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This is something I actually offer to my clients, and I do it for fun. I guess I was inspired by watching some of Notch's screencaps over a few days. So I cap
by chops 13y ago
This is something I actually offer to my clients, and I do it for fun. I guess I was inspired by watching some of Notch's screencaps over a few days.
So I capture it with RecordMyDesktop (I run xubuntu), and run through an ffmpeg script (https://github.com/choptastic/watchmecode https://github.com/choptastic/watchmecode) that resizes the video to be the same length as an MP3, and makes an X minute screencap montage for the client.
Then it produces something like this, which I did while working on a specific feature[2] for my sports league management system[1]: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwn7mfmo0SQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwn7mfmo0SQ
In my experience, my clients basically find it interesting seeing a snippet of how a programmer works. I had one client who would show the video around in his office like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread. At first, I thought the reaction was sarcastic, but I realized after the 3rd time showing another employee, and his elderly father, that he was just genuinely impressed by it.
THAT SAID, if a client required this of me because they wanted to monitor me (to make sure I'm working or whatever), I'd let them know that "sure, I can do it for the most part, but I have to disable it when checking my email, and any time spend curating the video due to privacy concerns will be billed to you as well."
But if a client asked it of me to satisfy their own curiosity of my workflow (which is unlikely, since I typically just volunteer it anyway), I'd be more than happy to do it.
[1] http://bracketpal.com http://bracketpal.com (homepage is still embarrassingly sparse, as I've been working one-on-one with customers, a landing page redesign and online customers are coming first).
[2] The video above is the screencap of the implementation of this feature: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxTfaSfa_dQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxTfaSfa_dQ
- hawleyal 13y agoYou are too nice.
- Swizec 13y agoMan, I usually just send a detailed report of what I've been up to[1], but this just takes the cake. Really cool idea! [1] puts the client at ease and ensures they don't bug me while I'm working and also reminds me that I did get things done even when it feels like the whole day just vanished somewhere in a sea of tiny obstacles
- passerinelabs 13y agoWatching Notch's Ludum Dare videos inspired me to create my first OS X app store app. It takes screenshots at a configurable interval and than creates H.264 encoded video of the resultant timelapse. Here it is: http://appstore.com/mac/ScreenshotTimelapse http://appstore.com/mac/ScreenshotTimelapse Here are 25 promo codes if anyone wants to try it out: http://pastebin.com/K6Xx59jY http://pastebin.com/K6Xx59jY
- ryanmacg 13y agoLooks cool, I grabbed AKMYPYNNRPP9 Thanks!
- safwanc 13y agoThanks! I grabbed 9NNKANNR4MPL
- shawndumas 13y agoI grabbed JHMWL9XHAEF9 and thanks!
- srik 13y agoAll codes have been grabbed; saving you time to check. That said, the codes were a nice gesture. Will definitely put it in my list of apps to watch.
- passerinelabs 13y agoWow. Here's 25 more: http://pastebin.com/r2KVSmXp http://pastebin.com/r2KVSmXp I'm happy to hear any feedback: andrew at passerinelabs.com or @passerinelabs on Twitter.
- agravier 13y agoThank for those codes, Andrew. I have grabbed LYAEFN4PPWHW. I will use it to self-monitor my procrastination. My first feedback to you is that the first contact is great thanks to the app's minimalism. It's really unobtrusive. A second piece of feedback is that the menu bar icon looks poor on a retina display. I believe that one can use vector graphics (in PDF) or double the resolution (I always feel weird saying that, and want to say _quadruple_, but you know what I mean) to get a crisp rendering. I can screenshot what it looks like on my screen, if you have no opportunity to see it.
- alex_c 13y agoAgreed, it can be a lot of fun, and it's also interesting / useful to look back at it after the project is done. Here's a video I made a couple years ago of making a simple iPhone game: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=se2mi_kfUko#t=64s http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v...
- leviathan 13y agogame looks fun to play. But I can't seem to find it on the AppStore. Is it listed only in the US store?
- alex_c 13y agoMy developer account probably expired at some point. I kinda lost interest after the makers of the original video threatened to sue me (and they lost interest after they realized the game wasn't making any money). Maybe I'll open source it at some point, it could be a fun tutorial for people who want to learn this stuff.
- skisly 13y agoODesk have time tracking software. This system makes screenshot every minute I guess. It's very helps when you working with new developers. And you want to know for sure that he works on your project.
- M4v3R 13y agooDesk does one screenshot in each 10-minute period, at random. So you can be sure to have 6 screenshots per hour, but you can never know when the screenshots will be shot by oDesk software. Source: I work for an agency that does this.
- pests 13y agoI've used oDesk as well and although I feel the feature is useful it also feels very invasive. Not knowing what it will capture (looking up something on SO, checking email, writing code) has caused me to have to delete a 10 minute time slice on multiple occasions just to avoid sharing a picture of my email index or similar.
- fixxer 13y agoAs you point out, I think it is one thing to offer and another to ask... the former is part of a marketing strategy. I would do it, but there would be a fee for the hassle and my legal expenses.
- csense 13y agoIf your Linux distribution supports multiple workspaces (many do), might there be a way to only record one of them? Does anyone know? Alternatively, you could just run multiple X servers.
- fnordfnordfnord 13y agoThanks for posting this. I may try to use it for my courses. I'm not sure how yet, but it looks neat.
- jervisfm 13y agoWhat language were you using when coding the site ?
- chops 13y agoThe language in that video is Erlang using the Nitrogen Web Framework (http://nitrogenproject.com http://nitrogenproject.com)