I always end up selecting the Offline mode and the Lock screen using the top power button and the select button. Is there any way that Maemo would interpret gesture strokes to activate a sequence of events like that.... my Palm had that for ages. I don't feel the right way to do things is to enable root access and modify some file to enable the softpowerdownwhatever move in the power menu.

don't bother: soft power off won't turn off the wifi (in fact I don't understand its function yet)