Another way to use the HD APS of the thinkpad

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tourist.Tam · #1 Post by **tourist.Tam** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 2:17 pm

I was pocking the idea of replacing the HDD in my current TP and was wondering which brand/type would actually support the HDAPS of lenovo. While I was searching for more info, I came accross a small utility, that might just be usefull enough to someone for me to mention it here. It is a listener for any movement that might be registered by the chipset in the TP. When a shock is registered, and depending on it intensity, the small application called BedTime launch a sleep request.

There are a few user options so it is not too cumbersome to use.

Anyway, here are the link to the blog of the author: Blogging with Brien

And a link to an alpha release: hosted on box.net

I believe it to be coded in C# using the .Net framework, so usable on windows xp and vista: I haven't tried on any linux distro.

Tam

makai · #2 Post by **makai** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 6:02 pm

Well... just read the blog and my personal opinion is that I won't touch this software!

clipped from the blog...
My laptop, and many others, also support automatically launching Sleep mode when the laptop lid closes. I disabled that because I close the lid when I move from one seat to the next, e.g. when I’m going from the office desk to the kitchen counter. I didn’t *always* want it to go to sleep. Now BedTime automatically launches in those situations and I have a chance to abort Sleep mode by the time I get to my destination.

Unless I'm misunderstanding, does it mean he's moving his laptop with the lid closed and the hardrive possibly spinning? How else is he able to "abort" sleep mode when he reaches his destination? Sounds like a bad idea to me.

The blogger must be a bit impatient to not be able to handle the few seconds it takes to enter and leave sleep mode... at the possible cost of losing his data and his hard drive???

Just my .02 cents!

#3 Post by **Kyocera** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 6:10 pm

The blogger must be a bit impatient to not be able to handle the few seconds

From my experience in the world today no one has much patience.

qviri · #4 Post by **qviri** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 8:36 pm

makai wrote:Unless I'm misunderstanding, does it mean he's moving his laptop with the lid closed and the hardrive possibly spinning? How else is he able to "abort" sleep mode when he reaches his destination? Sounds like a bad idea to me.

The blogger must be a bit impatient to not be able to handle the few seconds it takes to enter and leave sleep mode... at the possible cost of losing his data and his hard drive???

If you're running an application that doesn't take well to internet connection being dropped (an ssh session, for example), going into sleep mode frequently is a pain. While the time to wake up from sleep isn't much, it take a long time for the 802.11 connection to re-establish and then you have to re-login.

Notebook hard drives are pretty durable these days. I wouldn't recommend it, but for a couple of months I used to just put my X21 with a Toshiba hard drive in the backpack and walk home without turning it off. It's still alive, although I wouldn't trust it with any important data. I am definitely comfortable with moving a laptop between rooms or floors without putting it to sleep, though.

DoctorLondom · #5 Post by **DoctorLondom** » Sat Jun 07, 2008 9:49 pm

If he doesn't want the lid to trigger sleep mode when he's moving room to room, he can just use this setting in the ThinkPad Power Manager...

makai · #6 Post by **makai** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 2:57 am

If you're running an application that doesn't take well to internet connection being dropped (an ssh session, for example), going into sleep mode frequently is a pain. While the time to wake up from sleep isn't much, it take a long time for the 802.11 connection to re-establish and then you have to re-login.

Understood, but c'mon, how important is your data? Really? Just because you've gotten away with it before, will you not be bummed if your drive crashed? I put my laptops to sleep even if I just move from my bedroom to the living room, simply because I know how much of a royal pain it is to redo a harddrive than to wait a few seconds. I'm very intense when it comes to loading a computer. Minimum 15 hours to do everything, killing services, tons of registry hacks, customized Windows, Office, Anti-spyware, installed program settings. I guess I'm just a fanatic when it comes to unloading junk! Waiting a few seconds for sleep mode rather than redoing my computer again... Absolutely... but that's just me!

It's still alive, although I wouldn't trust it with any important data

ummm... well...

tourist.Tam · #7 Post by **tourist.Tam** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 5:15 am

Hum, nice to see there is more than one voice among the TP user base.

I think, really, the main point of this application, and although I don't use it myself, is to demonstrate the unintended use of the chipset checking the physical position of the machine.

I know it is not new, but having discover this only very, very recently, I think that is kind of funny to see what you could do with it for the most adventurous folk (check the video of people "smacking" the screen to flick workspace in linux on utube).

I have no real idea whether something really useful for the lambda user have been pulled out but, the hack is there and definitely put in use.

Hope this helps,

Tam

PS: personally I have the sleep on closing the lid disabled.

qviri · #8 Post by **qviri** » Sun Jun 08, 2008 10:29 pm

makai wrote:
If you're running an application that doesn't take well to internet connection being dropped (an ssh session, for example), going into sleep mode frequently is a pain. While the time to wake up from sleep isn't much, it take a long time for the 802.11 connection to re-establish and then you have to re-login.
Understood, but c'mon, how important is your data? Really?

Really? Not very. The stuff that took most time to acquire and some backups are on an external, for the rest, I'd be bummed to lose it and would probably wish I had it at some point in the future, but I'd live.

This is probably easier to say because the most significant data loss I've experienced was when I shift-deleted a folder with stuff I made when I was 13 a couple of years ago.

Also, my OS situation is a major mess right now, so I would half-welcome the chance to set things up anew. Not exactly typical, I know.

It's still alive, although I wouldn't trust it with any important data
ummm... well...

Yeah, I know. That was stupid and I probably wouldn't try that again. I had an old OS that wouldn't standby-to-RAM properly, and an old hard drive that took something like three minutes to boot up. But anyway, the hard drive did survive this gross abuse, which leads me to think that newer drives I have now aren't horribly likely to die when I move the laptop fifteen metres without shutting it down. The chance is there, of course. It's just that it's very, very small.

makai · #9 Post by **makai** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 1:04 am

Well, like the op stated, there's more than one voice here. Being a forum, there's also many opinions and beliefs... and that's a good thing!

Truthfully, the data on my laptops are not important at all to me. If any of my laptop drives crashed, I wouldn't lose anything. My main computer is my desktop, and all data is there. Anything of real importance is backed up in numerous places. Basically my laptop data are clones of the desktop and anytime something new is created, it gets moved to my desktop as well. Like I said, to me, the pain is having to reload the harddrive if it ever crashes and that's the only reason I put my laptops to sleep.

Zender · #10 Post by **Zender** » Mon Jun 09, 2008 2:51 am

Hehe, I bought my previous laptop three years ago. It's been basically a non-brand one, never heard of rubber rails, anti-shock harddrive mounting, motion sensors, all plastic...
I abused it as much as I could. I would burn CDs or do anything else when walking, numerous times I put it in my backpack and let it continue doing its job, a few times I let it run this way and then run as fast as I could to catch a train...
It's still working. I don't believe the harddrive and the weird sounds it sometimes makes made setup automatic backups over network, back then. But it still works - my father is using it.
Even though I understand I might've just been lucky and I try not to abuse my current ThinkPad that much, I really don't feel like I'm doing it any harm by _walking_ with drive spinning.

And I have HDAPS disabled, because when when it kicks in with lid closed, I have about 15 seconds to open the lid or the OS (WinXPSP2custom) freezes. Never found out why.

Another way to use the HD APS of the thinkpad

Another way to use the HD APS of the thinkpad

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