I've been using Google Calendar extensively to try to keep track of all of my meetings. In general, I would say that it has been marginally successful; the sharing is very basic and it doesn't do resource scheduling (such as "I want a Conference Room, any conference room, for my meeting"). No matter, it is better than using a legacy option like Exchange/Outlook or iCal. I can get there from my iPhone and open it with any web browser.

Over the past few weeks I've been struggling with a bug in Google Calendar, and couldn't figure out why it was happening. It turns out that Google, as you would expect, tries to be too smart without understanding the consequences. Furthermore, the Google ego means that there is no bug reporting form. Whaaaa?

The bug goes like this: If you click on the calendar and create an entry, it will interpret the words in your entry and try to be smarter than you. For example, if you type "Meeting at 3 in Menlo Park" in the text box, it will create an hour long meeting at 3pm on the current day with the location of "Menlo Park". It will even ask you if you want a map.

Here's the bug: With Sentilla, we do a lot of work with Sun Microsystems... you know, those Java guys. Every now and again, we even have meetings with them. I type into the box "Sun Meeting at 3 at Sentilla World Headquarters". Next thing I know, Google Calendar says "event created" and I can't find it anywhere. Weird. I repeat this process 3 or 4 times. Same thing. Turns out, Google is putting the entry on Sunday (get it, "Sun") and calls the meeting "Meeting". Grrr. Damn you Google. Eric Schmidt was from Sun... Google, you can't be against Sun!