Requirements:
* macOS
* Zoom
* Home Assistant
* A signal light/sign on a smart switch (like [0])
First, create a script that checks whether you're currently on a Zoom call, and then turns your signal light on or off accordingly. Remember to chmod +x!
#!/bin/sh
if [ $(lsof -i 4UDP | grep zoom 2>/dev/null | wc -l) -gt 1 ]; then
curl \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ${HOME_ASSISTANT_ACCESS_TOKEN}" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"entity_id": "${ENTITY_ID}"}' \
https://${HOME_ASSISTANT_DOMAIN}/api/services/switch/turn_on
else
curl \
-H "Authorization: Bearer ${HOME_ASSISTANT_ACCESS_TOKEN}" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"entity_id": "${ENTITY_ID}"}' \
https://${HOME_ASSISTANT_DOMAIN}/api/services/switch/turn_off
fi
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Label</key>
<string>local.${USER}.on-air</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
<array>
<string>${PATH_TO_SCRIPT}</string>
</array>
<key>WatchPaths</key>
<array>
<string>/Users/${USER}/Library/Application Support/zoom.us/data</string>
</array>
</dict>
</plist>
$ launchctl load ../Library/LaunchAgents/local.${USER}.on-air.plist
I've had a similar problem in the past. It turns out that most routers have a way to assign an IP address statically based on the MAC address of the requesting device without affecting the other DHCP devices on the network.
I do this for my pi-hole, my NAS and my gaming PC.
I thought that step one of geekdom was assigning a few static IPs.
Ruining the home network while ‘optimising’ has happened a few too many times.
Let's assume the LAN is 10.0.0/24, so addresses of devices on the LAN are 10.0.0.1-10.0.0.254. In the following I'll omit the 10.0.0. part of an address, so will just refer to addresses 1-254.
Find the range DHCP manages, which should be somewhere in the router settings. If it is 1-254 reduce it. Let's say it is 1-200 (either by default or after you have reduced it).
Then you can simply go the settings on your server or other device that you want to have a static address and configure it to use a hard coded address outside that range, such as 201.
A possible downside of that is that on some devices if you want to give it a hard coded address you also have to hard code the gateway address and the name servers.
Some devices though have an option to use a hard coded address but still get the gateway and name servers from DHCP.
In summary, there are three ways to manage address for a given device on most home routers.
1. DHCP assigns the address. It can choose any address in its pool. Each time the device needs an IP address, such as after a boot or when its lease expires, it could get a different IP address.
2. DHCP assigns the address, but you can tell it to give a specific address from the pool to a given device identified by the device's MAC address.
3. Tell the device to use an address outside the router's DHCP pool. It's up to you to decide how to assign these address and how to make sure no conflicts arise.
For #2 if you want some device to have a fixed IP address but you don't actually care what that address is, many routers have an easy way to do that. Connect the device under #1, so DHCP picks the address.
Then go find the table in the router's web interface that shows all currently connected devices and find your device. Many routers will have a toggle in there to tell it to switch to #2 for that device. From then on the device's current address will be reserved for it.
That's a little easier than going through their "assign an IP" dialog, because that usually makes you enter the MAC address. If you go through the connection table details it doesn't have to ask you for the MAC address.
The only issue with my setup- I work from home. My wife does not. No one is there to care if they can come in or not. It was building something fun to solve a problem I never had.
Would do again.
But as it turns out, since my spouse & I both work from home, separated by an entire floor of a house, there ain't that much need for it, so it sits on my shelf.
What you need is a sensor right near the green dot that detects whether it's turned on or not. Could use a full-blown camera, but probably a simpler sensor would work too.
Only half-kidding.
? OverSight [1] seems to work just fine. It pops up whenever something uses the mic or camera (the usage for this tool is to "monitor" for unwanted access from rogue apps). Since it's open source it should be possible to check how they get the status?
https://onairwarning.com/pages/products
It completely sucks and doesn't really work. So don't make my mistake.
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Kuando/page/1128C3FD-9BE9-4AA2...
There are some nice neon sign options here as well:
TBH, I kind of miss the touch bar. Once they restored the esc key, it was often kind of useful while I tend not to use any of the keys in the F row (even those mapped by IntelliJ since the whole fn+F key thing is a kind of a pain and I seldom have call for the media buttons—actually I just realized I do occcasionally use the mute/unmute feature but that’s about it).
Of course my preferences are normative and anyone who does otherwise is clearly abnormal ;-)
“Trigger actions, launch apps, and control your entire setup—all from a hyper-customizable deck of vibrant LCD keys.”
https://www.elgato.com/us/en/p/stream-deck
* Narrator: Not actually useless. Mine is setup for multi-screen chat/video/notes windows placement and app window sharing for video conferencing.
> "There is (was?) a utility that would flip individual F keys on the Mac"
Oh: [moon|F6]
“If you are smugly thinking to yourself, “I knew that!”, Then, my question to you is, why didn’t you tell ME???” — https://www.podfeet.com/blog/2023/09/do-not-disturb-key/
It goes on to answer the next question:
“But that got me to wondering how long the F6 has had a dedicated Do Not Disturb function. I did some research and it looks like it was introduced when Apple came out with the first Apple Silicon MacBook Air in 2020. The previous keyboard shortcuts had F4 key dedicated to Launchpad, and if you had a backlit keyboard, F5 and F6 were dedicated to up/down keyboard brightness keys.”
You've appeared to engineer your way around an interpersonal relationship that you lack the emotional, social intelligence and maturity to deal with.
Welcome to the front page of HN i guess. you're well on the way to becoming a founder.
I've thought of doing basically something similar so my wife knows I'm in a position not to be disturbed. I can, and do, tell her when I have a scheduled call, but unscheduled calls do just happen. Something like this would let her know I can't be disturbed without her coming in, asking and then going 'oh shit, sorry.'
In no way is it engineering a way out of dealing with my wife.
The person entering has to make sure they're not on camera — if the room's architecture even allows for that — the person answering has to somehow communicate to that person without people looking at their video feed noticing. I've gestured things to my fiancée while on air, and while they were pretty clearly intended for "someone off camera", still managed to confuse the meeting participants.
Radio booths and other broadcasts have done this for ages with the "On Air" sign, which basically what TFA has made.
Unless the "other people" (spouses/partners/parents/etc.) also work a from home job, they simply do not internalize that the work from home individual is "at work" in the same manner as if that individual were away in an office. And for some of them, no amount of explanation ever sinks in to fully internalize the fact that "when I'm working from home, I am not available to also solve all the problems you create for yourself throughout the day".
Most all of them, however, do actually pay attention to and understand the meaning of a "do not disturb" sign on the door.