[HN Gopher] Type in Morse code by repeatedly slamming your lapto...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Type in Morse code by repeatedly slamming your laptop shut
        
       Author : OuterVale
       Score  : 711 points
       Date   : 2024-07-15 15:47 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | nullindividual wrote:
       | Thanks for the Monday morning laugh. They should have used this
       | method of communication in WWII instead of those signal lights!
       | /s
       | 
       | And someone posted the other day that there was no way humans
       | would be creating new works anymore because of AI...
        
       | LorenDB wrote:
       | RIP that person's laptop hinge. With use, hinges loosen, and I
       | can't imagine that sort of stress would slow the process.
        
         | hagbard_c wrote:
         | Not to mention the display cable, fortunately you can order new
         | hinges and display cables by slamming the thing shut a few
         | thousand times in the right cadence. This is not just a
         | solution in search of a problem but also a solution to the
         | problems it causes.
        
         | jerf wrote:
         | I like to imagine that the animated gif featured at the top is
         | in fact in real time, not accelerated, and they have long
         | passed the point where this is an issue.
         | 
         | Perhaps that was even the inspiration.
        
         | amlib wrote:
         | I think this is just to show off how strong a thinkpad x/t
         | hinge is :)
        
       | Sharlin wrote:
       | This distinctly reminds me of spacebar heating workflow [1].
       | 
       | [1] https://xkcd.com/1172/
        
         | alxndr_2000 wrote:
         | I wonder if anyone has ever implemented spacebar heating?
        
         | owenpalmer wrote:
         | Haha that's great
        
       | josefritzishere wrote:
       | This is a heartbreaking work of staggering genius.
        
         | jvanderbot wrote:
         | Beautiful wording.
         | 
         | So, I had to see where it was from, if anywhere else
         | (Amazon.com):                    A Heartbreaking Work of
         | Staggering Genius is the moving memoir of a college senior who,
         | in the space of five weeks, loses both of his parents to cancer
         | and inherits his eight-year-old brother. This exhilarating
         | debut that manages to be simultaneously hilarious and wildly
         | inventive as well as a deeply heartfelt story of the love that
         | holds a family together.
        
           | oaktowner wrote:
           | A wonderful, wonderful read. An audacious title, but the book
           | absolutely makes good on it.
        
           | nocoiner wrote:
           | You are a liberal arts major at an American university in the
           | first half of the first decade of this century. At every
           | house party you attend, you see a copy of this book on every
           | coffee table. You are aware that it is critically acclaimed
           | and you participate in numerous conversations regarding its
           | merits (or lack thereof). You have never read the book. You
           | regret nothing.
        
             | xg15 wrote:
             | My suspicion is, the same would work with Godel, Escher,
             | Bach in Silicon Valley circles.
             | 
             | "It's such a profound book with incredibly deep, life-
             | changing insights about the hidden connections and
             | symmetries of the universe. I really should read it some
             | time."
        
         | xg15 wrote:
         | well it will break something alright
        
         | satisfice wrote:
         | I have no better comment and I must scream.
        
       | dguest wrote:
       | How was this posted both 2 hours ago and also on the 15th?
       | 
       | I got really confused when someone said something about "monday
       | morning" but all the timestamps read 15th.
        
         | AnimalMuppet wrote:
         | I think that happens when it comes in via the second-chance
         | pool.
        
         | lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/pool
         | 
         | There's a "second-chance" pool for posts which didn't get a lot
         | of discussion but the moderators feel deserve more. When it's
         | added to the front page again, the timestamps are updated to
         | make it seem like a fresh post, presumably because people will
         | be more likely to comment.
        
       | lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
       | Gotta love the marketing!
       | 
       | > Use a battle-tested encoding trusted by pilots, submariners,
       | and amateur radio nerds
       | 
       | Technically accurate, yet entirely missing the point.
        
       | shreddit wrote:
       | It even works offline, just slam harder for "over the air"
       | transmission. Has a shorter range though...
        
         | Bluestein wrote:
         | (Talk about "air gapped", eh?
        
         | aspyct wrote:
         | Shorter range and shorter lifespan too :D
        
         | th0ma5 wrote:
         | There is a video of a guy shouting into a can which was
         | changing the pressure of a piezo ... I think they picked it up
         | in the shack but didn't mess with it much more. Completely
         | passive I think.
        
