<font color="#663366"><font size="1"><font face="trebuchet ms,sans-serif">Hi Andrew et al,<br><br>I'm mainly looking for something to track time, to substantiate what I've<br>been working on - i.e. where my time goes and to what project, not so<br>
much for billing purposes (for work, at work). Like you, ideally something<br>web-based and easily available/portable would be great. :)<br><br>Thanks for your input.<br><br>-Oksana<br></font></font></font><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">
On 1 November 2011 09:23, Andrew Kohlsmith (mailing lists account) <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:aklists@mixdown.ca">aklists@mixdown.ca</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div class="im">On Thu, Oct 06 10:25:05 AM Oksana Goertzen wrote:<br>
> I was wondering if anyone could recommend a<br>
> good time tracking utility?<br>
<br>
</div>(late to the party, but fashionably so, I hope).<br>
<br>
I have struggled with this very problem for a while. My requirements are<br>
simple: I want to be able to enter time in a relatively human way, not be<br>
locked in to someone's app or backend service, and have my data stored on my<br>
own hardware.<br>
<br>
I've tried a multitude of system tray utilities, desktop widgets, web<br>
services, iphone apps... you name it. They all failed, largely due to failing<br>
the "relatively human data entry" or not being available to me at any time,<br>
any where.<br>
<br>
I ended up doing something a little unusual. I started using a service called<br>
Yammer. Yammer is essentially a company Twitter. It's private, unlike Twitter.<br>
I can enter data via their web interface, via their iPhone app, or even<br>
through an XMPP (aka Jabber or GTalk) bot. They allow me to subscribe to my<br>
own feed via RSS, so I can pull my data back into my own hardware via any RSS<br>
aggregator.<br>
<br>
It isn't strictly a time tracker, but I use it as one thusly: "yesterday<br>
worked 9a-6p on $foo" or "3h on $bar" or "11h trying to figure out $baz for<br>
$quux."<br>
<br>
Generating timesheets was a matter of going through the RSS feed with keyword<br>
filters. For me, that meant company or project names. A manual search is kind<br>
of disgusting, but it is easily scriptable when I have time to do it myself or<br>
money to hire someone to do it for me.<br>
<br>
VERY human-centric data entry. Available damn near ANYWHERE. Data stored in my<br>
own hardware. Infinite flexibility in filtering and reporting. WIN!<br>
<br>
Then Yammer started stinking. They changed their plans so I had to pay for RSS<br>
feeds. Their XMPP bot was unavailable 90% of the time. They didn't respond to<br>
support requests. Fail. I started looking for an alternative. I found it in<br>
Socialcast. Everything the same, different company. They even offer a twitter-<br>
compatible API so I can use any app that can speak Twitter to enter my data.<br>
Back to winning.<br>
<br>
I'm planning on expanding this use of a "feed" to create a messagebus similar<br>
to dbus. Basically I can write notes, reminders, todos, etc. and have an army<br>
of bots watching the feed and interpreting the data. so something like "pick<br>
up the kid @3p" will send me a reminder notification via XMPP or Growl at 2:30.<br>
"check oven +30m" will do something similar. "[ ] reschedule dentist appt"<br>
will create a todo. You get the idea.<br>
<br>
I'm sick of having my data locked away in other people's formats and servers.<br>
I think I may have finally found something that works very well for me and is<br>
flexible enough to grow. If Socialcast also goes belly-up I can always set up<br>
my own twitter service and everything will just port over.<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
-A.<br>
</font></span><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><font size="1"><span><br>It's never too late to be what you might have been. <br>George Eliot</span></font><br>