My work life is organised with military precision; shared calendars, synchronised personal calendars, Gantt charts, and so on. But at home, I don’t even use a paper calendar. Which is why I’ve forgotten to go to gigs that I have tickets for, to put the garbage out, or to take the cats to the vet.
I shall stand for this no more! So it’s time to invest in some toys, just because it’s a good excuse. What I’m looking for is some kind of display that I can mount on a wall in my hallway, which is connected to a computer of sorts (Linux, Windows, OSX, I don’t care). This will be used to organise everything in my personal life; mainly calendar functions (entering repeat or one-off events), to-do lists, and more.
There are some ‘nice to haves’ too; ideally it should have internet connectivity (using the existing wireless network), and maybe the potential to hook it up to some kind of web-cam like device or telephony device, for VOIP or video messaging, etc.
It has to be ‘flat’ enough to not get easily knocked off the wall, robust enough to be able to continuously run day and night (maybe the display could re-awaken with movement in the webcam?), and have a simple input interface (ideally, a keyboard).
So, has anyone installed something similar? Any ideas for components? I’ve looked at touch-screen ‘all in one’ devices, wall-mountable TFTs, Mac minis, wireless keyboards. And all I’ve managed to do is confuse myself. Any suggestions for what to use (or not to use) gratefully accepted!
Whiteboard
I think what you're looking for is a whiteboard :-). If you have to go high tech, get one that prints a copy of itself.
Re: Whiteboard
Yeah, I've tried a noticeboard type thing. Trouble is, that it's quite hard to represent lots of repeating events, and it can get confusing when it starts to store more than just a couple of items of data.
There's also that theory, can't remember where I read it, about static and dynamic 'information radiators' (I think that's the term)... where if you just put up 'static' information in a public place, nobody will look at it. But if the data is sort of 'self updating', then you're more likely to notice it.
Re: Whiteboard
That's true. Contra-wise, the real value for me for having a public schedule (and a time mgmt system) is taking the time to plan and document. FWIW, My wife and I manage the activities of our 4 kids using a 2'x 3' paper desk calendar hung outside the kitchen. Everything from doctor's appointments to business travel to soccer practice goes there. It takes 5 minutes at the end of the month to carry over the recurring appts for the next month. That said, I'd rather have a web-based ical-compliant method, so I could enter appts electronically and sync them to a master calendar.
MacMINI, Dell 2405 flat panel, ChickenOfTheVNC
My suggestion:
(1) Mac Mini connected to a
(2) Dell 2405FPW (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/ProductDetail.aspx?TabPage=techspecs&sku=24053YR&spagenum=&category_id=6198&brandid=&k=&c=us&l=en&cs=19&mnf=&prst=&prEnd=&mnfsku=&orderby=&searchtype=&pageb4search=&page=productlisting.aspx&instock=&refurbished=) flat panel 24" of 16:9 beauty
(3) install phpIcalendar (http://phpicalendar.net/) on the Mac Mini (no database needed) or use iCal itself
(4) Subscribe to iCal or push a iCalendar file to phpIcalendar
(5) Turn on remote administration on the mini
(6) Use ChickenOfTheVNC to control the Mac mini from another computer, wireless enable Palm device
(7) You could also use Salling Clicker (http://sourceforge.net/projects/cotvnc/) to control the Mini via Bluetooth using a Bluetooth phone or a Bluetooth enable Palm.
The Dell has a standard 100mm VESA mount so you could use a standard flush-mount (http://www.techadvice.com/info/item.asp?cid=1057&pid=1388&iid=28993) VESA adaptor.
(http://www.salling.com/Clicker/mac/)