I just received an email from Rael at Values of n letting everyone know they’re closing their doors.  Their intellectual property, including Sandy, was bought by Twitter, and Rael will be working there full time soon.  That sounds like an awesome opportunity for him, and I don’t want to diminish the potential there.

It wont be hard to move all my appointments and to-dos over to Remember the Milk or some other application.  And, I’m sure I’ll get used to the new system in time  But, I think Sandy’s “personality” is what made this particular to-do manager work for me.  It was easy to suspend disbelief, and think of it more as a “her” than just a web-based service.  I felt like I was letting her down if I didn’t take care of my to-dos, and I certainly didn’t want her thinking I was ignoring her when she reminded me to “talk to Jason about those spreadsheets”.

The conversational interface helped create the illusion.  I could cc: her on an email and say “Sandy, remind me to go over this document with Diane tomorrow”, and she’d know what I was talking about.

If I can’t find something else that works for me, I may try to whip up something similar on my own.  Saying that makes me feel like the lead character in Frankenhooker, though.  *shiver*