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Ergonomic Screensavers?

Posted by Cliff on from the this-isn't-your-traditional-screensaver dept.

trance9 sent this submission in: "Where can I find an ergonomic screensaver? Most screensavers lock the screen when you don't type enough. I want one that locks the screen when I type too much. After 10 minutes of non-stop typing, it should let me know it's time for a break. If I keep going for another 5 minutes, it should insist. EMACS has a mode like this, but I don't do everything through EMACS--I think it should really be done by either the window manager, or some X add on. Any ideas?" Interesting! With more and more of us spending time in front of our monitors, would something like this really help out with eye-strain in the long run?

7 of 8 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Quick, yes - but it won't work... by Anders · · Score: 1
    You want to go to bed at 12? No problem. At 11, you need only type "shutdown -h 60".

    No, that will not help me. "shutdown -c" at 11:50 would cancel the shutdown.
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  2. Hrmmm... by An+Ominous+Cowherd · · Score: 1



    In the case of xscreensaver, each of the screensavers are actually free-standing programs that can be launched independtly of the xscreensaver process. so what you might be able to is hack something up that polls for keyboard input, and starts one of the screensavers after a particular "non-idle" threshold has been hit. not my area, but probably an interesting little hack. may be able to tie that in with the existing code in emacs that already does that...

  3. Re:xwrits is the answer by ixx · · Score: 1

    xwrits also has a lock mode

  4. xwrits is the answer by djinn87 · · Score: 1
    http://core.freshmeat.ne t/appindex/1998/06/07/897236665.html

    Xwrits reminds you to take wrist breaks, which will hopefully help you prevent repetitive stress injury. It pops up an X window when you should rest, you click on that window, then take a break.

  5. Quick and dirty, but it'll work... by invenustus · · Score: 1
    It *has* to somehow be un-interruptable if it should work for me.


    You want to go to bed at 12? No problem. At 11, you need only type "shutdown -h 60". That'll teach you to stay up past your bedtime.

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    grep -ri 'should work' /usr/src/linux | wc -l
  6. Eureka! by riot158 · · Score: 1

    Here's a solution - start smoking. Granted, you can still type with a smoke in your hand, but I've found that my hourly sorties outside give my hands a rest & my brain a chance to think of better ideas.

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    my karma ran over your dogma
    1. Re:Eureka! by riot158 · · Score: 1

      I am, of course, fully aware of how ridiculous I am.

      :P

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      my karma ran over your dogma