Richard Jones wrote:
> /me weeps.
> 
> Please don't do this.  Processes which regularly poll are a bane for
> people who are working to reduce the power consumption of laptops and
> servers.

While your heart is in the right place, I think your priorities are 
wrong on this one.  They guy is writing a thesis project, not a 
commercial application.

Let him get it coded.  I'm sure he's got more to worry about than saving 
a few watts here and there.  Or perhaps, if you feel strongly about it, 
you can contribute some tested code that works on Mac OS X and linux 
platforms.