Messages

1

General Discussion / Windows Calendar or Outlook Support

« on: December 13, 2007, 11:29:59 pm »

When you say microsoft windows, I am assuming you mean the default calendar that comes with Windows XP or older. I agree, if you dont have outlook, outlook express or Windows Vista, Hals calendar is a step up. And it is good that Hal has a basic defacto calendar. Even if someone added exchange client or DDE support to Hal, there is a possibility that none of the supported calendar programs are on the users machine.

But... Hals calendar is still about 3 generations behind outlook or even the default calendar program that comes with Vista. (Looks like it is strait out of the 90s with only the most basic functionality). Outlook and Vista's Calendar support tasks versus appointments, color coded priorities, various views (weekly, daily, monthly), integration across other MS Office products and cutomizable reminder options. Sorry, but three days just doesn't work for every appointment type in the world. Some things you dont need to know about till the day of. Other things, you need to know about weeks in advance.

And while yes, Hal could be upgraded... why? Let Hal focus on what hal is good at. Let someone else build the calendar/appointment management program. Just make Hal capable of pushing and pulling data from it. Im telling you, this functionality is money in the bank. There is NOTHING on the market that does this right now. Dragon NaturallySpeaking comes the closest, but it doesn't support natural language for desktop command and control. You have to use strict commands.

Anyway, thats my 2 cents. I may look into this.

2

General Discussion / No Skin option?

« on: December 13, 2007, 10:22:10 am »

Thanks for the welcome.

3

General Discussion / Windows Calendar or Outlook Support

« on: December 11, 2007, 08:49:59 pm »

One thing that I really wanted but havent seen in any of the Virtual Desktop Assistant offerings is the ability to schedule appointments and have them go directly into Miscrosoft Outlook Calendar or Windows Calendar under Vista. I would love it if Hal had calendar program options to store the actual appointment data in (even if it was only a copy).  

There are several ways to do this, some more intrusive than others. (DDE possibly?) I was hoping maybe there is a plugin to add this option or one being developed that isn't listed on the site.  

If not, I might consider making one if other people express interest. However, I only know C++ and Java. Dont know VB.

4

General Discussion / No Skin option?

« on: December 11, 2007, 07:52:08 pm »

Is there a way to make the window 100% transparent or have no window at all? I realize from a programming perspective the issue is window focus. IE: when the user types (or talks), how does hal know when the data is meant for hal versus another program?

While I could brainstorm a few ideas (say or type "Hal" (User defined)... no window focus or modal window = hal intercepts input, etc...), I was wondering if anyone has made a plugin to address this?

CyberBuddy and Deskbot have windowless interfaces, but they dont listen. They only announce events and read popup windows.