of the line and that you may want to do a carriage return before typing the next word.

      --

      )9TSS
  13. I guarantee.... by gardyloo · · Score: 5, Funny

    ... that everyone's new password will be "shave and a haircut"

  14. Real port knocking protocol? by noidentity · · Score: 3, Funny

    So, will this allow a true port knocking protocol to be implemented?

    "Why isn't the USB port working?"
    "Knock first!"

  15. The Best Possible Response by Billosaur · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Help, help, come see the vviolence in the system... help, help, I'm being repressed!!!"

    --
    GetOuttaMySpace - The Anti-Social Network
  16. What? by eosp · · Score: 3, Funny

    Typing ls was too much for people?

  17. Or, you could just wave your hand over your Mac... by thedbp · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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!

  18. Quake by cdep_illabout · · Score: 3, Funny

    I would hate to get owned by someone who didn't even have their laptop open.

  19. I've been able to slap sense into my windows... by ArielMT · · Score: 3, Funny

    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.
  20. The Module - with apologies to E. A. Poe. by Karellen · · Score: 4, Funny

    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?