Messages

1

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: InstantBoss - For those of us which require motivation to work

« on: March 08, 2013, 01:31 PM »

Installation help:

"Save As" the file (can't just "Open").
After it finishes downloading, Open it.  It should be a .ZIP file.
(Note: my fav program for .zip files is 7-zip)
Copy the InstantBoss folder in the InstantBoss.zip file to

C:\Program Files\

which will create folder

C:\Program Files\InstantBoss

with the program InstantBoss.exe in it.

Next step depends on which windows you have

Windows XP:
Create new folder

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\InstantBoss

In that folder, create a shortcut back to

C:\Program Files\InstantBoss\InstantBoss.exe

Windows 7:
Create new folder

C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\InstantBoss

In that folder, create a shortcut back to

C:\Program Files\InstantBoss\InstantBoss.exe

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Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: InstantBoss - For those of us which require motivation to work

« on: February 13, 2013, 10:55 PM »

OK i must confess to under-understanding the Pause button.  It DOES do what i want, for short pauses.  So Kudos for that.

It's less appropriate for long pauses, say 4 hours.

But, yes, exiting and re-starting does achieve the time "off the clock" function as i was describing it for such long pauses, so it is a valid workaround.

Thanks!

3

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Very simple timeclock utility

« on: February 13, 2013, 10:34 PM »

brett was the original author.  If they want to continue, that'd be great.  If not, i will consider it.  But i have time constraints and i have learned very long hard lessons about jumping with both feet into fun new projects.  so I'm trying to be more disciplined and deliberate.  I have God and Procrastinators Anonymous to thank for that bit of personal growth (ongoing ;^)

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Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: InstantBoss - For those of us which require motivation to work

« on: February 12, 2013, 11:48 AM »

If you do work on Instant Boss, i will add my vote to the following features:

If you're in the middle of (10+2)*5 or whatever numbers you choose, and...something happens.  Phone call, interruption, whatever.  Currently your choices are:

1. leave Instant Boss running.  it will expire the current work (or break) and just wait for your to return.  Not too bad.  As long as your "10" (work time) is not too high, it's not that inaccurate when counting up your work.

2. but if you want to tell Instant Boss you're "off the clock", your only option is "Reset".  This has the desired effect of interrupting the timing, but also has the effect of resetting the numbers back to 10+2 * 5.  I think we should be able to separate these functions.  Maybe a "Suspend" button.  Or a "Skip the rest" or something which would abort the current timing sequence, but leave your numbers you typed in.

Now, again, this is minor.  cuz it's only 3 numbers and you can just type them again.

[Huh.  i just realized that hitting 'Reset' and leaving that window up, not clicking either button, then when you're ready clicking 'No' is essentially 'Suspend']

Second feature is this:  if you have entered new numbers, is possible to ignore the big 'Click Apply' staring at you and click 'Work' in which case you'll get the old numbers.  I doubt anyone would ever want that.  So 'Work' i believe should just automatically, unconditionally do an 'Apply', IMHO.

Thanks again for all your great work on this.  It helps me stay on track.

5

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Very simple timeclock utility

« on: February 11, 2013, 11:13 AM »

That would be great!
I would happily test it for you.

If you get motivated, the next feature that i would need is the tagging that people have discussed.  the idea of being able to designate a span of time, with many programs used during that span, as a certain time allocation.  Your suggestion of naming the files to contain a keyword, and then searching for the keyword would work, at least in some cases.  But i think adding a new feature to the program to know about a tag directly would really help me.  I'm guessing the tag would start out uninitialized, and perhaps stay that way forever, meaning, it's optional for those that dont need it.  From my understanding of how the program works, it would mean something like re-writing the .csv file, cuz tags are provided by the user for time already passed.  Perhaps even at the end of the day.  Or some other way to store tags, but then the detailed view needs to read 2 files.  Or something.

thing is, i really LIKE that the program today only appends to the .csv file, and doesnt lock it.  cuz then i can edit the .csv file myself, and TitleLog keeps on working happily.  But perhaps TitleLog adding a tag in the past would be ok, if it keeps re-opening then closing the file for each edit.  But then you're re-writing the whole file each time there's a tag entry from the user.  Dunno.  I can see why that doesnt fit with the current program paradigm.  And as i said, i like that paradigm. 

