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NANY 2010 Idea: A 'polite' reminder/diary system

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doctorfrog:
I'm looking for something fairly basic, but very specific: A rotating, automatic-prompting personal text log.


* The following happens at a user-defined interval: once every hour, half hour, five minutes, 3600 seconds, whatever.
* A small note window shows (but does not steal focus, unless the user specifies it should). It has a titlebar with a timestamp, a user-defined message, and enough editing room on it for a line or two of text. Hitting ENTER makes the window go away. No other interaction is necessary.
* The line of user-entered text is appended to a text file. A time/date stamp is affixed to the entry. As the day continues, the list of datestamped entries grows: a diary.
* The text file itself is also named with a datestamp and a user-configurable string. (ie. personal_log_11052009.txt. If the proper text file doesn't exist, it is automatically created.
* The text file is rotated into an archive folder every day, or every user-definable interval (be it seconds, minutes, days, years).
* An archive of simple text files slowly grows. A personal .log.
MOST IMPORTANT THING: POLITENESS

A reminder/diary system should never, ever, EVER steal focus away from what I'm working on. EVER! Something like this should help with workflow, not interfere with it.

Example: I love EssentialPIM's features list. I hate how it steals my attention and my keyboard focus when I'm working. Of course, it refuses to respect TweakUI's "don't steal focus" setting. I'm on XP, and will continue to be in the foreseeable future (I'm broke), so I can't make use of W7's enhanced focus stealing prevention feature.

Thus, nearly any solution I can cobble together on my own won't work, because all reminder applications I've tried ALWAYS insist upon stealing focus, no matter what I do.

Barring that, I'd still be happy to accept any light, portable software capable of the bullet list above. (.NET and JAVA apps need not apply.)

I already know I can use Notepad to do this in conjunction with basic reminder software, but that option lacks the rotating backups and the 'politeness' feature.

skwire:
This would actually be pretty easy to write in AHK.  Let me see what I can come up with.

tomos:
great idea doctorfrog  :Thmbsup:

a couple of thoughts:

A reminder/diary system should never, ever, EVER steal focus away from what I'm working on. EVER! Something like this should help with workflow, not interfere with it.
-doctorfrog (November 05, 2009, 03:27 AM)
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I would suggest that it stay on top though (that's maybe presumed - but just in case!)

Hitting ENTER makes the window go away. No other interaction is necessary.
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If the window shows on top without focus - you'd then have to give it focus & then press enter - that would work. Otherwise I'd suggest not using ENTER - in my experience (with App103's "Instant Boss" app) hitting the Enter key at the 'wrong' time sends the reminder window away unintentionally, sometimes before I even see it. Could be done via a hotkey or maybe even with the mouse?

skwire:
I can make it pop up on top of all windows but not activated/focused.  Also, I have a working prototype of this Frog Diary almost ready to go.

tomos:
I can make it pop up on top of all windows but not activated/focused.  Also, I have a working prototype of this Frog Diary almost ready to go.
-skwire (November 05, 2009, 06:10 AM)
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;D ;D
tester here ;)

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