Heather King's dashboard

I'm with you Bob! This is a ridiculous argument. What a pointless 'feature request.' – jedweb, on July 23, 2008 13:25

I think there's a simple solution. It's definitely a useful service that's elegantly and cleverly crafted. But why not have 2-3 options? Why not an Andy as well as a Sandy? And maybe personalize what you want your assistant to look like? That will allow anyone who wants to keep Sandy to do so, but for those of us who believe that words and images matter, even on a subconscious level, we can have an alternative choice.

Settle down, Bob Loblaw/anonymous, and give people the benefit of the doubt here.

It's not a huge problem, and nobody's "wringing their hands", or crying like babies over this, or even offended about it. We're just raising it as an issue in the service's issues forum. I'm not blogging that this is a terrible sexist service or anything. I'm supporting the claim that this is in fact a problem to some degree, I'm asking for an improvement that would address this perceived problem, and I'm suggesting an easy fix.

No big deal, and certainly not grounds for anybody (least of all an anonymous new user like you) to throw accusations at me. It's a feature request, not a complaint. Learn to understand some subtlety.

Sexism has nothing to do with it. They're not positing that women are inferior or not capable. In fact, Sandy is more than capable. She fights crime, cleans Inboxes, and could well be a very valuable member of your team!

You are saying that by virtue of a cartoon being cheerful, kind, and helpful, that this is somehow sexist. It's a shame that you associate kindness, cheer and enthusiasm as inferior traits. If I'm reading between the lines, you think that these are only inferior traits in women.

So now who's the sexist? You're very comfortable giving "negative" traits as you see it another gender?

I can only imagine what you'd think if there was a body-shot of Sandy somewhere on the website. You'd probably have a heart attack if you detected the slightest evidence of a breast.

Go make yourself that greasemonkey script. Set it to use the goatse portrait for all I care. I just didn't realize we could start calling people sexist for made up reasons these days!

EDIT: I see you're an attorney from Canada. Nevermind. I withdraw my disbelief that you would complain about this.

Hey, Bob Loblaw/anonymous person -- The service is innovative and unique and powerful and free, which is all great. That doesn't mean it isn't open to legitimate criticism for what are probably innocent oversights on the part of the developers. They wanted to make a friendly, human persona and they succeeded. Now some of us have pointed out that in order to do that they entrenched well established stereotypes. You're not even denying that. We're also pointing out that that's a problem. Now, whether you agree that that's a problem or not, wouldn't you agree that it's a fairly easy thing to change? Provide some choice for me in my account's settings to choose the persona of my own Sandy: male/female would be a good start. The only change it would actually need to make would be that single image of "her" face when I view the site!

For that matter, maybe somebody would write up a Greasemonkey script that would change the image to an arbitrary graphic...

Anyone wringing their hands over this imagined issue needs to get a life. Bunch of babies crying about a free service because of some imagined sexism or perkism or whatever the hell you maniacs are babbling about.

I should be so lucky to have a cheerful helpful eager assistant! That's the whole point, you idiots! She's not a real person! She's probably 1200 lines of python that eats emails from slobs like us all day!

If the cheerful image of Sandy is somehow damaging your sensibilities, just give up on life now. The less whining and crying in the world the better. No amount of nerf and safety tape will protect you from the psychological horrors of places far more unsavory than iwantsandy.com.

I agree with the cupcake that the image of Sandy as a perky young female assistant, always available and always willing to help is problematic, if only because of the assumption that this is the image of what an assistant is. Of course a cranky balding man wouldn't be good branding, but there are lots of options in between.

Wouldn't it make sense to at least have some options for what Sandy looks like? You happen to have picked a name -- Sandy -- that *could* be a male name or female name. It couldn't be difficult to at least give the option of a male assistant for those who may want to avoid the retro stereotype but still want to make use of the service.

I'm typically pretty sensitive to this kind of thing...but I think of her more like Jeeves from the old AskJeeves.com. I never had a problem that he was some kind of snobby, uptight butler. Still, it might be cool to toggle her gender--seems like they have to be really sensitive to the brand they're creating though.

I would also like to be able to switch Sandy's gender!

This seems like it will become an important issue as Sandy gets introduced to more people. The fact that she is modeled after a real person goes a long way toward deflecting criticism but you have to explain it. Toggling the icon might be the best solution. I like the icon, but if she has to change maybe just something non gendered at all - a DNA double helix? - it looks kind of like an 'S'

I work at a small University and would like to spread Sandy around. Gender issues are important in my environment. I'd like to request a male female toggle. Sandy is an androgynous name, so a simple icon swap would be great.

Howdy folks!

