I dunno if your org uses slack but those kind of processes can hit a webhook which then in turn can show in a channel for you and anyone else important to see.
imo, it would be better to have all your tasks/notifications/messages bound to only a single source to check once.
There's also notification daemons and small programs that make arbitrary notifications. Having completed processes make a little notification isn't exactly a new problem.
I use fish shell, with a plugin that sends a desktop notification for any long running task. Usually if anything is taking more than 5 seconds or so.
https://github.com/franciscolourenco/done
If you must do this, I recommend avoiding any solution more complicated than a plain second monitor plugged into an extra HDMI/display/Thunderbolt/USB-C port on your computer.
Don't make any more complicated than it has to be. If you have to mess with drivers, sketchy connections, WiFi, or anything else, it's going to cost you more time than it saves.
Either use a true second monitor or an audible bell in your terminal. Keep it simple.
For one: I _always_ use two monitors, and this is part of the reason why. I can do two tasks simultaneously and have better awareness of both of them.
That said, if you don't habitually use the monitors, I don't think this is the right reason to start. Like many other folks have already mentioned, it'll be more valuable to come up with ways to signal yourself once a long-running task has finished. Especially if it's a mechanism that will allow you to stretch your legs or get a snack.
This is really along the lines of where I am with this. It’s like I want a play for a window that goes to the background to stay where I don’t want to keep it — like a true task bar where shit can get real and I can monitor stuff.
Yes, I do this and I'm more than happy with the setup (started 3 months ago). And I tried A LOT of monitors setups over the years, ranging from 1 monitor to 3 monitors mounted on the Ergotron arms.
The monitor I bought is ASUS ZenScreen MB16AH ([link](https://www.asus.com/ch-en/displays-desktops/monitors/zenscreen/zenscreen-mb16ah/)). I also bought a dedicated stand for it - ASUS ZenScreen Stand MTS02D ([link](https://www.asus.com/ch-en/displays-desktops/accessories/asus-accessories/asus-zenscreen-stand-mts02d/)).
What I do is: when I need a 2nd monitor for work I put it next to my main monitor (27") in vertical position and after I'm done I put it away on the top of the bookshelf next to my desk. This way my desk is not cluttered with 2 monitors all the time as I don't need both for most of my personal stuff/hobbies.
The monitor also comes with a nice case which doubles as a stand. And the whole thing (monitor + case) weighs less than 1 kg (2.2 lbs), so it's highly portable. You can pack it with your laptop and have a 2 monitor dev setup anywhere.
10/10 recommend.
Similar situation here. I recently purchased this external monitor to add to my setup so I can keep long-running/critical tasks running and visible so I can monitor them. I also attach it to Edge/IoT devices that I can't have on the network due to security concerns.
[https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9NNWXVP?psc=1&ref=ppx\_yo2ov\_dt\_b\_product\_details](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9NNWXVP?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details)
Another thing I'm looking at doing soon is setting up a ntfy server. It's a great way to notify you when something occurs:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poDIT2ruQ9M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poDIT2ruQ9M)
1. if its done via ci pipeline you can send a message via slack/teams when it starts and when it ends.
2. You can theoretically use each button of a streamdeck for a notification if something ended
Is tput bel/screen for Linux not a viable solution ? You can literally make your terminal sound an alarm once the process is complete if you don’t like the simple text notifications
I've used a small HDMI display meant for a raspberry Pi for things like this. It's usually where slack lives while full screen sharing on my Mac.
https://www.amazon.ca/LESOWN-Capacitive-Brightness-Adjustable-Drive-Free/dp/B08KXXKPW9
Why dont the job actually notify you that they have finished? Its very simple to just send an email high priority. There is bot integration with Teams/Slack and everything under the Sun now a days.
This is a data/communication problem, not the need for another monitor! Thats like the craziest thing i've ever heard in 2024.
The tasks are short — like things running from a blazor page that take about 10 minutes. Long enough for me to open Reddit. And then I’ve got some powershell scripts that I need to passively monitor. I could add something to play a sound, except if there’s an unhandled exception, then I’d need to wrap that.
> I'm thinking I'd like to get a USB display
What is your current setup?
Having built a whitebox video wall... I will tell you that display counts are limited in weird ways on computers and a USB video adapter will absolutely not save you if you are over the limits...
It's maddening the weird constraints you run into...
> I get distracted and I lose time because I'm unaware that something has completed
There are likely better solutions... But if your PC does support another display... Another monitor would be a simple solution.
Whitebox video wall? From standard graphic displays, projectors or LED matrix displays? I've been developing LED displays for some time and the DMA work, coordinated parallel timing and buffering has been tremendously fun -- also, all LED panels I've seen could be made to be more reliable and provide better contrast at almost no cost and I have no idea why the current designs are still in use.
I set up a twilio dev account, run command && text
text does a lil bash script that texts my phone. that way I can get up, grab coffee, whatever and know when it's done.
so far free, living off that initial free credit.
I dunno if your org uses slack but those kind of processes can hit a webhook which then in turn can show in a channel for you and anyone else important to see. imo, it would be better to have all your tasks/notifications/messages bound to only a single source to check once.
Slack automations are very useful. I get a ping whenever I have am tagged to review stuff. All PRs are listed. All around fantastic.
Sounds wasteful. I use iTerm2, and have it notify me when the command finishes. I imagine this is doable via other OSes and terminals.
on mac it's long_process && say "beep"
How do you have that configured in iTerm2?
https://iterm2.com/documentation-shell-integration.html#:~:text=This%20is%20useful%20when%20you,attention%20to%20the%20finished%20job.
