Alarmed : Scheduling App (supports automatic GPRS data counter resetting)

Alarmed is a small (???) App that acts as a GUI front-end to maemos alarmd scheduler back-end. It's written in python and uses the PySide bindings to Qt. (PySide is under heavy development at the moment and is both unstable and unreliable. A major new release is expected within weeks or months which will fix some of the knows issues with Alarmed.)

Alarmed enables you to do things like:

- Set a command to be executed at specific intervals (every minute, hourly, on specific weekdays, on last day of month etc...)
- Set recurring alarms
- Reset the GPRS data counter at a specific day every month or at the end of the month
- More stuff like this

 

 

WARNING: This is very much alpha: It crashes, has bugs, and it might do weird things (including - however unlikely - completely bricking your device). Do NOT use it if you expect it to work properly. Also read everything in this post before installing it! All of the known issues I can't do anything about except possibly workaround, as they're caused by bugs in PySide and pymaemo.

Planned future features:

- Support for intervals in seconds/minutes/hours etc.
- Better list of current items (waiting for new PySide release because of missing functions)
- Built-in functions for switching to the "General" or "Silent" profiles respectively
- Check if command is valid, possibly support for command line arguments
- Built-in function for sending SMS/Email

Known issues/bugs:

- Long startup time: Due to the current PySide implementation (boost). Will get much better once the new release is out (called Shiboken).
- Segfault (crash) after opening "New Event" or "Edit" three times or more: Bug in PySide, sorry
- Slightly weird banners: Bug in PR1.1 Qt, will be fixed in PR1.2 Qt.
- Adding a D-Bus call does not work: Bug in pymaemo, can't do anything about that.
- Command exec does not support command line arguments. Restriction in alarmd. You'll need to write a script and put it somewhere to execute a command with arguments.

More details over here !

Fcron : schedule anything at anytime !

Fcron is standard Linux scheduler used to schedule any command at any time. So this means that it doesn't have any limits and you can schedule just about anything. It is run as daemon in the background so you don't need to worry about it. You set it up with a config file which contains schedule.

Alternatives:

cron: Why not? - Cron is older than fcron and doesn't sleep between events.

anacron: Why not? - Anacron is used to schedule daily jobs, fcron can schedule to seconds.

ses: Why not? - Ses is buggy, buggy and buggy. It doesn't even uninstall properly.

Alarmed: It is the best alternative with a big plus (GUI), but also a big minus (no CLI). You can use custom command, so you can schedule anything, but you can't schedule it anytime (alarmed daemon doesn't provide an option for every possible time). It also needs python (because of the GUI, daemon itself doesn't need it), which consumes space.

You can use this simple yet powerful tool to schedule just about anything at anytime. You can schedule:

- profiles
- backup scripts
- resetting the GPRS counter every month
- disconnection and connection of mobile network or internet
- 3G/2G/Dual radio modes
- NTP update
- email notify/refresh
- brightness level
- locking
- rebooting
- your own scripts
- ...

The wiki entry covers why is using fcron the best way for scheduling events, installation and configuration guide and some scripts.

[HOW TO] Have an Interactive Yahoo Weather on your N900 lock screen !

 Don't you want you're weather informations on the lock screen as i do? Hell yes (thanks to Alfred )!

Here's how to do it quickly in 6 steps ;)

1) Install imagemagick from extras or in X-terminal :

Code:

apt-get install imagemagick

2) Install wget (if not already done)

Code:

apt-get install wget

3) After installing imagemagick, the folder "/home/user/imagemagick" should appear, if not create it.

4) Place everything that contains this archived folder in /home/user/imagemagick/ folder.

Edit the script weather.sh (via txt editor for example) and change the URL of yahoo forecast city by yours :

Code:

http://weather.yahoo.com/morocco/greater-casablanca/casablanca-1532755/?unit=c

Ps : in yahoo forecast page you can also choose between Fahrenheit and Celsius.

5) Run following commands in Terminal :

Code:

root
chmod 777 /home/user/imagemagick/*

6) Run this script by executing:

Code:

sh /home/user/imagemagick/weather.sh

You're done !

7) If you want to make this script run automatically, install Alarmed. Make a "New event">"Command execution">Select frequency of how often do you want to update it>Enter Name> in the command field put this:

Code:

sh /home/user/imagemagick/weather.sh

Note : You need an internet connection for "weather.sh". The first run of this script must be followed by a reboot, in order to load the new slider.

And of course, you can play with colors and fonts. If you look into the script, you will find what and how to change. It's very easy. There is also a folder with some free fonts, so feel free to use them.

It's interactive as the background changes, depending on the current temperature. If it is below zero, it chooses "winter.png" as background. If it is above zero it chooses "summer.png" and if it IS ZERO, it chooses "background.png" as a background image.

If you want to reset everything back to normal, just choose another theme from desktop, and then again the theme you want. Everything will be back after a restart. 

Scripts that increase your N900's user experience !

As you already know, Desktop Command Execution widget is one of the most useful widgets on your Maemo desktop. It can be used to show certain information (for example battery level in percentage) or as a button which can be used for example to disconnect active internet connection (you need to tap 3 times and also wait for menus to appear without this widget). Therefore it can replace many other applications/widgets/applets and you can also make something new.

Also, with the help of Alarmed or Fcron you can set a command to be executed at specific intervals (every minute, hourly, on specific weekdays, on last day of month etc...)

Here you'll find a collection of scripts that work in these applets :

http://wiki.maemo.org/Fcron#Scripts


http://wiki.maemo.org/Phone_control

http://wiki.maemo.org/Desktop_Command_Execution_Widget_scripts#Scripts