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Intelligent timeout feature
Hi there!
Here is a suggestion that is really easy to implement and may lead to much more accurate stats:
In my work I have to often switch between reading and writing documents. I'd be typing for many minutes, but then I might not touch the keyboard (and mouse) for several minutes while reading. This is of course "work time". Currently RescueTime stops recording the time after (I think) 2 minutes. This way a lot of this reading time gets lost.
At the same time I have a lot of short distractions during which the time really IS idle. So how to distinguish between the two?
Say, we have the current threshold SHORT_TMOUT (of ca 2 mins) and another threshold LONG_TMOUT (of ca 10-15 mins or so). Now:
If the PC is idle for longer than SHORT_TMOUT but not as long as LONG_TMOUT, then RescueTime can assume that the user was actually reading (watching a YouTube video/listening to a track/whatever). In that case all the time should actually be counted towards the application in focus.
On the other hand, if the PC is idle for longer than SHORT_TMOUT, and is still idle after LONG_TMOUT, then RescueTime can assume that the user has really left the desk and all time beginning since the computer became idle can me miscounted.
You could also let the users set the idle thresholds so they can adapt them to their circumstances.
Btw, a great little tool you've got!
Cheers!
Here is a suggestion that is really easy to implement and may lead to much more accurate stats:
In my work I have to often switch between reading and writing documents. I'd be typing for many minutes, but then I might not touch the keyboard (and mouse) for several minutes while reading. This is of course "work time". Currently RescueTime stops recording the time after (I think) 2 minutes. This way a lot of this reading time gets lost.
At the same time I have a lot of short distractions during which the time really IS idle. So how to distinguish between the two?
Say, we have the current threshold SHORT_TMOUT (of ca 2 mins) and another threshold LONG_TMOUT (of ca 10-15 mins or so). Now:
If the PC is idle for longer than SHORT_TMOUT but not as long as LONG_TMOUT, then RescueTime can assume that the user was actually reading (watching a YouTube video/listening to a track/whatever). In that case all the time should actually be counted towards the application in focus.
On the other hand, if the PC is idle for longer than SHORT_TMOUT, and is still idle after LONG_TMOUT, then RescueTime can assume that the user has really left the desk and all time beginning since the computer became idle can me miscounted.
You could also let the users set the idle thresholds so they can adapt them to their circumstances.
Btw, a great little tool you've got!
Cheers!
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Inappropriate?Gragus, this is a very cool idea to add intelligence to the idle timeout and allow users to tailor it to their needs.
Internally I fight with myself between a simple interface or offering a higher level of customization to allow advanced users to fine tune for their needs.
With the next couple of releases, you'll see some features added to the data collectors that shows that we're heading the direction of trying to satisfy both targets. Having the bare minimum "Basic" setup for new users and then even more advanced features for those users who need them.
Thanks for the ideas - keep them coming
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Inappropriate?This is a problem that I also had with RescueTime. In essence, RescueTime uses the computer's sense of idle, so it is not very efficient in telling me how much time I spent watching a moving, or say, looking at an answer to a problem set posted by my professor. However, I think that Gragus has a great idea here. The only thing that I would add to the idea would be to have the user able to specify short_time_out and long_time_out. If this is too complicated, could it be possible for the user to specify what the idle time out value should be?
I’m undecided
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