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Our Blogs Apexing the Linux learning curve Taking breaks from your computer
Our Blogs Apexing the Linux learning curve Taking breaks from your computer | Taking breaks from your computer |
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| by Hamish Taylor | |
| Friday, 13 June 2008 | |
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Page 1 of 2 Firstly, I want to chat about taking breaks from your computer. I am a mature-age student (which is a weird title, as I wouldn't say that I am at all mature!) most of the way through a Master of Business Information Technology at RMIT University. I spend long hours in front of my laptop trying to bash assignments and exams into shape (we had a week long “take home” exam. Blergh). I also work part-time contracting to the Victorian Government and I have read some of their OH&S material, which recommends taking regular breaks, including getting up and moving around. I am particularly bad at doing this, so I started to look for some software to remind me to take a break. When I used to use Windows I had heard of and briefly used, WorkRave. There is a Linux version as well, which I installed but found that the user interface was a bit too busy for my liking. This is purely personal preference, as I am sure that if I persevered all would be revealed and I would come to like it, but I was focussing on the assignments and exams and didn't want to spend even a short amount of time working it all out. However, if you are on Windows then I sincerely recommend that you download, install and play with Workrave. I happened to be digging around wanting to change a shortcut key mapping, and went into Preferences → Keyboard (instead of Keyboard Shortcuts where I should have gone to change it). It was there that I found the motherlode! A tab on the far right named “Typing Break”. I had a quick look there and found exactly what I was after. Three configuration options: how long the work interval lasts (in minutes), how long the break interval lasts (also in minutes) and a checkbox to allow for postponing of the break. It doesn't get much easier than that! CONTINUED |
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