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Busy Status Bar
- lofaszvanitt 2y agoLooks good, but... but... well, it feels a bit like a prostitute's indicator made for the waiting males.
- bluerooibos 2y agoLooks good but it could be half the price and still be overpriced.
- gacklecackle 2y ago[dead]
- turtlebits 2y agoLooks slick - the backside of the device does look a little "busy" and distracting if I had to stare at it on the top of my monitor.
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- euniceee3 2y agoWhy is everyone complaining on the price tag? It is a product that someone made for profit just like everyone else here is trying to do. Did Hacker News turn into Daily Deals?
- bradhe 2y agoIt's honestly not even that expensive considering all the functionality you get and the tech included (which is something HN should understand)
- hyperhopper 2y agoThe functionality is a small screen with a timer and a few API calls to set the timer for you sometimes. $189 for a timer is not a lot of functionality for more than 1% of the annual salary of a minimum wage worker. You can get a full android phone for that much which has 10000x the functionality.
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- hyperhopper 2y agoSo because everyone wants to make profit, nobody can complain about any prices regardless of how insane they are? What kind of logic is that?
- Jayakumark 2y agoGood but expensive, also does not solve for people behind or side of you.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- emmanueloga_ 2y agov2 should replace the matrix display with a Vegas Sphere [1] :-p -- 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjg6-xT6rJg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjg6-xT6rJg
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- unixfg 2y agoWhy are the buttons are printed to be readable from the large sign side of the device and not the management side?
- foz 2y agoyes this seems a strange choice. The operator is clearly controlling it from the side with the small screen.
- DHPersonal 2y agoIf I'm in an open office and can set my status clock on top of a monitor, then I don't need the manual controls because I will be changing it via the computer. If I'm not using a computer and setting the device down on my desk in a cubicle, then the primary screen is going to be turned towards me and I will need to use the manual controls. For that specific set of use cases, I see the logic behind the manual control label positions.
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- chem83 2y agoNoticed that too -- makes no sense to me. Cool otherwise.
- sureIy 2y agoDoes this really beat a printed BUSY clipart taped to my screen? It's far from the first product I see like this and the question is always the same.
- loloquwowndueo 2y agoIt does cover people interrupting you to ask “ok but how long will you be busy?” :) unless you want to replace your taped clip art every minute or so.
- qmarchi 2y agoYou can set your clipart to an end time rather than a count down. "Busy until 16:00"
- loloquwowndueo 2y agoClever! Thanks you just saved me 200 bucks :)
- echoangle 2y agoAt this price, you can get a second Monitor facing outward and display how long you’ll be busy on that. In fact, you can get 2 monitors and another computer and have some change left. This is a cool product, especially design-wise, but there are much cheaper solution for this very small problem.
- felideon 2y agoGood point. I finally know what to do with the old iPads my kids don't use anymore.
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- Buttons840 2y agoI might buy this to use as follows. I want a work-time tracker that lights a bright LED every 5 minutes or so, and as long as I'm there and working I smash a button and the light goes off for another 5 minutes. Some algorithm tracks the times I have hit the button and displays how long I have been working on said task. I'm picturing something fairly cheap, like a stop watch or 3 button kitchen timer. A LED, a few buttons, a LCD display, a AAA battery slot, and an internal timing circuit is all that's needed (and a case to hold it together). This would basically be a stop watch that stops on its own if neglected, and I can imagine a few uses for it.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 2y agoI assume lawyers have some mechanism like this already. Law firms can require staff to allocate every 6-8 minutes of their day. Which sounds terrible and likely to be wildly inaccurate as people cannot be bothered to invest that much overhead into their job.
- turblety 2y ago> likely to be wildly inaccurate My gut reaction and prejudiced against all lawyers is it's probably in the law firms interest that these are inaccurate.
- 0cf8612b2e1e 2y agoFor sure that seems the intention. Create an “audit trail” for billing while simultaneously making it so onerous that the employees have to fudge the numbers.
- hobs 2y agoIn my experience it just means a lawyer marks each hour via charging you 10 increments, and that in some cases some forms of comms are generally charged at a sub-hourly charge. In most cases working with a lawyer is a fixed fee or going to be on a retainer basis where the hours pile up regardless, not so much about tracking every moment for every person.
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- sinaptia_dev 2y ago[flagged]
- leetbulb 2y agoOh my, this is something I've been wanting to create. Something simple like an illuminated on-air sign outside my office door. This is awesome, and awesomely over-engineered.
- burnte 2y agoCheck out BlyncLights from Embrava. Much simpler and cheaper. I've installed them in a few companies and have one at home so my wife knows when I'm in a meeting or free.
- leetbulb 2y agoPerfect!
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- wannacboatmovie 2y agoVery Les Nessman-ish. Whenever I see someone with a busy light in the office, I view it as an over-the-top, attention-grabbing, awkward human interaction and an explicit invitation to bother him or her. It's "don't make me tap the sign" in electronic form.
- jacknews 2y agoI hit the 'BUY' button while thinking 'how much is this worth, or would people be willing to pay' and settled on about $60-80. I'm obviously a cheapskate. Sure, some people will buy it even it was $2000, but I think most people will be put off by the ~$200 price.
- encom 2y agoSo this is a cloud connected LED sign that tells people to ~~fuck off~~ leave me alone. For 189 USD. This is the most Hacker News thing I've seen in 2024.
- wannacboatmovie 2y agoIn a way it's the perfect product if your target market is those responsible for the atrocities of the modern web: like why I need a cloud-connected smartphone app that requests full permissions to set up a $10 camera. Juicero, where are you?
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- lwhsiao 2y agoI can't seem to tell: is this run off a battery? If so, any specs on the battery? Or is it powered via cable?
