On since Feb 9 14:05:19 on pts/18 from TS13-59.UPENN.EDU New mail received Sun Feb 9 14:15:39 1997; unread since Sun Feb 9 14:05:24 1997 Project: See http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~jbaron Plan: TIMES FREE FOR APPOINTMENTS & MEETINGS (PICK ONE, THEN SEND ME EMAIL) 2/17 m 1:30-4 2/18 tu 10-10:30, 1-2:30, 3:30-4:20 ... [rest of schedule for a month] Note: If you are reading this on the web, make sure to reload.People on other computers must say finger -l baron to see all this (-l, not -1). If you are not logged in at the time, people can still see when you read your mail. This allows them to determine, for example, whether you read your mail since they sent you a message.
Many people find a public schedule like the one above convenient for scheduling meetings. If you want to do this, here is how. Make a .plan file and edit it when you change your schedule.
Specifically, if you use pico as an editor, say:
pico
.plan
and then type in the schedule. I use tabs to
separate the columns. To revise the schedule, do the same. If
you get in the habit, you can reduce the number of keystrokes
required by making an alias. To do this, edit your .cshrc file by
saying pico .cshrc and add a line near the end that says
(for example) alias pp "pico .plan". Do this carefully,
so that you don't erase your .cshrc file.
Note: For this to work, your directory must be unprotected and
the .plan file must be unprotected. To unprotect the .plan file, say
chmod 644 .plan
To unprotect your whole directory,
suppose your name is baron. You say:
cd ..
chmod 755 baron
cd
When you do this, people on cattell will also be able to read
the names of all your files and read the files themselves if you
unprotect them. If you want even the names of some files to be
private, you can put them in protected subdirectories. Most
users already have unprotected directories, so they won't need to
do this second step.
If you have a web page, you can put your schedule in your web page by making a link to .plan in your public_html directory and then putting a link to that link in your page itself. More people have access to web browsers these days than to computers with a finger command.
Specifically, to make the link, say ln .plan
public_html/plan. Then, in your web page, put a line that
says something like:
To make an appointment with me,
<a href="plan">check my schedule</a> and send me email.
(Everyone already has a "mailto" in their page.)
To remove the link at some later time, say rm public_html/plan.
BTW, the "Project" listing is another file called .project, limited to one line.