[kwlug-disc] Time tracking utility

Rodrigo Gonzalez rodtech8 at gmail.com
Fri Nov 4 20:37:08 EDT 2011


Oksana,

I use "Activity Journal" (powered by Zeitgeits) on the main Ubuntu 
repository.  It even tells you what applications you had opened, and 
what files you were working on.

Look for it on the Ubuntu App Center

It's Zeitgeist logger + GNOME Activity Journal.

Works like a charm.

On 11-11-04 12:17 PM, Oksana Goertzen wrote:
> Hi Andrew et al,
>
> I'm mainly looking for something to track time, to substantiate what I've
> been working on - i.e. where my time goes and to what project, not so
> much for billing purposes (for work, at work).  Like you, ideally 
> something
> web-based and easily available/portable would be great.  :)
>
> Thanks for your input.
>
> -Oksana
>
>
> On 1 November 2011 09:23, Andrew Kohlsmith (mailing lists account) 
> <aklists at mixdown.ca <mailto:aklists at mixdown.ca>> wrote:
>
>     On Thu, Oct 06 10:25:05 AM Oksana Goertzen wrote:
>     > I was wondering if anyone could recommend a
>     > good time tracking utility?
>
>     (late to the party, but fashionably so, I hope).
>
>     I have struggled with this very problem for a while. My
>     requirements are
>     simple: I want to be able to enter time in a relatively human way,
>     not be
>     locked in to someone's app or backend service, and have my data
>     stored on my
>     own hardware.
>
>     I've tried a multitude of system tray utilities, desktop widgets, web
>     services, iphone apps... you name it. They all failed, largely due
>     to failing
>     the "relatively human data entry" or not being available to me at
>     any time,
>     any where.
>
>     I ended up doing something a little unusual. I started using a
>     service called
>     Yammer. Yammer is essentially a company Twitter. It's private,
>     unlike Twitter.
>     I can enter data via their web interface, via their iPhone app, or
>     even
>     through an XMPP (aka Jabber or GTalk) bot. They allow me to
>     subscribe to my
>     own feed via RSS, so I can pull my data back into my own hardware
>     via any RSS
>     aggregator.
>
>     It isn't strictly a time tracker, but I use it as one thusly:
>     "yesterday
>     worked 9a-6p on $foo" or "3h on $bar" or "11h trying to figure out
>     $baz for
>     $quux."
>
>     Generating timesheets was a matter of going through the RSS feed
>     with keyword
>     filters. For me, that meant company or project names. A manual
>     search is kind
>     of disgusting, but it is easily scriptable when I have time to do
>     it myself or
>     money to hire someone to do it for me.
>
>     VERY human-centric data entry. Available damn near ANYWHERE. Data
>     stored in my
>     own hardware. Infinite flexibility in filtering and reporting. WIN!
>
>     Then Yammer started stinking. They changed their plans so I had to
>     pay for RSS
>     feeds. Their XMPP bot was unavailable 90% of the time. They didn't
>     respond to
>     support requests. Fail. I started looking for an alternative. I
>     found it in
>     Socialcast. Everything the same, different company. They even
>     offer a twitter-
>     compatible API so I can use any app that can speak Twitter to
>     enter my data.
>     Back to winning.
>
>     I'm planning on expanding this use of a "feed" to create a
>     messagebus similar
>     to dbus. Basically I can write notes, reminders, todos, etc. and
>     have an army
>     of bots watching the feed and interpreting the data. so something
>     like "pick
>     up the kid @3p" will send me a reminder notification via XMPP or
>     Growl at 2:30.
>     "check oven +30m" will do something similar. "[ ] reschedule
>     dentist appt"
>     will create a todo. You get the idea.
>
>     I'm sick of having my data locked away in other people's formats
>     and servers.
>     I think I may have finally found something that works very well
>     for me and is
>     flexible enough to grow. If Socialcast also goes belly-up I can
>     always set up
>     my own twitter service and everything will just port over.
>
>     -A.
>
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>
>
>
>
> -- 
>
> It's never too late to be what you might have been.
> George Eliot
>
>
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