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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

#111

If you're a consultant or you work in a consulting firm I have some advice for you. Get comfortable with fudging the numbers on your time reports. It's ok. Report what's reasonable given: You aren't being paid for your minutes you're being paid for the ability to solve a customer's problem in minutes. I bill my clients 40 no matter what because sometimes I give them 100 hours worth of value in 1 hour. It all balances…

Does it work both ways? If you customer thinks the 100 hours you billed is only worth 1 hour, are you OK with them paying 1 hour?

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

#112
Hi. Trying it out and would happily buy after using it for the next few days.

One query I have: Is there any way I can hide the app icon from the cmd+tab list? I want the ability for it to stay and works quietly behind the scene and since I have too many applications running on at the same time. Maybe a "hide icon" or some other thing? Thanks.

Looks like a fantastic product on first look. :)

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

#113

If you're a consultant or you work in a consulting firm I have some advice for you. Get comfortable with fudging the numbers on your time reports. It's ok. Report what's reasonable given: You aren't being paid for your minutes you're being paid for the ability to solve a customer's problem in minutes. I bill my clients 40 no matter what because sometimes I give them 100 hours worth of value in 1 hour. It all balances…

Does it work both ways? If you customer thinks the 100 hours you billed is only worth 1 hour, are you OK with them paying 1 hour?

No, they pay what I bill. If we don't agree on that then we don't do business. If I want repeat customers then I don't gouge them.

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

#114
post #102
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.

I think I'm going to add custom filters to solve this and probably iTerm tracking.

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

#115

Looks beautiful. Any plans to add 'Focus' mode like Rescuetime. Basically just ability to block distracting websites? I'd probably switch over from rescuetime if that's added :)

I use SelfControl on the Mac for that. Made it so that I can block distracting sites for weeks at a time.

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

#116
post #114
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I think I'm going to add custom filters to solve this and probably iTerm tracking.

I don't know if it would be possible, but if you could add referer tracking as well... somehow... For example a link I clicked from hacker news is almost certainly distracting.

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

#117
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.…

Yes, I used it for a while to see what kinds of trackers exist on OS X. But I rarely need to know the path or track a specific project. Productivity of sites and chats is more important for me since I want to know stats of my procrastination.

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

#118
post #109
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

>Apple the "originator of evil"?

Under OS X in modern times? Absolutely. They've made it standard practice for nearly every piece of first party software they make that doesn't have significant legacy or isn't specifically aimed at developers.

>At least Apple had the decency to put the letter "i" in front of everything

If only. That went away a long time ago however for non-legacy. "iMail", "iPages", "iNumbers", "iPhotos", "iMessages" etc would obviously not be the most creative or exciting names, but they would fulfill the fundamental core purpose of a trademark brand name in terms of being trivially, reasonably (wouldn't be surprised if there are some collisions mixed in there) uniquely identifiable. Apple has not done that, and in fact in many cases actively moved away from that (iMessage was a thing, now it's just "Messages"). They do this constantly and they've encouraged it in the MAS.

Apple themselves can somewhat get away with it by virtue of size. Doing a search for "Apple Mail" is reasonably on target for Mail.app, though conversely if you want to search for something related to Apple and mail that isn't Mail.app (notice how just here in discussing it I have to use a made up, but very common user invented name just to distinguish what I'm talking about) you will have more difficulty. Even for major examples like that though it's still worse then where Apple actually still has something more specific, like GarageBand or FaceTime. And when it's some random small 3rd party? Argh.

Specificity in names is good and easy, this isn't some huge burden. It's irritating it's even an issue that has to be talked about at all. Qbserve is an excellent example: it's a small, focused niche app that's very new, but the name is simple and memorable,and a search for "Qbserve" is all about the product.

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

#119
post #109
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Thanks!

It's 'kotokot' and means cat-o-cat in Russian.

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

#120
post #75

I bought the app, and I'm really happy with it, thanks! I know it's a long shot, but some sort of shell integration would be awesome. My typical day is > 60% iTerm2. iTerm2 has shell integration: https://iterm2.com/shell_integration.html , and maybe that would be one way is something that Qbserve could be fetching info about what's going on in the terminal.

Yes, I got many requests for iTerm2 tracking and it will be definitely added. I'm looking into the available options, so thank you for the link!

Any chance of tracking Terminal.app?
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