Ross Belmont loves Backpack reminders: "I’d forget to do anything without Backpack’s reminders feature. It’s simple and it works beautifully."
Ross wanted to add reminders even when he's offline, so he wrote some code to create Backpack reminders via e-mail/SMS, which he calls "a no-brainer use of the Backpack API."
Here’s how it works: Type "call aunt betty sat aft" into a new text message. Send the message to “[email protected].” This can be any e-mail account you have that supports POP3. The software Ross wrote picks up the message and sets a Backpack reminder for Saturday at 2pm with the text "call aunt betty."
You can enter the date and time in either order. Here are some other examples of formats that work:
Call Dave(reminds you in three hours)Pick up dry cleaning 5pm wed(time comes before date…that’s OK)Make doctor's appt tom(reminds you tomorrow at 9am)Pick up dinner 5pm(reminds you today at 5pm)Send in taxes 4/15 9:30am(You do pay your taxes, right?)Report for active duty 9/1/07 15:00(Sept 1st of next year at 3pm)Post files soon(reminds you in 10 minutes)
Create Backpack reminders via e-mail/SMS is the original post that explains how the script works in more detail. The script has been rewritten since then. Here's a direct link to the newer, simpler version of the code. This more reliable script is the one to go with.
Note: You’ll need to download and run the script yourself. Ross says, "All you really need is a computer that can run Ruby, and a way to kick off the script to run every once in a while."
Hats off to Ross for this neat use of the API.
