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Type in Morse code by repeatedly slamming your laptop shut

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Re: Type in Morse code by repeatedly slamming your laptop shut

#71

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.

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...

Re: Type in Morse code by repeatedly slamming your laptop shut

#72
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

? 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.

Same on MacOS, press shift 5x to activate.

Re: Type in Morse code by repeatedly slamming your laptop shut

#74
post #35

Cryptonomicon by Neil Stephenson had a subplot where a main character used morse code on his keyboard, or some other layered encoding on top of the keyboard, to write software and communicate surreptitiously even while his screen was being recorded.

Specifically, IIRC, the character used the "Scroll Lock" LED to blink out some coordinates in Morse, to avoid the location being displayed on-screen and thus captured by Van Eck phreaking[0].

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_Eck_phreaking

Re: Type in Morse code by repeatedly slamming your laptop shut

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do this to my watch and phone, most often when cuddling the wife because one of my arms will doubtlessly be unavailable.

The nose as a pointing device ... Gotta go find me a scientific study on that :)

[flagged]

Re: Type in Morse code by repeatedly slamming your laptop shut

#76
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

? 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

Re: Type in Morse code by repeatedly slamming your laptop shut

#80

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.

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