I use FastTrack Schedule to manage mid- and long-term projects that benefit from timelines, and being able to show all of the tasks at hand, or just the ones assigned to certain people or groups. I like it because it includes a free phone-call training session when you buy it, the support is good, it's easy to use (after that training session), and it works on Macs and Windows. It can also read a MS Project file, if you really need to.
I tried using FastTrack Schedule 9.2 today, for the first time with Leopard, and it behaved oddly. When I right-clicked on a column so that I could hide it, it gave me a spinning cursor of some sort and took a very long time to bring up the menu and return control of the computer to me.
This was a couple of hours ago, so I've already forgotten the details. But I believe this sluggishness happened at least 3 times.
Their web site says it's Leopard-ready. Guess I'd better take advantage of that good support!
Posted: December 3, 2007 4:28 pm | 0 comments
Tags: FastTrack Schedule, Mac Leopard OS, project management software
I've written before about my somewhat unwieldy method of getting my Meeting Maker calendar onto my iPhone. As I mentioned earlier, the script I use to popular iCal with the text file I've exported from Meeting Maker has become quite slow since I upgraded to Leopard.
I figured I'd help it out by having less for it to import into iCal each time. I have an iCal calendar I call "historical." That's where I've put all of my old calendar items from Meeting Maker. Ever since I first worked this all out, on August 13, I've been exporting from August 13 to about a year and a half into the future from Meeting Maker, and importing that text file using the script into iCal.
Tonight, I exported 8/13 until today using the iCalendar export in Meeting Maker, and dragged and dropped the resulting .ics file onto my iCal "historical" calendar. It imported immediately. The next step was for me to delete all future occurrences of recurring appointments. Otherwise, I'd end up with duplicates of all of my recurring meetings. That is, my every Thursday manager's meeting would appear because of my "historical" calendar, and because of my regular Meeting Maker export/import to iCal.
The dialog box in iCal for Leopard was different from the first time I did this, because now iCal is integrated into Leopard server's iCal server. I said yes, I want to delete all future occurrences of this appointment, and it double checked by asking if I was sure I wanted to "delete and notify guests." I figured: sure, because my only other option was to "cancel." And I really wanted to delete these things.
The first appointment I tried this on was for the Technology Communications team meetings. Imagine my bewilderment as I watched iCal prompt my Apple Mail to open, and then wrote messages with iCal attachments to all of the attendees of that meeting. All of them are in my Apple Address Book, because I imported them from an Excel spreadsheet. So it knew all of their addresses.
Mail didn't ask me. It just sent them. I've looked through the preferences, to no avail. There doesn't appear to be a way to tell iCal: no, I don't want to notify the other guests about me canceling this meeting, which isn't even really on my iCal calendar "with" other people, it's in Meeting Maker stupid! I've had to instead trick my Mail, by setting my Comcast account to "no" smtp server, so now my Mail is sitting there with dozens of opened messages, and I have to "edit" each one, and then cancel it. When I'm done, I'll have a clean calendar, and I can reset my Comcast mail to being able to send out again.
My apologies to those I've antagonized with messages saying I'm canceling a meeting that I didn't even originally propose (I'm a guest). And I'd better get back to work on deleting appointments and then email messages so I can turn in for the night.
Oh, and one more thing. When Apple Mail has lots of windows open, it gets slower and slower too. I've noticed this both at home and at work.
Okay, and another thing. At least my theory was correct. Decreasing the number of events that MM to iCal is syncing does speed it up considerably.
Posted: December 5, 2007 9:29 pm | 0 comments
Tags: Apple iCal, Apple Mail, Calendar synchronization, iPhone, Mac Leopard OS, Meeting Maker
Every day, I think about recycling, and ways that I can leave a smaller carbon footprint in the world. The ways in which I act on these thoughts are not earth shattering. They don't make much of a difference to the earth. But from time to time, when I'm thinking recycling thoughts, I think of my friend Scott Sandberg, who made a huge difference at a place where I worked with him.
