4 ms·

Show HN: I updated the Smackbook script for OS X Yosemite

65 points by dabockster 12y ago

wingerlang 12y ago
So what does it do?
- bndr 12y ago
  There's a demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iyeqh9zHf8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iyeqh9zHf8
  - wingerlang 12y ago
    Odd, first time I pressed this it was a video about some SSD.
    - mrottenkolber 12y ago
      YouTube has these weirdnesses lately!
    - dabockster 12y ago
      Fixed that. I got it uploaded at midnight after switching between this and my Python homework.
- dandruffhead 12y ago
  Change to different desktop by tapping on the bottom right/left of your screen.
  - dabockster 12y ago
    That's Shadowbook. Like Smackbook, but it uses the Macbook's ambient light sensor instead of the accelerometer. Haven't found that one yet.
- tazjin 12y ago
  It uses the harddrive's motion sensor to figure out if the computer is being smacked on one side, and then switches to the next virtual screen in the opposite direction. (that's what I gathered from the video at least)
  - wingerlang 12y ago
    This should be on the top of the readme, IMO.
    - dabockster 12y ago
      Agreed. I just updated the readme.
geofft 12y ago
YESSS I remember seeing this in high school and I'd completely forgotten about it. So glad to see it again. Here's the original post courtesy of the Internet Archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20121221154722/http://blog.medallia.com/2006/05/smacbook_pro.html http://web.archive.org/web/20121221154722/http://blog.medall...
- dabockster 12y ago
  The guy's blog post is still up, but the original script is EXTREMELY hard to find. I found a version that was updated for Spaces in Leopard, and updated that to Yosemite. It just needed some tweaks in a few places.
- micampe 12y ago
  Very cool, I wrote the ThinkPad version at the time. I had forgotten about it, there is a link to my post at the time in that page and I’m happy archive.org exists http://web.archive.org/web/20070922232656/http://blog.micampe.it/articles/2006/06/04/here-comes-the-smackpad http://web.archive.org/web/20070922232656/http://blog.micamp... I was definitely not in high school at the time.
pilif 12y ago
Please correct me if I'm wrong (I probably am), but using this for anything but a cool demo feels dangerous to me: You're relying on the input signal of an emergency motion detector to park the harddrive heads as a device to do UI interaction. What I mean is: In order to switch spaces, you have to hit the machine hard enough for the "uh oh - shock emergency" sensor to actually trigger. That means that you have to hit the machine hard enough for it to think it has to do something in order to prevent hardware damage. What was meant as an emergency measure for rare emergencies now becomes commonplace. Are you sure that a) the mechanism always works? and b) that the emergency head parking doesn't put too much stress on the disk to wear it down more quickly? I'm basing this question on the fact that in the demo video there was one instance where they didn't hit the device hard enough for the switch of spaces to actually happen. That leads me to believe that the sensor isn't that accurate and really only measures dangerous levels of activity. But yeah: As a demo performed once or twice it's really cool and fun to watch.
- geofft 12y ago
  You can get acceleration data that's well within the non-emergency situation from Macs. This thing works on Chrome on my Mac (which is a little disconcerting, to be honest): http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/device/orientation/deviceorientationsample.html http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/device/orientation/de...
  - dabockster 12y ago
    Bookmarked. That thing is cool. And yes, the accelerometer exists to detect movement consistent with the shock of hitting the ground. For other purposes, the movement is way too small to trigger the mechanism.
  - Pirate-of-SV 12y ago
    I got a MBA (Mid 2011) + Chrome but I can't get it to work. A friend asked me WTF I was doing and it felt like a April fools joke.
    - 12y ago
josephpmay 12y ago
The one time I wish my Mac had a HDD instead of SSD
- dabockster 12y ago
  All Macbooks claim to have the accelerometer, so it should work. If not, the sensitivity values are clearly marked in the script.
  - stoolpigeon 12y ago
    My Macbook pro retina does not have an accelerometer.
    - cstuder 12y ago
      The acceleromenter was built into the MacBooks in order to protect the hard drives. I guess it makes sense that after moving to SSD the sensor has been taken out.
      - stoolpigeon 12y ago
        Yeah - it makes sense to me. I wasn't sure but I tried a few apps that are supposed to use it and looked for it in my system information and I didn't see it. (I'm really new to using a mac)
kecebongsoft 12y ago
I wouldn't use this, but this is cool. At first I thought it was using microphone to detect which side the smacking sound was coming from, but since others have pointed out, I didn't know harddrive heads have such sensors and can be accessed using programming language. It's probably suitable when you want to have an emergency button to destroy/encrypt/close all super-confidential information when someone's approaching and you don't have enough time to type/click anything, just smack!.
- wingerlang 12y ago
  What if someone accidentally bumps into your desk.
- dabockster 12y ago
  The sensor is in the system itself, not the drive.
dabockster 12y ago
Hey guys! Thanks for the comments on this small side project/homework procrastination of mine. When I originally saw this back in 2006, I thought it was one of the best tricks ever to do with a laptop computer. I was 13 at the time. Fast forward about 8-9 years, add some CS and Perl education, and bam, I finally know enough on how to update the script to save it from the black depths of the Internet. Took me a while to find an implementation that referenced enough to OS X Spaces, but I'm glad I could revive the idea. If I have the chance, I would love to write a clone of this and not have AMStracker as a dependency. Or if someone else wants to, that's cool too. I just don't know how long that AMStracker site will stay up.
jevin 12y ago
This is actually quite cool. Looks like all Macbooks around the 2012 era had SMS: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT1935 http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT1935
bjz_ 12y ago
Oh, gotta love the SMS. There were several obscure apps that experimented with it: - http://uri.cat/software/LiquidMac/ http://uri.cat/software/LiquidMac/ - http://uri.cat/software/Tunnel/ http://uri.cat/software/Tunnel/ - http://www.suitable.com/tools/seismac.html http://www.suitable.com/tools/seismac.html - http://blog.isnoop.net/2006/05/20/macsaber-turn-your-mac-into-a-jedi-weapon/ http://blog.isnoop.net/2006/05/20/macsaber-turn-your-mac-int... Bonus video: MacSaber fighting! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK4AonfnFaM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK4AonfnFaM
genmon 12y ago
Ha, neat! I remember using amstracker to jump forward in iTunes by bumping my laptop. Literally the first time I'd encountered physical UIs, it felt so natural. And now there's Wii and Kinect and Leap etc. Ancient code: http://interconnected.org/home/more/2005/03/bumptunes.py http://interconnected.org/home/more/2005/03/bumptunes.py And ancient write-up: http://interconnected.org/home/2005/03/04/apples_powerbook http://interconnected.org/home/2005/03/04/apples_powerbook

