It should just work.

The only thing you need to be careful about is to be sure not to install your configuration files on a public-access computer. FreeTime Calendar works without a password, so anyone who has your configuration files can modify your calendar. To use FreeTime Calendar on a public-access computer, install the software on the computer with the Windows installer, and set up a USB key with your calendar data. Then just plug your USB memory stick into the computer when you run the calendar program, and remove it when you are done.

The purpose of FreeTime Calendar is to save time. Typing a password takes time, so we don’t require one.

Yes, of course.

In the Config directory, create an ordinary text file and give it the name groups (on Windows – under Linux or on a MacIntosh, the filename will be is groups.txt). In this file, write names for your groups in square braces, like this: [Alan Partridge Fan Club]. The rest should be self-explanatory. Write to me at the address at the bottom of this page if you need help.

No.

That said, if it is possible to remove features without interfering with the basic functionality of the program, I might do that.

The short answer is that you would not want to store your credit card information in the system, and that’s why it’s not possible to do so.

The longer answer is that there are two security risks with FreeTime Calendar: one is mischief by an outsider; the other is mischief by another user. An outsider can do mischief for a short time if they obtain a copy of a userkey file. Another user can do mischief by tampering with their own userkey and lying about their identity in their profile file. If someone does try to break things in this way, nothing very interesting or dramatic happens – we might need to reschedule a meeting – so it’s hard to see why anyone would bother.

The short answer to this one is “No.”

The longer answer is that building a filtering utility to pipe in busy times from the standard ical files used by Google Calendar and other personal scheduling systems is certainly possible, but it would require a significant amount of time to implement, debug, and bundle for distribution. The test I’m applying for whether such a project is worth the effort is to wait for someone else to produce a well-tested, easy to use filter utility bundled up in a Windows installer. If the user interface of FreeTime Calendar is as efficient as I’ve tried to make it, we’re in for a very long wait. But if someone does come up with a filter utility, I’ll be very happy to offer it for download on the FreeTime Calendar site, with prominent credits to the author.

If you do want to build a filter utility, you’ll probably want to code it in Python to keep your life simple. The configuration and data files used by the calendar are standard-issue Python ConfigParser and cPickle files. These are simple to read and write from Python, but you would face a lot of irritating reimplementation work if you came at the task from another language.

FreeTime Calendar is free software. There is no fee for its use, and you can add any modifications to it that you like.

In terms of deployment, the FreeTime Calendar program will run on Windows, Linux and MacIntosh computers (among others). To share calendar information across a network, all you need is a server running SSH and SFTP. These are standard facilities included in any modern server operating system, so if you have a server of some sort running on your network, your system adminstrator should be able to help you set up a FreeTime Calendar service. If you are interested in setting up this service at your institution, send me mail via the email address at the bottom of this page. I’ll be happy to help out with the details.