Calendars do not forgive

In this post, I explain that despite all odds a calendar is inadequate tool for scheduling todos. By the same token, through my argument, I take this opportunity to introduce you to the most unique feature of DayTickler.

A calendar is a fantastic tool for scheduling events. It provides a very appropriate visual metaphor for time planning. This tool is appropriate because it is rare that we have to postpone an event. Events come and go; when their time come they perish like flowers.

This is just the opposite with todos. Unlike events, more often than not, we are not able to complete a task on time. The accidents of life forces us to postpone the work later. Todos do not perish like flowers. They are rocks that clutter our way and that we must push ahead. Postponing a  task is a very common scenario and unfortunately calendars do not forgive. Repeatedly we need to manually edit the start and end time. A cumbersome punishment that has no reason for being.

We need a tool that will automatically move, as time progresses, uncompleted todos.

This feature is one of the most important behavior of DayTickler, the personal task manager I am working on for several months. As I stated in a previous post, the most unique feature of our software is the ability to schedule a todo and the fact that, until it is completed, it moves as time progresses.

Speaking at the MsDevMtl Community

For those of you living in the Montreal area, Monday night (April 27th), I will make a presentation at the MsDevMtl Community.  This event is free and takes place at the Montreal Microsoft Office (2000 McGill College, 5th floor). I am speaking at 18h30.

I will do a talk about “Open Source, the Cloud and the New Microsoft”. During this presentation, we will try to explain the strategic reasons for the 180 degrees shift by Microsoft during the past year. Please note that this talk will be in French.  

Open Source, le Cloud et le “Nouveau” Microsoft
Lors de cette présentation, nous tenterons d’expliquer les raisons stratégiques du virage à 180 degré de Microsoft lors de la dernière année.  Comment comprendre le lancement d’une version tablette de Microsoft Office pour IOS et Android avant le lancement du même produit pour Windows 10?  Pourquoi Microsoft annonce que la mise à jour vers Windows 10 sera gratuite? Doit-on comprendre que Windows n’est plus important pour Microsoft? Comment expliquer l’adoption massive de l’open source de manière officielle en octobre 2014.  Pourquoi Microsoft fait maintenant la promotion d’applications universelles et permet d’aisément déployer des applications .Net sur Macintosh et Linux? Qu’est ce qui explique que Microsoft vise le marché du consommateur et semble délaisser le marché entreprise? Autant de question que nous chercherons à élucider.

http://www.meetup.com/msdevmtl/events/208299782/

Speaking at the Ottawa IT Community

For those of you living in the Ottawa area, Thursday night (April 9th), I will make a presentation at the Ottawa IT Community.  This event is free and takes place at the Ottawa Microsoft Office. I am speaking at 17h45.

I will do a talk about “A Personal Perspective on Designing Mobile Applications”.  For those of you who follow this blog, you know that I am involved in the design of DayTickler, a personal task manager for Apple IOS, Google Android and Microsoft WP8. During this presentation, explore with me what I learned during this unique journey.

http://www.meetup.com/ottawaitcommunity/events/209125852/

MVP Renewal Day!

I’m an April 1st recipient of the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award. Each year on April 1, while the rest of the world focuses on the April Fools, I’m still curious to know whether I receive this recognition again.

While the news networks relayed the launch of MS-DOS Mobile, I watched my inbox carefully. MS-DOS Mobile is a joke but you can actually install and run MS-DOS Mobile to see the command-line interface of yesteryear’s computers running on a modern Lumia phone. I took the time to install this application and experiment with it. Going into the C:\PROGRAMS\PHONE directory shows programs like CAMERA.EXE which launches the camera but takes photos composed of ASCII-art characters or dithered monochrome pixels — ASCII being the venerable alphabet-focused encoding system for text on computers.

While dealing with email and avoiding April Fools, I was glad to find my MVP renewal amongst the other messages coming in. This year was no exception.

For twelve consecutive years, I received the Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award from Microsoft. MVP status is awarded to credible technology experts who have demonstrated their deep commitment to helping others make the most of their technology, voluntarily sharing their passion and real-world knowledge of Microsoft products with the community. While there are more than 100 million social and technical community members, only a small portion are selected to be recognized as MVPs. Each year, around 4,000 MVPs are honored. They are nominated by Microsoft and other community individuals for this annual award. Candidates are rigorously evaluated for their technical expertise, community leadership, and voluntary community contributions for the previous year. They come from more than 90 countries, speak over 40 different languages, and are awarded in more than 90 Microsoft technologies.

According to the MVP blog, there are 984 of us awarded today. I’m happy to be included once again!