I've given you several hints about Time Out 2 features. Now it's the turn of the Break Appearance page, which includes some of the most exciting enhancements in version 2.

The Appearance page includes controls for how the break looks: a theme, background colors, buttons to include, and more.

Here's a screenshot (but remember that since this is from an alpha build, everything is subject to change before public release... and astute readers may notice several changes to the sidebar from the last time you saw it; can you spot them all?).

One of the major improvements in version 2 is the concept of "themes." In version 1, all that appears during a break is a large app icon and the break progress bar and postpone/skip buttons. Version 2 kicks that up a notch: it supports multiple customizable themes, so breaks can display all sorts of content, along with the progress and buttons. It comes with several themes, including of course just the app icon (both the new icon and the old one for those who prefer that), plus several more.

It can even display websites, e.g. the theme selected in the screenshot is "Explore Flickr", which simply shows the Explore page at Flickr, as a nice collection of photos, which you can scroll through during your break. (You can click the Info button next to the theme to learn more about it.)

There are many other handy controls on this page. The "Reveal Themes" button shows the folder that houses them, so you can add your own or modify the provided ones. If you have multiple screens, you can indicate on which screen to display the theme. You can set colors and opacity for each screen, with a quick palette of colors in addition to the full color picker. As in version 1, breaks fade in and out; you can control how long that takes with simple fields. And the optional buttons to postpone and/or skip breaks can be configured here.

I hope you're as excited about these enhancements as I and the alpha testers are. Remember, if you've made a donation, and are using Yosemite or later, you can contact me to request to join the alpha team, or to get more information. Or stay tuned for more screenshots and details in the coming weeks! The functionality is nearly complete, so we're very close to the first beta release, at last. I hope you'll agree that it's worth the wait.

When you first launch Time Out 2, I want to help you get started.

So the first thing you'll see is a setup assistant, that will explain the two suggested kinds of breaks, with controls to include and configure their two most important options, how long the breaks last (duration), and how often they occur (frequency).

Here's a screenshot (but remember that since this is from an alpha build, everything is subject to change before public release):

You can uncheck either or both of these if you don't want that kind of break, or you want to start with none and add them manually. These breaks are just suggestions; you can later delete, rename or reconfigure them however you like. The breaks have many more options to customize them, including how to handle time away from the computer; customizable themes, colors and buttons to display during the break; actions to inform you of upcoming, started or completed breaks; and much more.

If you prefer, you can click Skip to immediately close the assistant, without adding any breaks or configuring other options, and set everything up manually in the preferences.

Otherwise, when you click Continue, you're taken to another setup page that mentions these additional break options, and includes a button to open the Privacy System Preferences (alpha testers: this page will be in the next build). That is required if you want Time Out to detect the end of a natural break (idle) when you type something; otherwise it can only detect that when you move the pointer via a mouse or trackpad.

After that, one last page with a couple of options. Firstly, a checkbox to start Time Out automatically on login, so you don't miss any breaks. Secondly, something that has been much requested for years: an option to show or hide the app icon in the Dock.

In version 1, the app is always visible in the Dock, which makes it easy to get to, but many people would prefer to have it more hidden, not appearing in the Dock or Cmd-Tab app switcher. With version 2, this is now an option, at last:

Another much-requested feature is also mentioned here: the status item in the right of the menu bar. By default this displays a label color representing the next due break, and a countdown to the start of that break. This can be disabled in the preferences, or reconfigured to display a different icon and/or other information.

As explained under each radio button, when Time Out is included in the Dock, it is also in the Cmd-Tab app switcher, and has a menu bar. Clicking on the status item will simply bring the app and its preferences window to the front, making it easy to configure the breaks.

When the app isn't shown in the Dock or Cmd-Tab switcher, it also doesn't have menus, so you access commands via the buttons at the top of the window. The status item also behaves differently: instead of just showing the preferences window, it displays a popover view directly off the status item, that shows the list of breaks and options. You can use that to quickly see when the breaks are due or last done, and manually start or pause them, among other options.

