Having Fun With PowerBook Motion Sensors 81
mjk325 writes "Amit Singh has published a discussion on the 'Sudden Motion Sensor' feature in the latest revision PowerBooks. One utility he has released displays a 3-D view of the PowerBook that follows the actual movement of the physical machine. Another utility creates windows that rotate in opposite directions to the physical machine to appear always straight. My brand new PB has the motion sensor, but apparently the utilities work on any system using software faking."
Sweet. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Sweet. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Sweet. (Score:1)
Anyway I'm not so sure how well it works though, it is not as if the constant shutting off/powering up of the hard disk drive is going to do it any good in the long term..
Re:Sweet. (Score:2)
Security? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Security? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Security? (Score:5, Funny)
You know everybody will set their pattern to Up-Up-Down-Down...
Re:Security? (Score:1)
Re:Security? (Score:1)
Re:Security? (Score:2)
Re:Security? (Score:2)
Read all comments before submitting your own. It doesn't matter how original you think it is, everyone else on Slashdot has already thought of it.
And don't reply to your own comment, you'll get modded "Offtopic"
No imagination (Score:5, Funny)
What is clearly needed is a plug-in that clears the screen when the unit is held upside-down and shaken!
Or a version of Marble Madness that uses the tilt of the machine to control the marble.
semi-obligatory Simpsons quote (Score:1)
Wowbagger, I don't like to use the word Hero lightly but You...
Genius!!! - finally life has imitated art once more and the famous Dilbert and the PHB laptop strip can now be made a reality
Love it.
Re:semi-obligatory Simpsons quote (Score:1, Funny)
Not hardly.
He's a jerk, complete kneebiter, brainless prat, and a no-good dumbo nothing!
Re:completely wrong wowbagger quote (Score:2)
He's "a jerk, a complete asshole."
Oh wait. That's what wowbagger said to Arthur.
Re:semi-obligatory Simpsons quote (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:No imagination (Score:1)
Re:No imagination (Score:5, Funny)
Or rather, the fun of watching somebody else doing that....
Re:No imagination (Score:3, Interesting)
Etch-A-Sketch! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No imagination (Score:3, Funny)
Re:No imagination (Score:2)
imac 2 (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:imac 2 (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:imac 2 (Score:1)
Re:imac 2 (Score:2)
Radius -- maybe my Pivot will work on my Pbook now (Score:2, Interesting)
Of course the pivot feature hasn't worked since OS 7 or 8 or something.
Maybe there's something in this new approach that will let me once again turn the Pivot monitor to Portrait. I sure hope so.
I just hate landfilling still functioning tools.
Re:Radius -- maybe my Pivot will work on my Pbook (Score:2)
Re:Radius -- maybe my Pivot will work on my Pbook (Score:1)
Forget about the motion sensor aspect, all I want is to be able to tell the Mac that it has a monitor in portrait position -- like used to work.
Re:Radius -- maybe my Pivot will work on my Pbook (Score:3, Insightful)
you may have an option [macosxhints.com]
Re:Radius -- maybe my Pivot will work on my Pbook (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Radius -- maybe my Pivot will work on my Pbook (Score:2)
But it's not the same as having the monitor resync automatically when you tilt it.
Re:Radius -- maybe my Pivot will work on my Pbook (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:imac 2 (Score:1)
Re:imac 2 (Score:3, Insightful)
Physical Tilt Games... (Score:5, Interesting)
The pBook is light enough to make it feasible for a little while anyway. My only concern would be causing the drive heads to park to often due to "agressive" playing. The article implies that you can disable the head parking, but then I'd be worried about disk damage.
I wonder what the threshold is for head parking?
Re:Physical Tilt Games... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Physical Tilt Games... (Score:1)
Re:Physical Tilt Games... (Score:5, Insightful)
Pinball, anyone?
