This is Ambrose's modded version of sysline, based on Bauke Jan Douma's Linux port. Bauke Jan's original README file is in README.
I don't remember when I did the modding, but it was a long time ago. I've decided to put this here only because I kept forgetting where I'd put my modded version.
You probably already have a clock on your desktop's panel, so how is sysline still relevant? Because you can make it beep every half hour, and no desktop clock (that I know of) does that. (You could say Apple's clock does that, but Apple's verbose announcements are obnoxious; sysline's beeps are subtle yet effective.) This is important if you want to follow the 30/30/30 rule recommended by some optometrists: you don't need to constantly look at the clock to know it's time to look 30 feet away..
For the beep to work you'll need to
configure PulseAudio to emit beeps.
You also need to make sysline run in your xterm;
TERM=xterm+sl sysline often works.