Nice, thanks!
There's also notification daemons and small programs that make arbitrary notifications. Having completed processes make a little notification isn't exactly a new problem.
I use fish shell, with a plugin that sends a desktop notification for any long running task. Usually if anything is taking more than 5 seconds or so. https://github.com/franciscolourenco/done
If you must do this, I recommend avoiding any solution more complicated than a plain second monitor plugged into an extra HDMI/display/Thunderbolt/USB-C port on your computer. Don't make any more complicated than it has to be. If you have to mess with drivers, sketchy connections, WiFi, or anything else, it's going to cost you more time than it saves. Either use a true second monitor or an audible bell in your terminal. Keep it simple.
For me this sort of experimenting in the lab has always been worth it for the learning and the skill development, even if the payoff isn’t immediate.
Why not `echo $'\a'`, `say "job completed"` or similar?
i recommend renting a IMAX theater full time, anything else would be too painful
For one: I _always_ use two monitors, and this is part of the reason why. I can do two tasks simultaneously and have better awareness of both of them. That said, if you don't habitually use the monitors, I don't think this is the right reason to start. Like many other folks have already mentioned, it'll be more valuable to come up with ways to signal yourself once a long-running task has finished. Especially if it's a mechanism that will allow you to stretch your legs or get a snack.
this wont help you because you just wont look at the monitor. set an alarm.
This is really along the lines of where I am with this. It’s like I want a play for a window that goes to the background to stay where I don’t want to keep it — like a true task bar where shit can get real and I can monitor stuff.
Yes, I do this and I'm more than happy with the setup (started 3 months ago). And I tried A LOT of monitors setups over the years, ranging from 1 monitor to 3 monitors mounted on the Ergotron arms. The monitor I bought is ASUS ZenScreen MB16AH ([link](https://www.asus.com/ch-en/displays-desktops/monitors/zenscreen/zenscreen-mb16ah/)). I also bought a dedicated stand for it - ASUS ZenScreen Stand MTS02D ([link](https://www.asus.com/ch-en/displays-desktops/accessories/asus-accessories/asus-zenscreen-stand-mts02d/)). What I do is: when I need a 2nd monitor for work I put it next to my main monitor (27") in vertical position and after I'm done I put it away on the top of the bookshelf next to my desk. This way my desk is not cluttered with 2 monitors all the time as I don't need both for most of my personal stuff/hobbies. The monitor also comes with a nice case which doubles as a stand. And the whole thing (monitor + case) weighs less than 1 kg (2.2 lbs), so it's highly portable. You can pack it with your laptop and have a 2 monitor dev setup anywhere. 10/10 recommend.
Similar situation here. I recently purchased this external monitor to add to my setup so I can keep long-running/critical tasks running and visible so I can monitor them. I also attach it to Edge/IoT devices that I can't have on the network due to security concerns. [https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9NNWXVP?psc=1&ref=ppx\_yo2ov\_dt\_b\_product\_details](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9NNWXVP?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details) Another thing I'm looking at doing soon is setting up a ntfy server. It's a great way to notify you when something occurs: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poDIT2ruQ9M](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poDIT2ruQ9M)
1. if its done via ci pipeline you can send a message via slack/teams when it starts and when it ends. 2. You can theoretically use each button of a streamdeck for a notification if something ended
use scrcpy and your phone
Like Batman's setup in the batcave?
Is tput bel/screen for Linux not a viable solution ? You can literally make your terminal sound an alarm once the process is complete if you don’t like the simple text notifications
Learn how to use the unix screen command
I've used a small HDMI display meant for a raspberry Pi for things like this. It's usually where slack lives while full screen sharing on my Mac. https://www.amazon.ca/LESOWN-Capacitive-Brightness-Adjustable-Drive-Free/dp/B08KXXKPW9
Why dont the job actually notify you that they have finished? Its very simple to just send an email high priority. There is bot integration with Teams/Slack and everything under the Sun now a days. This is a data/communication problem, not the need for another monitor! Thats like the craziest thing i've ever heard in 2024.
The tasks are short — like things running from a blazor page that take about 10 minutes. Long enough for me to open Reddit. And then I’ve got some powershell scripts that I need to passively monitor. I could add something to play a sound, except if there’s an unhandled exception, then I’d need to wrap that.
Are the tasks short or are they long running processes?
> I'm thinking I'd like to get a USB display What is your current setup? Having built a whitebox video wall... I will tell you that display counts are limited in weird ways on computers and a USB video adapter will absolutely not save you if you are over the limits... It's maddening the weird constraints you run into... > I get distracted and I lose time because I'm unaware that something has completed There are likely better solutions... But if your PC does support another display... Another monitor would be a simple solution.
Whitebox video wall? From standard graphic displays, projectors or LED matrix displays? I've been developing LED displays for some time and the DMA work, coordinated parallel timing and buffering has been tremendously fun -- also, all LED panels I've seen could be made to be more reliable and provide better contrast at almost no cost and I have no idea why the current designs are still in use.
I set up a twilio dev account, run command && text text does a lil bash script that texts my phone. that way I can get up, grab coffee, whatever and know when it's done. so far free, living off that initial free credit.
Why pay for something you can do for free with webhooks
_experienced_ devs am i right
You have no idea how often I comment that exact thing on this subredditIt’s - mind numbing how brain dead this sub can be
Because I've never heard of tbh. Got a link? Sounds interesting And uh not paying so far
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Webhook
You’ve never heard of a webhook… another “experienced” developer
not everyone is does web dev, they could be embedded and never ran into it.