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

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.

Activity Manager : have multiple activities a'la KDE's plasma !

Activity manager (actman) is a status menu applet that allows the user to have multiple activities (a'la KDE's plasma). An activity is the set of all desktop widgets, bookmarks and icons along with the background.

For example, it is possible to have an activity named "car" where the desktop is customized to be easily accessible while driving without having many icons. Then another activity named "games" to include shortcuts to games. Then another activity named "clean" without any widgets on the desktop in order to conserve battery.

Activity manager comes along with a command-line tool (/usr/bin/activity) that can be used by other applications, scripts or automations in order to handle desktop activities.

Available :  Extras-devel