           | shagie wrote:
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)
        
       | xg15 wrote:
       | Recommended by 9 out of 10 independent laptop repair shops!
        
       | Bluestein wrote:
       | All we need now is the "slam head on keyboard" version :)
        
         | ToucanLoucan wrote:
         | Should be pretty straight forward to modify the code, just look
         | for key presses of R, T, Y, U, D, F, G, H, J, V, B, and N.
        
           | madcaptenor wrote:
           | You're assuming I have good aim.
        
             | Bluestein wrote:
             | And/or an easily targetable forehead :)
        
               | thih9 wrote:
               | I think this is doable; and practice makes perfect.
               | 
               | I can enter passcode on my apple watch with my nose. It's
               | the smaller apple watch model. Nose is quite big.
        
               | ToucanLoucan wrote:
               | I do this to my watch and phone, most often when cuddling
               | the wife because one of my arms will doubtlessly be
               | unavailable.
        
               | Bluestein wrote:
               | The _nose_ as a _pointing device_ ...
               | 
               | Gotta go find me a scientific study _on that_ :)
        
               | 1123581321 wrote:
               | Nipples work too. They also register as valid Touch ID
               | prints.
        
               | perilunar wrote:
               | The original touch interface.
        
               | Bluestein wrote:
               | Swear. Gonna retire to the English countryside one day
               | and just dump everything and open a pub:
               | 
               | "The Nipple & Clit"
        
               | thih9 wrote:
               | Still counts as FaceID.
        
       | Dwedit wrote:
       | This is how you destroy your hinge.
        
         | KWxIUElW8Xt0tD9 wrote:
         | does indeed seem rather unhinged
        
         | autoexec wrote:
         | Yeah. build quality these days makes this really risky.
        
         | skeaker wrote:
         | Yes, it's a shame that laptop manufacturers fail to account for
         | the critical need of sending Morse code.
        
         | yipbub wrote:
         | Not the Thinkpad in the video though
        
       | in-tension wrote:
       | Fantastic.
       | 
       | Did anyone else have nostalgia for the Thinkpad track point?
        
         | khedoros1 wrote:
         | Better, I have one right in front of me!
        
           | in-tension wrote:
           | Do they still make them or do you have an old one?
        
             | mnsc wrote:
             | You have to zoom in a bit, but the knob is there for the
             | ride.
             | 
             | https://www.tomshardware.com/laptops/lenovo-
             | thinkpad-p1-gen-...
        
         | ofalkaed wrote:
         | Did you use the trackpoint for navigating an onscreen keyboard
         | or something? Trackpoint gestures for the the alphabet?
        
         | floam wrote:
         | The clit?
        
           | utensil4778 wrote:
           | The Thinkpad TrackPoint mouse has over 20,000 nerve endings
        
         | PennRobotics wrote:
         | No.
         | 
         | I recently had a ThinkPad Z13 for over a year. I tried
         | earnestly using the TrackPoint on multiple occasions. It had
         | inconsistent pressure pickup, bad haptics, and poor button
         | integration.
         | 
         | I think I had a different opinion 25+ years ago, but that was
         | an era where the laptop might ONLY have a TrackPoint, and its
         | design was intentional---not an afterthought like the current
         | gen.
         | 
         | In fact, one of the main selling points (reducing wrist strain)
         | doesn't apply to the Z13, because the cold, hard, right-angled
         | aluminum edge of the case digs into your wrists the longer you
         | keep them in the same position.
        
       | efitz wrote:
       | Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson had a subplot where a main
       | character used morse code on his keyboard, or some other layered
       | encoding on top of the keyboard, to write software and
       | communicate surreptitiously even while his screen was being
       | recorded.
        
         | linsomniac wrote:
         | Jinx
        
         | wsintra2022 wrote:
         | Came across that book just recently in one of those free book
         | libraries, tell me, was it a good read?
        
           | cynusx wrote:
           | Cryptonomicon is one of the best reads on the planet, it's
           | famous.
        
             | stavros wrote:
             | Is it now, though? I read it and didn't manage to get into
             | it much, and don't really remember anything from it.
             | 
             | I think it's one of those works of art that were so
             | revolutionary that they started a whole genre, but now they
             | seem badly done and cliched just because everyone has
             | copied them and iterated on them.
        
