How can I add a reminder to stand up and sit down without stopping working?

A customer asked how to add a reminder to stand up and sit down, without blocking them from working, in the /r/Dejal community on Reddit:

I want to use time out to automatically start a 45 min timer when i log in , and after that time display a message stand up (but let me continue working), and then once i stood up for 15 minutes display a message sit down. (total time 60 min) one cycle. this i want to repeat all time i am working in the computer. is this possible?

I know where to set the message, but if i set the time out to 15 minutes, it doesn’t let me continue work during those 15 minutes, as it freezes the screen.

The easiest way to achieve this is to use a single break that has a duration of zero (which doesn’t dim the screen when the break is due), and a freqeuncy of every 1 hour:

Break Schedule

Then add a couple of notifications on the Break Actions page; one 15 minutes Before Due to say to stand up, and another zero minutes Before Due to say to sit down:

Break Actions

This will show the “stand up” notification after 45 minutes, then the “sit down” notification 15 minutes later, and repeat throughout the day.

Weather Events 1.2 released: wind gusts, improved location search, and other improvements

I’m pleased to announce an update of Weather Events, my app to record weather conditions on your calendar, available for macOS, iOS, and visionOS!

Version 1.2 now mentions wind gusts in the description for each breezy day, indicating about when it’ll be windy:

Wind gusts info

In the day editor, the locations menu now has an Other Location… command to search for a previous or new location:

Other Location option

When using that to search for a location, it now shows any matching previous locations at the top, followed by other matching locations. So it’s easy to find a location you’ve used in the past, without duplicating it:

Location search

It also now includes a calendar menu in the Settings when setting new day locations from calendar events, to optionally only look in one calendar instead of any:

Settings window

But wait, there’s more! Version 1.2 includes a bunch of other nice improvements and fixes:

Improved the speed and reliability of location searches.
Improved default names of locations outside the US and Canada to omit the region.
Improved handling of changing locations in different time zones.
Now cleans up unused locations.
Removed the Skip button to postpone calendar authorization during onboarding, at Apple’s request.
Fixed occasionally using a placeholder location.
Fixed sometimes unexpectedly using a full address for a location.
Fixed inability to click/tap on the location map when choosing a new location.
Fixed the About, Welcome, and Settings windows appearing behind those of other apps on macOS.
Fixed overlapping controls in the onboarding titlebar.
Fixed using too much iCloud data.
Fixed a rare crash.
Now requires OS 26 or later.

Want to try it?

If you already have the app, you can update via the App Store.

Otherwise, get Weather Events 1.2 now!

Simon 5.2b1 released

Surprise! It’s been three years since the previous update of Simon, my pro-level website and server monitoring tool, but here’s the first beta release of version 5.2.

This update includes support for macOS Tahoe, including making all components universal, so they work on Apple silicon and Intel-based Macs. Plus improvements to the Web Page service, the tests list, the Preview pane, and several services, filters, and notifiers, amongst other changes.

This is a beta release, but should be safe for anyone to install. If mission-critical, you might want to hold off for now, though, or install on another Mac. I would appreciate help in testing this update. Please let me know if you find any issues, or have any feature requests.

Read on for details.

Support for Tahoe

Updated the app to work better with macOS Tahoe (26.x).
Now requires macOS Monterey (12.4) or later.
All components are now universal, so work on Apple silicon and Intel-based Macs; a requirement for macOS 27.

Improved Web Page Service

The Web Page service now handles errors better when using the option to capture the rendered source.
Instead of resulting in a failure if the initial fetch gives an error, it waits for the rendered page to finish, and determines the result and HTML from that.
If the loaded HTML has an error, it tries to do a clean load, ignoring the provided headers, to match the preview shown.

Tests list refinements

Simplified the time ranges in the tests list when using relative times; instead of showing “10 min, 18 sec ago (3 secs)” for the last check time (and duration), it now just shows “checked 10 min (3 secs)”; the extra units didn’t add much value, and including “checked” makes it more clear what this value is.
Similarly the time of the last change is now displayed as “changed 2 hr ago”.
If a test doesn’t have any filters, it instead shows “changes not filtered”.
When a test is currently failing, it now omits the empty recovery time, so just shows the failure time like “failed 7 min ago”.
When a test has recovered, it now shows the duration in addition to the failure and recovery times, e.g. “failed 45 min to 6 min ago (39 mins)”.
Since Simon has been around for 14 years, fixed logic that assumed dates over 10 years were not sensible.

