Your Macbook’s Accelerometer and You
If you own a Macbook, Macbook Pro, iBook, or Powerbook then you will be able to take advantage of its built-in accelerometer (Apple calls it a “Sudden Motion Sensor” or “SMS”). The piece of hardware is designed to detect sudden motion and report changes so that it can lock the hard drive if the laptop is dropped to protect your data.
But what fun is that?
Want your Mac to report earthquakes and act as a seismograph? If so SeisMac, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, is up your alley.
If you are into some mindless fun, you can check out LiquidMac which will allow you to control the flow of liquid on your screen through motion. Want to turn you mac into a lightsaber? If so, check out the MacSaber application. Some other games are Tunnel and Pong.
However, you may find something like iAlertU very useful. If someone moves your laptop when it is “armed” an alarm will sound. It is advertised as a car alarm for your Mac. It will even take a picture of the thief. The project hosted on Sourceforge and the code has been GPL’d.
Finally, there is a program called SmackBook Pro which can be used to change your virtual desktops based on a light “slap” of your Mac. The project is hosted on Sourceforge. However, the project seems out of date and requires some hacking to get working.
Supposedly the SmackBook functionality has been integrated into VirtueDesktops so that may be the best way to explore those features. However, it seems there is a major memory leak in the latest version so you may need to download the previous Beta.
If you know of any other applications or uses for the accelerometer feel free to leave them in the comments.
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NASA
A Chameleon Sky
The sands of time are running out for the central star of this the Hourglass Nebula. With its nuclear fuel exhausted, this brief, spectacular, closing phase of a sun-like star's life occurs as its outer layers are ejected and its core becomes a cooling, fading white dwarf. In 1995, astronomers used the Hubble Space Telescope to make a series of images of planetary nebulae, including the one above. Here, delicate rings of colorful glowing gas (nitrogen-red, hydrogen-green, and oxygen-blue) outline the tenuous walls of the 'hourglass.' The unprecedented sharpness of Hubble's images revealed surprising details of the nebula ejection process and may resolve the outstanding mystery of the variety of complex shapes and symmetries of planetary nebulae. Image Credit: NASA, WFPC2, HST, R. Sahai and J. Trauger (JPL)
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