ajax calendars
Joel over at Joel on Software ranted about how the Ajax calendars that everyone is raving about are not up to scratch in terms of functionality. I think he is right with one exception – airset. It is not the best looking kid on the block – but makes up for it with incredible depth of functionality.
“For all the Ajax calendars that are appearing, it’s a shame I can’t find one which really meets my needs. I tried out Trumba, Kiko, 30 Boxes, Yahoo! Calendar, and Spongecell. I couldn’t recommend any of them. My needs are probably weird, but not that weird. Here’s what I need a calendar to be able to do: * Enter flights. Many of these calendars only lets me enter things that start on 15 minute intervals, and flights are just not scheduled that way. Many of these calendars insist I specify the duration, which I don’t know — I know when the flight lands, but not the duration. * Understand enough about time zones so I can enter a flight. Flights from New Zealand to Los Angeles arrive before they departed. It’s confusing but it’s true and if I can’t enter them properly on my calendar I’m back to typing itineraries in Word. * Allow my assistant to enter appointments and see my schedule, although some things may be private. Many calendars have this feature. * Notify me in advance of a meeting using some reliable mechanism. Surprisingly many of the hot new Ajax calendars omitted this basic feature because they’re web apps. At the very least, I’d like something to pop up on Windows, which means a downloadable widget, and an SMS message on my cell phone. Different meetings need different advance warnings … I need to be notified 3 hours before a flight at Kennedy but 3 minutes before a meeting in my office. * Print out something reasonable that I can take with me before a trip listing my complete schedule for the trip. Some of my appointments have driving directions or complicated notes attached. I just want a list of where I need to be, when, and it’s surprising that very few online calendars can handle this.”
Read Joel’s full rant here