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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

#201

Post by copperx »

hjnilsson wrote: post #50
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…

What is your long-term monetisation plan here then? One-time payment won't last forever, as we've seen from different programs lately.

You charge for significant version upgrades. The industry was OK with that model for decades before SaaS became feasible.

Very soon having a big monthly software bill will be seen as normal. This makes me sad. Don't we have enough recurring bills as it is?

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

#202

Post by aplummer »

ryanmarsh wrote: post #83

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…

For anyone reading this, billing the incorrect amount of time in consulting is an integrity violation, and probably illegal. If you agree to sell in hours, then the client pays in hours. Attributed value billing should be in your contract if you are going to do that, not snuck in under the guise of hourly rates.

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

#203

Post by graeme »

ivm wrote: post #92
vitd wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've hit several good points here! This looks really cool. I've never used something like this, but I'm seriously considering buying it. I love the single price up front and the privacy of not sending my tracking data to some unknown server on the internet. My only complaint is that I absolutely hate the name. I don't even know how to pronounce it. "Cube-serv?" "Queue Observe?" Don't make me think. Also, I'd be emb…

Haha, yes, we had some doubts about the name's UX but nothing better was found. It's cube-serve in my opinion, an observing cube. Well, I'm not a native English speaker... :)

I open programs using Alfred. There's a heavy risk of me forgetting the name of this.

Seems trivial, but this has happened to me before with new, "nice to have but not essential" software.

Obviously, once users use it enough they'll remember. But during the trial they may forget about it.

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

#204

Post by jakobegger »

This is pretty misleading. From their product page:

> All the tracked information is stored locally.

From their privacy policy:

> we are using third party service Firebase.com to collect it (...)

So privacy is a selling point, but they have a lot of analytics in their app. Some of it can be turned off, some of it can't.

If you claim your app stores all data locally, it's quite dishonest if it talks to a bunch of analytics services...

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

#205

Post by whoByFire »

daemonk wrote: post #140

Just bought it. I really like it. One thing that would make this perfect for me is the ability to show stats for specific time ranges within a day. I use my laptop for both work and home. It would be nice to see a set of stats for just 9am-6pm everyday; or whatever ranges I want. I guess the time tracking works right now by just tallying up seconds for each category? And it isn't recording time stamps? Recording time…

You can avoid saving time stamps if you just do separate sums for preset time stamp ranges. It will add another dimension to the data but that dimension can be pretty roughly discretized. 99% of users would be perfectly happy with 15 minute, or even 30 minute discretization. 95% with 1 hour discretization.

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

#206

Post by ivm »

jakobegger wrote: post #204

This is pretty misleading. From their product page: > All the tracked information is stored locally. From their privacy policy: > we are using third party service Firebase.com to collect it (...) So privacy is a selling point, but they have a lot of analytics in their app. Some of it can be turned off, some of it can't. If you claim your app stores all data locally, it's quite dishonest if it talks to a bunch of anal…

Not "a lot" but 3 points (stated in the Privacy Policy): ping once a day (HockeyApp), OS version+language once a month, and opt-out uncategorized hosts/apps submissions.

I don't see how it's not private and "misleading".

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

#207

Post by jakobegger »

ivm wrote: post #206
jakobegger wrote: post #204

This is pretty misleading. From their product page: > All the tracked information is stored locally. From their privacy policy: > we are using third party service Firebase.com to collect it (...) So privacy is a selling point, but they have a lot of analytics in their app. Some of it can be turned off, some of it can't. If you claim your app stores all data locally, it's quite dishonest if it talks to a bunch of anal…

Not "a lot" but 3 points (stated in the Privacy Policy): ping once a day (HockeyApp), OS version+language once a month, and opt-out uncategorized hosts/apps submissions. I don't see how it's not private and "misleading".

Every domain you visit and every app you have installed is a lot of information. Information I don't want to share, even 'anonymously'. (It would be trivial to deanonymize that data)

If you claim your app stores data locally, it better not share data like this. Otherwise your marketing copy is just the usual horseshit.

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

#208

Post by ivm »

jakobegger wrote: post #207
ivm wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not "a lot" but 3 points (stated in the Privacy Policy): ping once a day (HockeyApp), OS version+language once a month, and opt-out uncategorized hosts/apps submissions. I don't see how it's not private and "misleading".

Every domain you visit and every app you have installed is a lot of information. Information I don't want to share, even 'anonymously'. (It would be trivial to deanonymize that data) If you claim your app stores data locally, it better not share data like this. Otherwise your marketing copy is just the usual horseshit.

No way, we are not collecting this because we don't need it (and yes, it would be not very private). I probably should improve the phrasing in the Privacy Policy.

Qbserve detects popular apps and sites automatically by matching them to the entries in the bundled database. If it can't find a match, it puts the app/site into "Uncategorized" category.

Then when the user decides to assign it to some category, there's a checkbox with text "Submit domain + category" and hint "Send it to developers to improve Qbserve". You can disable this checkbox forever in the app's settings.

Then we get somethings like { "host":"ycombinator.com", "category":"news" }, check if this site is really popular and add it to the bundled database in the next update.

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

#210

Post by jakobegger »

ivm wrote: post #208
jakobegger wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Every domain you visit and every app you have installed is a lot of information. Information I don't want to share, even 'anonymously'. (It would be trivial to deanonymize that data) If you claim your app stores data locally, it better not share data like this. Otherwise your marketing copy is just the usual horseshit.

No way, we are not collecting this because we don't need it (and yes, it would be not very private). I probably should improve the phrasing in the Privacy Policy. Qbserve detects popular apps and sites automatically by matching them to the entries in the bundled database. If it can't find a match, it puts the app/site into "Uncategorized" category. Then when the user decides to assign it to some category, there's a c…

Ok, I misunderstood the privacy policy. That actually sounds great!

I'm a big fan of local, non-subscription software, so thanks for making this.

(Side note: it would be nice if there was a setting to disable the Hockey analytics without using a firewall)

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