- frereubu 2y agoThis reminds me of my first job in London looking after the network of a recruitment agency. The consultants got headsets for the first time and one got so annoyed about being interrupted when on a call - because you couldn't tell when people were wearing headsets the whole time - that she taped a big bit of card to the top of her headset saying "ON A CALL" that she could flip up and down depending on whether she was speaking to someone.
- vel0city 2y agoOur old Plantronics phone headsets had a TRS jack which would connect to an optional status light. It would light up when the headset was on a call. https://www.headsetsdirect.com/product/poly-busy-light-straight-plug-80287-01/ https://www.headsetsdirect.com/product/poly-busy-light-strai...
- frereubu 2y agoMan, Plantronics. That brings back some memories!
- RockRobotRock 2y agoMy old company used these more recently: https://busylight.com/ https://busylight.com/
- ShakataGaNai 2y agoI used one of those recently at home since my wife can't see my screen, she's not sure if I'm on a call, listening to music or just there. The built in software sucks, but there are some good open source options https://github.com/JnyJny/busylight https://github.com/JnyJny/busylight also works together with https://mutedeck.com/ https://mutedeck.com/ for supporting things like Zoom.
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- weinzierl 2y agoWhere does it draw power from? Does it have to be permanently connected or does it have a battery? I have a lilygo T-Display (which costs less than a 10th of the Busy Status Bar), but I intended to use it untethered and freely movable on the desk. Sadly the battery life is so bad that I basically have to leave it plugged in all the time.
- diggan 2y ago> Where does it draw power from? Does it have to be permanently connected or does it have a battery? Since it's not mentioned in text, extrapolating from the photos (sometimes it's connected with a cable, sometimes not) I'd have to assume it has a battery.
- noitpmeder 2y agoStandard these days is chargeable, have to imagine that is the case here.
- weinzierl 2y agoThe natural follow up would be: How often do I have to plug it in? If I have to charge it daily it is probably too much of a hassle and I'll have to have it plugged-in all the time.
- _ache_ 2y agoOnce per day, 9h battery life. From the blog post. https://busy.bar/blog/developing-the-mechanical-and-electrical-components-of-the-device/ https://busy.bar/blog/developing-the-mechanical-and-electric...
- echoangle 2y agoOn the image which shows the back screen, you can also see a battery icon in the lower right, so that's a very safe bet.
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- slightwinder 2y agoThis looks retro-sleek. Really cool design. Does this work without cloud-connection? Does it work with the Flipper Zero? Considering it's from the same company, I would think there is some synergy available. And it seems to lack a speaker. For some reason, I would love to play radio on it, not sure why.. EDIT Ok, found the speaker. Nice.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- jareklupinski 2y agoi thought someone had finally productized a clock i built for myself a long time ago, which, instead of showing you the time of day, counts down to your next meeting https://github.com/jareklupinski/count-down https://github.com/jareklupinski/count-down google and apple dont make it easy...
- jeanlucas 2y agoSince 2014 I dream about a product very very similar to this! Happy to see it built!!
- imglorp 2y agoAll these sad people working in offices that need to defend their focus. I will never do that again.
- timcobb 2y agoThe price of interacting with people in person
- MOARDONGZPLZ 2y agoI downvoted this because it is really pejorative to call people sad in this way for doing their jobs. Though I do agree that it stinks sometimes to be focused and have people walk by and cause context shifts. Regarding the original topic, I mostly work from home and even there like pomodoro timers because they help me focus. Set it for 25 minutes and focus until the time is up, take 5, then get back to it. Works great for me!
- imglorp 2y agoFair point given how poorly I worded it. Maybe I could try again. Yes it's awesome to collaborate with people but if you find a workplace that ignores human factors of knowledge workers, and deters and deep focus, that is a negative signal about that employer. Egs: * a noisy, open, "pit" with low/no partitions, where sales guys yell into speakerphones right near people heads down * there are no "focus booths" to make private calls or work * meeting load is scattered across the day so there's no way to block out working time on calendar * adversarial IT dept This kind of environment does not promote work and also increases stress due to context switching (citation needed) and people walking behind you all day in peripheral view (seen a study somewhere). If you find a place like this, your health and career might be better served elsewhere.
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- tevon 2y agoI'm planning to use this at home to defend my focus from myself! That idea definitely goes both ways.
- simple10 2y agoThis is incredibly similar to a personal project I've been prototyping. I love that Flipper brought it to market and will buy one. A fully open source & open hardware timer like this would be awesome. Cheaper DIY kit with 3d printable case. Does anyone know if one exists?
- blutack 2y agoThe Ulanzi TC001 might fit the ticket, it's not open source but it's an ESP32 and a bunch of addressable LEDs you can flash through the USB port. There's an ecosystem of open source firmware for it already.
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- schnable 2y agoPeople be so busy they need to buy a hacker-friendly device and build bespoke integrations with it.
- nixosbestos 2y agoTruly, it's so hard for me to not see this as just dressed-up techie-flavored consumerism. If you can't look at your phone to run a timer without getting distracted, I think there's a different problem to solve. (reminder that Android makes it trivial to not show notifications on the lock screen, or even in the top bar. I see notifications only when I want to.)
- Antipode 2y agoThis is primarily to inform other people in the same building as you.
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- drdaeman 2y agoFeels like a problem in search for a solution to me. Although I haven’t worked in an office for a while now, so it could be that I’m not understanding the importance in such setting (or whatever is this device’s target use environment) that can’t be replaced with a sticky note.
- kajecounterhack 2y agoGeez the creator obviously doesn't think this is a necessity. It's just introducing a little whimsy and fun. Nobody cares if you don't want to buy or use it.