I expect that most people will want to use Time Out with the Dock icon hidden, but the default is to leave it visible, to assist with new users, to avoid confusion.

I hope you're as excited about these enhancements as I and the alpha testers are. Remember, if you've made a donation, and are using Yosemite or later, you can contact me to request to join the alpha team, or to get more information. Or stay tuned for more screenshots and details in the coming weeks!

Last week I saw a video on the evolution of the desk, or more specifically how many physical desk objects have migrated into apps on the computer (and one could argue that they're continuing to move into an iPad).

Then Serenity Caldwell (@settern) tweeted a picture of her desk 10 years ago:

Fully set up is so much worse, guys. Printer! CD-Rs! Music CDs! External iSight! DV tapes! A CORDLESS PHONE. What. pic.twitter.com/nwBIHHGFNb

— Serenity Caldwell (@settern) September 16, 2015

Which got me thinking about how my desk contents has evolved over time. My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81, but my first Mac was a Mac Plus, which I bought around 1988. Here it is on my desk at the time (click to see larger):

To the left of the Mac is my previous computer, a Spectravideo MSX SVI-728. The Mac Plus (platinum color) had an internal 3.5-inch floppy drive, plus an external one, and 4 MB of RAM. I later added a hard drive, and still later a magneto-optical drive:

Other interesting bits in this photo are my Inside Macintosh reference manuals, early Dejal floppy disks (I used to publish my Classic apps on floppy), my modem, and other antiques like cassette tapes and LP records. You may be able to make out a circuit board on the wall above my Mac; that isn't a picture, but the motherboard of my ZX81.

I don't have most of that stuff anymore... but I do still have the ZX81 circuitboard, and that solar-powered calculator... still going strong.

My current desk is a lot tidier than that one, too.

Simon version 4.1.1 is now available for download.

Please update to this release for El Capitan compatibility, including:

• Fixed a crash on OS X 10.11 when changing tests with the Preview displayed.
• Improved the layout of the Preview.
• Added exceptions to 10.11's restrictions on http:// access.
• Fixed several issues raised by the latest development tools.

It continues to work on Yosemite (10.10 and later) too.

Download Simon 4.1.1 now!

Dejal is participating in the DevAssist: Syria Relief collective effort.

All sales today (September 16) will be donated to Doctors Without Borders.

So if you've been thinking about buying a Dejal app, now is a great day to do so, to help support a worthwhile cause. And with Time Out 2 getting ever closer to release, now is a great time to donate for that, and thus get a Time Out license and support this cause at the same time.

Learn more about other developers participating at the DevAssist site.

Okay, enough blurred teasing. Time to show a full screenshot!

Time Out 2 is coming along nicely; I've made lots of progress in finishing off and polishing the app in recent weeks, thanks in large part to the feedback of the elite alpha testing group. There's still much to do, but it's getting ever closer to being done, so I want to share a bit more about it now.

Without further ado, here is a screenshot from the latest alpha build of Time Out version 2 (click to see full-sized):

As you can see (and could no doubt tell from the previous teases), the preferences window now has a sidebar that lists the breaks, and other options. What's this... three breaks? Yes indeed... in fact you can unlock an unlimited number of breaks in version 2!

If you look closely at the sidebar, you can see a colored label (which can be shown in the menubar), the break name, when the break is next due, and the last time it was completed.

On the right-hand-side, you can see the Schedule page for the Normal break. It has much improved controls compared to version 1, making it easy to set the duration and frequency of the break, plus the ability to set a time range for the break (useful for a daily lunch break, for example), tweak when the next break will occur, automatically count backwards to get credit for natural breaks (when the computer is idle), and automatically skip a break if too close to a more important one (e.g. to avoid having a Micro break a few minutes before or after a Normal one).

Of course, this is all subject to change; some aspects of this view changed recently, and I know of at least one more change that'll affect it. But the final product will look very close to this.

