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Reminders (Pop-up & E-mail) with Unix?
mnjaga asks: "What is your solution for handling 'reminders' with Unix? I was using a little freeware called KirbyAlarm , when I was using Windows. After migrating to Linux, it took a while to get a handle on things. Currently, I am using a mixture of cron, remind, and mail . However, I am interested in a better solution than what I am presently using. How do you handle your pop-up and e-mail reminders?"
Try evolution. Especially if you have moved from windows you should right at home as it is very similar to outlook. Even understands meeting invitations and updates your calendar appropriately.
remind -- you'll regret you don't thave a life complicated enough to take full advantage of it ;-)
KOrganizer prolly has a feature like that, if you're a gooey guy.
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First "how do I play sounds when I get new email" and now "how do I pop up dialogs on a regular basis"? Ask Slashdot is obviously following the rest of Slashdot downhill in quality.
If you use KDE, try `kdialog --msgbox "This is your reminder"` from remind, cron, at, whatever you already have hooked up. Other environments have similar commands, but because you didn't give any idea of what environment you are using, it's impossible to give any specific advice.
Try reading How To Ask Questions The Smart Way. In fact, please Slashdot editors, make it mandatory for people to do this before submitting Ask Slashdots.
Sunbird would work perfectly for this. Only downside is, you have to be running the application to get the notifications.
[10:19] [nri@sammy:nri] $ cat bin/xat
/usr/bin/gmessage -wrap -center -font "12" $@
DATE=$1
shift
echo "echo xmsg.sh $@ | at $DATE"
echo xmsg.sh $@ | at $DATE
and
[10:19] [nri@sammy:nri] $ cat bin/xmsg.sh
DISPLAY=:0.0
then usage is
xat 10:21am today "Hello world"
if
On KDE KAlarm is a exactly what you are looking for...
It's not perfect, but it works for me. Run in the background, it will pop up a window a few minutes before events happen.
(I also use the cronjob/send email tricks ...)
Evolution will manage more than just your calendar. I use it for my mail, calendar, and task list, and it's not let me down yet.
I can write such app in 5-7 minutes.
.exe, but can be .dll, too, your choice) to Linux formats.
You just need to find a library that will translate VB object code (I will compile it into
Been doing that for years here.
For timed reminders, you want a combination of cron (for the scheduling and execution of reminder pop-ups) and Zenity (to produce GUI based dialog "pop ups"). Zenity is rather impressive adding GUI based feedback, input/output to shell scripts.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Currently, I am using a mixture of cron, remind, and mail.
;-)
remind -- you'll regret you don't thave a life complicated enough to take full advantage of it
I'm pretty sure he's already aware of the existense of remind.
Get paid to code OSS
Why not just use the Mozilla suite? Email notifications pop up in a nice window, even when you have the mail client closed and are just using the web browser.
The World is Yours.
You only need to remember 2 dates each year and that's easily cronable.
With some grep(1) and a bit of sed(1), I've even got a part of my personal calendar up on the web - the part containing party and concert dates, see http://hubertf.de/parties.html. :)
- Hubert
Look on freshmeat.net for timer or countdowntimer. It's a pythong stript, but it works well. It's very basic though. I turn it on when I turn on the oven/microwave, etc. so I know when it's done.
Don't think that a small group of dedicated individuals can't change the world. It's the only thing that ever has.
How do you handle your pop-up and e-mail reminders?
I don't, I just remember them.
One time scheduled actions is exactly what it exists for. I've been doing:
Topher
xalarm does everything you're asking for. It's in the contrib/utilities dir at ftp.x.org.
-jpeg
Different combinations depending on various factors.
Remember, ^G makes noise on the terminal.
[ approaching AI ]
The other option would be using xbiff (not to be confused with xbill) and setting up cron to e-mail yerself a reminder.
A Shadeless room is a brighter room.
I use Emacs's built-in diary system (note to Americans: "diary" is roughly equivalent to "schedule planner" in some parts of the world). I've also added an extension to page me when meetings are coming up.
Your question has nothing to do with the operating system itself. What you need is just an application that reminds you of certain dates. Just like a caleder, right? Lock at KDE and Gnome and thats all you need. I'm using KOrganizer and I can sync all my dates with my mobile phone.
What you want (after switching fron Windows to a *nix OS) is a Desktop Environment like KDE or Gnome. Everything you need for your day-to-day tasks is encluded. Unix-like operating systems are not much different to your old Windows experience. Look at Mac OSX, its Unix, but there are surely tools like a calender (don't know).
I run Jpilot (http://www.jpilot.org/) all the time. It can open popup windows or execute arbitrary commands for events. Plus, it syncs with your (Palm) PDA.
Set the event in your yahoo! calendar, and have it send reminders to (say) your regular inbox and then whatever your phone's email address is. Cross platform, works most anywhere, free (excepting whatever cell access/net access costs, and you probably already have those). I know that isn't pop-up reminders, but it's about as hard to ignore and doesn't depend on you actively looking at your screen.
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I use my very own enotes.el under GNU/Emacs.
Why would anyone wanna clutter there screen like this
Blinkenlights! Blinking, large red letters, appearing over anything, including full-screen mplayer - Python + py-osd. A bit overkill for such task, but whatever, I'm a python dood :)
click here, bypassing lameness filter...
ical (not related to iCal or iCalendar) is my calendar/todo alert tool of choice. Lightweight, simple and just works.
Email notifications? Are you kidding? Maybe you've heard of this thing called google.
Anything is possible given time and money.
How do you handle your pop-up and e-mail reminders?"
Long ago I used biff, xbiff and xlbiff.
Now, Evolution has pop-up reminders sufficient for my needs.
Of course, it would be nice to have more extensibility built-in to Evolution so that any script could be fired off for any particular event.
For recurring events, cron works like a champ, after you take the 3 minutes to understand its terse time specification syntax and learn that ~/.crontab needs to be crafted by invoking crontab -e.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
In the background it could even send an email saying "Hey, I tried to remind you, but you never acknowledged me." An app that covers its own ass.
www.HearMySoulSpeak.com
watchmess.c:
#include <stdio.h>
int main() {
char *fn;
asprintf(&fn, "%s/.messages", getenv("HOME"));
while (1) {
FILE *fd = fopen(fn, "r");
int ch;
while ((ch = getc(fd)) != EOF) {
putchar(ch);
}
fclose(fd);
}
}
keep that running in a sticky xterm. If I want to remind myself of something I can do:
$ at when
at> echo foo>.messages
Can't speak more highly about Evolution. I use it for all my personal and business reminders, as well as my e-mail. It is better then any software I have used for it.
see kdialog --help for the popups (it has much, much more than popups, such as file browser, progressbar, handled by dcop, etc)
Important email (== personal email and, at work, new-bug email) generates one line messages there via procmail recipes. Opening my email also clears the window (write the terminal-clear sequence to the alert log).
Any decent calendar system should be capable of generating email for reminders, so when my workplace gets a (decent) calendar system the reminders will appear the same way.
I have a few other tiny tiny scripts that use this too; a "run job then alert" script that pops a line onto the log, and so forth.
This is very simple, extensible, doesn't litter my desktop with popups. Works for me!
Cameron Simpson, DoD#743 cs@cskk.id.au http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/
I use JPilot to sync my PDA, so all my appointments are in it already. Keep it open on your desktop and it can pop up a reminder or play a sound. Good enough for me. Barbara
Debian unstable Registered Linux user #226117
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