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Abhibhavak Organizer: As if Guardian in Life (AO)
The Developer's Words

At this junction, the most relevant question would probably be: why do we need another organizer in this world? My answer to it goes thus: Most organizers remind only once about an activity to be done (whether by a beeping sound or by an e-mail). This is true even for periodic repeated activities, in the sense that the current turn to perform the repeated activity is informed only once. But the need to perform an activity or a current turn of an activity doesn't vanish at a moment or even in a day. As it may not always be possible to perform that immediately, so there really lies a need to be reminded about it on the next day also, and even on the next to next day etc., if the task is not done till then. Thus an organizer might tell me today to buy the new issue of the 'Time' published today, but if it doesn't become possible for me to buy it today or tomorrow, it should again remind me on the day after tomorrow, and so on.

                  Most organizers don't, however, do such a sort of a thing. To satisfy the need felt by me for such an organizer, I had created this organizer. Later, however, I decided to turn it into a generalized program suitable for public use. This 'Abhibhavak Organizer' doesn't just remind about something to be done, it also asks whether an activity (or a current turn of an activity) has been performed, and waits for an answer (Y/N keyboard response): depending on this keyboard response, the organizer would behave differently when it is opened the next time. The word 'Abhibhavak' in its name is an Assamese one that means 'guardian', as this organizer is supposed to act like a guardian for the users, questioning repeatedly about the activities to be performed, till they are actually performed.

                  As would be normal for such an oddly behaving organizer, Abhibhavak organizer doesn't automatically get opened whenever something is needed to be reminded, but it reminds only when it is opened. Thus, whenever it is opened, whether by a human user or by a memory resident program, it reminds the bona-fide user in one go about all of his/her activities, relevant in that time, to be performed. So, it is advisable that this organizer is allowed to get opened daily once or twice by some different, memory resident (TSR) program such as the Windows Task Scheduler (Scheduled Tasks). To do so, let the memory resident program open the file C:\AO3rd\DontOpen\AO.exe  at one or two definite timings everyday.

                  When opened, it first asks one to choose the user (as this application is meant for twenty people), then prompt for the individual user's password, then asks whether the then relevant activities have been performed (including the things already in back-log status), and then prompts for any new schedules to be made. Before exiting, a user is also allowed to maintain a password-protected electronic diary (can be searched afterwards for specific entries) for that day and for the previous days, and can also share an alphabetically auto-sorted address-book.

                  The details about making schedules and responding to them is too easy to merit discussion here -- instead I welcome the user to install this program if not already done, and to just double-click at the icon of the 'Abhibhavak Organizer' file at the desktop, and appreciate for himself/ herself the extremely user-friendly character of this novel organizer.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):

What are the hardware and operating system requirements for this application?
To install and work with this application, you need to have Windows 95 or a higher version of Microsoft Windows as your operating system, in a PC  with a Pentium I (120 MHz) or a faster processor with at least 8 MB RAM and connected to preferably a color monitor, and in which there is at least 5 MB of disk space free in the hard disk drive you install Abhibhavak into. These hardware criteria mentioned here are, however, over-satisfied with an extremely wide margin in most PCs nowadays, while Windows 95 or a higher version of Microsoft Windows is the operating system in most PCs around the world. In addition, you need to also have your monitor (VDU) screen resolution tuned in to at least 800 by 600 pixels and also the Windows Display Font Size tuned at Small Fonts, already made so (see next question) in most modern computers.

Whenever I try to open this organizer, an error message comes: row or column position is off the screen. What is the problem?
Most probably your monitor (VDU) screen resolution (screen area in Windows terminology) is not set to a level high enough (i.e., at least to a level of 800 by 600 pixels) to allow 28 or more rows to be shown in the Visual FoxPro screen, so all the lines in the organizer could not be properly shown. Alternatively, you might have the monitor settings specifying all characters to be shown in the form of large fonts. To change this situation, click (after closing all programs) at the Start button, then at Settings, then at Control Panel, then double click the Display icon, then click at the Settings button in this Display Properties screen, then at the lower part of this screen try setting the Screen Area knob to the value of 800 by 600 pixels. If it is already set at that value or the problem persists even after this correction, then there is a problem with the font size. In that case, instead of moving the Screen Area knob click the Advanced button just nearby, then change the Font Size to Small Fonts. After making any change(s), click Apply, then click OK to let such change(s) take effect. If the resulting screen appears deformed, i.e., the left or the right part is black, try pressing the monitor buttons (physical buttons) as explained in your monitor (hardware) manual. After properly doing all this, you may need to restart your computer for the new settings to properly take effect.

