simple octave data filtration

[Przemek Klosowski]

Often, I need to smooth/average a data vector. I usually do a running average using filter(), e.g. for 5-values average:

    filter(ones(1:5)/5,eye(5,1),x)

I've been doing this for years, so I got used to it, but maybe there's a better way? What do y'all use?