LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
I don't really know where to post this question and comment, so my apologies if this isn't the appropriate spot --
I've seen the posts acknowledging that LB is going to integrate with iCal, but nothing about when that might happen. I've also been reading up a bit about iCal, and the idea of combining the two really excites me. It seems to me that LB will remain a great tool for organizing projects and prioritizing actions -- while iCal could provide the graphical layout I need to really visualize what I'm getting myself into, see the relationships between commitments, and remind me of those commitments with external alarms. Especially with the multiple simultaneous calendars allowed in iCal, it seems to me that you could use one calendar for each TLI and then REALLY be able to see how your different goals interact in your daily life. And then LB could even dump its calendar altogether, which I've seen several people ask for anyway.
I'm excited. I'll be upgrading to 10.2.x next month so that I can use iCal (I currently run 10.1.5) -- but how long will I have to wait for an integrated LB?
-- amazondoc --
Confused, bemused, and disorganized, but trying to reform!
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
Hi there,
This is a post most suitable for the desktop Wish discussion forum. We don't comment on when we expect to complete enhancements - we do not want to put that kind of undue pressure on our developers, who are hard workers, both of them! So you will have to be patient, and post to the discussion forums when you want to discuss an enhancement. A lot of thought and work went into the Life Balance calendar - and the way it interacts with the Palm date book. So dumping it is not, really, a good idea. Glad you are enthusiastic about an iCal - Life Balance interaction. Always nice to hear that kind of enthusiasm about Life Balance.
Best wishes,
Jean White
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
Hi There,
You might also want to read our .pdf document under the synchronization section, in the Life Balance for Macintosh advice book. This will tell you how to get your date information from Life Balance to iCal - it does require Hot Syncing with a Palm, and isn't our ultimate solution, but it does work.
Best wishes,
Jean
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
Ohhhh, I guess this just turned into a tech question. ;-) Does this mean that even after the "integration" of LB with iCal it will still take a PDA to make the two programs talk together, or is that just the case for right now? I don't own a PDA, never have, and it isn't in the budget for the foreseeable future!
-- amazondoc --
Confused, bemused, and disorganized, but trying to reform -- and now a paid-up Real Life Registered LBer!
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
Hi there,
Probably the case for right now, though our plans are not written in stone. We are mulling over the situation. So we have a gigantic list of stuff people want - there are over a thousand people plugged into this user forum - and there are only four Llamas. So we have to choose carefully! Sorry you don't have a PDA, though. I always thought they were sort of not-essentials until Life Balance and Bejeweled entered my Life!
Best wishes,
Jean
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
1: There's no mention of iCal in my version of "Life Balance Advice Book.pdf", nor is there a clear synchronisation section. What are you talking about?
2: Having read this thread, I now understand why events I entered into Life Balance as "By Calendar" do not immediately appear in iCal. I had to hot-sync *three* times before the latest event I entered did! I also quit both iCal and Life Balance a number of times and even logged out and back in again. What is the actual, reliable procedure for effecting this?
3: What is Bejeweled?
Please pardon the lack of formalities.
:Alex
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
Hi Alex,
1. You need to get the Macintosh Life Balance .pdf file - it sounds as though you are reading the Palm Life Balance .pdf. You can download it from
http://www.llamagraphics.com/resources/documentation/index.html
2. Take a look at the .pdf - we provide the best instructions we can - it is under synchronization, around page 56.
3. Bejeweled is a game for the Palm (I think it is also on the Mac) and it is quite beguiling - need a color device, though for full beguilement. Llamagraphics and Bejeweled don't have any business arrangement - I just mentioned it in a flurry of friendliness:)
Hope this helps,
Jean
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
Thanks very much, Jean. Download underway!
(Where's my signature? Looks like I'll have to add it myself:)
:Alex
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
Jean --
I have to note here that part of the problem is that LB has zero hooks that allow people to HELP you come up with enhancements.
I retired my Palm ages ago and have no interest in getting a new one. On the other hand, iCal syncs quite nicely with my cell phone PDA functions, and I'm strong enough with AppleScript and other hacks to do this myself.
But LB has no AppleScript capabilities, and the data file is not human-readable.
I know adding an AppleScript dictionary is no small thing, but look at it this way -- do it, and then let fanatics like me solve your iCal (and other) problems for you.
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
Hi -
If you check the Desktop Wish List - where this probably belongs - you will see that Apple Script support is on our To Do List. In the meantime, you might have some fun with the exchange file!
We do plan to get that Apple Script support going - really we do. :)
Best wishes,
Jean
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
You've got 20,000 messages here, Jean. For those of us who are studying for our black belt in LB, we haven't GOTTEN to that discussion yet.