               | fellerts wrote:
               | I found it witty and somewhat educational, but man is it
               | _long_. I read it on the kindle and when I thought that I
               | must be getting close to the end, I had only read 30% of
               | it. It takes some determination to get through.
        
               | stavros wrote:
               | Yeah, it's been a while since I read it, but I did find
               | it to be a slog.
        
               | JJMcJ wrote:
               | After the novel itself ends, there's quite a bit of
               | additoinal material.
        
               | flir wrote:
               | Some of the tech's a bit long-in-the-tooth (the whole
               | data haven concept), but the genre was already well-
               | established when the book turned up (Gravity's Rainbow
               | (1973) in particular and postmodern literature in
               | general). I, personally, enjoy it.
        
             | albrewer wrote:
             | I got about halfway through and forgot I was in the middle
             | of reading it. The story never really grabbed me. I say
             | this as someone who usually rips through a book a week.
        
           | SamBam wrote:
           | If you're a computer nerd, yes, definitely.
           | 
           | There are plenty of people I wouldn't recommend it to,
           | though.
        
           | themadturk wrote:
           | It is a story of technology and history. It grew out of the
           | author's interest in the way we communicate, and also out of
           | his interest in WWII legends. It's huge, and hugely readable.
           | It's a very good read if the intersection of those things
           | interest you.
        
           | groby_b wrote:
           | Yes, it's an amazing book. But skip the last 20 pages,
           | they're deeply unsatisfying writing.
        
             | roughly wrote:
             | The Neal Stephenson experience.
             | 
             | That, and the 20-page grad-level dissertation on some
             | esoteric subject randomly in the middle of the book.
             | 
             | The man's truly one of the best out there, and I'm
             | convinced a more aggressive editor would ruin him, but it
             | wouldn't be a Stephenson without some real head scratching
             | authorial decisions.
        
               | imp0cat wrote:
               | So true about the endings! And he's actually aware of it.
               | Well, I'm reasonably happy with all of my endings, but I
               | know that some people feel differently. But as you've
               | noticed, they're different, it's not always the same
               | thing. All I can say is different books end in different
               | ways, and different people have different tastes in what
               | they want to see. I'm well aware that there are certain
               | people frustrated with the endings of some of my books.
               | But I also think that it's one of these things where
               | people's preconceived ideas sometimes drive the way they
               | perceive things. ...              So I think that my
               | experience is that once you've written a book with a
               | controversial ending and that meme gets going of
               | Stephenson can't write endings, then that gets slapped on
               | to everything you do, no matter how elaborate the ending
               | is.
               | 
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnq-2BJwatE&t=654s
        
               | nocoiner wrote:
               | It's not a meme, the man really can't write an ending to
               | save his life. But generally the pages other than the
               | last ~25 make it totally worth it (other than that post-
               | death MMORPG book, that one was terrible and just a slog
               | the whole way through).
        
               | roughly wrote:
               | > other than that post-death MMORPG book, that one was
               | terrible and just a slog the whole way through
               | 
               | Literally everything about that book except the main plot
               | was fantastic. It read terrifyingly prophetic once he
               | could peel himself away from whatever greek fable
               | bullshit he was on about on the main thread.
        
               | digging wrote:
               | Have you read Termination Shock, and if so, how do you
               | feel it stacks up? It was, regrettably, my first (and
               | still only) Stephenson book, and I thought it was really
               | quite bad in all the ways that matter to me. (The action
               | was good, but I don't read sci-fi for the action.) But I
               | see _so_ much love for him in hacker circles online that
               | I wave on whether or not I should give his more famous
               | works some attention.
        
               | roughly wrote:
               | Termination shock wasn't great, no - Kim Stanley
               | Robinson's Ministry for the Future was a much better work
               | in that vein. I think Cryptonomicon is very good, I
               | really liked Seveneves, Anathem is fantastic, and I liked
               | REAMDE as well, as far as his latter day works go. Snow
               | Crash and The Diamond Age are what made him famous and
               | are both Very good, if a bit dated now.
        
               | divbzero wrote:
               | I still can't quite place his digression on monads in
               | _The Baroque Cycle_.
        
               | jgrahamc wrote:
               | _That, and the 20-page grad-level dissertation on some
               | esoteric subject randomly in the middle of the book._
               | 
               | This made me smile because while I enjoyed Seveneves
               | there was an entire interlude discussing swarms of
               | spacecraft cooperating to avoid debris.
        
