Workrave: Combined Blog

Workrave 1.9.4 released

April 5, 2011, 1:13 p.m.
by Rob Caelers in

Workrave 1.9.4 has been released. It features keyboard shortcuts on break windows and a number of other small improvements. Furthermore, a number of crashes have been fixed and hibernate/standby should now be handled properly on Windows 7.

Workrave 1.9.3 released

Dec. 13, 2010, 2:11 p.m.
by Rob Caelers in

Workrave 1.9.3 has been released, featuring a number of improvements, new translations and the usual bug fixes.

Workrave 1.9.2 released

Aug. 31, 2010, 2:07 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

Workrave 1.9.2 has been released, featuring a brand new reading mode and audio muting during breaks.

Lockergnome

April 18, 2010, 2:34 a.m.
by Raymond Penners in

An e-mail news letter with over 250,000 subscribers writes: Recommended by Locker gnome

Not too long ago, I saw a new kind of mouse that allows you to naturally keep your hand sideways, like holding the steering wheel of a car. I've been watching for that, and might consider it in the future as a preventive from repetitive strain injury (RSI). Workrave ensures you take the necessary breaks to avoid or help recover from RSI. The two types of breaks are micro-pause (a brief moment of relaxation) and rest break (a longer break away from the computer). Also, the program has exercises you can do during your breaks, and they can be done in a cubicle. View the statistics to see how many breaks you've taken as well as the activities such as keystrokes and using the mouse. Take a break after you finish reading this newsletter. Try closing your eyes or looking at something that is far away.

Again, congratulations on providing fine resources to the Internet community

Spreading like a virus

April 16, 2010, 11:56 a.m.
by Raymond Penners in

Thanks for Workrave. It's spreading like a virus at my workplace. I publicly praised Workrave in a newspaper column I wrote recently:

"Take breaks. Grinding away at a task for hours on end, you'll lose perspective and eyesight. As Lincoln said, if he had to chop down a tree, he'd take breaks to sharpen his ax. I use a free computer program called Workrave (www.workrave.org) to remind me to look away from the screen and walk around every so often. Just knowing that a nap, a vacation, or a meal is on the horizon can make me more productive and not look for excuses to take little breaks all the time."

http://www.insidebayarea.com/columnists/mcmasala/ci_4114473

Thanks again.

Sumana Harihareswara

Slovak newspaper

April 16, 2010, 11:55 a.m.
by Raymond Penners in

I would like to thank you for your work on windows version of WorkRave and its development. I feel fine while using it. I helps me a lot not to forget about rest and training.

So I had to do something to pay you back. I have written an article focusing on it published in the most read Slovak newspaper. About 260 thousands copies sold. Here is online version of it.

Thanks again, Milan Gigel / independent IT writer

Another Workpace convert

April 16, 2010, 11:54 a.m.
by Raymond Penners in

Being a Windows user, I have been a registered user of WorkPace for over 2 years. I discovered you app about 4 months ago and fell in love with it. It offered virtually everything that Workpace offered and more. Considering that Workpace only released one trivial update (no noticeable feature, just some random bug) to their app within those two years I was happy to leave it behind me.

Travis Owens

Workrave versus Break TIme and VDU Tachograph

April 16, 2010, 11:53 a.m.
by Raymond Penners in

Thanks. I have RSI and find your program excellent. I have used two other programs, 'Break time' and 'VDU tachograph', both of them are badly designed.

Some things they do not do is:

1. They do not inform you when your next break is. 2. You cannot postpone a break. 3. You cannot force the user to stop by blocking the machine. 4. You measure activity, and NOT just time. Sometimes (with the other software), when I take a 10 minute break and come back and sit down it tells me to take a break!

Thanks again,

Anton Schiering Analyst/Programmer

XWrits

April 16, 2010, 11:53 a.m.
by Raymond Penners in

Hi - Thanks for writing workrave - I had been using xwrits but workrave is a lot more configurable. Keep up the great work!

David Kennedy

Physiotherapist

April 16, 2010, 11:52 a.m.
by Raymond Penners in

Workrave is a very handy little app.