We're going to start posting updates as separate topics here on Get Satisfaction rather than continuing this ever-growing topic thread. This will allow us to better highlight some of the changes we're making (rather than having them fall to the bottom of a super-long page and escape your notice) and afford you a topic thread to respond to without your responses getting lost in the shuffle.

And we've started with starting with today's whopping update which you'll find at http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy... .

—Rael

Howdy!

And welcome to another episode of "As the Sandy learns." On today's show...

= NEW! Sandy's email is now richer, prettier, and even more fun! =

Sandy's a pretty colorful and playful character, always striving not only to help you be more productive, but to bake a little fun into the otherwise functional nature of getting and keeping organized.

To that end, she's taken the wraps off her brand new HTML email format. Sandy's replies and reminders are now richer, prettier, and even more fun! Most importantly, though, they're still just as helpful, functional, and powerful as they've always been -- and there's deeper functionality on the way!

* Anyone signing up as a new client will have HTML email automatically enabled for their account.
* If you're an existing client, you can turn on HTML email by visiting http://iwantsandy.com/settings/email, selecting "Rich text (HTML)" under "Email format", and clicking the Save button.

(We wanted to be sure not to toss existing clients a curve-ball by having email showing up out of the blue.)

The HTML version of Sandy's email messages all still include a plain text version (identical to those you're already used to receiving) for compatibility with email programs that do better with plain text email.

We hope you enjoy the splash of color!

= Improved: Lookup results =

Some of you noted that when you looked something up (e.g. "Sandy, look up @todo"), you were surprised to see matching email messages thrown in with your appointments, to-dos, etc.

We've tweaked things in such a way as to vastly improve lookups and return only the results you were after.

* If Sandy finds any matching appointments, to-dos, etc., she'll return just those and not litter her reply with superfluous email matches.

* If she finds no matching items, she'll fall back to looking for email matches and return those instead. This is very useful in those cases when you've simply asked her to "Remember @meeting_notes" so that she's tag the contents of an email message with @meeting_notes.

In addition, all results now include context just in case there were some additional details around what you asked Sandy to remember for you.

We're always working with Sandy to hone the information she provides in her email replies and reminders and so very much appreciate all of your feedback, suggestions, and bug reports. A big shout out in particular to Robozoid, Solarkid, Thalia, JT, JWard6971, and others [http://gsfn.us/t/9hp] for all your input on this!

= Fixed: To-do toggling =

Some of you pointed out that in some cases toggling a to-do to done abjectly refused to, well..., toggle that to-do to done. (I know I found it maddening when I finally ran into it myself!) To-dos now toggle as expected!

= Fixed: Your stuff > To-dos =

The "To-dos" choice under the "Your stuff" menu once again brings up the list of all of your undone to-dos (i.e. anything tagged with @todo).

Thanks, Tutva and Steveisaacs! [http://gsfn.us/t/9hz]

= Fixed: Lookup Friday =

Some of you ran into an issue where every so often looking up a particular day's appointments or to-dos (e.g. "Sandy, look up Friday") didn't return them, but did (incorrectly) when you looked up the next day (e.g. "Sandy, look up Saturday").

There was a minor nit in lookups in some situations that was causing this -- it's been fixed and should bother you no more.

(Note that while lookups were running into this nit, Sandy's understanding of what day the appointment or to-do was actually scheduled for was spot on and reminders delivered on time.)

Thank you Steffen, Norbiq, and Nadia [http://gsfn.us/t/9i9] for helping us nail this down!

= Tweaked: Stylesheets =

We tweaked a bunch of stylesheet issues some of you mentioned; please do let us know if you still notice any wrapping bugaboos.

= Improved: Toggling to-dos, archiving, and editing retain short date or time format =

When you toggled a to-do, archived, or otherwise edited an item on the site, the updated item showed up with date and time in long form. Toggling, archiving, and updating is now smarter about context and so retains the nice short form date and/or time (e.g. "9am" instead of "Fri, 1/25/2008 9am").

If you're the sort of person who notices this sort of thing, you should notice the change right away ;-).

Enjoy!

Rael

Howdy,

We've been pretty heads-down the past few days, working on improvements, fixes, and some fabulous new functionality you'll see appearing over the coming week -- starting with a couple of nice new features we pushed in last night's update...

= NEW! Goals: Focus on what's important =

Your head has better things to do than to keep track of the myriad details of daily life. Sandy's mission is to remember those details for you, freeing you up to focus on what's important.

And what better way to keep your eye on the prize than to write it down and keep it front-and-center as you go about your day.

