
Show HN: Progress Bar OS X. How much % of a year/month/day has passed in menubar - andreyazimov
http://progressbarosx.com
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rubatuga
This can easily be done using the program BitBar.
[https://github.com/matryer/bitbar](https://github.com/matryer/bitbar)

~~~
aurorabbit
Here is my rendition :)

[https://gist.github.com/aurorabbit/7fa0e4d76c97a85f7b0a7318f...](https://gist.github.com/aurorabbit/7fa0e4d76c97a85f7b0a7318f870ce64#gistcomment-2566203)

~~~
needcaffeine
I love this. This is what I'm using now!

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rp1229
Intersting idea, but I feel you'll have a difficult time with that price tag.

~~~
saagarjha
I agree. I'm not against selling software, but $5 for something I could
probably whip up in an hour and post as open source is really not the best way
to get people to use your app. This app just doesn't provide enough value to
be $5– _maybe_ if it was a dollar.

~~~
lifeformed
But wouldn't saving an hour of time for $5 be a good deal?

~~~
saagarjha
No, because in doing so I can help a hundred _other_ people save an hour of
their life as well.

~~~
greenhatman
If he sells this to people whose hourly rate is $50, and hypothetically it
would take each an hour to write, then he just created an economic surplus of
$45 for each of those people, while he only took $5 for each sale.

If he sells enough the income could allow him to create even more useful
things for other people.

There is nothing wrong with selling something you created.

I'm an open source enthusiast. I run Linux on my MacBook Pro. Still, people
should be able to sell what they created if they want to.

~~~
saagarjha
See my other comment on why I don't believe in the "economic surplus"
argument:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16899924](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16899924)

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Jonovono
Nice! I made a website like this years ago inspired by a thing I saw on HN
called the memento mori (remember, you are dying!) :)

[http://moriclock.com/](http://moriclock.com/)

~~~
InternetJohnny
thanks, i find this much more useful. any chance to create an addon for
firefox as well?

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byproxy
As if I needed more induced anxiety worrying about the passage of time.

"time isn't holding up. time isn't after us."

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btschaegg
I never thought I'd get to see someone advertising software with a fight club
quote. That certainly scores some sympathy points in my book! :)

~~~
unfunco
WhatsApp (pre-FB) back in 2012: [https://blog.whatsapp.com/245/Why-we-dont-
sell-ads](https://blog.whatsapp.com/245/Why-we-dont-sell-ads)

~~~
btschaegg
I haven't read this one yet, thanks for the link!

In retrospective, the history of WhatsApp gives this quote an interesting hint
of irony.

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crocfish
why don't developers publish small apps like this in the app store?

~~~
saagarjha
As another comment has mentioned, this developer doesn't seem to have a valid
certificate from Apple. They can't be on the App Store unless their software
is signed.

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JonasJSchreiber
Why the marketing line "this is your life, and it's ending one minute at a
time"? I don't mean to be rude, but it's kind of an aphorism, and a morbid one
at that. But I see people whom I respect making this observation. I'm
sincerely wondering why pointing out the obvious is important

~~~
j45
Our bodies have a finite number of breaths. We don't always prioritize our
time that way when it seems like that.

Maybe it's also a mindful presence the most of one's day/week/month/year is
important.

I recall another post about a graph that is generated for the # of your weeks
that are used up. It's powerful, and as positive, or not, as I guess as one
wants to make it.

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holografix
Don’t hear the naysayers, $5 is a good price for it, frankly $4 would be even
better not because it’s cheaper in so much as it’s less than a round number
that could be used as a mental barrier.

I can imagine a lot of non techie creatives using this to keep focused on long
projects.

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Kognito
I don’t get why you’d reference ‘OS X’ in the title when that name was retired
years ago. I assumed this was an app that had been around for a while yet the
domain was registered just yesterday.

Also, I don’t know about anyone else but I find ‘Progress Bar’ as an app name
to be really vague. I wouldn’t know it was a year progress widget without
visiting the site.