               | tessellated wrote:
               | Don't forget the cereals!
        
               | darby_nine wrote:
               | Pynchon always managed to integrate this tendency into
               | the narrative much better. Stephenson is still worth it
               | tho.
        
           | paranoidrobot wrote:
           | I've read it probably a dozen times or more. I'm actually
           | mid-way through it again after not having read it for a year
           | or two.
           | 
           | I think it's still a great story. The technology is
           | definitely dated.
           | 
           | There is also some language that will offend or make some
           | people uncomfortable (Racial slurs epithets, among them).
        
           | altairprime wrote:
           | A lot of my guy friends have a crush on a lead character in
           | it (not Elias or Elon, but a similar name?) and praise it
           | extensively. I apparently read it one time and remember
           | nothing about it, so YMMV but if you're into hacker guys,
           | you'll apparently love it!
        
             | tessellated wrote:
             | Enoch Root?
        
           | tessellated wrote:
           | I have read and can recommend everything by the author
           | between and not including 'The Big U' and 'REAMDE'.
           | 
           | REAMDE disappointed me so much, that I haven't touched his
           | later novels.
           | 
           | 'Snow Crash' reads like a graphic novel, 'Anathem' is just
           | unique and maybe in my fav top 10 (not considering 'A
           | Canticle for Leibowitz' :), 'Cryptonomicon' + 'The Baroque
           | Cycle' are slow but very rewarding.
           | 
           | 'The Diamond Age', what can I say, do yourself a favour and
           | start reading it now.
           | 
           | Sure I forgot one or two, it's been a long time.
        
         | Crespyl wrote:
         | Specifically, IIRC, the character used the "Scroll Lock" LED to
         | blink out some coordinates in Morse, to avoid the location
         | being displayed on-screen and thus captured by Van Eck
         | phreaking[0].
         | 
         | [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck_phreaking
        
           | divbzero wrote:
           | ... and, for input, tapped out Morse code on the space bar
           | while viewing man pages so it looked like the character was
           | just paging through documentation.
        
           | JJMcJ wrote:
           | Sent Morse by one of the LEDs like Caps Lock.
           | 
           | Nowadays 99% of laptops don't have those LEDs.
        
       | linsomniac wrote:
       | This reminds me of that section in the book Cryptonomicon, where
       | our hero is programming on a laptop that he knows is being spied
       | upon using Tempest and probably more, and is using clandestine
       | input via morse code on the shift (?) key. I really enjoyed that
       | book.
        
         | AcerbicZero wrote:
         | Welp, I know what I'm reading on my next flight :)
        
           | WD-42 wrote:
           | You won't regret it, classic book.
        
         | anfractuosity wrote:
         | I think it was something to do with one of the keyboard keys
         | with an LED if I recall correctly, so possibly caps/numlock.
         | 
         | Edit: seems I'm misremembering, just read -
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/programmerchat/comments/3aknvw/pris...
         | the LED was to output data, but they used another key to tap
         | code
        
           | JJMcJ wrote:
           | Input in Morse by space bar, output by LEDs.
        
         | mulmen wrote:
         | > on the shift (?) key.
         | 
         | Disabling Windows accessibility features is an indication of
         | anti-social behavior.
        
           | xp84 wrote:
           | ? even on one's own computer? I don't follow
           | 
           | It would follow from your statement that not disabling the
           | screen lock is also anti-social.
        
             | omoikane wrote:
             | Windows has a "sticky keys" accessibility feature that is
             | enabled by pressing "shift" many times. I believe it's
             | intended for people who have a hard time holding multiple
             | keys at the same time.
             | 
             | It's something that would be easy to trigger accidentally
             | if you are using the shift keys to play pinball or type
             | morse code.
        
               | grvbck wrote:
               | Same on MacOS, press shift 5x to activate.
        
               | pests wrote:
               | Any gamer who maps shift to something discovers this very
               | quickly
        
             | taneq wrote:
             | Was that not tongue-in-cheek?
             | 
             | The sticky-keys popup used to be a fun way to get past the
             | screen lock used at computer shops etc. since it took focus
             | off the screen lock window, which then let you use other
             | hot keys. :D
        
           | samatman wrote:
           | Laptops are not generally social objects. The notion makes me
           | a bit nauseous actually.
        
