knockage
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Control your laptop by hitting it
They say that you only hurt the ones you love, which may be why even the savviest computer users still resort to physically striking their laptops out of frustration or in futile attempts to fix a problem. Well a recently-posted article at IBM Devworks shows you how to take those punishing blows and channel them into something more productive, by allowing you to input commands on select ThinkPad notebooks through rapping your knuckles on the case in specific sequences. Using a script called knockAge, owners of post-2003, Linux-powered ThinkPads with the Hard Drive Active Protection System can leverage the sensitivity of their machines' built-in accelerometers to perform almost any task imaginable simply by whacking the side of the LCD screen. Once the software is properly configured, you can program your lappy to accept a specific knock sequence for unlocking the screensaver, for instance, or to change tracks in your music player; and if you set up a command for initiating remote troubleshooting, why, for the first time you'll have a way to actually fix your computer by landing a few well-placed blows.[Via Slashdot]
