Six-monthly email alerts

[jack]

I've put back my bedside timepiece, my DVD recorder and my horlogette[1]. My computers all managed it seemlessly (though an alert might have been a nice touch). (Other clocks, such as the bird clock that sonic driftizens always manage to dissassemble, are not kept up to date.) Also, all are accurate within a minute according to timeanddate.com[2], though I should probably check that again in a month.

However, it occurs to me, at home, we generally were reminded by the radio times :) How could I be sure to be reminded in six months time? As it happens, it doesn't really matter: I'm always reminded by something, and even if not, worst case, I miss monday morning meeting.

But if it did matter, how should I go about it?

1. Put a note in my diary. Unfortunately, neither my home diary nor Outlook at work, am I absolutely confident the same system will be being used in a year's time.

2. Rely on my computer's clock. There's no reason this shouldn't work, every computer I've touched for years has done it seemlessly. However, I just don't trust it :)

3. Have an email alert. This is pretty solid, I always have important things in my inbox, and forsee I always will, and have chosen an email address I'm confident will be around for a long time.

3a. However, from where? I'm not confident I'll still be at gmail. Or that any crontab file I have access to will still be in use.

3b. Maybe a web service that does email alerts, that has lasted a while? What would you do? :)


[1] My cuff-clip timepiece. It has one button, so is a slight pain to change the time of, though the interface is pretty good. You press and hold to make the time flash, and then press to advance, or press and hold to advance first fast, then very fast (so it only takes a few secs to cycle round). However, me being me, I'd probably prefer sex combinations eg. "press" and "presspress" and "press pause presspress" that do forward once, forward fast, forward veryfast, back fast, etc.

[2] Truth in advertising. (I'm bored of people saying "what it says on the tin")

Comments

[mair_in_grenderich]

I'd do it from my flurble.org server.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

That might be an answer. Indeed, might be an answer for everyone -- if someone has a server, and lets people sign up for saving-change alerts, then if their server becomes defunct, hopefully someone will remember that's something that someone else could take over.

[mair_in_grenderich]

oh, and I was reminded by LJ. If I were in any place where I might conceivably forget and not be reminded by someone/something, I can't imagine I'd be somewhere it'd matter if I were an hour out.

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Maybe. But I nearly was. If no-one had mentioned on LJ, and I hadn't used my computer or TV on sunday, and has worked at a job where my time was inflexible, I think I would have got it wrong.

[mair_in_grenderich]

and bellringers occasionally miss the morning ringing on the sunday after the clocks go forward, but radio or no radio, this relies on you remembering *within a certain time-scale*, and you can never guarantee to be looking at the right machine/email/TV/radio within that time?

[geekette8.livejournal.com]

If you're not using the same diary/calendar system, won't you have imported all reminders from the old system to the new system?

Also, rather than setting reminders for specific dates, I'd probably just try to remember the general rule: http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/info/bst.htm says "from the last Sunday in March until the last Sunday in October."

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

won't you have imported all reminders from the old system to the new system?

In theory, but in actual fact I have few enough commitments it's merged with my todo list, and anything unused for six months is likely to get lost in the shuffle :(

I'd probably just try to remember the general rule:

That's a good point. I probably *will* remember that, thank you.

[aldabra]

futureme.org?

[cartesiandaemon.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's cool! Thank you!

[keithlard.livejournal.com]

This is where 43 folders come in useful.

I've successfully reminded myself of things months in the future!