             | eru wrote:
             | Not more nauseous than any other shared keyboard, I assume?
        
         | lelandbatey wrote:
         | That book directly inspired my "blink my caps lock light when
         | someone visits a web page" hack from nearly 8 years ago:
         | http://lelandbatey.com/posts/2016/12/Making-lights-blink-for...
        
         | rrjjww wrote:
         | At risk of derailing the conversation, I finished Cryptonomicon
         | earlier this year and really enjoyed it. Any recommendations
         | for similar books?
        
           | brk wrote:
           | Snowcrash? REAMDE was also good.
        
             | themadturk wrote:
             | So nice to find someone else who enjoyed REAMDE.
        
               | james_marks wrote:
               | My favorite of his, and I've read most of them.
        
             | jaggederest wrote:
             | The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is
             | the sequel to Snow Crash, and is excellent and in many ways
             | more relevant and subversive now, given that more or less
             | Snow Crash has passed into retrofuturism as all the things
             | kind of happened, like Jules Verne.
        
           | eru wrote:
           | The Baroque Cycle by the same author.
           | 
           | I didn't like Snowcrash nearly as much.
           | 
           | His Diamond Age is pretty good, too.
        
           | roughly wrote:
           | If you can get past the absolute slog of a beginning, Anathem
           | is amazing.
        
             | xarope wrote:
             | yes, give it a try and try to get past the first few
             | chapters. The first time I read it, the world building
             | almost put me to sleep. Somehow I decided to give it
             | another try on a long flight, and this time I grok'd the
             | world building, and thoroughly enjoyed it all the way
             | through to the end.
        
             | 0xEF wrote:
             | Anthem is my favorite Stephenson book, by far. My copy is
             | the only book I own with a broken binding because I've read
             | it too many times. I don't think that one gets enough
             | attention, especially from a world building and technical
             | perspective.
        
           | linsomniac wrote:
           | I thought Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir had a similar
           | "feel", though it's more future-looking rather than past
           | looking.
           | 
           | Daemon and Freedom(tm) by Daniel Suarez is another book
           | (printed as two books, because reasons) that is ~1K pages but
           | I've read 3 times (like Cryptonomicon).
           | 
           | Others in this thread have recommended The Baroque Cycle, but
           | I just couldn't get into it. Ditto with Anathem. Maybe I
           | should give them another try. However, I do love Diamond Age
           | and Snowcrash.
        
       | sam_goody wrote:
       | I really appreciate an old style HN "Hacker" post!
        
       | fitsumbelay wrote:
       | love this and author's previous posts + work
        
       | anfractuosity wrote:
       | Haha. Tangentially -
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Send_Me_to_Heaven -
       | 
       | "developed by Carrot Pop which measures the vertical distance
       | that a mobile phone is thrown. Players compete against each other
       | by seeking to throw their phones higher than others, often at the
       | risk of damaging their phones."
        
         | rg2004 wrote:
         | Why would apple ban this? Seems like a great way to increase
         | sales!
        
           | karolist wrote:
           | applecare abuse
        
             | beAbU wrote:
             | Seems like the solution is right there. "Your claim was
             | denied because we found and app installed on your device
             | that promotes physical abuse."
        
               | Cthulhu_ wrote:
               | Do you mean a browser with a HN comment section open?
        
           | alexdbird wrote:
           | The sensor was only needed to park spinning disks when the
           | laptop was in free fall. Without the spinning disks they no
           | longer fitted the sensor.
        
         | OuterVale wrote:
         | My first phone was a RugGear RG930. If you think Nokia's 3310
         | was built like a brick, then this thing may as well have been a
         | rubberised titanium brick.
         | 
         | It was so solid I used to play 'catch the phone' with friends,
         | and it ended up face down on concrete more times than I can
         | count, but I don't think it ever sustained so much as a
         | scratch.
         | 
         | If the RG930 ran Android, I reckon I could go for the high
         | score.
        
           | prmoustache wrote:
           | I had a rugged android phone from Blackview that was deemed
           | to survive terrible stuff...I managed to drop it into the
           | ocean.
           | 
           | Bought another one for my significant other after changing
           | the screen of her samsung smartphone 3 times. She has used it
           | for more than a year, it slipped from her jacket once from my
           | motorbike. Someone found it 1h later in the middle of a
           | roundabout face down with tire marks on the case. He saw it
           | only because I was calling it and it has some notification
           | lights at the back. Not a single scratch on the screen! Her
           | only complaints is the quality of the photos taken with the
           | camera.
           | 
           | I wish they were supported by alternative roms like lineageos
           | or /e/os.
        
