6 ms·

I'm silly. So many 'convertible' laptops cannot be used as tablet substitutes because they don't have volume or mute buttons at the edge of the enclosure when

I'm silly. So many 'convertible' laptops cannot be used as tablet substitutes because they don't have volume or mute buttons at the edge of the enclosure when in tablet mode. I'd use one of these for volume up/down, mute, blanking the screen, locking the device, and authenticating. A bunch of "press this 3 times", etc. functions

metadat 4y ago
Blanking the screen? The only use I can imagine is as a boss key [0]. A dedicated device stuck in the side of the laptop or keyboard is conspicuous and therefore antithetical to the goal. Might AutoHotKey be a universally superior solution? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_key
- nl 4y ago
  > Blanking the screen? The only use I can imagine is as a boss key You've never wanted to stop people wanting to read messages over your shoulder? This is so common that most mobile/table operating systems have entire configuration systems about which parts of which messages to show on lock screens.
  - metadat 4y ago
    I don't do much computing in public, and am confident in the assumption my digital life is truly that unremarkable to 99% or more of humanity. ^^
- wildzzz 4y ago
  If you can't install anything, having a small MCU board that can mimic a USB keyboard could be good enough. You could load up a bunch of different keyboard macros based on number and duration of button presses. A more dedicated keypad would be a lot more functional but this thing fits inside a USB port so it would be good for on the go.
- aendruk 4y ago
  For years I’ve kept a dedicated key mapped to `xset dpms force off` and tap it habitually when temporarily taking my attention away from the screen e.g. during lectures or when conversing with someone, as a small gesture of respect to the other party and a gentle guide for myself.
- Piskvorrr 4y ago
  The opposite: a habit to take the device out when leaving the computer, so that you are at the box XOR it is locked. Pretty sure I have seen a similar solution actually using the on-device keys. (Had some coworkers that were quite intent on baggy-pantsing)
sally_glance 4y ago
3 free beers if you manage to make this work with even a single specific machine Edit: This was a bad way of saying "Possible, but not easy - anybody got something?"
- adastra22 4y ago
  I've done this with automatic locking. The idea being to have Tomu fob on my keychain, which must be inserted into the device for the display machine to be unlocked. Pull out the Tomu (which can be done by just grabbing my keys and yanking) and the laptop instantly locks, and starts a timer to hibernate. It wasn't that complicated IIRC. This was a few years ago.
  - sally_glance 4y ago
    That's interesting - did you implement some kind of key exchange or just check for the device ID? And which OS? I might have exaggerated a bit, probably it's pretty easy to do in a "works on my machine" kind of way...
    - adastra22 4y ago
      I used a simple challenge-response protocol. It asked the device to sign a message to authenticate itself. I then listened to udev announcements to lock the machine if the device was unplugged. It was more of a toy than a serious security device, and it would certainly need a lot more review before I recommend others to use it, but it was a fun exercise.
- inamberclad 4y ago
  Pretty easy to register a HID device with dedicated keys for volume up / down and play / pause.
- ThrowawayTestr 4y ago
  Autohotkey and F24?
- Piskvorrr 4y ago
causi 4y ago
You could use AutoHotKey and a 3.5mm stero jack button to do this. https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/z1oAAOSwzJ5XUnDd/s-l500.jpg https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/z1oAAOSwzJ5XUnDd/s-l500.jpg

metadat 4y ago

Blanking the screen? The only use I can imagine is as a boss key [0]. A dedicated device stuck in the side of the laptop or keyboard is conspicuous and therefore antithetical to the goal. Might AutoHotKey be a universally superior solution? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_key https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boss_key

nl 4y ago
> Blanking the screen? The only use I can imagine is as a boss key You've never wanted to stop people wanting to read messages over your shoulder? This is so common that most mobile/table operating systems have entire configuration systems about which parts of which messages to show on lock screens.
- metadat 4y ago
  I don't do much computing in public, and am confident in the assumption my digital life is truly that unremarkable to 99% or more of humanity. ^^
wildzzz 4y ago
If you can't install anything, having a small MCU board that can mimic a USB keyboard could be good enough. You could load up a bunch of different keyboard macros based on number and duration of button presses. A more dedicated keypad would be a lot more functional but this thing fits inside a USB port so it would be good for on the go.
aendruk 4y ago
For years I’ve kept a dedicated key mapped to `xset dpms force off` and tap it habitually when temporarily taking my attention away from the screen e.g. during lectures or when conversing with someone, as a small gesture of respect to the other party and a gentle guide for myself.
Piskvorrr 4y ago
The opposite: a habit to take the device out when leaving the computer, so that you are at the box XOR it is locked. Pretty sure I have seen a similar solution actually using the on-device keys. (Had some coworkers that were quite intent on baggy-pantsing)

sally_glance 4y ago

3 free beers if you manage to make this work with even a single specific machine Edit: This was a bad way of saying "Possible, but not easy - anybody got something?"

adastra22 4y ago
I've done this with automatic locking. The idea being to have Tomu fob on my keychain, which must be inserted into the device for the display machine to be unlocked. Pull out the Tomu (which can be done by just grabbing my keys and yanking) and the laptop instantly locks, and starts a timer to hibernate. It wasn't that complicated IIRC. This was a few years ago.
- sally_glance 4y ago
  That's interesting - did you implement some kind of key exchange or just check for the device ID? And which OS? I might have exaggerated a bit, probably it's pretty easy to do in a "works on my machine" kind of way...
  - adastra22 4y ago
    I used a simple challenge-response protocol. It asked the device to sign a message to authenticate itself. I then listened to udev announcements to lock the machine if the device was unplugged. It was more of a toy than a serious security device, and it would certainly need a lot more review before I recommend others to use it, but it was a fun exercise.
inamberclad 4y ago
Pretty easy to register a HID device with dedicated keys for volume up / down and play / pause.
ThrowawayTestr 4y ago
Autohotkey and F24?
Piskvorrr 4y ago

causi 4y ago

You could use AutoHotKey and a 3.5mm stero jack button to do this. https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/z1oAAOSwzJ5XUnDd/s-l500.jpg https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/z1oAAOSwzJ5XUnDd/s-l500.jpg