65 points by dabockster 12y ago

wingerlang 12y ago

So what does it do?

bndr 12y ago
There's a demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iyeqh9zHf8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iyeqh9zHf8
- wingerlang 12y ago
  Odd, first time I pressed this it was a video about some SSD.
  - mrottenkolber 12y ago
    YouTube has these weirdnesses lately!
  - dabockster 12y ago
    Fixed that. I got it uploaded at midnight after switching between this and my Python homework.
dandruffhead 12y ago
Change to different desktop by tapping on the bottom right/left of your screen.
- dabockster 12y ago
  That's Shadowbook. Like Smackbook, but it uses the Macbook's ambient light sensor instead of the accelerometer. Haven't found that one yet.
tazjin 12y ago
It uses the harddrive's motion sensor to figure out if the computer is being smacked on one side, and then switches to the next virtual screen in the opposite direction. (that's what I gathered from the video at least)
- wingerlang 12y ago
  This should be on the top of the readme, IMO.
  - dabockster 12y ago
    Agreed. I just updated the readme.

geofft 12y ago

YESSS I remember seeing this in high school and I'd completely forgotten about it. So glad to see it again. Here's the original post courtesy of the Internet Archive: http://web.archive.org/web/20121221154722/http://blog.medallia.com/2006/05/smacbook_pro.html http://web.archive.org/web/20121221154722/http://blog.medall...

dabockster 12y ago
The guy's blog post is still up, but the original script is EXTREMELY hard to find. I found a version that was updated for Spaces in Leopard, and updated that to Yosemite. It just needed some tweaks in a few places.
micampe 12y ago
Very cool, I wrote the ThinkPad version at the time. I had forgotten about it, there is a link to my post at the time in that page and I’m happy archive.org exists http://web.archive.org/web/20070922232656/http://blog.micampe.it/articles/2006/06/04/here-comes-the-smackpad http://web.archive.org/web/20070922232656/http://blog.micamp... I was definitely not in high school at the time.

