LeN, what does that do that Google or Yahoo appoint reminders don't?

By the way, since I never hesitate to criticize MS for stuff they do wrong, let me praise them for something they got right in outlook that most calendars either don't consider or consider as an afterthought - use as an appointment books.

There are lots of professions and trades that need to schedule hour by hour, even minute by minute, not just occasional meetings and events: medical professionals, plumbers, real estate agents and so on. Outlook made it part of their core functionality, including not only settings that let you protect against double entry, but ability to do heads on data entry. A decent data entry interface for a calender is needed when you are entering two dozen or so appointments per provider per day for 20 providers. At that point, too many extra key strokes per appointment moves from PITA actual productivity sink. Outlook does well on this, and since most calendars don't Microsoft deserves full credit.

ita,

fut will allow me to send an email for a particular time and/or date and then I can forget about it until such that time the email comes back and reminds me to do whatever. sure, google/yahoo have reminders, but I don't necessarily need reminders for events, I need reminders of: you sent someone an email and it has been 2 weeks, check back. I need to write a letter of reference for someone, what is the information for it.

the premium version allows for attachments.

Interesting, LeN. I make zero duration appointments for those, with a reminder email, if the alert from the task app isn't enough. Astrid has a function to put a task on your calendar that helps accomplish that.

I do wish Astrid allowed for attachments, though. I sent them an email doublechecking that, and I don't remember hearing back. It's my biggest want for the app, which, if it would synchronise a bit more predictably (50% of my updates are from the phone, 50% from the tablet) would be pretty close to all I ask for in a to do list app.

I just have to start meeting deadlines. However annoying any app gets, there's only so far they can go. Perhaps a Shocknife integration?

I can't work out how to, in the current version of Outlook, to convert an email into a task or an appointment. I can set a flag and a reminder on an email, but I want a proper task sometimes. And I'd love if I could set up a rule that acts on incoming emails and turns some of them into a task automatically. That would rock. No one in my office sends tasks but me. I'm trying to lean harder on that for organisation there too.

it does not work for me to have anything in my calendar that is not an appointment. I tried that strategy once and after 48 hours I nearly screamed in frustration. I much prefer having a calendar and then a separate list of todos. It isn't particularly efficient, but my brain likes it better.

iCal lets me set up all day appointments with the time marked free, so they don't show up during that day, or mess up my free time view. And then I can have the email sent out a specific time beforehand. I get by.

Why?

It's not personal, I toss all my cookies every night, with the intent that marketers would not have ongoing information about my surfing habits. I also don't load images in my email, which gives similar information, unless I want to reward the advertiser and actually click through.

I realize I'm more paranoid than your average bear, though.

Downloaded and installed an OS security update with required restart. My MacBook has been restarting for two hours. That's not normal, is it?

Hey, my phone has been rebooting for the past ten minutes. I don't know what recent changes have been made. I haven't installed anything today. I'm in the middle of downloading Chrome beta, but I can't even get in to stop that. It reboots as soon as the login page comes up.

FUCK.

I don't know if it's at all related, but Wil Wheaton is saying on G+ that he's having Chrome crap all over his day too. Don't know any details, so it's not terribly helpful, other than to say you might not be the only one experiencing this.