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Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

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Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#101

Post by fuzzywalrus »

ivm wrote: post #2

I was not happy with features and UX of other productivity trackers. Most of the time tracking software is made for controlling employees or for billing clients and I just wanted an automated productivity measurement. I tried RescueTime before but it was too expensive for its functionality ($72-108/year) and also collected all my tracked data on their servers. There is standalone ManicTime on Windows but OS X standal…

Have you used the Application Timing? https://timingapp.com/ It tracks visited sites (on all browsers) + allows you create pools for projects + applications and what directory the file you're working on. Long as you keep your assets in a single folder, you're always tracking to which project. Items can be in multiple pools so you can go by task vs project time. I've been using this for about a year for personal use. While it doesn't look as pretty or divvy up tasks between "neutral", "productive" and "distractive' that's something you can define if you wanted. I'm not trying to be harsh but just based on the product site, I'm not exactly compelled to give up Timing although your application does look nice.

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#102

Post by donatj »

ivm wrote: post #2

I was not happy with features and UX of other productivity trackers. Most of the time tracking software is made for controlling employees or for billing clients and I just wanted an automated productivity measurement. I tried RescueTime before but it was too expensive for its functionality ($72-108/year) and also collected all my tracked data on their servers. There is standalone ManicTime on Windows but OS X standal…

I'd love to have the ability to filter productive/distracting on a finer basis than domain alone.

If I'm on github.com/mycompany/* it's productive, if I'm on github.com/someuser/somerandomlibrary it's probably neutral/slightly distracting. If I'm on github.com/donatj/* I'm probably distracted with personal projects I shouldn't be poking at work.

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#103

Post by curiousgal »

zmarouf wrote: post #71

Am I right in assuming that Qbserve only tracks active windows? To elaborate: If I have a monitor set to a fullscreen OSX Desktop with either Spotify or VLC while actually coding, the time spent listening/watching won't count unless the application is active, correct?

Correct.

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#104

Post by Karunamon »

Minor UI feedback:

The settings UI is extremely hard to read on my screen. The headings are light grey on white, and no amount of messing with my screen's contrast settings leaves something easy to read.

The checkboxes also immediately convey "disabled" due to their coloring. Your UI in general is spot on and sanely designed, but please consider taking a cue from the OSX HIG[1] and use the system colors and leave the light grey stuff for actual disablement, it will make your app look a lot more native.

[1] (about halfway down the page): https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/UserEx...

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#105

Post by TJTorola »

buremba wrote: post #99
ivm wrote: post #2

I was not happy with features and UX of other productivity trackers. Most of the time tracking software is made for controlling employees or for billing clients and I just wanted an automated productivity measurement. I tried RescueTime before but it was too expensive for its functionality ($72-108/year) and also collected all my tracked data on their servers. There is standalone ManicTime on Windows but OS X standal…

I looks nice and clean. I have used only 3 hours but I have a feedback for the application and website database. It can recognise popular Macbook applications and websites but the current database doesn't seem large enough. Can we tag applications & websites in "Neural" tab as productive or distracting? I think it would be great if you could just open-source the database and let people contribute it so that everyone…

In the details tab when you click on a particular entry, you can modify that entries productivity category, more so there is a checkbox to send that info to the developers. I believe this is the functionality you are looking for.

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#106

Post by pibefision »

ivm wrote: post #57
pibefision wrote: post #53

Why in this kind of sites, there is not a single person behind the marketing site? What's the reason to be hidden?

We're not hidden, I just failed to create "About" page somewhere.

hard to believe,but in a sense, maybe you did this work while employed by someone else and you try to hide this. If this is the case, just wanted to learn why is important to hide it. Until when?

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#107

Post by mweibel »

ivm wrote: post #93
podgib wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a timeline for Firefox site tracking? I'd definitely buy this to replace RescueTime if it supported Firefox

I hope I can convince Firefox team to report page URLs to OS X accessibility. Or maybe I will try to commit it myself.

Do you have a issue or feature request open? I'd be happy to add a plus one:-)

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#108

Post by ivm »

buremba wrote: post #99
ivm wrote: post #2

I was not happy with features and UX of other productivity trackers. Most of the time tracking software is made for controlling employees or for billing clients and I just wanted an automated productivity measurement. I tried RescueTime before but it was too expensive for its functionality ($72-108/year) and also collected all my tracked data on their servers. There is standalone ManicTime on Windows but OS X standal…

I looks nice and clean. I have used only 3 hours but I have a feedback for the application and website database. It can recognise popular Macbook applications and websites but the current database doesn't seem large enough. Can we tag applications & websites in "Neural" tab as productive or distracting? I think it would be great if you could just open-source the database and let people contribute it so that everyone…

Thank you. Database includes the most popular apps and sites and it will grow in future.

Unrecognized domains and apps are sent by users on categorization but you can opt-out by unchecking "Submit..." or disable it completely (in Settings). Check out the help and privacy policy for more details: https://qotoqot.com/qbserve/help/

> Can we tag applications & websites in "Neural" tab as productive or distracting?

You can add any site, application and even windows to any category. Select the activity you'd like to change in the Details tab to see the popover with settings for this activity.

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#109

Post by rsfinn »

xoa wrote: post #46
ivm wrote: post #2

I was not happy with features and UX of other productivity trackers. Most of the time tracking software is made for controlling employees or for billing clients and I just wanted an automated productivity measurement. I tried RescueTime before but it was too expensive for its functionality ($72-108/year) and also collected all my tracked data on their servers. There is standalone ManicTime on Windows but OS X standal…

Looks like an excellent start, and definitely fills a needed niche under OS X. As far as feature feedback, and perhaps for 2.0, one possible addition you could consider for your idle detection or tracking capabilities would be Bluetooth device reads. When I leave my system I take my phone, so in turn that can act as a useful automatic proxy for whether I'm in the area so to speak or not. I use that already to automat…

Apple the "originator of evil"? Perhaps you're too young to remember when Microsoft named a whole windows-based user interface "Windows"? At least Apple had the decency to put the letter "i" in front of everything. ;-)

OT: The app looks great at first glance, and is timely as I'm ramping up my independent development work. You might put "cube-serve" as a pronunciation guide somewhere on the page, although that was my first guess; I'm still trying to work out how to pronounce "Qotoqot", though...

Re: Show HN: Automatic private time tracking for OS X

#110

Post by albertzeyer »

Fwiw, I developed a very puristic similar project: https://github.com/albertz/timecapture

So far, it's only tracking the time and recording which app is in the foreground and what file / url is currently opened in there. It doesn't have any GUI and it won't show you nice statistics like Qbserve. But it shouldn't be difficult to calculate any statistics you want from the data.

Python, Open Source, easy to add support for other platforms and apps (so far mostly MacOSX support). Patches are welcome. :)

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