I want Sandy
I was tipped off about I want sandy a couple of months ago by the excellent web worker daily site. It’s now moved out of beta, and I’ve started to use it much more.
The idea is simple, you email a certain address with the word ‘remind’ or ‘remember at the start, then the event itself. For example,
Sandy,
Remind me to pick up the dry cleaning at 5pm tomorrow.
Loads of other examples here. You then get a confirmation email, and at the appropriate time an email. You can also configure text message alerts, though I turned this off as I was usually at the meeting/event when the reminder came through, or as happened a couple of times I got the reminder at midnight.
The USP for me is that your Sandy (a nice, non-gender specific name if you like to think of your electronic PA as being male rather than female) can now act as a subscription to iCal, so each time I open up my MacBook I can see my Sandy appointments colour coded.
You can also ‘cc’ Sandy into any appointments made by email, and he’ll do his best to decypher what’s happening, for example,
Bob,
That’s good, see you tomorrow to discuss the new module.
Sandy,
Can you remind me at 2:00 tomorrow about meeting with Bob.
There’s lots more you can do, and I’ve only scratched the surface. As always what you get out of the software is only what you put in. I do like the anthropomorphising of the technology though, especially as sometimes Sandy’s emails back to have a human feel. Here’s the final example of the day.
Hello, Andy!
I scheduled this for you:
#1 Tue, 4/12 10:00am meeting with Sandra
Yours efficiently,
Sandy
The downside? Email confirmations are a little slow getting back to you, so you’re left a little in limbo that the appointment has actually been made (much like I imagine a real PA would be like, though I’ve never risen to that exalted rank). There’s some language quirks too that need to be ironed out, making the message you get back sometimes a little surreal.. but that’s all part of the fun.
Give it a go, commit to it’s use, and see what you think.