To that end, we've carved out a spot in your Daily Digest to add a goal, guiding principle, or inspirational quote that'll appear at the top of your Digest email each morning and alongside your appointments and to-dos on your "Today" page at http://iwantsandy.com/home.

My personal inspiration for this week reads: "Anywhere is walking-distance if you have the time."

To add a goal to your Daily Digest, visit http://iwantsandy.com/home, click the "Customize" link, type or paste it into the "Goal, principle, or inspiration" field, and click the "Save" button. Your goal will appear immediately at the top-right of the page and any time you visit your "Today" page thereafter.

= NEW! Invite your friends =

Everyone deserves a personal assistant! That's why Sandy makes it simpler-than-pie to introduce her to your friends, family, and co-workers and share appointments, to-dos, and other details just by Cc'ing her.

Some of you have been asking us to bake invitations right into Sandy's web site so that you can see exactly what Sandy will be mailing off to your friends as well as having the chance to include a note of your own.

And that's just what we've done. At the top of any page on Sandy's web site you'll find a brand new "Invite" link that leads to a brand new "Invite a friend" page at http://iwantsandy.com/invite .

* Invite one or many friends all in one go.
* A handy "Add from my address book" wizard gives you easy access to your friends' email addresses, wherever they're stored: AOL, Yahoo!, Outlook, Gmail, Plaxo, Palm, ...
* Because you know your friends better than Sandy does, you can choose an invitation template for Sandy to use.
* Enclose a personal note to your friend(s).
* Anyone you invite is added to your Friends list [http://iwantsandy.com/friends], where you can choose what you would like Sandy to do when when they share something with you.

Give the gift that keeps on reminding!

= Added: An iPhone/iPod WebClip bookmark icon =

If you're packing an iPhone and want to keep Sandy -- and your stuff -- close at hand, give the iPhone's new WebClip functionality a whirl.

1. Visit http://iwantsandy.com/home and pinch and twiddle the page so that it's focused on and zoomed in to just the right spot.
2. Tap the [+] at the bottom of your iPhone's screen.
3. Tap the "Add to Home Screen" button.
4. Name the WebClip "Sandy" or "I want Sandy".
5. Click the Add button at the top-right of your iPhone's screen.

Poof! Sandy appears as a shiny new WebClip icon (we even gave her a special iPhone WebClip-specific icon) right on your iPhone's home screen. Any time you need to consult the stuff Sandy's remembering for you, toggle a to-do to done, or the like, just tap the Sandy icon on your home screen.

= Here's an idea: Valentine's day insurance! =

Valentine's Day is only 24 days away. How about a little Valentine's Day insurance?

Send email to Sandy and include:

Please remind me @yearly @valentines +
* find the perfect Valentine's Day gift by 2/13
* Valentine's Day on 2/14

Sandy will not only make sure you don't forget to wish your loved-one a happy Valentine's Day on February 14th, but she'll also drop you a last minute reminder to pick up something special in case you've cut it a little too close.

= Improved: Lists =

Some of you were running into some issues with lists (particularly lists of multiple items you wanted Sandy to remember) [http://iwantsandy.com/help/lists]. We've worked with Sandy to put in some fixes and lists should now be behaving as you would expect them to. In particular, Sandy now takes into account that some Web mail services introduce oodles of blank lines into your replies.

If you're still running into trouble working with lists, please do forward one of Sandy's responses to an attempt at a list to help@iwantsandy.com and we'll tuck right in.

Much deserved kudos to Chris, Scott Ott, Bsoist, Beck, Mike, Netdiva, and others [http://gsfn.us/t/8xz] for your troubleshooting, suggestions, and patience!

= Improved: Tag visibility =

A minor tweak to the way tags are displayed in lists makes them stand out rather nicely.

= Fixed: Sorting and grouping =

Some of you found that the headings associated with groupings of appointments, reminders, and to-dos were off by a few hours -- even though the reminders themselves arrived right on time. We hunted down and took care of the bug, so date and time headings should now be spot on.

= Fixed: Dropped words =

Sandy was occasionally dropping a seemingly-special word or two like "schedule" or "book" from the names of your appointments. You should run into this sort of thing no more; if you do, please do let us know.

We're very much appreciating all the incredible feedback, suggestions, and other discussion here on Get Satisfaction. Please do keep it up and we'll respond just as quickly as our worn-down-to-the-nub programmer fingers will allow.

—Rael

Howdy,

Here's a little something for all you BlackBerry-toting Sandy folk...

= Added: Email attachments setting =

You can now now let Sandy know whether or not she should include iCalendar (calendar invitation) and vCard (contact) attachments in her replies.

