Calendars, part 2
I solved the problem I was having earlier with google calendar: I had to log out and back in again, and my errant missing calendar came back. So once again I think Google Calendar is a good thing, in my ongoing process of reducing my dependance on any particular computer. True, in exchange for dependance on network and one company. But that's OK, since my needs are mainly: access from multiple places, and wanting an open data format (even if the tools are closed).
I'm currently using too many calendars. While I technically have a calendar on my home computer, since I'm away days I haven't updated or looked at it in months, except for syncing my palm to it. And d. and I have a wall calendar in the front hall, but for obvious reasons this spring we've not been using it to communicate our schedules to each other. Finally, my work has an Oracle Calendar, which is somewhat annoying because it doesn't seem to export or import data to any other useful format, and I don't know who all at work can read it, so I'm not going to use it for home stuff.
I've also looked at ical on the mac, which I like well enough. But for my needs, I like google calendar more.
The interface is quite similar to ical's, actually, with nice additions: click "quick add", type something like "dinner with Fred thursday at 7pm" and hit return; "dinner with Fred" appears at the appropriate time. And it's quick, like a desktop application. Go, javascript/AJAX powers!
Lots of the neat features are for connecting calendars together. You can invite people to events in your calendar, and they can then make notes on that entry. People can share calendars in various ways. You get (public or private) URLs for each calendar, which export in the (open) ical format, so you can subscribe in your ical or whatever other program. It'll also import from ical or Outlook text files. It integrates with google maps and gmail; if a gmail email looks like it has a date in it, a link will ask you if you want to add it as a calendar item. I suppose that's an outlook feature, since I remember hearing about a security hole based on something like that..
I'm ambivalent about the Google take-over-the-world plot. I find it easier to handle than a microsoft OS plot, partly because the tools are more useful to me, and the data is always accessible in open formats. Google's tools also have more panache than yahoo's. And I expect they'll drive mac and linux to improve their tools' usefulness.
In this case, I think it's all about interoperation, and helping people share information cleanly. Google does that well.
I'm currently using too many calendars. While I technically have a calendar on my home computer, since I'm away days I haven't updated or looked at it in months, except for syncing my palm to it. And d. and I have a wall calendar in the front hall, but for obvious reasons this spring we've not been using it to communicate our schedules to each other. Finally, my work has an Oracle Calendar, which is somewhat annoying because it doesn't seem to export or import data to any other useful format, and I don't know who all at work can read it, so I'm not going to use it for home stuff.
I've also looked at ical on the mac, which I like well enough. But for my needs, I like google calendar more.
The interface is quite similar to ical's, actually, with nice additions: click "quick add", type something like "dinner with Fred thursday at 7pm" and hit return; "dinner with Fred" appears at the appropriate time. And it's quick, like a desktop application. Go, javascript/AJAX powers!
Lots of the neat features are for connecting calendars together. You can invite people to events in your calendar, and they can then make notes on that entry. People can share calendars in various ways. You get (public or private) URLs for each calendar, which export in the (open) ical format, so you can subscribe in your ical or whatever other program. It'll also import from ical or Outlook text files. It integrates with google maps and gmail; if a gmail email looks like it has a date in it, a link will ask you if you want to add it as a calendar item. I suppose that's an outlook feature, since I remember hearing about a security hole based on something like that..
I'm ambivalent about the Google take-over-the-world plot. I find it easier to handle than a microsoft OS plot, partly because the tools are more useful to me, and the data is always accessible in open formats. Google's tools also have more panache than yahoo's. And I expect they'll drive mac and linux to improve their tools' usefulness.
In this case, I think it's all about interoperation, and helping people share information cleanly. Google does that well.