Praise for Workrave

[elfs]

Workrave screenshot.

For a long time, I've used Dr Wright, a program that reminds me to take breaks every now and then to rest my wrists and shoulders and generally to relax. Dr. Wright is a very simple program that does little more than lock up your screen after an interval with the warning "Take a break!"

I've switched recently to Workrave, which I like a whole lot more. It has a micro-break feature (about every five minutes, but configurable) which I should use but don't, and its hourly (or so, again configurable) breaks have a nifty "exercises you can do" guide (complete with anime girl with fluffy sheep logo... how cool is that?) that leads you through three of about ten different stretches and relaxation exercises meant to minimize damage both to your bones and to your eyes. It also tracks your total computer usage throughout the day, so you can eventually get the message that it's time to turn off your computer and go outside.

Workrave advertises that they have a distributed model, where a server keeps track of your time and the clients all intercommunicate so no matter how many machines you work on throughout the day, they're all keeping track of your total keyboardage so you can't cheat. It's not a true client/server model in that one client is basically allocated as "master" and all the others record their interactions to it. It would be better if there were a true server with no UI; I could run it on my laptop and have all the other boxes I use talk to it. It's also poorly documented; I can't figure out how to make it go.

But that's a quibble. The core functionality, designed to prevent RSI like my tendonitis, is better than any other product I've used in the past, such as Dr. Wright or the obnoxious XWrits, and it's cute mascots definitely make it a keeper.

Comments

[velvet-wood.livejournal.com]

But that's a quibble. The core functionality, designed to prevent RSI like my tendonitis, is better than any other product I've used in the past, such as Dr. Wright or the obnoxious XWrits, and it's cute mascots definitely make it a keeper.

If you still type in qwerty, have you considered switching to dvorak? I had really horrid chronic tendonitis in both wrists (rest breaks...my whole _day_ was a rest break; I could get maybe an hour a day of typing, period), but it got better when I switched to dvorak, and I never really had a bad attack again. I haven't had to wear wristbraces at all since I switched a couple years ago.

The program looks neat, too. Cute little anime chick.

Velvet