Preview improvements

Fixed remembering and restoring the Preview pane position when switching between tests with a web preview (like Web Page ones) and just a transcript (like Ping).
Fixed Check Now not checking all or multiple selected tests when the Preview pane is visible.
Changed the Preview message for the Notifiers list to clarify to use File ▸ Notify Now or the reload toolbar button to try a notifier.

Updated variables

Renamed {TestFailureCount} as {TestErrorCount}: the current failure/error streak.
Renamed {TestRecoveryCount} as {TestRecoveredCount}: the current recovery count.
Added {TestCheckCount}: the total number of times the test has been checked.
Added {TestSuccessCount}: the total number of successful checks.
Added {TestFailureCount}: the total number of failed checks.
Added {TestRecoveryCount}: the total number of recoveries from a failure.

Other changes

Fixed the Application service when checking if an app is running; it was previously timing out.
Improved the Application service output to sort the values alphabetically, so checking multiple times won’t trigger a spurious change.
Fixed the Get Average Ping Response Time filter; it was giving an error before.
Fixed the test editor summary sometimes listing the “Block” filter as “BlockBlock”.
Fixed the Setup Assistant showing the page to import web bookmarks on first run.
Fixed notifiers sometimes not firing when syncing is off, especially ones from versions prior to 5.0.
Updated the default Dejal Reddit test to work based on recent Reddit changes (the filters needed adjusting).

Want to try it?

If you are using the direct edition, you can change your Updates settings to include beta releases, then use the Check for Updates feature in the app to update.

Otherwise, download the beta now!

Time Out 3.0.3 released

Time Out version 3 was released recently. I just released version 3.0.3 to fix a couple more issues that may affect some people:

– Fixed the Full Countdown to Next Break status option not showing seconds when less than an hour.
– Fixed a possible crash when showing the Last Done Break Label in the status item.

It will be available from the Mac App Store and Setapp as soon as they approve it, and is immediately available direct from the Dejal website.

If you missed it, version 3 includes:

macOS Tahoe support
Exclusions are now Rules, and more powerful
A new theme editor, and image and text theme types
Added a Duplicate Break command
Enhanced the postpone/skip control limits option to per break, hour, or day
But wait, there’s more!

See the What’s New page for details.

Time Out prices increasing soon

Time Out version 3 was recently released. On the Support Time Out page in the app, I have a notice that the prices for the supporter options will be increasing soon. Time Out has an unusual payment model: most features are available to use completely free, but some features are available as rewards for people who support ongoing development. The prices haven’t changed since version 2 was released way back in 2016 (yes, a decade ago!), so I felt it was about time for a small adjustment. But I didn’t want to surprise people, so I announced it in the app, and now on the blog, so people can become a supporter, or renew their support, before the price goes up.

Time Out is available from the Mac App Store, Setapp, or direct from the Dejal website.

If you missed it, version 3 includes:

macOS Tahoe support
Exclusions are now Rules, and more powerful
A new theme editor, and image and text theme types
Added a Duplicate Break command
Enhanced the postpone/skip control limits option to per break, hour, or day
But wait, there’s more!

See the What’s New page for details.

Time Out is still free; you can use it for as long as you like without paying anything. But people who contribute to ongoing development by becoming supporters get the advanced features as a reward. You can become a supporter for 3, 6 or 12 months; these one-time payments do not auto-renew, but you can extend your support if you wish. The features will remain available permanently. You can become a supporter in the app, or via the Dejal Store.

Become a supporter now, before the price goes up! (And yes, even if you’re still using version 2.9.7, you can become or renew your supporter status.)

Time Out 3.0.2 released

Time Out version 3 was released recently. I just released version 3.0.2 to fix an important issue that could affect some people updating from version 2:

– Fixed unintentionally removing custom scripts from the scripts folder while introducing Rules scripts.

If you’ve already updated to version 3, and had added custom action scripts, my apologies; they will likely have been lost. Hopefully you can restore them from a backup. Most people won’t have added custom scripts, so this probably only affects a small percentage of people, but any data loss is a red alert for me.

It will be available from the Mac App Store and Setapp as soon as they approve it, and is immediately available direct from the Dejal website.

If you missed it, version 3 includes:

macOS Tahoe support
Exclusions are now Rules, and more powerful
A new theme editor, and image and text theme types
Added a Duplicate Break command
Enhanced the postpone/skip control limits option to per break, hour, or day
But wait, there’s more!

