“Just a little detail that wouldn’t sell anything”

34 points by fanf

I couldn't swear to it, because I haven't measured, but I think the red light in the "i" on the lid of my ThinkPad T480 pulses in this same pattern when I close the lid while it's asleep.

scruss

Yes, it does. Though probably in a non-infringingly different way to Apple's patented method.

Unlike Apple's LED, you can use the ThinkPad LED to send messages in Morse code
- hoistbypetard
  
  Ooh! Got a link to how one might do that from Linux?
  - scruss
    
    sure! There are several, and I'm sure this isn't complete:
    
    Making my ThinkPad LED flash 'decoded.legal' in morse code — extremely simple bash script. Probably doesn't send standard Morse timing.
    
    ~fijarom/thinkmorse - A Bash script for blinking the ThinkPad lid LED in Morse code - sourcehut git — can be used as a systemd service.
    
    arzkar/think-morse: A CLI to flash morse code using the thinkpad's lid logo led, only works in Linux. — it's written in Rust, so it must be good.
    
    hoistbypetard
    
    fun. thanks!
  - scruss
    
    I'm delighted by the various attempts to re-create the breathing LED that Marcin highlights in the “some people tried to recreate it on their own” section. So much “this has to be right!” that I recognize from my own projects.
    
    In my own adventures in missing the point, reading Apple's now-expired patent suggests to me that the LED 's period is 1800 ms, and:
    
    for t < 1400 ms, duty is sin²(π × t ÷ 1400) ÷ 4;
    
    for t ≥ 1400 ms, duty is 0.
    
    This gives a maximum PWM duty of 25% at 700 ms. While the patent describes the curve as "sinusoidal", sin² is a suspiciously better fit.
  - m_eiman
    
    We have similar animations of our card reader's keypad backlight when it's idle. Recently got a customer request to be able to disable the animation, so it's not universally enjoyed :)
  - dmbaturin
    
    the animation was designed to mimic human breathing at 12 breaths per minute, and feel comforting and soothing
    
    I have no idea how a flashing light can be "comforting and soothing". A flashing light is a pattern that has always been used to draw people's attention to it or at least a debugging aid.
    
    tomhukins
    
    I have no idea how a flashing light can be "comforting and soothing".
    
    The way the light faded on and off slowly and gently felt very different to the flashing light you describe. I had forgotten about this feature of my 2002 iBook, but I found it informative and unobtrusive. I usually dislike flashing lights.
    
    hoistbypetard
    
    It was more pulsing than flashing.
    
    masklinn
    
    The light would slowly fade in and out, it was not at all flashing.
    
    Although I have an ambiguous relation with it: I have a hard time sleeping, and while I loved this light during the day (the light shining through flat aluminium was as impressive as it was pretty) it was more than bright enough at night to make it harder to sleep, so I had to put crap in front of the led before going to bed.
    
    Then again the charger indicator light had the same issue.