We weren't really close friends, but we had a kinship about hiking and the environment. When he came to me with his new ideas, I was always appreciative of his work and we had great conversations.
Thanks to him, at that workplace, we had:
- stickers around many of the office light switch face plates with "turn it off" stickers
- recycling bins shaped and the size of Simmons office wastebaskets with tiny little wastebaskets piggy-backed onto them (to demonstrate how much more we could recycle than we needed to throw away)
- plastic and glass recycling in every departmental kitchen
- a compost bin in every departmental kitchen. The compost was easy to dispose of, because Scott had arranged for all of the kitchen scraps from the dining hall to be picked up or taken to a farmer regularly. The compost was kept in a plastic bag inside of a small garbage can with a foot pedal-opened lid, and never smelled.
- I'm pretty sure he managed to get some carpeting made out of recycled materials installed. But I may be conflating my memory of him with my huge sense of alumnal pride in my own college (see Oberlin Center for Environmental Studies: check out the amazing building and all the student activities they're doing).
- Everything that he could do by re-using materials in Facilities, he did.
I don't remember if we actually did it, but we talked about making stickers to encourage computer users to shut down their computers. At the time, there was dissent among my staff. The computer support folks had read many articles talking about the danger of too many power cycles, and that this turning on and turning off took a toll on the computer's components.
I quelled my own worries about this (I don't know if I convinced them) by looking at data collected at Tufts. The numbers are compelling and far outweigh the risks of power cycling. I also read about the energy benefits of LCD monitors over CRTs, and so was pleased when Simmons was able to afford purchasing LCD monitors. Along these lines, several years ago we (meaning Technology at Simmons College) stopped using central 3-year replacement cycle funds to replace computer monitors, unless they are broken. Anything to keep this stuff from becoming hazardous waste sooner than it ought to.
Scott was killed by an avalanche, just as he was going to set out ice climbing on a part of Mount Washington. I read about it in the Brunswick paper when I was at my parents for Thanksgiving in 2002. I was shocked. He loved rock climbing, hiking, just about anything outdoors. We bonded over our very wide feet, both happy to be able to wear something tiva-esque when the wide-sized Chaco footwear came out. I was amazed when he told me he actually went hiking in his. I prefer to have my feet protected within my boots when hiking! It's trite. But to have someone I saw every couple of days disappear, dead, leaving behind his wife and young kid, whom he adored. Truly tragic. To see the turn out at his memorial service, to see the effect he had had, at such a young age himself, on so many around him. Very moving.
At his memorial service at the work place, they gave out little recycling bins, each with a plant in it. The plants were all grown from cuttings of plants he had rescued when students in the dorm left them behind. Mine has grown about 8 feet long in the years since then. It's on the top shelf of my bookcase at work.
In my work life at Simmons, I do lots of little things, intentionally, that for me have to do with preserving the earth's resources.
- I use the stairs most of the time, instead of the elevator.
- I either take the T, or I ride my bicycle to work.
- Much to the annoyance of my visitors, I don't have a garbage can in my office. I only have a recycling bin. That way every single time I need to throw something away, I have to make an effort, and therefore think about it.
- Because it is very inconvenient for me to get my plastic and glass to our building's only recycling container, I take home Simmons water bottles I pick up at meetings, my yogurt containers, etc.
- I bring my lunch in containers we've used for years in our household to keep left overs and lunch
- I keep a metal fork and spoon in my drawer, and never pick up a plastic one unless I'm far enough from my desk that there isn't an elegant alternative
- I don't turn on my office lights until I have to because it's too dark. This is also because I prefer natural light. And because in my building the lights don't go off unless a human being flicks the switch (they're not on timers).
- I shut down my computer every night before I leave. I have my energy settings set so that my monitor goes to sleep after about 5 minutes, and the computer after about 10 or 12.
- I always print double-sided. Before I reached my forties, I used to print two pages on each side, by flipping the layout. But now my eyes need the larger print!