I hope you're as excited about this sneak peek of version 2 as I am. I can't wait to make it available to everyone. In the meantime, if you've made a donation, and are using Yosemite or later, you can contact me to request to join the alpha team, or to get more information. Or stay tuned for more screenshots and details in the coming weeks!

Hi all,

I have a very important question that I've been pondering for some time, and that I'd appreciate your input on. How to price Time Out 2.

Version 1, as you may know, is free, with a suggested donation. All features can be used without restriction for no cost, but if you find it useful, I appreciate a donation. I like the idea of Time Out being free, so lots of people can get the health benefits of taking regular breaks. But I also like to eat and pay bills, so I need an income. Free, even with a donation, doesn't really cut it, unfortunately.

So I've always planned to charge for version 2, especially considering the huge amount of work I've put into it, and the significantly improved feature set. But I'm not sure exactly how to do so.

There are a number of options I'm considering. I'd appreciate your thoughts on these.

Free

The simplest option is to stick with the current model: a free app, with no restrictions, and an optional donation.

Pros: widest use.

Cons: relatively few paid customers; unsustainable.

Paid

The obvious alternative is to simply have a price tag on the app. Version 2 will be available both directly from the Dejal website and in the Mac App Store, so I could do like I do for other apps, with a free trial on the Dejal site as a time-limited demo, with a payment required after 14 days of use (which may be non-contiguous). And on the App Store, just have a fixed price.

Pros: simple; easy to understand; customers are all paid (except during the direct edition trial period).

Cons: no trial on the Mac App Store; less publicity from people recommending it as a free app.

Freemium with "Unlock Everything"

Another option is "freemium" — a free edition on the Mac App Store, with some feature restrictions, with a single In-App Purchase (IAP) perhaps called "Unlock Everything" to make all of the features available. This is similar to a trial period for the direct Dejal site edition, so it could use the same mechanism.

Pros: free trial for both editions; simple-to-understand price.

Cons: it could be tricky to set the limits so enough people pay.

Freemium with multiple IAP

A variation on the freemium approach is to have multiple In-App Purchase options. So instead of paying once to unlock all the features, customers could pay to unlock individual features, e.g. new break themes, action types, and perhaps even to add a new break. The app could come with one or two breaks, and you pay $0.99 or something for each additional break.

Pros: free trial for both; pay for usage; potentially more $$$.

Cons: more confusing pricing; some might not like the "nickel & diming".

Gamification

Taking the above further, another option is often referred to as "gamification": using rewards or social features to make using the app more fun, and to spend money on features. There are various ways this could be done, but one idea for Time Out is to have an in-app currency for breaks taken and skipped. So taking a break earns some credit, and skipping or postponing a break spends some of that credit. If someone wants to skip more than they take breaks, they could pay real money to buy break credits. There could also be achievements to earn for taking breaks (e.g. taking all breaks in a day or a week), etc.

Pros: could be fun; real incentive to take breaks; potentially more $$$.

Cons: more complex to implement and understand; again with the "nickel & diming".

Some hybrid

A variation of the above options could be to use one approach for the direct Dejal edition, and another for the Mac App Store edition. For example, the direct edition could use the traditional 14-day trial approach, while the MAS edition uses a paid or freemium model.

Pros: more choices for people.

Cons: more complex to understand.

Others?

There are probably other approaches that could work, too. If you can think of any, please let me know.

I'd really appreciate your opinions on these options. I need Time Out to be sufficiently profitable to justify and sustain further enhancements. But I also want it to be used as widely as possible. It's already a fairly popular app, in large part due to being free, so I want to do what I can to improve that.

Of course, once a pricing model is decided, the next obvious question is what the actual price(s) should be. I welcome feedback on that, too, if you like.

Please let me know what you think in the comments below, or privately.

Without a doubt, the most popular request for Time Out over the years has been the ability to not need to be in the Dock. The second-most popular request is a countdown in the menubar.

These feature requests are related, as if the app isn't in the Dock, it should be in the menubar, otherwise there's no real convenient way to access its settings.

