Jason M. Hanley :: Custom Software Developer

I’ve always been a big fan of using software for organizing my time efficiently. With as many projects as I have going on right now, it’s essential to be on top of things like milestones, meetings and due dates. To manage all of this, I primarily use four different applications:

1. GMail – a web-based email service with an amazing interface
2. Yahoo Calendar – a web-based scheduling, appointment and reminder system
3. ToDoList – a PC-based program that lets you keep track of hierarchical lists of projects and tasks
4. Phatsoft TMR – a PC-based program that lets you set reminders that pop up periodically to remind you of time-sensitive tasks

As well as this system works, there are several problems:

1. Without net access, I can’t update my calendar
2. Without net access, I can’t manage my email, or compose and queue up new emails
3. Since ToDoList and Phatsoft TMR are two separate programs, there is no automatic way to set pop-up reminders for tasks listed in ToDoList

I’d really love to see a solution that was a PC-based desktop application synchronized with an Internet hosted application. The hosted application would have its own web interface that you could access anywhere. Meanwhile, the desktop application would cache and queue up modifications when it couldn’t connect to the server.

The closest thing that I’ve found to something like this is Microsoft Outlook coupled with Microsoft Exchange server. It is about 75% of the solution, except for three major drawbacks:

1. It doesn’t support hierarchical projects and tasks, only a flat list
2. It is very expensive (when you consider the cost of purchasing and running Exchange server)
3. It is unreliable (uptime and data integrity issues plague Outlook and Exchange)

Perhaps someone out there knows of a better solution…

Tonight I looked over my calendar and tried to take stock of everything I have coming up as the term draws to a close over the next month. It seems that over the next 3 weeks, I have 7 reports, 6 presentations, 6 assignments, 2 final exams, as well as numerous meetings to make these all happen.

I feel like most of the projects have been well organized and are coming along well. There’s a whole lot of work that needs to get done, but I’m feeling much healthier and I think I will have the energy to make it through it.

That being said, I will probably be around ready to collapse by mid-April. But it’ll feel good to have everything done.

Well, so much for regular updates to the blog. It’s getting on towards two months since my last entry. I guess that reflects how busy things have been this term. Haven’t had much time to think about blogging.

February went by in the blink of an eye, as usual. I managed to get all my deliverables in before my Reading Week trip to Cancun. The trip was absolutely great: Lots of relaxing during the day and partying at night. The weather was awesome, with beautiful sunny highs around 30 and breezy and cool in the evening with lows around 20. I think I need to make a tropical trip a yearly event in mid-winter. It is so nice to get away from the dismal lack of sunlight and cold weather, even if for only a week.

As all good things, the trip came to an end, and things went sharply downhill. I’d had a slight cough the last day in Mexico, and didn’t really think much of it, until I started getting a fever on the plane ride home. By the time I arrived back in Waterloo, I had a full-on fever, chills, congestion and what turned out to be a pretty horrible flu. The night of my return, I passed out and slept almost straight for 20 hours. When I did finally get up out of bed again, I still had the fever and chills and felt pretty much like I was going to die.

Eventually the fever broke, and I was just starting to feel somewhat alive again when the cough came back with a vengeance. I was getting worse and worse and I knew I would have to get myself to the doctor’s. So on Friday my roommate and I went to the walk-in clinic. She was also really sick. We both ended up getting antibiotics. By Sunday the antibiotics had started doing their job and I was feeling a lot better. It’s now Tuesday, and I’m still coughing a little bit, but feeling much more alive. Which is a good thing, considering I now have to catch up from the week I was out for. Luckily there wasn’t too much due last week. I did miss a midterm, however, and the mark will be allocated to my final exam, putting a lot more pressure on the tail end of the course.

All in all, things are going ok, and I think I should be able to keep up with the hectic pace that March will bring with it, now that I’m feeling healthy again.

And perhaps I’ll even manage to write another blog entry before the end of term