> This is a no-name brand laptop. I have a small widget directly above the > screen that is labeled with a small etched picture of a microphone. That's, > apparently, my laptop's built-in microphone, which I never used. I > discovered that if I cover up the entire microphone sensor, that triggers > the backlight to dim to half power. Looks like I have an ambient light > sensor in there. Few things. First, that's probably not a microphone but a webcam. Didn't you know that you have one? ;) Second thing, according to http://hughsient.livejournal.com/2007/05/24/ webcam can be used as ambient light sensor. It apparently works for you. And third thing, run gconf-editor, navigate to /apps/gnome-power-manager/ambient and uncheck "enable". Or you can fiddle with values there. -- Tomasz Torcz