             | lawlessone wrote:
             | >I managed to drop it into the ocean.
             | 
             | Will survive being subducted under a continental plate?
        
           | Cthulhu_ wrote:
           | A colleague showed me their Caterpillar-branded phone, it was
           | proper ruggedized like you see in construction radios and the
           | like, big bumpers, plastic screen, he casually yote it onto
           | the floor to demonstrate. Mainly so he can pass it to his
           | kids if they're bored.
           | 
           | The current generation Cat branded phones look pretty
           | regular, but are probably still much more rugged than most
           | phones.
        
           | mbonnet wrote:
           | When I lived in Sierra Leone circa 2012, a lot of expats had
           | phones like this. Ruggedized, could handle anything - dust,
           | falling into a silty river, anything. Many a game of catch
           | were played with them.
        
         | extraduder_ire wrote:
         | Also: Smackbook - https://stevenbock.me/Smackbook-Yosemite/
         | (more modern recreation or the original)
         | 
         | A way to switch virtual desktops on macbooks with a hard drive
         | by slapping them on the side.
        
           | mintplant wrote:
           | > NOTE: This script will not work with any Macbooks shipped
           | with SSDs. This includes the Retina Macbook Pro and recent
           | Macbook Air models.
           | 
           | "This update broke my workflow! Just add an option to
           | reenable HDD smacking."
           | 
           | https://xkcd.com/1172
        
           | userbinator wrote:
           | IBM had this sensor on their laptops too, around 2 years
           | before Apple added it to theirs:
           | https://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/HDAPS#Other
        
           | latexr wrote:
           | Also iAlertU. It used the sudden motion sensor to make a loud
           | noise like a car alarm. The fun part was that you could use
           | the remote to turn it off and that kept up with the theme.
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4XZpU1zzWs&pp=ygUHaWFsZXJ0d.
           | ..
        
         | epiccoleman wrote:
         | I had some smartphone, I think a Motorola, with a plastic
         | screen instead of glass. Never shattered on me, but took
         | scratches very easily. I think it may have died when it was
         | dropped in a toilet? IDK, been a while, I think it was before
         | nearly universal IPS waterproofing on phones.
        
         | lynx23 wrote:
         | Postmodern decadence. Funny, yes. But more akin to slaves
         | fighting in an arena. Yes, I know, machines have no feelings
         | (yet), but it still seems excessive.
        
           | TeMPOraL wrote:
           | On the contrary, this is how humanity advances - one "hold my
           | beer and watch this" moment at a time.
        
       | dheera wrote:
       | You could probably get better "framerate" by just hearing the
       | slamming sounds from the microphone instead of querying acpid.
       | 
       | Or using the webcam to look for darkness of the shutting.
        
       | stainablesteel wrote:
       | absolutely brilliant solution for if your keyboard breaks and you
       | REALLY need to send an email
        
         | thih9 wrote:
         | Also great discoverability. When you need to send that email so
         | badly that you start repeatedly slamming the laptop lid out if
         | frustration, you get presented with this extra input method.
        
         | xeyownt wrote:
         | Definitely needed when you must order a new keyboard
        
       | egberts1 wrote:
       | How about the #headdesk'ing of Morse code on a touchpad?
        
       | js8 wrote:
       | I once bought one of those Lenovo something hybrids between
       | touchpad and notebook, horrible design as it turned out. It had a
       | docking type of connection with the keyboard, very sensitive to
       | vibration of the desk. Since the touchpad piece had the CPU, and
       | the keyboard piece had the external connectors, it was
       | practically unusable. If you connected an external storage
       | device, it would randomly disconnect (and possibly lose data) due
       | to vibrations of the table. So yeah.. you could probably tap
       | morse code on the table and have it detected on this device.
        
       | mattigames wrote:
       | It would be slighly more useful to have something that uses the
       | microphone to detect when you physicially tap the laptop e.g.
       | with your finger, it could be used to keep typing even with your
       | laptop screen down, imagine a spy movie where the baddies close
       | your laptop and put a gun against your head and you have to put
       | your hands in the air, but you use your knee under the table to
       | tap type "shred -vzn 0 /dev/xxx", poof, all data gone.
        