I am getting an strange problem with your program. Whenever I contemplate for a while keeping Abhibhavak open, thus let the screen saver (or monitor dimmer) run, I cannot get back the original screen of Abhibhavak and the screen turns blank-white. Such a problem has never occurred in any other application! What to do when this occurs?
This occurs with SB & Abhibhavak only in some computers, not all, and I am sorry that I couldn't make out why. This must be having something to do with Visual FoxPro itself. However, there is nothing intrinsically wrong happening with your data files or with Abhibhavak when this error occurs, only the visual display is missing. So, don't worry - if you're knowledgeable enough about Abhibhavak to know the current environment you're working in, you may even continue working as if there is no problem. If you're not so fortunate, decide whether you want to save the current session of Abhibhavak till then, or cancel it. If you want to save the session, press Enter once or several times till you get back a proper visual display of your program screen to work with, or are successfully thrown out of  Abhibhavak with a saved session. If you want to cancel the session, press Esc once or several times till you cancel the session & come out, or get back a proper visual display to work with.

I have my Abhibhavak running perfectly well, but the only problem is that it hardly, if ever, informs me about my impending tasks! What the hell is this?
Most probably, the battery of the processor clock in your computer is down, so the computer has been ignorant of the correct date and time in the outside world, and hence can't pass that information correctly to Abhibhavak. To rectify that, may buy and install a new battery (now, in 2002, it costs less than fifty Indian Rupees) OR correct the date and time every time you turn the computer on (this option is obviously cumbersome).

I want a shortcut to this organizer program to remain on my 'Windows Desktop', so that I can start it by double-clicking at the icon there. How can I do that?
It should happen automatically during the installation. If it doesn't, you simply need to copy the link file named 'Abhibhavak Organizer', present in the folder C:\AO3rd (that contains this organizer), and paste the copy at the Windows Desktop. Well, if you don't follow that, this means that you need to open the said folder, then right-click at the icon of the said file, click at Copy in the resulting menu, then close this folder and get the 'Windows Desktop', right-click at a blank space therein, and in the resulting menu click at Paste. (You should then see the copied file icon appearing at the 'Desktop' within a second or two.)

Someday back I downloaded your (FoxPro/ Visual FoxPro) organizer, and has made some schedules etc. in it. Can I upgrade to this latest priced version with my already made work intact?
Yes, you can. This latest version has full modification facility for schedules and several other nice features, so you should upgrade. To upgrade from a Visual FoxPro based older version of this organizer at the folder C:\AO3rd, just install the latest version - old work won't be harmed. [In case of an older VFP version in some other folder, change the folder name to C:\AO3rd before upgradation. In case of a FoxPro based version, the old version was probably in the folder C:\SB_Organizer -- in that case first change or copy the old folder name from SB_Organizer to C:\AO3rd, then install the latest version as usual, and then open the organizer taking care to enter into both your schedules and your diary and to save (not cancel) the session -- whenever you are asked to mark a database file with code page, select Windows ANSI. Next time you open the organizer, no such Database-CodePage sort of question would probably be asked, but by now you know the answer anyway.

How many types of reminder schedules can be made here?
You can make schedules to remind to do something only once (non-repetitive tasks), and also everyday, every alternate days, every N days (N from 3 to 9999), every week, every two weeks, every month, every two months, every three months, every six months, every year, every two years, every three years, every five years or every six years for repetitive tasks such as paying annual insurance premiums (installments).

Can I use it to wake me up from sleep everyday at 6 AM?
Not in a direct way. First of all, the computer must remain on, secondly a memory resident program must call it everyday at 6 AM, thirdly only the ten introductory beep sounds will be heard (until you choose the username and fill in the password) and not the message: "Everyday on or after 6 AM you have to Wake Up ... Have you done that [Y,N]?" This organizer is not actually meant to wake people up.

You said it keeps track of one's non-performed tasks and keeps questioning about them. I went to the countryside for a long visit and could not buy many issues of the 'Time'. Would it keep nagging me about whether I bought those old issues or not?
If you make a schedule here to remind about a periodic activity such as buying issues of periodicals etc., then it will only ask about the current turn, i.e., about buying the current issue. However, for any repetitive activity, it would always show the 'Fresh incidents of non-performance/ non-reportage of this activity', which in this case would indicate the number of periodicals recently missed.

There's a difference between buying monthly periodicals and getting a monthly hair cut, in the sense that the latter becomes necessary only a month after the actual date of getting the last hair-cut, and not on a fixed time in every month. Does it have a special provision for such type of activities?
Yes. Whenever you first make any repetitive schedule, you'll be asked whether to 'count next date from the performance-reporting day'. This entry (also the next date and schedule wording etc.) can however always be modified at any later date or time.

