12 ms·
Type in Morse code by repeatedly slamming your laptop shut
- nullindividual 2y agoThanks 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 2y agoRIP that person's laptop hinge. With use, hinges loosen, and I can't imagine that sort of stress would slow the process.
- hagbard_c 2y agoNot 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 2y agoI 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 2y agoI think this is just to show off how strong a thinkpad x/t hinge is :)
- Sharlin 2y agoThis distinctly reminds me of spacebar heating workflow [1]. [1] https://xkcd.com/1172/ https://xkcd.com/1172/
- alxndr_2000 2y agoI wonder if anyone has ever implemented spacebar heating?
- owenpalmer 2y agoHaha that's great
- josefritzishere 2y agoThis is a heartbreaking work of staggering genius.
- jvanderbot 2y agoBeautiful 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 2y agoA wonderful, wonderful read. An audacious title, but the book absolutely makes good on it.
- nocoiner 2y agoYou 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 2y agoMy suspicion is, the same would work with Gödel, 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 2y agowell it will break something alright
- satisfice 2y ago
- dguest 2y agoHow 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 2y agoI think that happens when it comes in via the second-chance pool.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/pool 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.
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- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 2y agoGotta love the marketing! > Use a battle-tested encoding trusted by pilots, submariners, and amateur radio nerds Technically accurate, yet entirely missing the point.
- shreddit 2y agoIt even works offline, just slam harder for “over the air” transmission. Has a shorter range though…
- Bluestein 2y ago(Talk about "air gapped", eh?
- aspyct 2y agoShorter range and shorter lifespan too :D
- th0ma5 2y agoThere 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 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thing_(listening_device)
- xg15 2y agoRecommended by 9 out of 10 independent laptop repair shops!
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- Bluestein 2y agoAll we need now is the "slam head on keyboard" version :)
- ToucanLoucan 2y agoShould 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 2y agoYou're assuming I have good aim.
- Bluestein 2y agoAnd/or an easily targetable forehead :)
- thih9 2y agoI 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 2y agoI do this to my watch and phone, most often when cuddling the wife because one of my arms will doubtlessly be unavailable.
- Bluestein 2y agoThe nose as a pointing device ... Gotta go find me a scientific study on that :)
- throwaway14356 2y ago
- Dwedit 2y agoThis is how you destroy your hinge.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- KWxIUElW8Xt0tD9 2y agodoes indeed seem rather unhinged
- autoexec 2y agoYeah. build quality these days makes this really risky.
- skeaker 2y agoYes, it's a shame that laptop manufacturers fail to account for the critical need of sending Morse code.
- yipbub 2y agoNot the Thinkpad in the video though
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- in-tension 2y agoFantastic. Did anyone else have nostalgia for the Thinkpad track point?
- khedoros1 2y agoBetter, I have one right in front of me!
- in-tension 2y agoDo they still make them or do you have an old one?
- mnsc 2y agoYou have to zoom in a bit, but the knob is there for the ride. https://www.tomshardware.com/laptops/lenovo-thinkpad-p1-gen-7-is-the-worlds-first-laptop-to-sport-lpcamm2-memory https://www.tomshardware.com/laptops/lenovo-thinkpad-p1-gen-...
- ofalkaed 2y agoDid you use the trackpoint for navigating an onscreen keyboard or something? Trackpoint gestures for the the alphabet?
- floam 2y agoThe clit?
- utensil4778 2y agoThe Thinkpad TrackPoint mouse has over 20,000 nerve endings
- PennRobotics 2y agoNo. 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.
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- efitz 2y agoCryptonomicon 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 2y agoJinx
- wsintra2022 2y agoCame across that book just recently in one of those free book libraries, tell me, was it a good read?
- cynusx 2y agoCryptonomicon is one of the best reads on the planet, it's famous.
- stavros 2y agoIs 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 clichéd just because everyone has copied them and iterated on them.
- fellerts 2y agoI 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 2y agoYeah, it's been a while since I read it, but I did find it to be a slog.
- linsomniac 2y agoThis 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 2y agoWelp, I know what I'm reading on my next flight :)
- WD-42 2y agoYou won't regret it, classic book.
- anfractuosity 2y agoI 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/prison_scene_in_cryptonomicon/ https://www.reddit.com/r/programmerchat/comments/3aknvw/pris... the LED was to output data, but they used another key to tap code
- JJMcJ 2y agoInput in Morse by space bar, output by LEDs.
- mulmen 2y ago> on the shift (?) key. Disabling Windows accessibility features is an indication of anti-social behavior.
- xp84 2y ago? 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.
- sam_goody 2y agoI really appreciate an old style HN "Hacker" post!
- fitsumbelay 2y agolove this and author's previous posts + work
- anfractuosity 2y agoHaha. Tangentially - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Send_Me_to_Heaven 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 2y agoWhy would apple ban this? Seems like a great way to increase sales!
- OuterVale 2y agoMy 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.
- dheera 2y agoYou 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 2y agoabsolutely brilliant solution for if your keyboard breaks and you REALLY need to send an email
- egberts1 2y agoHow about the #headdesk'ing of Morse code on a touchpad?
- js8 2y agoI 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 2y agoIt 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 2y agoNeed one for the car brakes, so I can communicate road rage with it.
- kibwen 2y agoI 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 2y agoMeta data like tone, timbre, amplitude also communicate intent and meaning beyond ‘dah’s and ‘dit’s.
- Cthulhu_ 2y agoI 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 2y agoI just want one that says "STOP CAMPING THE PASSING LANE"
- wingmanjd 2y agoWasn't there a Cold War era communication method accomplished via a car with squeaky brakes? I think it was nicknamed "the duck"?
- bouncycastle 2y agoversion 2.0 will ship with the most requested feature: ability to also use the space bar
- mikeInAlaska 2y agoSurely 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 2y agoYeah, "slam" seems a bit hyperbolic, if not click-baity.
- langsoul-com 2y agoClick the link and watch the video in the github read me. It IS slamming the lid...
- kmoser 2y agoThe sensor that detects whether the lid is closed works just as well whether you slam it shut or close it gently, so it's unnecessary to actually slam the lid.
- mal10c 2y agoYES! This project, this is what the internet is for!
- aussiegeek 2y agoFor when you want to spend more on a key than a Begali
- iLemming 2y agoEmacs 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 2y agoThis is why the universe loves humans.
- TZubiri 2y agoPeak hacker news
- Scoundreller 2y agoOn 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 2y agoSeems like they should have put the magnet in the case and the sensor in the screen.
- langsoul-com 2y agoWild, 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 2y agoGloriously pointless, yet frightfully well carried out.
- znpy 2y agoReminds 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-knockage/index.html 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 https://github.com/esantoro/knockage it seems
- 0xFEE1DEAD 2y agoJust what I've been looking for
- puttycat 2y agoInformation finds a way [1] [1] Around 28:00 here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZX-1QybZEQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZX-1QybZEQ
- sva_ 2y agoThe ultimate hinge test
- lordwiz 2y agoPretty cool, but i cant imagine the work involved in testing the code, the laptop hinge must have gone through a lot
- generatedtruth 2y ago[dead]