- nixosbestos 2y agoOh ho, you got me. Bruh, if I was here rallying against consumerism with any thought that it would matter, well, I'd be an idiot.
- QuinnyPig 2y agoFinally I can put my colleague on Verbal Probation.
- thenoblesunfish 2y agoMessing with this thing sure seems like a great way to stay focused.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- secondcoming 2y agoWhere has the practice of putting the $ behind the value come from? I see it happening to £ too. I'm irrationally annoyed by this.
- drchaos 2y agoIt's standard for Euro amounts and before that for many (most?) European currencies.
- swores 2y agoThe majority of Eurozone countries do put the numbers before the €, but it's not standard across the continent, each country has their own standard and some of them do have the euro sign first. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_and_the_euro#Written_conventions_for_the_euro_in_the_languages_of_EU_member_states https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_and_the_euro#Writte... (To save a click: Netherlands plus Dutch-speaking half of Belgium, Austria, Cyprus, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, and Turkey are the Eurozone countries which write €1 - which is also the official way to write it in English. Edit: oops, Turkey should be with England in that it's not a Eurozone country, they have their own Turkish lira, but in their language Euro amounts should be written €10, even though lira amounts are written 10TL.)
- blutack 2y agoIf you're looking for something with an addressable LED matrix in a clock style form factor, the Ulanzi TC001 [0] for ~$50 is worth having a look at. Doesn't quite have the same aesthetic but inside it's just an ESP32 (flashed via the USB-C port) and there's various mature open source firmware replacements. I use awtrix[1] on mine and it's very easy to tie in HomeAssistant for doorbell notifications and that sort of thing. I did also knock up a Pomodoro app for it. 0: https://www.ulanzi.com/products/ulanzi-pixel-smart-clock-2882 https://www.ulanzi.com/products/ulanzi-pixel-smart-clock-288... 1: https://github.com/Blueforcer/awtrix3 https://github.com/Blueforcer/awtrix3
- import 2y agoI have 2 of them and love them, blueforcer firmware supports home assistant and I can mix it with automations
- CobrastanJorji 2y agoI was going to say that $200 seemed awfully expensive for a programmable kitchen timer. I've had a project idea for a while that would require a bit more juice. In short, I want to make a music practice timer for ADHD kids that avoid actually playing music during practice time. I want it to be beefy enough to run some simple ML for detecting instruments being played, and I only want the timer to count down while the instruments are playing. I picture it looking a lot like the clock above, but with something like a Raspberry Pi jammed inside so it's got enough power to reliably detect "violin." Any ideas on hardware for that?
- r2_pilot 2y ago"Identifying Different Musical Instrument Sounds Using Fourier Analysis in LabVIEW" Rather than "ML" du jour, I would say that a fast Fourier transform would get you sufficient data to determine if practicing or talking or silence.
- CobrastanJorji 2y agoDefinitely valid callout. I was also looking for an excuse to play with audio ML, but you're totally right that just examining a Fourier series could very likely do a great job of determining whether a given type of instrument is being played.
- VoxPelli 2y agoIs there any message from the Flipper Zero people that this is actually their device? It’s not mentioned on https://www.flipperdevices.com/ https://www.flipperdevices.com/, neither on https://flipperzero.one/ https://flipperzero.one/ or their Instagram? They have been plagued with peopling scamming people in their name before
- kretaceous 2y agoCheck the footer.
- jstanley 2y agoThat doesn't prove anything.
- blensor 2y agoAnd interestingly none of the socials I could find are mentioning it. I am not saying it is a scam it's just very strange that all connections between busy.bar and flipper devices are one way. One would expect some two way mentions
- marliechiller 2y agoIt literally says: "Flipper Devices Designed by Flipper Devices Inc. © 2024. All rights reserved."
- ThrowawayTestr 2y agoAnyone can put that there
- swores 2y agoEvery scam website ever made that pretends to be part of a known business copies that business's footer text, it's not remotely relevant in trying to judge whether a website is telling the truth or not about who owns it. (And in case anyone reads my comment without seeing that the founder of Flipper already commented confirming this is theirs, not a scam: that's the case.)
- danjl 2y agoBack when I worked in an office and had to do deep thinking without interruptions, I'd string up a bit of yellow police-like tape that I stole from the SGI offices that were closed during Shoreline concerts that said "SILICON GRAPHICS". Worked perfectly.
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- asoneth 2y agoI wouldn't have thought this kind of thing would be useful, but after trying a few pomodoro timers I ended up with one (TimeTimer Plus) that is so large that it had the unanticipated benefit of notifying others how long I'll be busy. However, I will say it depends a great deal on your coworkers/family as to whether they care that you're busy when they want to ask you something.
- jayd16 2y agoHmm shouldn't the button labels be reversed if you're supposed to face it away from you?
- INTPenis 2y agoThey need to make a miniature version that I can attach to my headphones because that is my busy indicator. If I'm at work and need to focus, noise cancelling headphones are a must. If they're off then I'm not busy.
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- tbeseda 2y agoRad device! Not here to gripe about the actual price - and I realize it's counter-intuitive since we say "one hundred dollars" out loud - but in the US, the dollar sign goes before the amount: $189 not 189$
- jeffbee 2y agoFinally, the productivity technique named after a $1 clockwork timer gets the fiddly software-and-cloud-based solution it deserves.
- anfractuosity 2y agoOut of interest is there anything similar to the Ulanzi TC001 but with a slightly higher resolution.
- karolist 2y agoLooks like lametric alternative?