So whether you just don't need the attachments, have already subscribed your Outlook or iCal calendar to Sandy's iCal feed [http://iwantsandy.com/help/feeds], don't have a calendar or address book to fill, or whatever your reason, you'll find a new "Email attachments" setting at http://iwantsandy.com/settings/email to turn them off (or back on again -- the default).

This setting is particularly useful to those of you emailing primarily from your BlackBerries as the silly (yet incredibly useful) devices don't seem to know what to make of anything but plain text (and a modicum of HTML). (If you're interested in the gory details on this, take a gander at http://www.blackberry.com/btsc/search... .)

A great big shout-out to Non-Sequitur, George, JT, and others [http://gsfn.us/t/7z9, http://gsfn.us/t/7zj] for helping us narrow down the issue and proposing this as a workaround!

—Rael

Howdy,

It's been a jam-packed couple-three days here at Sandy Central. Here are a few things we've whipped up and into shape...

= New: Google Calendar Gadget =

For details, click here: http://gsfn.us/t/7xb

= Added: Resend Welcome email message =

We've added "Resend Welcome email message" link to Sandy's Welcome page at http://iwantsandy.com/welcome just in case your mail program has managed to misplace the original.

= Fixed: Some intermittent unruly timezone behavior =

A few of you here and there were running into oddities where the timezone for one of your appointments was incorrectly set to UTC or, well, someplace else, rather than your own time-zone. Marshall set it to rights and so you'll not not be bothered by that bug again.

And along the same lines, you should no longer have the odd to-do showing up a day early or a day late in your Daily Digest.

= Fixed: Multiple "Updated a month ago" groupings =

You'll find your stuff is now grouped properly by when it was last updated rather than appearing as multiple "Updated a month ago" groups.

= Fixed: iCal to-do toggling links =

Thanks to our friend R for pointing out that the to-do toggling links that appear in the notes column in iCal were not working as they should.

—Rael

Howdy,

And a happy new year! I trust you all had happy and healthy celebrations and are diving into 2008 with abandon -- or at least easing in with something approaching abandon ;-).

Today's update features some bug fixes and minor nits we wanted to take care of before pushing on...

= Changed: Vodafone UK removed from SMS carriers =

After much hand-wringing -- by us and by some of you -- we have decided to give up on letting people keep hitting the Vodafone UK email-to-SMS gateway wall. To that end, we've removed Vodafone UK from the list of SMS carriers at http://iwantsandy.com/settings/mobile.

If anyone actually has Vodafone UK working for SMS reminders, please do let us know as we'd love to glean what you did right and try applying it to your fellow Sandy clients.

= Added: Reminder and reply tag hints =

We've added some hints on using Sandy's new reminder [http://iwantsandy.com/help/guide#remi...] and reply [http://iwantsandy.com/help/guide#replies]. You'll see these appearing along with the rest at the bottom of Sandy's usual replies.

= Fixed: "remind get back to Mike" dropping "get back to" bug =

In the midst of readying some further functionality (which you'll all no doubt love when it's done ;-), a bug was introduced which caused Sandy to sometimes drop words before "to", for example: "Remind get back to Mike" ended up in a reminder titled "Mike" rather than "Get back to Mike".

We test rather comprehensively to assure that these sorts of things don't creep in, but every now and then one sneaks through. I apologize for any confusion this might have caused you.

= Added: All the recurrence tags to the Tags menu =

We corrected an oversight in not adding new recurrence tags to the Tags menu -- you'll find the full complement there now.

= Fixed: You can now set reminders through the web site for unscheduled events =

There were some odd interactions between setting a "5 minutes from now" or "1 hour from now" reminder on something that either wasn't scheduled or was scheduled as an all day event. Setting reminders through the web site now works as expected across the board.

—Rael

Howdy!

A few improvements and two of the most-requested features...

= New! Choose how you'll be reminded -- or not =

See the announcement at [http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...].

= New! Let Sandy know if you'd like an email reply -- or not =

See the announcement at [http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...].

= Improved: Default names when you Subject: remind or remember =

When you simply put "remember" or "remind me ..." in the subject line so that Sandy can keep track of all the text in the email you're sending her, she'll now use some of the first paragraph in the email body to give that item a name.

Thanks to Lista, Forge42, and Non-Sequitur [http://getsatisfaction.com/iwantsandy...] for all their testing!

= Improved: Too chatty? =

We re-added a "Too chatty?" P.s. to replies with a link to change your email reply settings.

Happy new year!

Rael

Thanks for delivering the extra holiday goodies. Glad to see work on Sandy progressing well!

Cheers,
Greg

As soon as my phone is done charging, I will be testing the Jott tags (specifically, todos). Assuming they work, I will weep tears of joy. Well done Rael!