Can my FreeRunner remind me to shut it down if it is still running at 22:00?

[Ben Wong]

On Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 3:47 AM, Brolin Empey<brolin at brolin.be> wrote:
> 2009/7/27 Ben Wong <lists.openmoko.org at wongs.net>
>>
>> On Fri, Jul 24, 2009 at 3:44 PM, Brolin Empey<brolin at brolin.be> wrote:
>>
>> > I prefer to shut down my cell phone before going to bed, but I
>> > frequently
>> > forget to do so.
>
> That could be interpreted as meaning I frequently forget to go to bed too.

Heh.  I actually *do* have an alarm that goes off every night to
remind me to go to bed.  I got the idea from an old Superman "Bizarro
World" comic.


> No, the phones I have do not wake me.
>
> A phone that literally rings (i.e., has a real bell instead of an electronic
> tone) may wake me, though. :)

I suggest this rotary ring, which I use as my default ring "tone":

  http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=15826


>>
>> I'd use a cron job that calls shutdown, but that first checks if your
>> phone is off the hook (well, I guess we already know the Freerunner is
>> "off the hook").  I'd probably also check if there had been any recent
>> screen input.
>
> In this case you literally meant off the hook, but at first I thought you
> meant “no longer responsible for”. :)

Yeah, language is funny.  For some reason the slang in my part of the
US (I don't know about elsewhere) has evolved so that "off the hook"
now means "fantastic!"  Perhaps a confusion with "off the charts"?


>> To save the battery in case you forgot to plug it in?
>
> Yes, this is what I was thinking of.  I am afraid to leave battery-powered
> devices plugged in (line-powered) all the time, though, because doing so
> seems to kill laptop batteries.

That's a good question, whether constant charging shortens the
lifespan of a Li battery, which I'm sure someone more knowledgeable on
this list will answer.  From personal experience, I believe that to be
true, but my feeling is that I'll just keep it charging and replace
the batteries once in a while.  They're not as expensive as laptop
batteries.  Also, I've heard that lithium batteries have a limited
lifespan even when they're not being used.


>>  A cron job
>> would work to shut it down, but you could add a couple lines in the
>> script to skip it if the battery is already charging.
>
>  Or if I am using the phone. ;)

It should inject audio into the conversation.  "Pardon me for
interrupting, this is your Freerunner talking. I just wanted to let
you know that it is now past your bedtime."  ;-)

--Ben