- martins_irbe 2y agoYeah exactly what I wanted to say, they also got a Pomodoro Timer app: https://apps.lametric.com/apps/pomodoro_timer/8803 https://apps.lametric.com/apps/pomodoro_timer/8803
- sgwizdak 2y agoThe mode where it sits on a monitor and displays a status ("on call") is very interesting. I think that could be simplified into a product unto itself -- but it would need to priced at "office toy" level -- so around $20-$40 USD.
- 404mm 2y agoI was gonna seriously consider it for $89. But then I noticed it’s $189. Hard pass. It’s a shame because it’s a neat idea. I’d be ok even with just some core functionality
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- lsbussell 2y agoI’ve a Blynclight that basically does what you describe. However the integration with Teams is kind of flaky. https://store.embrava.com/products/blynclight-standard https://store.embrava.com/products/blynclight-standard
- riiii 2y agoInteresting toy, but in my world none of my friends are going to pay $189 for that. Even when the the dollar sign is on the wrong side.
- ConanRus 2y ago[dead]
- tivert 2y agoIt looks very neat, and I love all the physical controls, but it seems like kind of a device from another time where everyone worked in-person all the time. I work a hybrid schedule, with a mostly distributed team, and hotdesk/hotel when I'm in the office, so I don't have the luxury of a physical device to indicate my status, nor much use for one. That said, I really want something designed like this that I can use.
- rufugee 2y agoNice! For a home-rolled solution, I use a GE CYNC ST19 Edison Style bulb in a socket right outside my office door. I have it configured through Home Assistant (https://www.home-assistant.io/ https://www.home-assistant.io/), and then use Hammerspoon (https://www.hammerspoon.org/ https://www.hammerspoon.org/) on my macbook to make an API call to Home Assistant when the camera state changes. If my camera turns on/off, so does the light bulb. Works really well for letting my family know I'm busy in meetings.
- tamimio 2y agoA bit dystopian turning people into a taxi-like system where you need an indicator to tell if they are vacant or not. Regardless, I'm struggling to know the audience here. Is it an employee in the office? If that’s the case, it won’t solve any problem because most of the disturbances happen from your boss either calling about something or asking you to join another useless meeting. Your boss won’t care about your status simply because they won’t be collocated in the same office as you most of the time (not that they care about your online status anyway). For colleagues, after the first month or so, everyone will pretty much find the best way to approach others. If you still need a device for that, then there’s a problem in communication that you need a persistent device all the time. At home, you won’t need such a thing. So I don’t know who will find it useful; it looks gimmicky. What’s next, a hat that will turn a green light telling people you are approachable or in the chatting mode, and red when you are not?!
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- refulgentis 2y agoAfter reading the page, it seems clear it is akin to a recording studio busy signal, well-trodden territory predating computers, and marketed for video conferencing. Neither without target audience, nor a sigil of the fall of interhuman cooperation and communication :)
- ndndjdjdn 2y agoYou have not said what the market is. Recording studios have a solution. And probably don't use pomedero. And the reason for the indicator I assume is to stop people barging in and stop people saying silly stuff thinking their off air so it needs to be inside and outside the room. So who is this device for again?
- refulgentis 2y ago> You have not said what the market is. Hmm, you sure? I checked OP, it says "marketed for video conferencing" > Recording studios have a solution. Okay. > And probably don't use pomedero. *pomodoro > And the reason for the indicator I assume is to stop people barging in and stop people saying silly stuff thinking their off air so it needs to be inside and outside the room. Okay. > So who is this device for again? Video conferencing, ex. the above scenario you laid out > I'm curious, I'm not just rushing through an attempt to correct something that doesn't need correction. How do they envision it in use? Here's a link to the site, it has marketing material re: this. https://busy.bar/ https://busy.bar/
- supermatt 2y agoI quite like the large format for a timer. I have some much lower tech alternative that works wonders for helping keep me focused on tasks: https://www.timetimer.com/ https://www.timetimer.com/
- wildekek 2y agoLots of features mentioned there, I wonder how many of those will be ready on launch day and what will be delivered later.
- graypegg 2y agoI'm a sucker for metal things with greebling. The price seems pretty fair for how niche this is; I totally expected Teenage Engineering prices. (Also in the field of greebled single use devices with knobs and the mass of a blunt-force-weapon) Will totally pick one up for the hardware's skookumosity and hackability poetential alone!
- echoangle 2y agoDo you mean metal as in the material? Where do you see that?
- graypegg 2y agoIt definitely looks to be made of a metal. To be fair, I'm just basing that off the texture and specular highlights in the photos. It's pretty similar looking to the iMac's case in one of their photos.
- echoangle 2y agoI would actually bet it’s plastic, having a hollow tube-like structure made from metal would be very wasteful because you would have to mill out the entire core (unless it’s cast metal?). Also, the texture looks much coarser than the iMac, there are large „bumps“ on the surface. If it’s really a milled aluminum case, I would at least understand the price, but I would be very surprised. My bet would be a simple injection moulded ABS case.
- efreak 2y agoSheet metal can be wrapped around a mold (round, square, or other) and pressed together, though it's not common. I've got a couple diy electronics protected by "boxes" made of U-shaped steel or aluminum with holes cut for the controls. Alternatively, the technique used to create cardboard boxes also works with sheet metal, where you cut the correct shape out and fold the flaps at set locations; of the metal is thick enough you don't need flaps and it'll hold the shape on its own, and if you want to hide the seams better, use compression or notches.
- yapyap 2y agoCool but not $189 cool.
- danielohrlund 2y agotake my money
- thih9 2y agoIt’s very pretty; but it’s also a little sad - that there could be demand for a big red flashing IRL “busy” indicator. If I’m busy and if it happens so often that I can reliably buy a device like this, I would instead prefer to adjust my work environment to not be distracting, and to inform people that they should contact me at some other time. I guess this may not always be an option.