pilif 12y ago

Please correct me if I'm wrong (I probably am), but using this for anything but a cool demo feels dangerous to me: You're relying on the input signal of an emergency motion detector to park the harddrive heads as a device to do UI interaction. What I mean is: In order to switch spaces, you have to hit the machine hard enough for the "uh oh - shock emergency" sensor to actually trigger. That means that you have to hit the machine hard enough for it to think it has to do something in order to prevent hardware damage. What was meant as an emergency measure for rare emergencies now becomes commonplace. Are you sure that a) the mechanism always works? and b) that the emergency head parking doesn't put too much stress on the disk to wear it down more quickly? I'm basing this question on the fact that in the demo video there was one instance where they didn't hit the device hard enough for the switch of spaces to actually happen. That leads me to believe that the sensor isn't that accurate and really only measures dangerous levels of activity. But yeah: As a demo performed once or twice it's really cool and fun to watch.

geofft 12y ago
You can get acceleration data that's well within the non-emergency situation from Macs. This thing works on Chrome on my Mac (which is a little disconcerting, to be honest): http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/device/orientation/deviceorientationsample.html http://www.html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/device/orientation/de...
- dabockster 12y ago
  Bookmarked. That thing is cool. And yes, the accelerometer exists to detect movement consistent with the shock of hitting the ground. For other purposes, the movement is way too small to trigger the mechanism.
- Pirate-of-SV 12y ago
  I got a MBA (Mid 2011) + Chrome but I can't get it to work. A friend asked me WTF I was doing and it felt like a April fools joke.
  - 12y ago

josephpmay 12y ago

The one time I wish my Mac had a HDD instead of SSD

dabockster 12y ago
All Macbooks claim to have the accelerometer, so it should work. If not, the sensitivity values are clearly marked in the script.
- stoolpigeon 12y ago
  My Macbook pro retina does not have an accelerometer.
  - cstuder 12y ago
    The acceleromenter was built into the MacBooks in order to protect the hard drives. I guess it makes sense that after moving to SSD the sensor has been taken out.
    - stoolpigeon 12y ago
      Yeah - it makes sense to me. I wasn't sure but I tried a few apps that are supposed to use it and looked for it in my system information and I didn't see it. (I'm really new to using a mac)

kecebongsoft 12y ago

I wouldn't use this, but this is cool. At first I thought it was using microphone to detect which side the smacking sound was coming from, but since others have pointed out, I didn't know harddrive heads have such sensors and can be accessed using programming language. It's probably suitable when you want to have an emergency button to destroy/encrypt/close all super-confidential information when someone's approaching and you don't have enough time to type/click anything, just smack!.

wingerlang 12y ago
What if someone accidentally bumps into your desk.
dabockster 12y ago
The sensor is in the system itself, not the drive.

dabockster 12y ago

Hey guys! Thanks for the comments on this small side project/homework procrastination of mine. When I originally saw this back in 2006, I thought it was one of the best tricks ever to do with a laptop computer. I was 13 at the time. Fast forward about 8-9 years, add some CS and Perl education, and bam, I finally know enough on how to update the script to save it from the black depths of the Internet. Took me a while to find an implementation that referenced enough to OS X Spaces, but I'm glad I could revive the idea. If I have the chance, I would love to write a clone of this and not have AMStracker as a dependency. Or if someone else wants to, that's cool too. I just don't know how long that AMStracker site will stay up.

jevin 12y ago

This is actually quite cool. Looks like all Macbooks around the 2012 era had SMS: http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT1935 http://support.apple.com/en-us/HT1935

bjz_ 12y ago

Oh, gotta love the SMS. There were several obscure apps that experimented with it: - http://uri.cat/software/LiquidMac/ http://uri.cat/software/LiquidMac/ - http://uri.cat/software/Tunnel/ http://uri.cat/software/Tunnel/ - http://www.suitable.com/tools/seismac.html http://www.suitable.com/tools/seismac.html - http://blog.isnoop.net/2006/05/20/macsaber-turn-your-mac-into-a-jedi-weapon/ http://blog.isnoop.net/2006/05/20/macsaber-turn-your-mac-int... Bonus video: MacSaber fighting! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK4AonfnFaM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qK4AonfnFaM

genmon 12y ago

Ha, neat! I remember using amstracker to jump forward in iTunes by bumping my laptop. Literally the first time I'd encountered physical UIs, it felt so natural. And now there's Wii and Kinect and Leap etc. Ancient code: http://interconnected.org/home/more/2005/03/bumptunes.py http://interconnected.org/home/more/2005/03/bumptunes.py And ancient write-up: http://interconnected.org/home/2005/03/04/apples_powerbook http://interconnected.org/home/2005/03/04/apples_powerbook