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Comment by mickdarling | Hacker News Reader

I am guessing this is a nice little joke, BUT...

If the sensitivity was just right, and it only measured a shake like smacking the monitor on the side, it might actually make a nice UX.

Think of typing away at this message and then deciding, "never-mind", and reaching up with your right hand and smacking the screen on the edge. Could be a very natural feeling undo.

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I'm pretty sure there was a virtual desktop manager for OS X around 10.3 or 10.4 that, in one fork, supported smacking each side of the laptop to cycle left or right. I also recall being able to use the ambient light sensors under the speaker grills for the same thing: Cover one with your hand, and the desktops move that way.

It was pretty fantastic.

Yep! Here's some instructions on how it was done. The underlying app, ScreenKnock, still works on Lion.

Instructions: http://maketecheasier.com/smack-your-mac-to-switch-spaces/20...

ScreenKnock: http://welcometochrisworld.com/2008/10/02/screen-knock/

Thanks for linking that, really neat. I just ran it, and after configuring to use command-arrows to switch spaces, it works really well on my MacBook.

In fact, rather than hitting the side of the screen, just a gentle tilt to the left or right is enough to switch spaces. The dynamic feels really good.

Ah ha! Yes, I knew it must have been a residual memory and not my own idea.

Hehe, I remember trying out the predecessor, SmackBook: http://blog.medallia.com/2006/05/smacbook_pro.html

I also remember installing a bunch of similar little toys built around the same time using this sensor - MacSaber: http://blog.isnoop.net/2006/05/20/macsaber-turn-your-mac-int... SMSRotateD: http://osxbook.com/software/sms/smsrotated/ SeisMac: http://www.suitable.com/tools/seismac.html

(Amusing to look back on this since I work on Cydia now, which is all about non-app software like neat accelerometer toys [one of the more popular packages is Graviboard], just on little bitty devices I wouldn't have imagined back in 2006.)

It was called SmackBook:

http://blog.medallia.com/2006/05/smacbook_pro.html

Surely smacking the left hand side of your monitor should produce a line return, typewriter style? :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A-R1koiUv4

Or a carriage-return gesture, typewriter style?

[EDIT: someone beat me to it]

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