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Lock and unlock a Mac using Bluetooth detection
Authored by: mael on Jan 01, '10 03:47:41AM

Reading the headline I was surprised: Proximity.app is a fairly "old" utility, not having been updated in quite a while, but working perfectly. Maybe the hype about AirLock spurred the interest.. Whatever, it was about time it got mentioned...

A number of people have written about Proximity.app and developed quite useful scripts for it. Look here for more information:
- http://www.technocrat.ca/?p=44
- http://digg.com/apple/Bluetooth_Proximity_Detection_on_OS_X#c5752438

and here for explanations and scripts that work for me:
- http://know-how.posterous.com/

From the Script:
- offer the user the option to stifle all actions if the connection just got lost randomly (stopping any active screen saver first)
- inform the user via speech output and Growl messages (if available) about what is going to happen for him to see when he returns
- log its actions in the system log
- mute the system volume to avoid any alarm etc. annoying others
- set the state of the instant messaging clients Adium, Skype and iChat to away/busy/not available
- set the status message/mood of the instant messaging clients to a predefined value
- pause the media players DVD Player, VLC, QuickTime Player and iTunes
- post a message on twitter
- set the status on facebook
- start taking pictures from whatever is in front of the computer in defined intervals via an iSight camera, saving the pictures for later inspection
- enable the screen saver password option to prevent anybody messing with the machine
- and start the screen saver, so the machine is locked
- while saving the current states of everything that is being changed, so as to be able to revert it when the user returns
- in a way suitable for the machine to go to sleep or shut down as well.

It'll do some more housekeeping like
- checking the availability of Growl and registering this script with it as well
- making sure this script only executes once before the In-Range script, otherwise the settings would be messed
- look if fbcmd has been installed in order to use it
and more.



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