New Software: Dead or Alive?

Well, I did say we are in "a golden era of OSes, server software, Web stuff, and development tools," so I think we agree on a good deal of what's exciting today. But I have to take issue with you about group scheduling. Calendaring software remains entirely proprietary (there's no standard file format, for example); you can't access the data through either the Web or any programmatic interface. In fact, the industry is having to invent new e-mail that can be addressed on the Web just to enable things like community scheduling. This class of software also typifies my complaint about important repositories of information that have a low level of intelligence. Many e-mail packages are bundled wit h group scheduling. How many will let you set up a rule to forward your in-house e-mail to an Internet address when you're on the road? Don't get me started -- we ought to be able to do more with the vast processing power we now have. -- Mark Schlack, editor in chief