Wide Awake. Keeping the computer from sleeping.

One of the annoying little things that bugs me is that when I am watching a video and the computer locks the screen/suspends. Is there a solution?

I know I can set the lock time to infinity or 1 hour but I always forget to change it back.

Is it possible to set the system up so that when certain applications are active the computer won't lock or suspend? Is there a application indicator out there for this sort of thing? Can we make it so that the me menu (busy status? Dynamic status message options?*) temporarily allow keeping the computer awake?

*Just a side idea wouldn't it be useful for the me menu to generate a dynamic status? ie. when totem is open you could click "watching a video" or when rhythmbox is open to "listening to x". Is that possible?

Ellipsis said: One of the annoying little things that bugs me is that when I am watching a video and the computer locks the screen/suspends. Is there a solution?

I know I can set the lock time to infinity or 1 hour but I always forget to change it back.

Is it possible to set the system up so that when certain applications are active the computer won't lock or suspend? Is there a application indicator out there for this sort of thing? Can we make it so that the me menu (busy status) temporarily allow keeping the computer awake?

I use mplayer and vlc. They keep the screen awake. What are you using?

Mostly Flash and firefox for TV online.

Thanks for the vlc tip though.

Odd... I was watching some online shows via flash and my browser and I did not have any interruptions from my screen saver or power manager (might be that I am prone to moving my mouse before the 15 min is up... not sure)...

But I can see how it can be very annoying... It would make more sense for the action of stopping the screen blanking to be automatic when certain applications run rather than having yet another status to change I think.

In VLC it's the “inhibit power daemon” option from the “advanced” settings page.