- Installation.
To install IdleMind all you have to do is drop IdleMind into the folder marked "Drop IdleMind Here!", and drop the folder marked "idle" into the folder marked "Drop idle folder Here!". Installation is complete.
- Activation.
Activate IdleMind as you would any BeOS screenSaver. Open up the ScreenSaver Applet/Control Panel. (it is in the Be Menu under "Preferences" select "ScreenSaver"). IdleMind should appear on the list of screen savers. Select it. IdleMind is now Activated.
- Modification.
This is where the power of IdleMind lies. IdleMind runs two different shell scripts, the first one, OnIdle.sh, is run whenever IdleMind is started (whenever you have left your computer Idle long enough for the ScreenSaver to start). The other script, UnIdle.sh, is run whenever you dismiss IdleMind by moving your mouse or pressing a key on your keyboard. These two shell scripts can be found in "/boot/home/config/idle/" If they are not there, you can unzip the IdleMind archive again and place them there manually, or you can create new scripts, taking care to duplicate the names OnIdle.sh and UnIdle.sh exactly (including capitalization). These two scripts are normal shell-scripts, anything that can be done in a shell script can be done in either of these two specific scripts. Enjoy. You have now Configured IdleMind.
- Experimentation.
The possibilities are endless, feel free to play around w/ different scripts, if you come up with anything you want to share, email me (yitz@datalife.com) and I will list it here.
Justin suggested playing a movie as a screen saver using IdleMind like so:
Having this in OnIdle.sh:
#!/bin/sh
MediaPlayer -loop on -autoPlay on -full -volume 0.1 ~/my.avi &
And this in UnIdle.sh:
#!/bin/sh
hey MediaPlayer quit
It's that simple. You might want to check out Attila Mezei's "Hey" it's a scripting utility which makes controlling BeOS apps possible from the command line (and hence accessible from within a shell-script).
- Registration.
Registration is free. Email Me ( yitz@datalife.com ) and put "Register IdleMind" in the subject, and please send along any suggestions you have regarding the betterment of IdleMind, or suggestions about what other apps you feel that you need on the BeOS.
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