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Show HN: Timeboxing app for Mac

rinik.net

44 pointsVoid_37 comments

> A timeboxing app. Duh.

Sorry but as developer who had to google timeboxing this immediately turned me off to your product.

Sorry. It's not really a product yet, more like a weekend project, so I hope that partially justifies the stupid joke.

Fair enough, and I guess I can't argue with free. Thanks for sharing!

I agree here, squinting to read the barely legible text to be condescendingly met with some word that made me do a quick Google query...meh.

You're a developer and don't know what TimeBoxing is? You must not have a CS degree?

Not sure if trolling.

I sort of agree. Isn't it obvious? It doesn't seem too difficult to deduce the definition through the definitions of the two smaller words that make up "timeboxing."

On the contrary, condescension immediately ups my prior on developer's skill level.

Tried to install your app and run it. The application crashed at launch, details included here if you need to trouble shoot it.

Process: launchd [1985] Path: /Applications/Zonebox.app/Contents/MacOS/Zonebox Identifier: rinik.Zonebox Version: ??? (???) Code Type: X86-64 (Native) Parent Process: launchd [138]

Date/Time: 2013-01-16 15:27:10.376 -0800 OS Version: Mac OS X 10.7.4 (11E53)

Crashed Thread: Unknown

Exception Type: EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV) Exception Codes: KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x00007fff5fc01028

Yup, same error here. Full dump: https://gist.github.com/5db045977b157096f448

And here.

  Crashed Thread:  Unknown

  Exception Type:  EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
  Exception Codes: KERN_PROTECTION_FAILURE at 0x00007fff5fc01028

And my Axe! I mean...same error here as well:

https://gist.github.com/4553069

Nicely done! Tried it out and will definitely be keeping it. I like the website as well, the utility of the app is obvious from one quick glance.

I think it'll be useful in convincing yourself to do that 15-60 min task that you've been putting off.. or just to get you motivated (I'll fix this bug quickly in 15 mins... and before you know it you've fixed a few).

Nice app, and well done for a weekend project!

Try converting this to a menu-bar app (see http://flexibits.com/fantastical). Let's face it - this is more of a utility that needs to get out of the way rather than "app" that sits there and takes up space. :-)

Try having a all-screen notification when the time is up (see app "Timey" in App store: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/timey/id414792604?mt=12)

Combine these two features and I'll happily pay for this app.

A few words about what Timeboxing is would be handy on there.

For people who don't know what timeboxing is:

http://www.alljapaneseallthetime.com/blog/timeboxing-trilogy...

Even if you aren't into language learning it is a very interesting (and practical) read.

"Anyway, the short answer is this: timeboxing is a technique where we place deliberate, prior, artificial limits on the time to perform a given task. Within reason, the tighter (shorter) the time limits, the better."

This is very very good. I only wish I could paste/drag a list like this in and out of it:

    - bla bla do one thing
    - bla bla do some other thing
    + this is done already

Because right now it has my information hostage. And then destroys it altogether.

Thank you.

You can simply paste list of things in it, copying is a good idea too.

It says quit unexpectedly, not working for me. I'm on LION

Yeah, I haven't tested it on Lion. Sorry.

Test it on Lion.

Would be great if I could use this to practice the Pomodoro Technique. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pomodoro_Technique

I know it's not a very helpful comment, seeing as you've only just started, but I think the website would be better if the screenshot was bigger.

Thank you, I think it's quite helpful. While I work on the website some more, enjoy the 2x version of the screenshot: http://rinik.net/zonebox/images/preview@2x.png :)

This strikes me as something that would be better as an iPhone app. Still, seems like a great simple app.

I don't get the point to use this app

It helps you with timeboxing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeboxing

It helps you get things done by setting aside e.g. 20 minutes to fix bug #123.

I wanted to put this up on website originally, but then decided I just want to keep it simple: http://sht.tl/jJ0J6

Nice little graphic!

Nice and clean interface.

Would be great if I could delete a task (after adding a bunch of test tasks for example)

Would also be great to be able to enter "1h" - it switches it to 1m.

Is this somehow compatible to your App Store App "Zone"?

Sad to report that although the website for your apps look real good neither Zonebox or slap worked for me. - Zonebox crashed on launch - Slap doesnt let me add any websites.

A quick "add time" button that pulls down with a 5,15,30,60,120 minute list might be awesome. This way you can quickly keep working on a task you didn't scope correctly.

I like the simple website. Having the download as a .zip may be a little suspicious to some non-technical users but maybe I'm wrong.

I immediately tried entering 4h as a estimate, sadly it didn't work. :-(

sounded like an interesting idea - but doesnt actually count down my assigned time on mountain lion

Same here. Wondering if it will throw up a notice when a particular tax reaches it's end point or if that is also broken.

I saw the same when I blocked it phoning home. After allowing it to phone home once it now counts down as you'd expect.

Void_, what's the phone home actually doing?

ps. Nice, simple product. Are you going to build this out to include some of Zone's functionality?

This is awesome, trying it now.

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