- blitzar 2y ago> sad - that there could be demand for a big red flashing IRL “busy” Busy is the virture most people want to signal most of the time. Next time someone ask how things are tell people you are not busy, its elicits a similar response to telling people your distant uncle died.
- ndndjdjdn 2y agoRunning under capacity is considered a sin for humans. However it is fine for a server (good for burst performance!).
- blitzar 2y agoLying is also a sin and 90+% of the time when people say they are "busy" they are not.
- ndndjdjdn 2y agoDepends what you mean by busy. I use the "free" designation option to plan work in my shared calendar. I am busy but I am also free for a meeting if needed. In server parlence this might be an async batch processing job. Peope who do 0.8 hours work and collect a full time salary while playing golf and pretending they do 8 are rare I suspect.
- blitzar 2y agoI am talking about the "cult of bussyness" form of busy, most people can get their 8 hour day done by lunch even at a leisurly pace. https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/busy-work-productivity-job-slack-emails-meetings-b2512674.html https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/busy-work-productiv...
- tofof 2y agoThe display is a resolution of 72x16, or 1152 px. I counted; there's a couple of frames as the first "busy" mention displays that the splashing animation lights the entire panel. For comparison, the Ulanzi TC001 mentioned throughout this thread is 32x8, for 256 pixels. I think if one was wanting to build something like this for themselves that just using a 7" ips display intended for rpi would work as well. With 1024x600 resolution you could draw the chunky pixels if you wanted that aesthetic, and those can be had for like $28.
- m4r71n 2y agoIs the busy bar's 72x16 LED matrix for sale anywhere with the muted look that one could build something comparable?
- blitzar 2y agoDon't make me tap the sign.
- ndndjdjdn 2y agoIn the monitor screenshot it occured to me that you need to choose back or front. But in most open offices you will probably need a 360 dispaly. A circle design that scrolls might work. Also pomedero breaks are also busy. Having a break is something. Being interupted during that break is no better than being interuppted during the work part.
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- killjoywashere 2y agoOMG, I love this. The one missing feature: a high quality camera. As soon as I saw the screen mount, I immediately thought of Continuity Camera, which is a great solution for people who want decent video without a full streamer rig.
- neilv 2y agoWith all the controls and lights to fiddle with, this Busy Bar hanging off a techbro monitor... is kinda like the Busy Box that was hanging off their crib. https://www.etsy.com/listing/1760749770/fisher-price-busy-box-fisher-price-toys https://www.etsy.com/listing/1760749770/fisher-price-busy-bo...
- JaggerJo 2y agoReally nice design! Would love to have one but.. can’t find a use-case for it
- mxuribe 2y agoSeparate of the product itself...I have to compliment whoever designed the landing page! I'm not a UX/UI/page design expert, but here is what i experience: * the page loads quick - without overlays, distractions, etc. the page gets to the point, and fast * immediately i see a description of what the product is...this might sound funny, but tons of product sites lack this most basic thing! * In addition, the very brief video at the top shows a human hand operating the product...so i know even more about its functions, or at least how to interact with product * a call-to-action of "BUY" is present and impossible to miss, positioned right after/below the product intro/description * as i scroll down, the experience is NOT janky...its a smooth scroll down the page * scrolling down informs me more about the product, including its features, different angles of the physical product (to help denote the features), they even squeeze in that there are developer options - so i'm tipped off that its not only a consumer device, but that it can be integrated with other systems, expanded by devs, etc.! * they include more product photos in order to show how the product may appear and/or be used in real life * they even include photo and description of certain features - which serve almost as a very brief user guide, but again, i'm sure the intent is to show off the product's feature set There probably are other great things about this page that i have not noted here...But, again, kudos to the person/team who designed this! I see many teams that are really intelligent, and might have great products/service, but they don;'t include half the elements present here. Because while i don't have interest in this product, damn, this an extremely compelling experience for their product! Cheers and kudos to all involved!!!!!!!
- RowanH 2y agoEchoing this, loved the product feature callout diagram. Immediately 'view source' to figure out how it was done.
- mxuribe 2y agoYeah, that feature callout diagram is really cool!
- kristofferR 2y agoThis site is extremely broken by default, completely unreadable: https://imgur.com/a/9g1dGxp https://imgur.com/a/9g1dGxp (default 100% zoom level) It is totally defective in 100% zoom, I need to manually zoom to 90% to make it be usable/as designed. It seems to activate cell phone mode for laptop screens. Edit: I don't get why people are downvoting this (-4 and counting). I enter the site and it is broken, until I change to a non-default zoom level. Valuable feedback IMO
- Waterluvian 2y agoThis would take my $200 and just be another distraction of me trying to get $200 worth of value out of it. I have a “Back in…” analog clock sign on my door. It was a dollar.
- T3RMINATED 2y ago[dead]
- deivid 2y agoNice product, I built a similar (but less flexible) system for an "ON AIR" sign that I have in my home office, as both my wife and I WFH, it is nice to have a visual indicator when one of us joins a call. Software for Linux and Mac is here [0]. There's also an ESP32 for the sign, but that part is trivial (MQTT -> LED) [0]: https://github.com/davidventura/on-air https://github.com/davidventura/on-air
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- kachapopopow 2y agoWaiting room for someone playing doom on it.
- entrep 2y ago> Use of the terms “Pomodoro®” must be explicitly authorized by us. [1] 1: https://www.pomodorotechnique.com/pomodoro-trademark-guidelines.php https://www.pomodorotechnique.com/pomodoro-trademark-guideli...
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- pedrogpimenta 2y agoThat battle has been lost. I've header about pomodoros for years and not once about a shitty copyright holder. It's generic now, thank you.