P.s. you’re welcome to my genius naming idea ‘Year Progress macOS’.

~~~
joombaga
OS X was rebranded in June 2016, less than 2 years ago. The old name is still
used pretty often colloquially. In error, sure, but it's not like using
Phoenix instead of Firefox. You're right about the name, and yours is a good
replacement. It would likely be better received if you suggested it with less
snark.

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xchaotic
I don't mind the 'business model' (I think it's a bit rich to be asking $5 for
this, but then you're asking $5 from people who spent $2000-4000 on a laptop).
What I do mind a bit is how depressing it seems - I guess I don't want to be
reminded about impending death all the time...

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vogt
I really love this idea and greatly appreciate the brevity in implementation,
the sales pitch, and the landing page. If I had one suggestion it would be a
slightly different visual treatment so as to not conflate it with battery
percentage so easily. Maybe small clock icon in the middle of the bar or
something.

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EvanDotPro
Just found this little gem for Android that allows you to have progress bars
like these as a launcher widget.

[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.donationco...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.donationcoder.pbol)

~~~
EvanDotPro
Found another Android widget alternative:
[https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.davee44.da...](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.davee44.dayprogress)

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Trundle
Those that find this interesting might also want to check out Mortality, a
chrome extension.

It replaces the default new tab window with a count down and has the ability
to set it based on your expected death date based on your stats.

I've got 19494 days 14 hours and 53 minutes to go.

I find it motivating.

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savrajsingh
Nice, now do it with life expectancy based on your blood work results and
current age :)

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andreyazimov
1 point by andreyazimov 5 hours ago [-]

Hi HN, I am a big fan of Year Progress tweets but I want to see not only year
I want to see month and day progress as well in minimal OS X menu bar with a
cool progress bar.

Demo:
[https://www.progressbarosx.com/1.jpg](https://www.progressbarosx.com/1.jpg),
[https://www.progressbarosx.com/2.jpg](https://www.progressbarosx.com/2.jpg),
[https://www.progressbarosx.com/3.jpg](https://www.progressbarosx.com/3.jpg),
[https://www.progressbarosx.com/4.jpg](https://www.progressbarosx.com/4.jpg),
[https://www.progressbarosx.com/demo.mp4](https://www.progressbarosx.com/demo.mp4)

~~~
akerl_
Maybe wait longer than 5 hours before trying to repost the same thing?

Honest feedback: when I land on a site that asks me to watch a video to
understand the thing, I almost always just close the tab. Put in enough info
for me to understand why I'd want this without having to watch the video.

~~~
paperpunk
That's interesting, I always feel the opposite -- when I open a page about
some software that doesn't have a video I often close the page immediately
because I want to see how something works in practice not just in description.

~~~
akerl_
If the description / pictures sell me on the thing being valuable, I pretty
immediately download it to try out. In my experience, the time/value tradeoff
of watching a video (which in a lot of cases has either extra fluff or has
been cleaned up) vs just trying the app/service/etc is not worth it. Which
makes it critical that the static contents of the page have enough detail to
convince me there's a chance the app could fill a use case for me.

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russtrpkovski
Very cool. Reminds me of
[https://twitter.com/progressbar201x](https://twitter.com/progressbar201x)

~~~
utkarshsinha
Look at [https://twitter.com/year_progress](https://twitter.com/year_progress)
for some ASCII goodness.

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crocfish
I get an security error when I open this on my mac. Is it hard to become an
identified developer?

~~~
jboles
99/year to not get the security warning. Maybe not worth it for free/open
source/hobby projects. Can bypass it by right clicking and choosing ‘Open’ but
then you have to make your users aware of that.

Totally an Apple racketeering.

~~~
SyneRyder
Also, not having the certificate can make it more likely the app will continue
to work in future. Apple had an incident where App Store apps stopped working
when the App Store certificate was replaced. I lost a few apps that I'd
purchased that way (though some developers graciously gave me a non App Store
version to work around it):

[https://techcrunch.com/2015/11/12/all-mac-store-apps-
stopped...](https://techcrunch.com/2015/11/12/all-mac-store-apps-stopped-
working-due-to-expired-security-certificate/)

~~~
saagarjha
That's an App Store issue, not a developer certificate one.

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cerberusss
Both a simple and very interesting idea... Could get one to stop
procrastinating.

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gitgud
Life isn't short it's the longest thing you'll ever do

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latchkey
I was hoping that this would patch in with the OSX system progress bars and
sum up the total amount of time waiting for something to happen on your
computer. I always thought that progress bars were just a waste of life.

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ponco
Should be free, with no annoyware and offer a $5 purchase for some extra
features, or simply ask for donations