Your wish is my command: both of these requests have been granted in version 2 (and much more). A countdown can be displayed in a menubar status item, which when clicked displays a popover listing the breaks and more options.

Here's a blurred screenshot:

Breaks can be manually started, paused, etc from this popover. Clicking on an item will show it in the preferences window, enabling you to configure the breaks.

There is a preference to control whether or not Time Out appears in the Dock, and the appearance of the status item can be configured, to change the icon and countdown or time of the next break, among other options:

It is currently technically possible to not have Time Out in the Dock or status menu, but then the only way to access the settings would be to open the app from the Finder. Which some people might like, perhaps.

When I first created version 2, I had the scheduler and status item in a helper process, separate from the main app with the preferences window. Later I merged the two, as that proved a bit unreliable and more complex. But now I'm reconsidering the design, as it turns out that the status popover doesn't work when an app is fullscreen.

So I'm thinking about a number of options for a redesign:

1. Go back to the previous design, with the status item in a helper.
• Pros: consistent working status popover, crash-proofing.
• Cons: more complex architecture; had issues with prefs not loading; delay opening settings window while app loads.
2. Make the app only use a status item; no option to show in the Dock.
• Pros: simplified UX; could remove menus; status popover would always work.
• Cons: some people might like to access via the Dock.
3. Change the prefs to either show the status item or be in the Dock, not both.
• Pros: the status popover would always work, when enabled; people could still access via the Dock.
• Cons: two UX styles; no countdown in Dock mode.
4. Always just show the settings window when the Dock is shown, or popover when no Dock.
• Pros: the status popover would always work when no Dock; could still have status countdown.
• Cons: two UX styles.

I am currently leaning towards the last option, as that seems like the best of both worlds: the ability to show or hide the Dock icon, and a countdown status item available with either. If the Dock icon is shown, clicking on the status item would be equivalent to clicking on the Dock icon, bringing the app to the front. If not, it'd show a popover for quick access, and only bring the app to the front if you want to edit something.

What do you think? Would you want to show or hide the Dock icon? Do you want the countdown item? Let me know in the comments below. Alpha testers can reply here if you don't mention any unannounced features, or in the private alpha forum.

A post for developers, though also related to Time Out 2.

One of the features of Time Out 2 is a sidebar listing the breaks and options, as you could see (blurred somewhat) in my previous post . The sidebar includes a couple of buttons that appear when you hover the pointer over a row, enabling you to manually start or pause that break.

A vexing issue I had, though, was that the button didn't draw correctly. If you look closely at this screenshot, you may notice that the background of the text and the remainder of the button content don't match — there's a visible outline around the text:

That is rather ugly. I'm not sure exactly what causes it, but presumably it's related to being in a sidebar list, and perhaps an issue with title-less windows (I've seen some other issues, too).

Regardless, I wanted to fix it. After a bit of experimentation, I found a simple solution: a subclass of NSButtonCell to override the -drawTitle:withFrameinView: method, which as you might imagine is responsible for drawing the title text. The override simply invokes the superclass, and returns the full button rect instead of the rect of the text itself:

@interface DejalButtonCell : NSButtonCell

@end

@implementation DejalButtonCell

- (NSRect)drawTitle:(NSAttributedString *)title withFrame:(NSRect)frame inView:(NSView *)controlView;
{
    [super drawTitle:title withFrame:frame inView:controlView];
    return frame;
}

@end

That seems to do the trick:

Filed Radar #22491410.

As you may know, I'm working on a major upgrade of my popular break reminder tool, Time Out. Version 2 has been in the works for quite some time, in between working on contract work and updates of Simon, Pack, and other apps.

I've recently made some significant progress, and although there remains much to do, I think it's time to start teasing a little about the new version.

So without further ado, I present your first glimpse of the app (other than the icon, which I showed previously). A heavily blurred screenshot, admittedly... but you may be able to glean something about it.

Want to see more? How about actually try the current version? No need to wait: licensed users can apply to become alpha testers, and actually use the latest builds now (version 2.0a13 was released a few days ago). If you've made a donation, and are using Yosemite or later, you can contact me to request to join the alpha team, or to get more information.