See the What’s New page for details.

How can Time Out pause any media before a break?

Time Out can perform actions before, during, or after a break. What if you want it to pause any media playing before a break?

A customer contributed a script that can be used with Break Actions to do just that.

It pauses any playing media when a break starts — Spotify, Plexamp, BBC Sounds, browser-based players, or anything else registered with macOS’s Now Playing system. Apps that are already paused are unaffected.

In addition to the script that you can use with Time Out’s Break Actions, there is a brew dependency that requires installation.

See the Pause Media GitHub page for details.

Note that I haven’t tested this; it seems fine, but use at your own risk.

How can I detect when the camera is in use for Time Out?

Time Out includes the ability to detect when Zoom, Teams, or FaceTime is actively in a meeting, and postpone or skip breaks via the Rules feature. But if you have something else using the camera, is there a way to detect that?

A customer contributed a script that can be used with Rules to do just that.

It automatically skips or postpones Time Out breaks while your camera is active, so you are never interrupted mid-video call. More general than the built-in rules for specific apps.

In addition to the script that you can use with Time Out’s Rules, there is an app dependency, which is bundled with the script.

See the Camera In Use GitHub page for details.

Note that I haven’t tested this; it seems fine, but use at your own risk.

Time Out 3.0.1 released

Time Out version 3 was released recently. I just released version 3.0.1 to fix one important issue that could affect some people updating from version 2:

– Fixed a crash when upgrading the data from version 2 if the Statistics page was set to show certain values.

If you had a crash when updating, this fix is for you. If you didn’t, no urgency in updating. If you haven’t updated yet, now’s your chance.

It is available from the Mac App Store, Setapp, or direct from the Dejal website. On the Mac App Store, I’m slowly rolling out the release, in case any other important issues turn up, but so far so good.

If you missed it, version 3 includes:

macOS Tahoe support
Exclusions are now Rules, and more powerful
A new theme editor, and image and text theme types
Added a Duplicate Break command
Enhanced the postpone/skip control limits option to per break, hour, or day
But wait, there’s more!

See the What’s New page for details.

DejalNews #90: Time Out 3.0 now available

DejalNews header

Welcome

This is DejalNews, an occasional newsletter from Dejal.

Want to get this newsletter in your inbox? Sign up on the Dejal site.

It’s been a while since the last DejalNews newsletter (over a year!), so I expect I’ll get several unsubscribes from people who forgot they signed up, or are no longer interested, or were added by spammers (I just spent an hour clearing out about a thousand obvious junk emails). I really should publish these a little more often. Lots of updates coming this year, so I probably will.

Time Out 3.0 released

The big news is that Time Out version 3.0 is now available! This major update to my popular break reminder app for Mac includes several huge improvements:

Time Out now requires a minimum of macOS Tahoe (26.0), and has been updated to support Liquid Glass, modern icons, and other recent technologies.
New theme editor, making it easier than ever to add custom themes.
New YouTube, Images, and Text theme types, joining the existing Local HTML and remote Website types.
Exclusions are now Rules, and more powerful, including enhancements to app rules, new fullscreen rule, customizable script-based rules including detecting when in a meeting, and more.
Added a Duplicate Break command.
Enhanced the postpone/skip control limits option to per break, hour, or day.
Improved data format, to support syncing in a future update.
Plus many other changes.

Read the blog post for full details.

New and updated themes for Time Out

Prior to the Time Out 3.0 release, I had updated several break themes, including updating and adding several YouTube-based themes, and adding a checklist theme. These are bundled with Time Out 3.0, so no need to download them manually if you update to that version… but if you have to remain on version 2.9.7 due to using an older OS version, you can download those themes from the Time Out Extras page.

Simon tip: How can I look for changes in a large binary file on a site?

I previously published a Simon tip, based on a customer query. They wanted to detect when a large binary file like an app changes on a website. While Simon could download the file, I came up with a better solution.

Check out this blog post for the details.

Time Out tip: The Calm theme can’t log in; how can I still use Calm?

For people who use the Calm.com website, they made a change that makes it harder to use during a Time Out break. But I came up with a way around that.

Check out this blog post for the details.

Follow Dejal on Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, Micro.blog, Facebook, Reddit, and more

Do you use one of the popular social media platforms? Dejal is probably there!

See this blog post for links to Dejal’s account on those platforms and more.

– David