- If I find a stack of paper that people are done with that's only printed on one side, I take it home and use it in my printer there.
- Like most people, I have a coffee cup, and a nalgene bottle for my water, so I can avoid disposable cups.
I've been proud to be able to make a few differences for Simmons as a whole.
- As I mentioned, we're not replacing monitors unless we have to.
- All the printers I order for printer replacements are capable of printing "duplex," or on both sides of the paper. Technology staff responsible for supporting the Information Commons have written documentation that's on the web site that discusses several different ways to save paper, and they do a great job encouraging students to save paper. I'm afraid we haven't done such a good job teaching staff how to take advantage of duplex printing, because I still see an awful lot of handouts at meetings that are printed single-sided.
- With the Campus Card Office, we made it so the printing policy benefits those who print double-sided, by charging per piece of paper instead of per print.
- Not so much to my credit either, but within one of my areas, Media Services, they've been raising awareness about the cost of replacing projector bulbs, and the wastefulness of having to replace them early because they're left on. Media staff have been turning off as many as they can at night before they close up.
- For a long time I've wanted to be able to get all of the lab machines turned off at night, but in order to push out updates overnight, we've needed to leave the computers on. I think we've finally conquered this dilemma--some technical gurus in Senior Support have made it so we can wake up the computers when we need to, and so we can also schedule the computers to turn themselves off just before midnight every night.
There is still so much more to be done. Much more I could do myself, especially at home. Even though we compost, walk where we can, almost never use the one air conditioner we have, and recycle everything possible, we have too much electrical equipment, use too much energy in general, and have too many material possesions. Some other time I'll write about additional lengths to which my father has gone--I don't think my partner would bear with me to the extent my mother has, but I'm all for it!
And when I think about all of this, I think about the immense effect Scott had on the world around him, and wish he were still around so we could talk some more about practical ways to better conserve the earth's resources.
Posted: December 7, 2007 7:23 pm | 0 comments
Tags: energy conservation, recycling, Scott Sandberg
Here is my new theory: if you're going to use an Office product in a space other than Space 1, make sure there is a finder window in that space that includes the directory where the file is located.
Or, perhaps it's: if you're going to have a Finder window open that shows the file you're trying to use, make sure that Finder window is in the space where the Office product is.
I was just using PowerPoint in Space 2, and had a Finder window showing my file (on the file server) in Space 1. I noticed that when I saved, PowerPoint flicked briefly, as though to go to Space 1, and then back. After a while, when I tried to save, PowerPoint completely hung on me, and I had to force quit.
I'm going to try it with my new rule and see if I have happier Pages and Office 2004 experiences.
A few minutes later: except that now the file server thinks the original file is already in use and so I had to save it with another file name. And then, without leaving PowerPoint, I got the same complaint twice more. Now I'm up to version C.
A few days later: Today it happened again. I'm up to version E.
Posted: December 10, 2007 12:54 pm | 0 comments
Tags: Apple Spaces, Mac Leopard OS, PowerPoint 2004
I've tried several more things to make it so that PowerPoint doesn't tell me that the file I have open on the server is in use (by me) and so I have to save with another name.
1. I tried making sure that there was no Finder window open showing the file. Then PowerPoint said the file was in use, but only once. When I saved it as another name, and kept using it for another hour, including having the computer go to sleep in the middle, it was fine.
2. I've now moved Word, PowerPoint, and Excel to Space 1. PowerPoint didn't tell me the file I had open was in use, but every time I saved the file, it switched to Space 2, where I had a Finder window open showing the file. Then, when I quit PowerPoint, it thought it had crashed and asked if I wanted to send a report to Apple.
It's possible that the Microsoft Office 2004 suite works well with Leopard if you don't use Spaces. But if you do use spaces, expect to have lots of problems with Office. Very frustrating.
Posted: December 20, 2007 10:12 am | 0 comments
Tags: Apple Spaces, Mac Leopard OS, Microsoft Office 2004