Re:Physical Tilt Games... (Score:2)
Re:Physical Tilt Games... (Score:1)
Same as IBM ThinkPad sensor? (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Same as IBM ThinkPad sensor? (Score:1, Funny)
for geologist out there (Score:5, Funny)
CJC
Re:for geologist out there (Score:1)
Re:for geologist out there (Score:1)
But in this case to collect data not process.
If you could get all the new Powerbooks to sign up to the network, next time there is an earth quake in the area it would record the shaking.
Might be really interesting to model how the energy waves flow if you could get enough data at various point locations.
just realised it may need a gps to any value.
Thinkpad (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Thinkpad (Score:2)
Where did you get this program? I have a T40 which should have the same feature and would like to try it out.
Re:Thinkpad (Score:3, Informative)
Control Panel
IBM Active Protection
Real Time Status
I'm running version 1.23 of the software and it is there that it displays the Notebook as you rotate it in realtime.
Wait a minute... (Score:2)
Wait just one minute...Wouldn't that just look like regular 2-D windows on a flat monitor?!
Re:Wait a minute... (Score:3, Informative)
No, not rotating in 3D. Rotating in 2D.
The point is that the top of the window will always be up, relative to the earth, regardless of what orientation the laptop is in.
The window behaves like a compass needle, only relative to real-up and real-down, instead of north and south.
Re:Wait a minute... (Score:2)
-WS
Is your desktop perturbed? (Score:4, Funny)
In spite of the author's quote, "Needless to say, it is quite a hellish experience trying to use the computer in this manner," it's just asking for someone to install it on some poor clod's computer, getting him drunk, and then have him try to do something productive like code in Perl.
"Hey... WTF does an upside down exclamation point stand for?"
[tinfoil] okay. (Score:1)
what other 'environment monitoring' features does it have?
Whoa! (Score:5, Interesting)
This is the first piece of software that's had me drop my jaw for ages. Well done. I swear I will pay good money for the first "shake the machine and the window clears" etch-a-sketch plug-in for Pages or Keynote :)
Re:Whoa! (Score:1)
It would be a scene straight out of Dilbert, only with a real computer...
Acceleration Detector + GPS = differential GPS (Score:5, Interesting)
Now why not keep track of the accelerations, integrate (SUM) over time to get the velocity, integrate once again to get the spatial location. You could keep a log of where the laptop goes while it's on. Hmm... I might have to buy one of these toys, make the software and put it in the passenger seat of my car and see what I can make it do...
I remember a circuit cellar article about a 3-d accelerometer, but I didn't feel like dinking around with a soldering iron that year. Looks like a new powerbook will let me accomplish that long-delayed task with software alone.
Must acquire cash for purchase NOW
Don't worry, you don't need a powerbook (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Don't worry, you don't need a powerbook (Score:2)
Re:Don't worry, you don't need a powerbook (Score:1)
Re:Don't worry, you don't need a powerbook (Score:1)
Recalibrating? (Score:1)
Is there any way to recalibrate the sensor?
Re:Recalibrating? (Score:5, Funny)
Personal Experiment... (Score:5, Interesting)
You will notice that with the StableWindow, sometimes its a bit off, and with the AMSVisualizer, the Y-axis animations seem to be backwards. But, who cares? It's neat anyway.
PowerBook Tilting! [dotsomething.net]
That's Awesome! (Score:1)
iSight + Motion Sensor + Looking Glass = Awesome! (Score:2)
Could you imagine the possibilities on this thing if you added some Looking Glass features and used an iSight?
Most people would surely have no use for it, but it could lead to some interesting games. Maybe something like virtual geocaching?
It's for his book. (Score:2)
The ultimate application of a notebook acceleromet (Score:3, Interesting)
See also: Croquet
What? (Score:2)
force feedback this (Score:2, Funny)
or if u want to stick to the technology at hand, u could use it to control the flight of the redeemer.
heck, if u run fast enough, u can make it go faster...just don't jump the railings if u're more than 10-15 floors up. u'll lose too many health points.
Uh Oh! (Score:2, Funny)
"I was... erm... just holding it like you normally do. Honest! Can I keep my warranty?"