       | tamimio wrote:
       | Need one for the car brakes, so I can communicate road rage with
       | it.
        
         | kibwen wrote:
         | I use the horn for this. For example, if someone cuts in front
         | of me, I use Morse code to communicate the phrase "I am
         | attempting to exercise empathy by putting myself in your shoes,
         | and to be maximally charitable I am assuming that you're
         | probably in a hurry, quite likely for a very good reason, such
         | as perhaps your wife is going into labor, or you're running
         | late for a big meeting, or your father in on his deathbed and
         | you need to say goodbye to him for the last time, so I don't
         | begrudge you for cutting me off, quite the contrary in fact, I
         | wish you the best on your journey through life."
         | 
         | They then often use their horn to communicate something back to
         | me, but sadly I'm not yet good enough at decoding Morse code to
         | understand what they're trying to say.
        
           | smcnally wrote:
           | Meta data like tone, timbre, amplitude also communicate
           | intent and meaning beyond 'dah's and 'dit's.
        
             | Cthulhu_ wrote:
             | I often wish for a way to communicate to other drivers via
             | something that's a bit more clear than horn or blinking
             | lights. Like one of those LED text things to say "oi mate
             | your lights are off" or something like that.
        
               | Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
               | I just want one that says "STOP CAMPING THE PASSING LANE"
        
         | wingmanjd wrote:
         | Wasn't there a Cold War era communication method accomplished
         | via a car with squeaky brakes? I think it was nicknamed "the
         | duck"?
        
       | bouncycastle wrote:
       | version 2.0 will ship with the most requested feature: ability to
       | also use the space bar
        
       | mikeInAlaska wrote:
       | Surely you can very discretely and ergonomically use this... if
       | you move your lid jussttt above the point where it decides it is
       | closed and then tap.
        
         | kmoser wrote:
         | Yeah, "slam" seems a bit hyperbolic, if not click-baity.
        
           | langsoul-com wrote:
           | Click the link and watch the video in the github read me.
           | 
           | It IS slamming the lid...
        
       | mal10c wrote:
       | YES! This project, this is what the internet is for!
        
       | aussiegeek wrote:
       | For when you want to spend more on a key than a Begali
        
       | iLemming wrote:
       | Emacs has a built-in command 'morse-region'. I wonder if I can do
       | the reverse - make the laptop flap for a given string? I guess
       | you just need to find a small but powerful enough servo.
        
       | pyinstallwoes wrote:
       | This is why the universe loves humans.
        
       | TZubiri wrote:
       | Peak hacker news
        
       | Scoundreller wrote:
       | On this topic, my Dell laptop detects that it's closed by having
       | 1 (!) magnet in the screen, and a sensor on the case. So when I
       | put my magsafe phone to the right of the touchpad, it thinks I've
       | closed it and logs me out.
       | 
       | My MacBook has 2 magnets in the screen to avoid this issue.
        
         | nocoiner wrote:
         | Seems like they should have put the magnet in the case and the
         | sensor in the screen.
        
       | langsoul-com wrote:
       | Wild, laptop would be broken so fast!
       | 
       | Kinda reminds me of the signal language typing, used computer
       | vision for that.
       | 
       | A head hanging Morse code version would be interesting as well.
       | Or perhaps a mobile phone accelerometer Morse code would be fun
       | too.
        
       | surfingdino wrote:
       | Gloriously pointless, yet frightfully well carried out.
        
       | znpy wrote:
       | Reminds me of knock-age, a perl script to send commands by
       | "nudging" your thinkpad (hitting it not too strong).
       | 
       | The original link was at
       | http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource/library/l-knock...
       | but it's gone and archive.org doesn't seem to have a copy anymore
       | :(
       | 
       | There's a fork at https://github.com/esantoro/knockage it seems
        
       | 0xFEE1DEAD wrote:
       | Just what I've been looking for
        
       | puttycat wrote:
       | Information finds a way [1]
       | 
       | [1] Around 28:00 here:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZX-1QybZEQ
        
       | sva_ wrote:
       | The ultimate hinge test
        
       | lordwiz wrote:
       | Pretty cool, but i cant imagine the work involved in testing the
       | code, the laptop hinge must have gone through a lot
        
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       (page generated 2024-07-19 23:07 UTC)