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Comment by linsomniac | Hacker News Reader

This 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.

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I 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/pris... the LED was to output data, but they used another key to tap code

Input in Morse by space bar, output by LEDs.

That book directly inspired my "blink my caps lock light when someone visits a web page" hack from nearly 8 years ago: http://lelandbatey.com/posts/2016/12/Making-lights-blink-for...

> on the shift (?) key.

Disabling Windows accessibility features is an indication of anti-social behavior.

? 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.

Windows has a "sticky keys" accessibility feature that is enabled by pressing "shift" many times. I believe it's intended for people who have a hard time holding multiple keys at the same time.

It's something that would be easy to trigger accidentally if you are using the shift keys to play pinball or type morse code.

Any gamer who maps shift to something discovers this very quickly

Right, I know, all OSs have those same features. I always disable them on my own computers because they get in the way when triggered accidentally, like with gaming. The poster I replied to suggested it’s evil to do so, and I’m confused why.

The comment I replied to mentioned using the shift key to covertly transmit morse code.

Same on MacOS, press shift 5x to activate.

Was that not tongue-in-cheek?

The sticky-keys popup used to be a fun way to get past the screen lock used at computer shops etc. since it took focus off the screen lock window, which then let you use other hot keys. :D

Laptops are not generally social objects. The notion makes me a bit nauseous actually.

Not more nauseous than any other shared keyboard, I assume?

Welp, I know what I'm reading on my next flight :)

You won't regret it, classic book.

At risk of derailing the conversation, I finished Cryptonomicon earlier this year and really enjoyed it. Any recommendations for similar books?

The Baroque Cycle by the same author.

I didn't like Snowcrash nearly as much.

His Diamond Age is pretty good, too.

I thought Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir had a similar "feel", though it's more future-looking rather than past looking.

Daemon and Freedom(tm) by Daniel Suarez is another book (printed as two books, because reasons) that is ~1K pages but I've read 3 times (like Cryptonomicon).

Others in this thread have recommended The Baroque Cycle, but I just couldn't get into it. Ditto with Anathem. Maybe I should give them another try. However, I do love Diamond Age and Snowcrash.

If you can get past the absolute slog of a beginning, Anathem is amazing.

Anthem is my favorite Stephenson book, by far. My copy is the only book I own with a broken binding because I've read it too many times. I don't think that one gets enough attention, especially from a world building and technical perspective.

yes, give it a try and try to get past the first few chapters. The first time I read it, the world building almost put me to sleep. Somehow I decided to give it another try on a long flight, and this time I grok'd the world building, and thoroughly enjoyed it all the way through to the end.

Snowcrash? REAMDE was also good.

The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer is the sequel to Snow Crash, and is excellent and in many ways more relevant and subversive now, given that more or less Snow Crash has passed into retrofuturism as all the things kind of happened, like Jules Verne.

So nice to find someone else who enjoyed REAMDE.

My favorite of his, and I’ve read most of them.

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