Make Outlook birthdays time-zone independent, not all-day events.

[Guest]

Outlook currently treats birthdays as "all-day events," meaning that if you
relocate to another time zone, all of your contacts' birthdays suddenly span
two days. This doesn't make sense, especially because Outlook is time-zone
agnostic when you first input the birthday for each contact.

Therefore, if the user changes his/her time zone, Outlook should not shift
birthdays into two-day events.

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http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...9529e&dg=microsoft.public.outlook.calendaring

 

[Pat Garard]

G'Day Eric,

Since MOST of my Contacts are Local, I don't find this a problem.

For the few remote Contacts I have, I DELIBERATELY skew
the All-Day Event to represent THEIR Time-Zone.

This means that I know at what (MY) time the Birthday starts and
ends FOR THEM.

I can then ring them at (their) midnight - or avoid doing so if I want
to keep their business.

If I shift Time Zones (temporarily), Outlook shifts ALL these Events
for me so I still know when their birthday is active for them....

.....of course some of them may be overseas also.....

 

[ProfDD]

If I were born at 12:01am on Jan 1, 2000 in Guam, then when should my
birthday be celebrated when my parents move me to Hawaii ? In most of
the world, including Hawaii, my birth would have occurred on Dec. 31,
1999. Because there can be advantages to being born on a certain date
or in a certain year, I would expect people to seek out flexibility in
defining what their birthday is. The effect of Outlook's time zone
translation is to highlight the ambiguities of simultaneity in a
globally oriented world.

 

[Pat Garard]

G'Day Prof,

You need the New Smart Birth Certificate with an embedded GPS
Chip that records your Birth Date & Time in UTC.

As you change locations on the surface of the Globe, it displays your
Local Birth Date & Time - corrected for daylight saving where
appropriate.

However, to minimise communications traffic, your Birthday has been
reduced to a Birthhour!

 

[Diane Poremsky [MVP]]

Huh?

What pat is saying is that he likes to have birthdays skewed so it matches
the person's time zone, not his own - it makes it easier to call them in
their time zone to wish them a happy birthday, especially for people at the
tail end of the globe.

Your problem is not the same though. See
http://www.slipstick.com/emo/2005/up050623.htm#tz for some tips on
correcting the problem.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/

 

[Pat Garard]

G'Day Diane,

I've done some work on the MSNBC replacement 'Outlook Today' page.
Please e-mail me if you would like a copy.
--
Regards,
Pat Garard
Melbourne, Australia
_______________________

Huh?

What pat is saying is that he likes to have birthdays skewed so it matches the person's
time zone, not his own - it makes it easier to call them in their time zone to wish them
a happy birthday, especially for people at the tail end of the globe.

Your problem is not the same though. See
http://www.slipstick.com/emo/2005/up050623.htm#tz for some tips on correcting the
problem.

--
Diane Poremsky [MVP - Outlook]
Author, Teach Yourself Outlook 2003 in 24 Hours
Coauthor, OneNote 2003 for Windows (Visual QuickStart Guide)
Author, Google and Other Search Engines (Visual QuickStart Guide)



Join OneNote Tips mailing list: http://www.onenote-tips.net/

If I were born at 12:01am on Jan 1, 2000 in Guam, then when should my
birthday be celebrated when my parents move me to Hawaii ? In most of
the world, including Hawaii, my birth would have occurred on Dec. 31,
1999. Because there can be advantages to being born on a certain date
or in a certain year, I would expect people to seek out flexibility in
defining what their birthday is. The effect of Outlook's time zone
translation is to highlight the ambiguities of simultaneity in a
globally oriented world.

 

[ProfDD]

G'Day Prof,

You need the New Smart Birth Certificate with an embedded GPS
Chip that records your Birth Date & Time in UTC.

As you change locations on the surface of the Globe, it displays your
Local Birth Date & Time - corrected for daylight saving where
appropriate.


However, to minimise communications traffic, your Birthday has been
reduced to a Birthhour!
--
Regards,
Pat Garard
Melbourne, Australia

I was all set to buy one until you mentioned the bandwidth-reduction
kludge: the Birthhour. I'm going to wait until the nanosecond-precise
model becomes available.

This does raise the possibility that all events could be scheduled
henceforth in compact, standardized UTC/GPS format, leaving to software
the tedious chore of translating time and place into appropriate user
terms. This would also greatly facilitate getting event-specific
environmental forecasts, such as weather, sun protection requirements,
allergens, pollutants, oxygen availability, etc. Coupled with
information about attendee buying preferences, the predicted available
inventory of retail establishments in the vicinity, and attendee
purchase-decision information-gathering, an optimum schedule of
adve..., er, information provision could be delivered to the attendees.

I like how you think, Garard.

 

[Pat Garard]

`[:-}