6

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Very simple timeclock utility

« on: February 11, 2013, 08:14 AM »

There's a bug.  Example: when i arrive at the computer first thing in the morning, it is (correctly) prompting me with the idle prompt.  So i type "sleep".  But in the log, both the "Idle Text" i just typed, AND the last window i had open last night, both have the duration of the idle period (my sleep), say 8hours.  This bug propagates to the Total time in the status bar, because the idle time is counted twice, once for the Idle Text and once for the window.

The Idle Text duration should either replace the most recent entry of an actual window title (since the user was idle) or perhaps subtract the Idle Text duration from the most recent actual window title, because, for example, the user was typing and entry into a forum, hit post, then walked away from the computer.  So that window will then be up during the whole idle period, and had some non-idle time that should be counted.

Still a great app.

7

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: InstantBoss - For those of us which require motivation to work

« on: February 10, 2013, 05:29 PM »

part of the problem (with users= with me) is that I get easily distracted and start, say, surfing when I should be working.

yep, me2.

app103, thanks for considering this. Impressive to get a response on a thread 3yrs stale. InstantBoss is popular at procrastinators-anonymous.org.  That's where i learned of it.  And why i need it

8

Mini-Reviews by Members / Re: InstantBoss - For those of us which require motivation to work

« on: February 08, 2013, 11:34 AM »

When the work time expires, and the "Take a break" popup appears, one of the options is "Work a little longer".

Similarly, when the break time expires, and the "Back to work" popup appears, one of the options is "Longer break".

In the case of "Longer break" it gives you 50% of your break and then prompts you again.  I like that.

But in the case of "Work a little longer" it just goes back to counting work time and will count forever.  But then it's up to ME to remember to click "Take a Break" in the main window.  And if i could remember to do that, i wouldnt need InstantBoss in the first place!?  I've had times where i went to bed, and it still kept counting it as work time.  That makes the total work counters way off.  Which i'll admit is secondary, the work-break timing is still very useful.

So, my suggestion is to have the "Work a little longer" do the 50% thing too.  Or if some users want the "Work a little longer" forever until clicked, provide both options.

There's a workaround.  For me who can not remember to take that break, dont use "Work a little longer", just use "Skip break".  It's almost the same, but distorts the iterations i've done.  That's not a big deal, however.

Thanks.  I might try this customization myself, if the script source is available.  I haven't checked into that yet.  And if i can find the time (keep in mind i am a person who needs InstantBoss).

9

Post New Requests Here / Re: IDEA: Very simple timeclock utility

« on: February 07, 2013, 11:16 PM »

My first post.  Great Site.  Someone mentioned that Firefox Add-on "Titlebar Tweaker" would be good to use with this TitleLog program.  I investigated that.  It REMOVES the regular TitleBar, and adds its own.  That seems a little heavyweight to me.  And indeed some of the reviews mentioned various problems.

I found instead customize_titlebar_v2 <https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/customize_titlebar_v2/>.  This worked for me in Firefox 18.0.2.  BUT i have Menu Bar visible.  Many people do not.  There were other Add-ons that put the titlebar text back even with Menu Bar off, but i did not test them  I did read, however, that even tho the title is not visible when Menu Bar is off, it's still there so hopefully TitleLog will still see it.

By default customize_titlebar_v2 does not include the "Firefox" string at the end.  I want that so i used the Custom Format with string  

{pageTitle} - {currentUrl} ({brand})

And such an Add-on IS helpful, i find, cuz a lot of sites just put their site name in the title--no other detail about WHAT you were viewing at that site.

I found the TitleLogTweaked.zip very helpful--especially the displaying the comment in detail view and the sorting most recent first.

Thanks to all you fine donation coders!

(Wow this site has a fast preview )