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Take a short break in a quiet place

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Re: Take a short break in a quiet place

#21

Post by ricefield »

Nice idea... but I don't like how it implies that I'm wired on social media and notifications. Seems almost patronizing and condescending. Yes, I check my email and facebook often. Yes, I do have a smartphone that gives me push notifications for a lot of things. Yes, I check twitter. Check, check, check.

Does this mean I never take a break from time to time to think? That I don't (or can't) enjoy quiet time? That I'm glued to my digital life every second of the day? That I need some snarky web app to tell me how to "relax"?

Re: Take a short break in a quiet place

#22

Post by dvdhsu »

It worked very well on an iPhone. Taps moved it forwards, and I was surprised there was a dedicated mobile site.

One thing to nitpick: on the countdown, it ends with "1 seconds". Trivial to fix, and really makes it look like you spent time thinking through the details.

Re: Take a short break in a quiet place

#24

Post by clarkmoody »

yodamaniac wrote: post #10

Sadly having a mechanical keyboard did not help the experience. [spacebar] to continue CLACK

I agree that an auto-advance version of this would be very nice. Simply sit and watch like a JavaScript-powered video.

(a video without something stupid at the end, followed by that same stupid thing in slow motion)

Re: Take a short break in a quiet place

#26

Post by slipperyp »

suivix wrote: post #15

I did not appreciate having to press spacebar for every sentence, so I exited early. For something that tells you to relax, it sure does make you do a lot of work.

Same here. I found this patronizing and nearly the opposite of relaxing - it reminded me of 10th grade English teachers bringing in mood music for a freewriting exercise.

http://www.workrave.org/ is a much better solution for this kind of "break excessive computer addiction," IMHO.

Re: Take a short break in a quiet place

#27

Post by rachelbythebay »

natesm wrote: post #23

The quiet place isn't so quiet then OS X doesn't have a volume level low enough for your headphones :) Yes, I have to run iTunes at 50% volume, on the lowest rectangle for system volume.

Be sure to try shift-option-volume, assuming you haven't installed Lion.

I'm wishing I hadn't. Sigh.

Re: Take a short break in a quiet place

#28

Post by TeMPOraL »

ineedtosleep wrote: post #13
mattlong wrote: post #11

Cool idea. I'd use music not associated with a show like Lost. I couldn't relax; was thinking about unanswered Lost questions the whole time...

That's actually one of the hardest things I've tried to overcome (after realizing it) in the last few years: Music that's connected to some kind of memory/event/show/movie/etc. will constantly make me think about its associations rather than my work at hand.

I found it sometimes to be a positive effect. Many times when I felt bad I listened to my favorite touching/sad songs while working - they tend to suck the emotional entropy out of me and help me focus on task at hand, while my emotions get 'aligned' with the song.

Re: Take a short break in a quiet place

#30

Post by iradik »

I thought that was awesome. Discovering this on info-fueled hacker news made it more special.

I'd make several changes:

#1 Fix the F-11 message. Is this an IE thing? Do a browser detect, and display the right message.

#2 Get rid of the share on Twitter links at the end. just tacky.

#3 Get rid of the countdown. 30s break is cool, but countdown display speeds time up. Make the countdown hidden. If the user presses spacebar before 30s is up, should say "try harder" and reset the countdown.

#4 get rid of the cursing wasn't that funny

Anyways, I really liked this, especially the music and the white space.

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