I don't work because I want to. I work because I have to. That being said, I could very well become Peter Gibbons and do nothing at all every day, just sucking up a salary and leaving people to wonder why I haven't been fired yet.

The one thing that keeps me going, besides the fact that I'm terrified of losing my job (and thus a monkey of The Man) is the idea of setting and reaching goals - my job has certain requirements, and when I achieve them, I feel good about myself.

With this handy-dandy device, most of you could, too! The Personal Status Bar is a small bar of LED lights, perhaps 100 columns of four. It comes with velcro sticky tabs so that it can mount to computer monitors, desks, et cetera.

Simply plug it in to your computer (USB port preferred), and a menu pops up, with two lines: Goal and Input. Enter your goal (say, five sales). Each time you make a sale, press the spacebar and your Personal Progress Bar will announce to you and the rest of the world that you're that much closer to your goal.

For complex goals and inputs (say, 15,000 dollars raised for charity x), type the appropriate numerical value into the input box, and it will automatically be normalized to an appropriate percentage increase.

Available in several colors, including the classic grey frame with blue lights, for you Windows installation addicts.

Premier versions would include speakers, so that you could have it play some sort of triumphant sound when you reach your goal (old Windows "Ta-Da!" trumpet, anyone?), and would also be compatible with popular PDA OSes, for portability.

Also available in a self-enclosed version with a 10-key pad for those who want to count muffins baked, weeds tossed, zits popped - whatever.

Inspired by a [bristolz] anno: //In fact an application that just displays progress bars is something I'd buy.//
-- shapu, Mar 22 2005

Run it up your flagpole .. I promise I'll salute.
-- reensure, Mar 22 2005


Gloriously perverse.
-- shapu, Mar 22 2005


I may set up my progress bar to monitor your progress bar.
-- neilp, Mar 23 2005


And I'll set up my progress bar to monitor [neilp]'s progress bar which is monitoring your progress bar.

What's worse - the fact that I'm setting up my progress bar to spy on you, or that I don't work, thus not needing one?
-- froglet, Mar 23 2005


Mmm...perhaps you could set a party poker goal?
-- shapu, Mar 23 2005


I'm not quite grasping the space bar bit, unless this is the only software running on your PC.

There are USB interfaced individual buttons, dials, switches, etc. that could work well for this. A big green mushroom-style button that you can hit to record a sale sounds more satisfying to me.

How about a wall mounted "high five" hand as a user interface? The PC could play a sound file "you da man!" or somesuch for those motivated by that sort of thing.
-- half, Mar 23 2005


Software running in the background can detect and react to keys pressed in other applications. I like the button idea, though...

A hand might be a bit campy, but I think a Big Red Button might be a good follow-up. Add in an IR transmitter, and it could be anywhere in the room. Nice touch.
-- shapu, Mar 23 2005


"A hand might be a bit campy"...agreed, but some sales people I know are into that whole hand and back slapping sort of thing. Just trying to take in to account the needs of others.

Made to my tastes, this invention would wind up as a small scrap of paper with little tick marks grouped in fives. :)
-- half, Mar 23 2005



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