I broke my back in a work accident several years ago - whilst I still retain the ability to walk, I constantly experience pain ranging from manageable to incapacitatingly agonising. As such, I regularly visit a local physio-the-rapist (who also does accupuncture.)

One of the things he berates me for, is how long I sit at the computer. Of course, being in IT (now - I don't do physical labour anymore) I spend a minimum of 14 hours in front of a computer, usually closer to 20. (It *is* my hobby too, after all!)

I started using Workrave and even showed it to him. He's since stopped torturing me as much during my visits.

Workpace convert

April 16, 2010, 11:51 a.m.
by Raymond Penners in

Too cool! I think this is an awesome program. I was using Workpace under Win32, but I'll switch to this.

Thanks for this program! Matthew

Well done

April 16, 2010, 11:50 a.m.
by Raymond Penners in

Well done with workrave it's a very tidy application. I'm also impressed with how well you've integrated GTK with Windows.

cheers, Oliver.

Workrave 1.9.1 released

Oct. 25, 2009, midnight
by Raymond Penners in

Workrave 1.9.1 has been released. It features updated translations and, ofcourse, the usual bug fixing.

Workrave 1.9.0 released

July 14, 2008, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

This release contains the following: Fixed transparency of tray icon on Linux, new alternate activity moniting for Windows, improved 64 bit & Vista support, exercises are now randomized, the language can now be selected in the preferences (Windows), the option 'Start Workrave when Windows starts' has been added to the preferences, extended DBUS support on Unix, initial OSX port, networking support can now be enabled without accepting incoming connections from other Workraves, a sound has been added that indicates a next step in the exercise, the volume can now be configured, all sounds can now be configured, a new sound theme has been added.

Workrave 1.8.5 released

Sept. 28, 2007, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

Task manager is never blocked by Workrave, workaround for focus loss on Vista, Vanja Cvelbar translated Workrave into Slovenian, fixed breaks that have 'suspend timer when inactive' disabled, improved Windows responsiveness under high load, mode menu fixed, Gnome applet no longer 'hangs', Gnome applet no longer crashes Workrave, fixed crashes during startup on Windows, fixed 'end-of-microbreak' sound, fixed bug in multi-head support where Workrave showed multiple windows on a single screen, fixed locking on Gnome with xscreensaver installed. Many thanks to Ray Satiro for his contributions in this release.

Workrave 1.8.4 released

March 3, 2007, 11 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

This version contains many new translations: Italian (Eraldo Girardi), Chinese (Tao Wei), Slovak (Peter Tuharsky), Greek (Prokopis Prokopidis), Turkish (Enver Altin), Japanese (Masanobu Yokota), Bulgarian (Ivan Dimov), Hungarian (Ory Mate). Furthermore, more polish on the applets was done (e.g. vertical applet support), and the usual bug fixing.

Workrave branded for Chiropraktik Hirschengraben

Dec. 19, 2006, 11 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

A branded version of Workrave is now available, on request of Chiropraktik Hirschengraben.

Greek leaflet and upcoming translation

Dec. 19, 2006, 11 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

A Greek translation of both Workrave and its leaflet are in the pipeline.

Turkish leaflet and upcoming translation

Sept. 4, 2006, 10 p.m.
by in

A Turkish translation of both Workrave and its leaflet are in the pipeline.

Japanese leaflet and upcoming translation

July 16, 2006, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

A Japanese translation of both Workrave and its leaflet are in the pipeline.

Swedish and Brazilian-Portugese leaflet

June 24, 2006, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

More leaflet translations are available: Swedish and Brazilian Portugese.

Workrave 1.8.3 released

May 12, 2006, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

New Swedish and Catalan translations, updates to Czech translation. Workrave no longer consumes 100% CPU is if a break is started while the screen is locked. Fixed a bug that could cause breaks to stop running when 'Suspend timer while inactive' was disabled. Added support for storing configuration in a .ini file, and for configuring the data storage directory (this can be used to run Workrave from a memory stick). GNOME screen saver support added. The applet popup menu is now accessible when all timers hidden.

