Wanted: Windows users to perform Alpha testing
I have been working on a few significant modifications to the Windows Data Collector that I would like to get a handful of Windows users involved with.
If you are interested in helping out, read on.
Windows Data Collector - 0.9.9
Fixes:
* Dramatically reduced physical memory footprint for RescueTime.exe. Physical memory should now be around 2 MB (vs 32 MB) during most operations. Physical memory will jump to 11 MB when uploading log files to the RescueTime server, but should drop back down to the 2 MB range after the upload completes. Note, Virtual Memory numbers are not affected by this change, which will still report roughly 32 MB, mostly due to the way .Net framework allocates memory.
* Additional large file checks to prevent files larger than 1,000K from being sent to the RescueTime.com server.
* Removed updater service. This has been causing a number of our users issues and I don't think we are seeing a whole lot of benefit from it. RescueTime will still check for updates upon startup and through the "Check for updates" menu option.
New Features:
* URL support for Opera
* URL support for Flock
Specific Testing I'm asking for:
* Feedback on the update process. To remove the updater service, there are some scripted commands that run during the update. These commands should remove the RescueTimeStart process owned by the SYSTEM user (which can be seen in the Task Manager). If you still see a RescueTimeStart process running after completing the update let me know. Also, please report any errors or unexpected behavior during the update process.
* Memory utilization and performance impacts after the install. The aggressive memory reclamation that I'm doing does take some processing. On the test systems that I've run the new data collector on I have not noticed any performance degradation and CPU utilization is typically < 1%.
* Opera and Flock URL support feedback. To get current URL's from Opera, I had to deploy DDE libraries which is why you will see a couple of new files in your installation directory.
How to get the update:
* In the directory where RescueTime is installed (default c:\Program Files\RescueTime), there is a file named UpdateServer.ini. Change the contents of that ini file from "www.rescuetime.com/updates" to "dev.rescuetime.com/updates"
* Select "Check for updates" from the RescueTime menu or restart RescueTime with the RescueTimeStart.exe and you should be informed that there are new updates available.
Respond to this forum post with any feedback you have.
Thank you!
If you are interested in helping out, read on.
Windows Data Collector - 0.9.9
Fixes:
* Dramatically reduced physical memory footprint for RescueTime.exe. Physical memory should now be around 2 MB (vs 32 MB) during most operations. Physical memory will jump to 11 MB when uploading log files to the RescueTime server, but should drop back down to the 2 MB range after the upload completes. Note, Virtual Memory numbers are not affected by this change, which will still report roughly 32 MB, mostly due to the way .Net framework allocates memory.
* Additional large file checks to prevent files larger than 1,000K from being sent to the RescueTime.com server.
* Removed updater service. This has been causing a number of our users issues and I don't think we are seeing a whole lot of benefit from it. RescueTime will still check for updates upon startup and through the "Check for updates" menu option.
New Features:
* URL support for Opera
* URL support for Flock
Specific Testing I'm asking for:
* Feedback on the update process. To remove the updater service, there are some scripted commands that run during the update. These commands should remove the RescueTimeStart process owned by the SYSTEM user (which can be seen in the Task Manager). If you still see a RescueTimeStart process running after completing the update let me know. Also, please report any errors or unexpected behavior during the update process.
* Memory utilization and performance impacts after the install. The aggressive memory reclamation that I'm doing does take some processing. On the test systems that I've run the new data collector on I have not noticed any performance degradation and CPU utilization is typically < 1%.
* Opera and Flock URL support feedback. To get current URL's from Opera, I had to deploy DDE libraries which is why you will see a couple of new files in your installation directory.
How to get the update:
* In the directory where RescueTime is installed (default c:\Program Files\RescueTime), there is a file named UpdateServer.ini. Change the contents of that ini file from "www.rescuetime.com/updates" to "dev.rescuetime.com/updates"
* Select "Check for updates" from the RescueTime menu or restart RescueTime with the RescueTimeStart.exe and you should be informed that there are new updates available.
Respond to this forum post with any feedback you have.
Thank you!