Otherwise, stay tuned for more screenshots and information about the upgrade over the coming months. (Yes, I fully expect it'll be a few months before it's finished, though who knows; it'll be done when it's done.)

Announcing the general release of Simon version 4.1!

This update is free for licensed customers of Simon 4. It includes several significant improvements and fixes.

Redesigned web feature

One of the most noticeable changes is a redesign of the Web (HTTP) feature. It now uses a list of pages including Parameters, Headers, Cookies and Other. Clicking on one shows the corresponding page.

Support for custom headers

Another much-requested enhancement to the Web feature is support for custom headers. This enables you to send extra values to the server, for example a "User-Agent" so the server thinks the request is coming from a specific web browser.

Load dynamic web content

Many websites nowadays use JavaScript to load additional content after the initial HTML is loaded, for example to incorporate updating values from a database, or activity tracking, and other uses. Previously, Simon wouldn't see that dynamic content — it only looked at the base HTML. Now, you can enable a new option to load the dynamic content a specified number of seconds after the base HTML loads, to incorporate such later changes.

Plus much more

There are many more changes, including various tweaks to the UI, moving the Delete function to the Edit menu, adding a crash reporter to make it easier to capture issues, and localization improvements (including adding Chinese).

Read the release notes for full details of the changes.

Download Simon 4.1 now!

Oh look, another beta!

• Fixed an issue in the previous betas with the Username and Password fields in the Web feature.
• Simon now uses the third-party Fabric Crashlytics framework to automatically capture crash reports. Previously it would attempt to ignore crashes, so it might crash a little more than before, but hopefully not. Automatically aggregating crash reports will enable faster fixing any that occur.
• If a crash occurs, Simon will now display an assistant window on next launch to ask for information about the crash, which may help trace the cause. There are also optional fields for your name and email address, in case there are any questions.
• Updated a few pages in the help book.
• Integrated a German translation into the help book.

EDIT: A quick update to fix another couple of issues:

• Fixed a crasher in the Web feature when quickly editing custom headers or cookies.
• Fixed an issue in previous betas with the Web feature when using a username and password.

EDIT 2: Hey why not make it a trio: another quick update with some further tweaks of this area:

• Fixed another crasher in the Web feature (caused by earlier beta changes).
• Fixed an issue in previous betas with the Web feature when editing Parameters values.

Download Simon 4.1b7 now!

One last beta, with just localization changes. English customers can feel free to skip this update if you like, though it's trivial to update.

• Added Chinese localization, thanks to WeiOSX. Anyone familiar with Chinese, please provide feedback on this work (any issues or improvements).
• Removed Japanese localization, as it has not been updated for a while. If anyone experienced with Japanese localization would like to take over this, please get in touch.
• Updated the German and French localizations in some of the plugins (where they hadn't been used before).

Download Simon 4.1b4 now!

I'm pleased to introduce zCloud, a new app in the Mac App Store to quickly and easily share screenshots and other files.

zCloud lives in your menu bar, and has shortcuts to take screenshots, upload them to Dropbox, and place a link to share them on your clipboard. Just hit the shortcut then paste the link to share with co-workers, friends or family.

You can also drag any file to the menu bar icon to upload and share it.

The preferences enable you to choose what happens when you upload a file, and enable automatically uploading screenshots from the Desktop:

zCloud can even watch any number of folders to automatically upload new files:

The screenshot shortcuts can be fully customized:

The history of uploaded files can be viewed via the menu bar icon, enabling re-sharing, viewing or removing previous items:

zCloud was written by Dejal, as a contract project for zFoundry, LLC. To find out more about Dejal's consulting / contract development service, visit the Dejal Consulting page.

Learn more about zCloud via the zCloud site or the Mac App Store. Available now!

One more beta with a few fixes, for good measure. This will probably be the last beta before general release; please let me know if you find any issues.