Workrave 1.8.2 released

Jan. 27, 2006, 11 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

Version 1.8.2 mainly contains bug fixes: fixed a crash when using a third party gtk+ runtime, fixed a bug that caused status windows to be disabled when the micro-break timer was hidden, translation fixes and better hibernate/standby support on Unix.

Italian leaflet

Oct. 10, 2005, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

We now have a Italian leaflet available.

Workrave 1.8.1 released

July 30, 2005, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

A bug sneaked into version 1.8.0 that would make Workrave crash when the blocking mode was set to none. Version 1.8.1 contains a fix for this bug.

Workrave 1.8.0 released

June 30, 2005, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

Finally, at long last, 1.8.0 has arrived. Long overdue, but still within the one year period since the last release: Workrave now gives additional feedback when becoming active during a break by flashing the break window border, the current mode is visualized in the system tray icon, a "Restbreak now" button was added, improved KDE support (native KDE applet and KDE sound events), added decent tooltips for Workrave system tray icon, and lots of new translations (Basque, Lithuanian, Portuguese, Norwegian, Czech, Hebrew).

French leaflet

May 9, 2005, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

We now have a French leaflet available.

Workrave 1.6.2 released

July 12, 2004, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

This minor update adds a Brazilian Portuguese translation, thanks to Claudio Ferreira Filh

Workrave 1.6.1 released

May 12, 2004, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

A bug was introduced in version 1.6.0 which could cause the status window to disappear.

Workrave 1.6.0 released

April 29, 2004, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

The Windows version of Workrave now includes a taskbar applet version of the status window. Timers can be configured to ignore activity. Improved full-screen "Block all" mode. Chinese, Russian and French translations have been added.

Windows applet in the works

Feb. 3, 2004, 8:58 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

Started working on a version of the status window that can be embedded in your Windows taskbar.

Workrave 1.4.1 released

Nov. 3, 2003, 11 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

The most notable changes in this release are: added a new option "Block mode" ranging from no blocking (break windows can be freely dragged around) to full input and screen blocking, added multihead support for Windows, improved suspend (to ram) support, added "Shut down" and "Lock" buttons to the break windows. Furthermore, the stability on Windows improved considerably now that several longstanding issues have been resolved.

Nightly builds

Sept. 9, 2003, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

We have set up a nightly build system. Currently, it builds a Debian package, source tarball, and a Windows installer version.

German Leaflet

Sept. 3, 2003, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

We now have a German leaflet available.

Patents endangering Open Source Software development

Sept. 3, 2003, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

Soon the European Commission is going to vote a revised version of the European Patentability rules. Your support is needed.

Workrave 1.4.0 released

Aug. 23, 2003, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

Finally, Workrave 1.4.0 is out. The most interesting changes in this version include: exercises, new translations (Polish, Danish and Spanish), multi-head support, support for disabling breaks, the content of the status window has been made configurable, improved (flickerfree) blocking mechanism on Windows.

Spanish Leaflet

Aug. 3, 2003, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

We now have a Spanish leaflet available.

Miss Workrave progress

July 19, 2003, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

More progress on Miss Workrave and office items.

Miss Workrave first snapshot

July 7, 2003, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

Work is ongoing on modelling the face of Miss Workrave. Read on for a snapshot.

Newsflash

June 24, 2003, 10 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

It has been a bit too quiet on the Workrave front lately, so I thought it would be nice to inform you about what's cooking.

Workrave 1.2.2 released

March 24, 2003, 11 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

The Window version now has a native look and feel, so Workrave no longer looks like a second grade application when running on Windows. Furthermore, support for Gnome session management was improved: Workrave is now properly restarted by the Gnome session manager. Finally, the overall user interface has improved, addressing most HIG issues.

Workrave 1.2.0 released

March 8, 2003, 11 p.m.
by Raymond Penners in

The most important new features in this version are statistics and Gnome/KDE applet support. Workrave now keeps track of all your activity and allows you to browse through any date in history to see for how long you used the computer, how many keys you pressed, the distance your mouse moved, and many other statistical data. Furthermore, when running Workrave on Gnome or KDE, the break information can be displayed itself in the panel.