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Inappropriate?i'd be happy to help out...i use rescue time on two windowsXP machines and also i use the windows collector under parallels on OSX.
anospamo@gmail.com -
Inappropriate?I would love to--I'm a Flock user and have posted requests for Flock support, so I could help in that regard. Also on Vista Business edition.
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Inappropriate?Great! Let me know how the update goes for you, I'm mostly concerned with Vista users in the upgrade process.
Thanks -
Inappropriate?I've tested the update on VMWare Fusion but not Parallels yet - so that will be great feedback.
Thanks banano and let me know how the update goes. (See the parent post on how to get the update). -
Inappropriate?Have just joined rescuetime and am using the alpha from the start as I spend 90% of my waking life on Opera, and not having a site break-down would defeat the object of this utility for me... I'm using Vista Ultimate, didn't have any problems with the upgrade, will keep you posted on any quirks or bugs. I haven't yet noticed any websites appearing on my dashboard though, although application usage is updating correctly.
Joe -
Inappropriate?I want to download the alpha edition..
from where can I do that? -
Inappropriate?I was checking on the memory usage and wondered why Rescuetime.exe has relatively much I/O reads... ps. the update went right and the memory usage seems to be better. (XP Pro, I will update later on a Vista Premium laptop)
PS. Any chance of an official linux client, and yeah I know about https://launchpad.net/rescuetime-linu.... Or about the client becoming open source...
I’m thankful
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Inappropriate?The higher I/O is due to my paranoia of writing updates to the log files continuously. Initially I kept log information in memory longer before committing the changes to disk, but found that if RescueTime or Windows crashed I would lose more records. I'm sure there are some tweaks that I can make to lower IO and as I work on building the v2 of the data collectors I will keep that in mind.
Which goes into your second question of yes, I am working on re-writing the data collectors using C++ and wxWidgets to build a cross platform code base which will support Windows, OS X and Linux. However, I don't think I will have those ready for testing for at least 2 months since I am not able to work on them full time. Plus we are still trying to nail down the feature set for the next 12 months, so a lot of features are in flux.
Thanks for your assistance in testing! -
Inappropriate?Hmm, I re-read your post and I see you were specifically asking about I/O reads - I'll look to see if I've messed something up there.
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Inappropriate?I'm watching my IO Reads (bytes and operations) and I'm not seeing anything unusual.
The times RescueTime should have I/O reads is when first starting up, an open of the preference window, and during times when it is uploading log files to the RescueTime.com server. It is possible that due to the aggressive memory reclamation I am doing, that certain UI elements may be unloaded and reloaded when they are needed (i.e. changing tabs on the preferences window after it has sat idle for a minute or two).
If you are seeing more I/O reads than what I'm describing above, could you send me more information - like a PerfMon graph of what you are seeing?
Thanks! -
Inappropriate?I think it may be recording Flock but the application name field is blank on the dashboard site. I can send a screen shot if you want.
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Inappropriate?There is a known issue at the moment where "Unknown URL" is not showing properly in the dashboard. This will occur if the URL coming into RescueTime isn't a standard http://, https://, ftp://, etc type of URL. For example, if the URL text says "My Computer", then RescueTime assigns that to a Unknown URL.
Are other URLs showing up, like google.com? -
Inappropriate?I'd like to help test this (especially the reduced memory usage), but I don't have the UpdateServer.ini file in my RescueTime folder (or anywhere on my computer, according to Google Desktop). Should I create one?
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Inappropriate?Kate, since you were one of the original closed beta testers you might have a really old version of the data collector. We've got your email so I'll send you out a new installer, which will bring you up to date with the Alpha build.
Thanks! -
Inappropriate?I am very interested in this. I was one of those who whined about resuetime memory usage and I am hardcore Opera user also, so it would be a good test. Also willing to play around with Wine on Linux if there's any value in it.
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Inappropriate?I'd love to see the results of running RescueTime in Wine. Let me know if you have any problems getting the latest update!
thanks -
Inappropriate?Thanks to all of the Alpha testers for this release.
We have pushed the release into production, so I want to remind you that it would be a good idea to set your UpdateServer.ini back to: www.rescuetime.com/updates
Often times I release broken or half implemented features into our dev workstream, so I wouldn't want to mess up your data ;)
Thanks!
I’m thankful for the help on this one
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