One of our colleagues has left our organization. How can she take her schedules and diary to her new place, and how can the person replacing her keep his schedules and diary at the same user number?
You see, the schedules and diary of user number 1 is kept in the files 001.dtb and 0001.dtb (and so on; if you don't have such files, upgrade to the latest version) in the folder C:\AO3rd\DontOpen, so if the person leaving was user number 03, let her copy the files 003.dtb and 0003.dtb to her new organization's computer (if there already exist an user number 03 in the new organization, she must choose a new user number, and get her own files accordingly renamed). The two files belonging to the leaving employee could be deleted, if so desired, from the old organization's computer to make that user number available for any new-comer employee.

We have more than twenty people in our organization, sharing the same computer. May we have other copies of Abhibhavak in the same computer?
Yes, this is possible as well as legally allowed. However, this is possible only after the first copy of Abhibhavak has been duly authenticated in the computer. To generate multiple copies, copy the contents of the \AO3rd folder to another folder (say to \Guardian). Then create a shortcut in the desktop to the ao.exe file within that folder, e.g., to \Guardian\DontOpen\ao.exe, and also open the Windows Task Scheduler to add a scheduled task of opening that copy of ao.exe file daily. Then erase the personal schedule and diary files (001.dtb, 0001.dtb, 002.dtb etc.), if any, in the new folder: this action will make these user-spaces available to the surplus people.

In case I uninstall Abhibhavak, would it require another key diskette from the seller to reinstall it? Abhibhavak, would it require another key diskette from the seller to reinstall it?
First of all it is not understood why one would uninstall Abhibhavak. Its and/or its installer program's key files consumes at most around 3 MB of disk space, which is ten thousand times smaller than the space in a  modern hard disk. If you still want to uninstall Abhibhavak, do not manually delete the Abhibhavak folder or any file other than those erased by the uninstall program. If you do not manually delete anything, you may safely reinstall without requiring any authentication process or key (floppy) diskette from the seller: just take care to reinstall to the same folder. If you do not manually delete anything, you'll not lose even your schedules and/or diary.

May I get the shared address book in a text-file format so that I may print that using an word-processor such as WordPad?
Yes, a text-file form of the address book is always generated every time you use the address book in Abhibhavak. This file is named Address.txt and is kept in the Backup subfolder of the working folder, along with the other data files needed to be backed up. You however need to know one thing: if you want to edit this file manually by an word-processor and preserve that for future reference, you should do so only to a differently named copy of this file, because the next session of the address book in AO will silently generate a new Address.txt file, overwriting the old Address.txt file. (Similar is the matter with the text-file forms of the diaries e.g., 0001.txt, 0002.txt etc., generated when you choose the print diary option in Abhibhavak.)

How to back up the schedules, the diaries and the address book to guard against hard-disk failure?
If you're user number 01, you should periodically back up into floppy diskette etc. your schedule file 001.dtb and your diary file 0001.dtb, just as you should do for any other electronic personal documents typed into the computer. If you are the chief user in charge of this organizer, you should also periodically back up the common list (usernames & passwords list) file sb_persn.dtb and the common address-book file sb_addr.dtb. You may note that all these document files needed to be backed up are conveniently kept together also in the Backup subfolder (i.e., generally the folder C:\AO3rd\Backup), so that this folder may be backed up wholly into a floppy disk (directly or in a zipped form), preferably as multiple copies inside multiple folders (e.g., A:\Backup1, A:\Backup2, A:\Backup3 etc.) of the floppy diskette. (If you prefer to backup into a CD, take care of the fact that all files and folders copied onto a CD automatically gets a read-only attribute, and after copying the files and folders back to the aforesaid hard-disk folder, this attribute must be removed therein for proper working of SB.) The key floppy diskette used in authentication of this organizer is an otherwise new and practically empty diskette with such multiple folders, so it may be a handy one to be used for backup.
In case of a hard-disk failure, you need to follow these steps: first, contact your program vendor to have Abhibhavak properly re-installed (as well as authenticated) in your computer. Secondly, you need to collect the above-mentioned contents of your Backup subfolder from your floppy disk or internet backup folder etc., and copy these contents to the DontOpen subfolder also in the working folder of Abhibhavak. You'll see that your old, familiar schedules and/or diaries are breathing intact.

Is there any known bug(s) or problem(s) associated with this application?
None. Even after the long and extensive use by the developer and a few others, none was found.

End-User License Agreement     Website (Developer):  www.geocities.com/riturajkalita/ao.htm

E-mail (Developer):    rkalita@rediffmail.com

Abhibhavak Bulletin in English         Inaugural Speech in Assamese about Abhibhavak