• If the When pop-up menu for a test filter is changed to None, the filter plugin controls are now removed, as expected.
• Changed the (-) button to set the When pop-up menu to None for the last filter or notifier in the test.
• Fixed an issue where the Preview source wouldn't finish loading if the Preview is displayed on launch of the app.

Download Simon 4.1b3 now!

Just been a couple of days, but here's another beta of Simon 4.1, with some exciting changes:

Redesigned Web feature

• The Web (HTTP) editor has been significantly redesigned, to use a list of pages including Parameters, Headers, Cookies and Other. Clicking on one shows the corresponding page.
• The Method pop-up menu is now on the Parameters page, since it indicates how the parameters are sent.
• The Username and Password fields are now on the Other page; they are only useful if you connect to a server that has an authentication challenge (as displayed in a web browser via a sheet; not the same as a in-page form-based login).

Web feature support for custom headers

• The new Headers list enables you to add custom headers to send with the request, e.g. Accept, User-Agent, etc.
• Note that sending a request via Post will set the Content-Type and Content-Length headers, overriding any you may add.

Download Simon 4.1b2 now!

Time for an update to Simon! This first beta release includes:

Support for dynamic web content

• Added an option to the Web (HTTP) service to enable capturing the rendered source some interval after the base HTML is loaded, to support including dynamic changes from JavaScript, as is more and more common nowadays.
• Now does Post requests via the more compact application/x-www-form-urlencoded content type, instead of multipart/form-data. (Please let me know ASAP if this breaks any of your POST tests.)
• Updated the web helper to 64-bit.

Other changes

• When adding a new test with the Preview displayed, now displays a message saying that there's no location, instead of making the test a failure immediately.
• Changed the display of status icons in the Tests list to support the Use simple status icons preference option (that uses just green & red instead of fading colors over time).
• Moved the Delete menu item from the File menu to the Edit menu, to match the placement in most other apps.
• Fixed enabling and disabling of menu and toolbar items depending on the selected list items.
• Fixed a very vexing code signing issue with the Growl framework.

Download Simon 4.1b1 now!

It's my birthday today! To celebrate, I give you a gift: a redesigned Watch app for Pack!

Like many developers, I was excited by the ability to write an app for the new Apple Watch, so I wrote one before the Watch was actually available: Pack 1.1.

And like many developers (e.g. Marco's Overcast), once I actually had a Watch and used my app on a real device, I realized that my initial design wasn't all that good.

I had thought that scrolling a long list of items to pack, like on the iPhone, would be annoying on the Watch. So I split the packing list up between two screens: a list of categories (or other groupings), where you tap on one to drill down to the items within that group.

In practice, that was cumbersome. Scrolling long lists is actually really easy and fast with the digital crown (or even swiping), and realistically most packing lists aren't all that long, especially as you get towards the end of packing. Having to go back and forth between categories was a pain.

So for version 1.2, I redesigned the Watch app. I collapsed the two screens into one simple list, with headings for groupings.

I also added a Force Touch menu to change the grouping (between by item name, category, or person), and to mark all remaining items as packed (or mark all as unpacked).

I also found, as many others have, that going to the app home screen is less preferred as a way to launch apps. The best way in most cases is to use a Glance from the watch face. So I also added a Glance to Pack, which indicates the number of items still to pack. Now one can simply tap that to launch the full app.

Here are all the changes in version 1.2:

• Redesigned the Apple Watch app to simplify the layout, with all items in one list like in the iPhone app.
• Added a Force Touch menu in the Watch app, with buttons to change the arrangement and to mark all items as packed or unpacked.
• Improved the appearance of the Watch screen when all items have been packed.
• Now automatically updates the Watch app when making changes in the iPhone app.
• Fixed a crash when launching the Watch app in some circumstances.
• Added a Glance on the Watch, as a quick indication of the number of items remaining, and a quick way to get back to the app.
• The iPhone and Watch apps now arrange by category by default (your selection is still remembered).

Learn more about Pack, or download for free on the App Store.

At the end of last week I attended my first conference since WWDC07. That's quite the hiatus!