- entrep 2y agoInteresting. Time to create that Pomodoro app I've always wanted to do.
- henry2023 2y agohttps://media1.tenor.com/m/t2vQvNA_GlYAAAAC/fille-choque-shocked.gif https://media1.tenor.com/m/t2vQvNA_GlYAAAAC/fille-choque-sho...
- jll29 2y agoInterestingly, this "official" Pomodoro site doesn't offer a physical timing device on their shop page. It looks like the inventor of the technique is now based out of Dubai (allergic to taxes? The governments that you lean on to enforce your reigstered trademarks need to be funded somehow).
- tristor 2y agoClicking on this page tries to XSS to a domain hosted in Russia (looks like an object storage backend) which is blocked by NoScript.
- cheema33 2y agoI suffer from ADHD and the pomodoro timer part interests me. However, I am not sure if a pomodoro timer would help me. And $200 is an expensive gamble.
- treve 2y agoGet a free timer and find out!
- kjrfghslkdjfl 2y ago[dead]
- dmitrygr 2y agoAn old android phone with no cell service can do the job and costs roughly $0 (plenty of people will happily give one or three away)
- risenshinetech 2y agoGood call on being cautious here. Unfortunately, there isn't anything between this product and the most basic, basic, basic timer for you to test out if the pomodoro method would work for you.
- boneitis 2y ago(This isn't necessarily directed at you; just at the last minute thought to look for any top-level posts talking about this aspect. Much thanks for the piggyback! :pray:) I've nothing but utmost love for Flipper Devices Inc., seeing their approach to PR and as a 1000% happy owner of a Flipper Zero that sits unused 99.99% of the time in my backpack (and boy, am I _extremely_ happy and relieved for the 0.01% when I need it). I would pull the trigger on this in a heartbeat if I had the play-cash. For those specifically with productivity challenges, it seems to be a good opportunity to remind that there are simple techniques people can try out (even if I find hard to discipline myself to adhere to) like a programmer's anecdote of one of John Carmack's methods[0]. I have personally adapted that technique to buying a $20 (hour-long) sand timer and turning it to its side when I need to pause. Unfortunately, my challenge now is overcoming my reluctance to use it more often, dreading the commitment I am signing myself up for as soon as I start the timer and fear of failure. Alas, it appears that I allow that fear to control me (into shirking responsibility). [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30801421 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30801421 (unfortunately, original source no longer has this entry published, and archive.org is still offline, so all I have is this HN post to cite :) [edit]: https://archive.ph/kcKYY https://archive.ph/kcKYY
- btbuildem 2y agoThis design has very strong "2020's TV series based in the Star Wars universe" aesthetic vibes... or is it just me? Super well done website, and the product itself looks very thoroughly polished.
- egeozcan 2y agoI got a giant usb-controlled traffic light at my first job in Germany for a customer project. They just let me keep it after the project finished, which made me repurpose it as a busy light and it worked wonders except that one person who didn't get the hint. Not exactly this but close: https://www.cleware-shop.de/USB_Tischampel_360 https://www.cleware-shop.de/USB_Tischampel_360
- hi-v-rocknroll 2y agoJerks and dorks disrespect others, with the differentiator being intention. If they don't get the hint, then it's probably time for a teachable moment or assertion of boundaries.
- holyknight 2y agoHow can people just spam links of their projects and not get flamed and/or get their posts deleted?
- habitue 2y agoI want more physical devices like this with knobs and switches. Too many things are smooth glass rectangles
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- dankwizard 2y agoFirst the Nintendo alarm clock and now a sign that says "busy" - But it's hackable! You nerds will buy anything
- tarwich 2y agoYeah... You're right
- fragmede 2y agoYes! What are you gonna make?
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- leokennis 2y agoOn the one hand I love single-focus nicely designed hardware. On the other hand I have a https://getfocustimer.com/ https://getfocustimer.com/ gathering dust, because a timer is just easier to set from the computer + screen I am already looking at... The only product in this category I still use on the regular is https://boomkat.com/products/buddha-machine-special-edition-2024 https://boomkat.com/products/buddha-machine-special-edition-... and its predecessors.
- Ciantic 2y agoYes, my experience as well. That's why having an alternate small display (8" or smaller) for your laptop/desktop is better. You can then drag any application on it and use it as a timer or busy sign or whatever. It's way more convenient than an extra device you have to reach and fiddle with.
- hi-v-rocknroll 2y agoThis is an excellent idea. A similar approach, simpler, and cheaper solution for a non-open cube/offices environment is a microcontroller-controlled Andon stack with color-codes for "focusing/DND", "working", "away", "socialization desired", and possibly "about to leave". This makes it possible to scan statuses simply without disturbing people by having to be in visual range of their desk.
- practice9 2y ago[flagged]
- insane_dreamer 2y agoI prefer the physical cubes (or other shapes) that you rotate
- Aurornis 2y agoThis is at least the 3rd version of this product idea that I’ve seen in the past decade. Certainly the nicest design! The first time I saw this was some friends of friends who were trying to make it into a startup. They quickly discovered that their users liked the idea of a busy light for the office, but didn’t like to update it on or off throughout the day. So after the first few days people just defaulted to leaving it marked as “busy”. Within a week or two their coworkers realized that the light was always on busy, so they started asking if they were really busy. At that point, the entire busy light idea had been defeated. This product looks more versatile. Being able to automatically tie it to meeting status or set pomodoro timers could make it more interesting. However, I predict the same fate: Eventually people will realize the light is busy when the person isn’t really busy, and then return to the old habit of interrupting to ask if they’re busy.
- stavros 2y agoThat seems like an easy fix: Tell visitors to look at the light.
