So, after an offhand comment from Doyce the weekend before, I discovered a new way to "stay in touch" with the office.

The biggest problem I have while on vacation is knowing what phonecons I need to attend regardless.  I try to keep the whole work-life balance in balance, but there was some big stuff going on Thursday-Friday that I knew I'd need to dial into.

I'm not all hooked up with a Crackberry, and though the Treo is a "smart" phone, doing IMAP mail with it from the office has always been a bit problematic.  Besides which, I don't need to access everything.  Most of what I need is to know about important meetings, both that they are coming and a reminder when they are happening.

Aha.

I already have an Outlook rule to shunt meeting invitations into their own folder (so that they are highly visible for responding to).  I simply extended that last week to (a) send a copy to my cell phone (so that I got an immediate notification that something was scheduled), and to (b) send a copy to my Gmail account.  Gmail then automagically made it a tentative appointment in my Google Calendar, complete with time zone-adjusted notification alarm before hit happened.

I immediately knew, then, when a meeting was scheduled.  I also got a reminder message before it was actually supposed to start (keeping track of the Real World is tough enough in Disney World) and could act accordingly (which, in a couple of cases, meant getting on the phone whilst the family was lounging at the pool). 

Good stuff.

It's also been suggested that I do something similar on the other end -- forward invites to Gmail events to my office e-mail, so that they can be sucked in (not quite as automagically) into my Outlook calendar, and thus synced onto my Treo.  Also a good idea that I will (selectively) pursue.

Y'know, pretty soon all this computer stuff is going to actually make our lives easier.  Imagine!

(As a parenthetical note, the WDW Coronado Springs resort had wired Ethernet access in each room -- $10/day.  It also had WiFi in the Conference Center, I heard.  And there was a Business Center where Net access could be had for $10/15 min (!), plus $1/page to print things ... except (a very nice touch) any sort of travel arrangements/documents.  I.e., I could go in there yesterday morning, and check in Margie via the Internet and print a "B" boarding pass for her, for free.  That was, in point of fact, the only online stuff I did for the weekend, except some very rare Gmail checking by phone.)

Filed under :: Job Jollies :: My Computer :: Travel - WDW 07