See accompanying blog posts for more information: http://themodernscientist.com/posts/2013/2013-10-12-automated_notifications_of_experiment_progress/

Growl_Experiment_Status.sh

#!/bin/zsh

#### BEGIN USER CONFIG OPTIONS ####

# Path to the data file to watch for modifications
local_progress_file="/path/to/file_that_is_periodically_modified"

# Interval in minutes to wait between queries
# Must be an integer
interval_min=30

# User account and hostname of Mac where you will be notified
dest_user=your_login_name
dest_address=your_mac_hostname

# Set to 1 to enable data synchronization or 0 to disable
data_sync=1

# Paths for data synchronization
local_data_path="/path/to/local/data/directory"
remote_data_path="/path/to/remote/data/directory"

#### END USER CONFIG OPTIONS ####

# Calculate time to wait between checks in seconds
(( sleep_sec = $interval_min * 60 ))

# Check if the progress file exists
if [[ -f ${local_progress_file} ]]; then
        # Perform checks until the script is killed
        while ((1)); do

          	# Synchronize the data if appropriate
        	if (($data_sync)); then
        		rsync --recursive --update --delete --owner --group \
        		--perms --times --compress --rsh=ssh \
			${local_data_path} ${dest_user}@${dest_address}:${remote_data_path}
        	fi

                # Check if the data file has been modified within the time period
                mod_file=`find ${local_progress_file} -mmin -${interval_min}`

                # Set notification message based on modification time of data file
                if [[ $mod_file == "" ]]; then
                        message_string="NOTE: Experiment is stalled or complete"
                else
                        message_string="OK: Experiment still running"
                fi
                
                # Send the notification to your Mac
                ssh ${dest_user}@${dest_address} 'echo `/usr/local/bin/growlnotify \
                -p high -m "'$message_string'" -t "Experiment Update"`'

                # Wait until it's time to check again
                sleep $sleep_sec
        done
else
        # Data file not found
        echo "File ${local_progress_file} not found."
fi