- Aurornis 2y agoThat’s the problem: If the light is always on, or almost always on, then it quickly loses meaning. Unless the user actually adds green available time at regular intervals throughout the day, people learn that they have to ignore the red busy light and ask.
- IncRnd 2y agoOr the person is always busy, and to contact them a person should use slack, email or some other method.
- edc117 2y agoAnd then they don't respond to email or slack. Are they missing it? Ignoring it? No one knows. Meanwhile, time sensitive deadlines come and go. There's no clear, easy protocol that works for everyone, unfortunately. Some people are always going to operate on the 'better to ask forgiveness than permission' model. And I say this as someone who is often in the 'always busy' camp.
- mattfrommars 2y agoAnyone know how are the folks behind this and VC? This is a way too polish product and 'production' for a startup...
- charlesabarnes 2y agoThis seems like something I have been looking to add to my home office. I would love to have a companion device that I can stick to the outside of a closed office door
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- noisy_boy 2y agoSucks to be people whose monitor faces the wall.
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- srkiNZ 2y agoThis looks really cool. Would have bought it but the price is a bit too high for me (I live in New Zealand as well so when you convert from USD then add shipping costs etc...).
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- gmzamz 2y agoThis is an instant buy for me. I've been looking for a 'smart timer' that I can interact with programmatically and via Home Assistant for the longest time. I'd resigned myself to either building a terrible version myself or hiring someone to make a bespoke one. I'm super glad you're making this!
- albert_e 2y agoslightly off topic but ... what I really want is a LED status display built into the top edge of my laptop screen (visible from opposite side too) that indicates -- when I am on a meeting / when I am muted or unmuted / when my camera is ON. (I should be able to turn them off when i dont need them and also have a manual override to turn them on as well -- so I dont HAVE to indicate my true status publicly when I dont want to -- I might even tie it to work only when on office/home wifi only for instance) In WFH situations this would be a life saver as other people in the house might walk into your room / across your laptop in view of camera / want to talk to you about random things .... If this kind of busy indicator is present, those people can be a bit more mindful of your immediate situation and avoid distrubance / embarassment.
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- askafriend 2y agoTLDR: IRL Slack statuses.
- pretty_colors 2y agoGreat idea for us remote workers that are returning to the office, thanks.
- xyst 2y agoSeems more like a novelty item than something to be used in an actual office. Would love to code/configure it with a middle finger emoji if I am in a call :)
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- 28304283409234 2y agoDoesn't the large "Start/Pause" button on top invite for any Product Owners or other managers to walk by, hit the button, and start talking to you? Knowing my manager would.
- docmars 2y agoI kind of want to see a parody video in an office where whenever someone walks up to the guy's desk with this thing, he flips it to "Busy" right as they walk up. Comedy ensues from the awkward reactions and fake apologies. "Ah, sorry. I'm 'Busy' now." (Smirk) > (Raises eyebrows) Uhh, okay sure Jim.
- iamtedd 2y agoIf the big display is supposed to face away from you towards visitors, why are the controls oriented for them too. Surely you want to control the device, not your visitors?
- lucsky 2y agoAgreed. This is dumb AF.
- pxoe 2y agoand why does it have 'how to connect' plastered all over its supposedly user-facing back? why have initial setup stuff end up just being always there? or more annoyingly, exposed for others to fiddle with it? (if it's gonna be used in places with other people around)
- wexomania 2y agoWe used to have something similar at one of my previous jobs, a piece of paper that was red on one side, if red side was up on the desk, you don't disturb them.
- lovegrenoble 2y agoAnother one: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/minee/minee-habit-tracking-pomodoro-timer-kit-for-your-goal https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/minee/minee-habit-track...
- amelius 2y agoIt's missing a credit card slot for paid interruptions ;)
- ena0autos 2y agoI would buy it but first i would like to see a youtube video from someone that got his life change by this and things, i am yet not convinced is this life changing?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- sails 2y agoAdd a cable with red/green status light for home office door
- dncornholio 2y agoIt's ugly and expensive.
- andrewg4445 2y agoI love the design, really want to try this one.
- g4zj 2y agoI just work from home and leave my Teams status set to "offline" at all times. I still receive messages, but only reply when contacting me through Teams is the agreed-upon approach. In other words, I simply don't reply to messages that should really be emails or tickets.
- kidsil 2y agoDesign is fantastic, every single detail is near-perfect. Unfortunately, the price tag is too high for this solution.
- coryxrx 2y agoWhen accessing this site I’m seeing a request to https://www.virustotal.com/gui/domain/e97b1e25-0407-48a5-988a-eb147e2afa6a.selstorage.ru https://www.virustotal.com/gui/domain/e97b1e25-0407-48a5-988... which is getting blocked by my firewall.
- rgrmrts 2y agoThis is a neat idea (and good looking product), but unfortunately the issue is the people who tend to interrupt you in the office ignore all explicit signals in my experience. Wearing noise cancelling headphones is an accepted sign of “in the flow, pls don’t interrupt” yet some folks feel like it doesn’t apply to them. Or they’d just stand next to your desk waiting for your attention. I’m pretty jaded (and probably still recovering from burnout) but these types of people made work unbearable. Usually an executive walking up to ask for the status of something even though there are other ways they can look at the status of something (JIRA, standup, slack updates).
- TehShrike 2y agoIt depends on the office culture. The last time I worked in an office, I used a red/green busy signal like this, and people would generally respect it.
- wvh 2y agoIt really does depend on office culture. Some people might be more reasonable if you communicate directly. I don't think it would go down well everywhere if you state "Hey! No talking to me if Mr. Smurf is on the table!"... Mr Smurf might have an unfortunate accident sooner rather than later.
