IBM Active Protection System Approach

[David Scheidt]

On Tue, Aug 23, 2005 at 01:06:18AM +0200, Stefan Bethke wrote:
> 
> Early reports from Mac enthusiast sites (and I believe similar  
> reports from IBM users) indicate that the hysteresis is so small that  
> gently pounding the table the notebook is sitting on will make the  
> drive park the heads, and lead to 10 to 20 seconds delay before the  
> drive can be accessed again.

Watching the real time status of IBM APS shows that my T42 will auto
ignore "repetiive shock", of hte sort that I can cause by holding the
thing in my lap and and typing this message with a little more force
than I normally hit the keys.  

> 
> Given how tightly coupled mechanically the HD in most notebooks is to  
> it's shell, it seems a very good idea to pursue.
> 
> If you have access to a new(ish) PowerBook, I recommend checking out  
> http://www.kernelthread.com/software/ams/. The sensitivity of the  
> accelerometer is truely astounding.  (For those who haven't seen it:  
> you turn the notebook, and the demo window is turned so it stays  
> level.  It takes *really* small movements to confuse the system.)
> 

The IBM ThinkPads have a similiar applicaiton in the Active protection
system properties control panel, under the real-time status tab.  It's
pretty cool to watch. 

David