This time it was a much smaller conference: CocoaConf PDX, a small two-day touring conference organized by the Klein family, which visits a number of cities each year.

Now that I'm doing new contract work (in addition to my own apps), I thought it'd be good to stretch myself a little outside my comfort zone with some networking. What better way to start than a small conference in my home town?

Despite being in Portland, I stayed at the conference hotel — mainly because I live about an hour away, and wanted to avoid that commute. The hotel is quite nice, for one by the airport — a nice foyer with ponds and streams, and all rooms are two-room suites. I put in for an upgrade to a "premium" room, and got that, so enjoyed additional benefits like free snacks.

One bit of pre-conference excitement (and hassle for some attendees) was the arrival of President Obama in Portland. I happened to catch Air Force One coming in for a landing, and the motorcade as he and his entourage headed downtown.

The conference provided some nice swag, including a helpful booklet with information about the sessions. Unfortunately, many of the sessions were rescheduled at the last minute, but I still got to attend all of the ones I most wanted to see. Perhaps in the future they'll use an app, so the information can be updated dynamically?

Some conferences are single-track, meaning that everyone attends the same sessions. Others (like WWDC) are multi-track, with a number of simultaneous sessions to choose from. There are certainly pros and cons of each — a single track means more opportunities to meet other people, but could mean having to sit through (or skip) sessions that aren't interesting... while multi-track gives more choice at the cost of fewer personal interactions.

I liked the balance that CocoaConf had: some single-track sessions, and some in three tracks. Plus 15 minute breaks between sessions, and catered lunches and dinner. So there were plenty of opportunities to meet new people, catch up with old friends, and of course learn about the topics that are most interesting (while also expanding one's horizons with new topics).

The circular tables helped with meeting new people — better than the rows of chairs at WWDC, where the only interaction is in the hallways or queues.

Another fun event at the end of the first day was a performance of James Dempsey and the (Conditional) Breakpoints, the biggest group in Cocoa rock.

I recorded a bootleg of their final song of the evening, The Liki Song:

Overall, it was an excellent experience. I'm very glad I attended, and definitely plan to go again next year. I'm also thinking about other conferences that I could participate in... probably not WWDC this year (even the alt conf stuff), but I'm considering the new Release Notes conference in October, as a more business-focused one, though there are many other excellent options.

Dejal Simon is a powerful and flexible website & server monitoring tool. One of the reasons it is so flexible is that in addition to the many built-in services, filters, notifiers & reports, you can extend it by using or writing custom scripts (or port sessions).

Simon comes bundled with many examples of such scripts; check out the Services, Filters & Notifiers lists and look for the items with a "Script" subtitle. You can inspect and edit those to customize them to suit your needs, or use them as inspiration for your own.

As an additional resource, the Simon site has an Extras page, which lists several more scripts that customers have contributed over the years. Some of which have later been bundled with the app, but some are only available there.

The Simon Extras page is organized by feature kind: Service Scripts, Filter Scripts, Notifier Scripts, Report Templates, and Other Goodies (including a way to add multiple tests, an extended siren sound, and a script to monitor a FTP site). There's also info for developers on writing custom plugins.

I occasionally add new customer-contributed items to the Simon Extras page. For example, yesterday I added a notifier script provided by Carlos Leal to use the third-party Plivo site to send a SMS message, as an alternative to using Clickatell or email.

Installing scripts is easy:

1. Decompress the downloaded archive, if you browser didn't do it for you;
2. Launch Simon if not already running;
3. Go to the Services or Notifiers list, as appropriate;
4. Click the New toolbar button (or via the File menu);
5. Choose the Service Kind (or Notifier Kind) button to show the service (or notifier) page.
6. Choose the Script service/notifier kind, if not selected by default.
7. Click the Open Script... button and choose the script file.

The script is copied into Simon, so there's no need to keep the downloaded file around after loading it.

If you create or modify a script that others might find useful, please share it! Send me an email with the script attached, along with a description, and I'll be happy to add it to the Simon Extras page.