Bad Frameworks Limit Us

Just a quick post to remember a thought: Why do we let past paradigms constrain how we use technology?

Specifically, I use Zimbra at work for my calendar (group calendar).  You have the option of showing one day, the week, the workweek or a list.  Why can't this be customized - why to I have to continuously change weeks to work on my Monday schedule?  It seems obvious that I should be able to choose the number of days prior to the date and future to the date with some limitation on the total number of days that can be shown at once (for space/readability reasons).

I'd much rather be able to look at one day past, today and five days in to the future.  So simple, and yet our past paper calendar framework constrains interface designers in non-useful ways.

[Update: 2013-06-01 - Google calendar, I just noticed this, does have the four day view that lets you look at the next four days alone.  Just what I was looking for.  Unfortunately, my firm doesn't use it.]

Boogie Board - So close . . .

I am (un)fortunate enough to get the SmartHome email ads sent to me.  Its a store that have bought a few things at and has an interesting variety of gadgets.  It has been helpful when buying some of my Z-wave home automation devices.  Today, I got an email with a Improv Electronics Boogie Board JOT 8.5 LCD eWriter.  It looked intriguing (and this is not a category of device I've spent much time with), so I checked it out.

Desired Feature Set:

• Long battery life
• Reasonably good writing capture / pen
• Ability to have notes go into a cloud-based account over Wi-fi.  Think, I'm at the grocery store and my wife writes a quick list of items for me to get.  Hits the JOT button, the app on my phone beeps and I see her list.  Instant sharing.  For that matter, allow pictures (via the app or the website) to be shared via Facebook or any other social media network of the day.
• Ability to export notes as PDFs and TIF/BMPs and as rastor images.

Actual Feature Set:

It appears that the first two features are there - though I haven't played with this in person.  However, all you can do is hit the JOT button and store a page.  Then, when you are done writing notes, then you can upload to a computer (via USB).  Wow.

What a big miss.  My scale has wi-fi and sends data to the cloud.  Note that I'm aware that they are integrated in a fashion with EverNote.  Good for them, but its not the same.