I figured other Mac-heads had asked for AppleScript; what I hadn't seen yet was a note reminding you that you have some to-dos that allow you to delegate other to-dos to the peanut gallery. Isn't that a good GTD way of doing things? ;-)
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
Hello there,
Just to chime in .....rhyme....
AppleScript is cool.
iCal is too.
Llamas are working,
so please don't be blue.
Burma Shave! :)
Not that I can promise anything or anywhen, but these are certainly obvious big ticket items on our development list. We HEAR you loud and clear on that! :)
Now if you want to do something amazing that could really make an enormous difference to our ability to follow through on our plans -- be sure to tell your Mac head pals where to find us. A little bit of positive customer to customer commentary can do a world of good, especially going into the holidays!
We're sooo small, I'm not sure we even have a peanut gallery, although we probably have a peanut shelf...or maybe a paper bag with some peanut shells in it.
Baci, the Samoyed dog, has a few peanut butter flavored treats...does that count?
:P
Best wishes,
--Catherine--*
Catherine E. White
President
www.llamagraphics.com
Creators of Life Balance software
for Palm OS, Macintosh and Windows.
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
Hi, Catherine. Note that this is NOT a complaint, it's a discussion.
You don't have to tell me about how hard it is to have more features requested than programmers to write features. If I had that problem solved, I wouldn't need Life Balance (as much).
But I'll tell you that with a decent AppleScript dictionary, there's a whole pile of feature requests I've seen here that I could probably knock out and take out of your (Mac) feature request to-dos. I suspect I'm not the only such person here. You can either do iSync, iCal, and AppleScript -- or you can unleash AppleScript and see what other things take care of themselves.
If you want to talk about formal commitments (Jeff will write feature X if we do AppleScript), drop me a line. If you're thinking something more informal, check out the Code Library at http://www.webxharbor.com for an excellent model of how this works for other (completely different) software.
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
Yup yup, we understand your point.
If I were setting up the development priorities for us to work on stuff that could be done in AppleScript instead of working on AppleScript itself, that would make sense. That isn't happening.
My point is that there are way more of YOU than there are of US! Customers can actually help us acheive our long term development goals by helping us meet our short term sales goals.
We are a tiny company that has virtually no budget for anything, let alone a sales force, major advertising or marketing. We often have to do the "gorilla (sic) marketing" thing, but we don't even have any gorillas! Customers can physically get to lots of places and people that we can't even begin to reach yet. :-)
Can you imagine that you go into your local software store and say, "Have you got a copy of Life Balance for Macintosh?" and walking away sadly when they say, "no Ma'am. Sorry." or "No Sir. We'll have to look into that." If that happens in a dozen stores?
Imagine that you tell your company's Human Resources department about our software as a resource for stressed out employees as part of a Wellness Initiative.
Imagine that you give a private demo to a friend, your colleagues, or a local Mac User Group.
Imagine that you set up a sharable template for your local school or community organization and let people know that it is available if they happen to use Life Balance. I think that the "Civil War Camp Re-enactment Template" needs to happen! Or the "Presidential Campaign Template" I can see it now!
- Design and Print bumper stickers
- Kiss Babies in Vermont (or was that New Hampshire?)
- Work on developing hand shake muscles, seems a bit flabby.
- Foreign Policy, what to do?
Might be a limited market for that. Ha! But it would still be interesting! And remember that we'll post your templates to our Resources page as examples too. And you can post exchange file templates to the User Forums. :)
The effect of even one person doing any of those kinds of activities is IMMEDIATELY helpful.
You can make more difference to our little bitty company than you know just by keeping us in the back of your head when you are out there walking around. We definitely need you all to be thinking not only about our development task list, but our marketing task list!
Best wishes,
--Catherine--*
Catherine E. White
President
www.llamagraphics.com
Creators of Life Balance software
for Palm OS, Macintosh and Windows.
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
Speaking of tempaltes "GTD for LifeBalance for those Chained to a Desk" will be appearing shortly :) I think this will appeal to many who I've missed before.
Possible re tooling of the Basic approach that I've been twiddling with too..
But I'd still like Applescript tool... We've gone so far a to define what "we'd" like the disctionary to look like. That might make a good community project we could spec out the "wish dictionary" and then you could use whatever parts you see fit; last time I worked on a dictionary I remember their was a fair amount of gotchas that took time to argue through; Since it's an abstraction layer we really don't have to have a clue about the inside of Life Balance to frame that up. Maybe it would be all throw away; but maybe it wouldn't.
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
....Gorillas in the Mist....
--Catherine--*
www.llamagraphics.com
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
Guerillas in the Fog?
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
I actually put "sic" in square brackets into my original gorilla reference message, but the forum software interpretted that as mysteriously foggy html.
Oh well...
--Catherine--*
www.llamagraphics.com
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
:) I was wondering about that.
RE: LB + iCal -- anyone know when?
(sic) shows up as intended.
:)
--Catherine--*