- gosub100 2y agoI don't think you have the right to tell your coworkers to leave you alone. Part of working means collaboration and if you're unwilling to do that, you don't belong on a team. You're not doing brain surgery that will permanently alter the life of some helpless patient. you're not meticulously stacking the last card on top of a 10 ft house of cards exhibit where tens of hours of work will be completely lost if your concentration strays to show your face to another human being and utter a few words.
- ggiesen 2y agoYou absolutely do. Many coworkers will bug you to ask instead of doing their own research, bug you to chitchat, etc. They can always book time with you, send an email/IM, etc if there's something they can't resolve on their own. You have your own deliverables and being interrupted every 10 minutes with inane questions that a web search or a look at the internal wiki/KB would have resolved is not a productive use of anyone's time. Also, forcing them to wait produces better quality, better researched questions as hopefully they should make some attempt to resolve things on their own.
- mobeigi 2y agoVery cool idea but very pricey for what it is. I build a LED 3-4 times bigger with power supply and Rasb Pi for less (and its programmable). However, this is more convenient as a single unit. I could see myself maybe buying this for $30, probably not more.
- lukashed 2y agoThis is giving me Dropbox vibes [0]. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- guerrilla 2y ago1. Looks very easy to hack. 2. Looks very easy to clone by competitors.
- rickreynoldssf 2y agoYou would probably get interrupted more by people wondering what that thing is.
- itomato 2y agoBack in the day at sparkfun we just wired up a safety beacon to an Ardoino and called it a day. Nyan cat does not add any value.
- masto 2y agoBack in 2013ish, I installed an industrial stack light at my desk (https://www.flickr.com/photos/masto/54069311973/ https://www.flickr.com/photos/masto/54069311973/) and informed my coworkers that it would save them the trouble of walking all the way across the room to talk to me if I was too busy to be interrupted. I am not advocating or praising this behavior; I was definitely going through my prima donna phase. Later I became very timid about talking to people because the company culture was "if I have my headphones on, please don't interrupt me" but everyone had headphones on all the time because the office was a nightmare of noise and distraction. The ubiquitous slack (or equivalent) channel has a lot of downsides, but when weighed against the alternatives, I think I like it the best. But I'm very conscious of the fact that not everybody's brain has the same attention system. I think that's one of the reasons this little device has generated so many strongly worded comments. It's probably neither the most rude thing ever nor the most helpful thing ever. What would be great for productivity and happiness would be if we could find a way not to force everyone to try to work under the same environmental constraints. (Aspirational: I don't know how to do this.)
- AvAn12 2y agoCool product! Still think Joel Spolsky was right that coders and engineers do best when they have an office with a door that closes though. https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/19/where-do-these-people-get-their-unoriginal-ideas/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/19/where-do-these-peo... I worked on a trading floor for several years - open floorpan is the right way for a trading operation to be set up because the whole nature of the job is to interrupt and be interrupted throughout the day. Not so for data science / AI / engineering work, unless it's a help desk, IMHO...
- styfle 2y agoThis looks really nice! I hacked together a script to accomplish a similar thing. In my case, I only consider myself “busy” when my camera is on, meaning no one should enter my office. https://github.com/styfle/bluetooth-lightbulb-alert https://github.com/styfle/bluetooth-lightbulb-alert
- robertlagrant 2y agoI'm a bit dumbfounded by the price tag of $189. Am I wrong?
- t-3 2y agoIt is a bit pricey, but probably not overpriced. This kind of niche product is not going to get good economies of scale, those custom molded plastic parts are going to get pretty expensive when not being produced by the million.
- Filligree 2y agoThey do if you insist on molding them, but for small runs 3D printing ought to provide a baseline maximum cost.
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- enraged_camel 2y agoMaybe I’m not the target audience but I wouldn’t pay more than $20 for something like this, because I don’t have a burning need for it.
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- mplewis 2y agoHow much do you think it should cost?
- foz 2y agoThis seems like an item that business would buy in bulk. $180 for single dev version, $90 each in packs of 10. Customized with your company branding maybe.
- LeafItAlone 2y agoI love this idea. If it was $100 instead of $189, I would order two (one for me, one for partner) as soon as they were available.
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- darrelld 2y agoThis is cool, I've thought of building something like this for years now. The price is a bit high, but glad to see it in the real world.
- adamyormark 2y ago[flagged]
- pavel_lishin 2y agoYeah - I feel like everyone who would want one of these would rather build one than pay $189 for it :/
- rpgraham84 2y ago[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- wepple 2y ago“Enable various forms of cybercrime” seems like a stretch. If flipper does, so does Nmap and metasploit and Linux and soldering irons.
- rpgraham84 2y agoThey all do too to varying degrees. You can say "X enables cybercrime" and "Y enables more cybercrime than X" and both could be true for any given X and Y. For instance, someone buying a flipper is far more likely to do something illegal with it than someone buying a soldering iron. Both could be used only for legal purposes too, of course. For every news story you can find of someone doing a legal thing with a flipper I can find you at least 10 stories of someone doing something illegal with it. Same for metasploit, nmap is borderline, and soldering irons not so much.
- samatman 2y agoFor every news story you can find of someone driving down the highway, I can find you at least 10 stories of someone crashing and burning in a multi-car pileup.
- dingnuts 2y agowhere do you see that they are Russian? they seem to have a bunch of US Patents, a Delaware postal HQ, and an office in the UK
- rpgraham84 2y agothe original team is Russian, but they downplay that a lot now (until you buy one and the promo stickers are in Russian). yes, they're registered in Delaware, almost every company that operates in the US is, including foreign companies.
- Keyframe 2y agotoo expensive to justify the purchase, otherwise cool and seems to be rather good build quality (at least from videos).
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]