I frequently try Web applications out just for the sake of seeing what they can do, and usually abandon using them. But I like keeping up with the field, particularly for email, calendaring and task-related applications.

Today I tried one that does all three, that I heard about originally from Rael Dornfest (back when I worked at OSAF; it wasn't available then and it is now). I might abandon this online app too because I like to manage my time offline better than online, but there was one point when testing the application sent a frisson of pleasure down my spine. Usually that reaction is reserved for either more private pleasures, or when fondling yarn.

The site is stikkit.com, launched last year. The site is very smart at telling what kind of note you're creating, detecting todos and events from linguistic cues. For example, it detects Quiltathon on September 30 as an event and puts it on the correct date on the calendar.

The 'frisson' moment was when I created a task to email somebody. It was recognized as a task by the phrase do send mail to So Andso. Then I noticed that the new task had a linked stikkit for a person: "So Andso". When I clicked on that, the automatically-created stikkit had a line reading name: So Andso. I intuited that if I added another line to the stikkit with email: soandso@example.com would make the new stikkit into a contact, and voilà, it did!

It was a little disappointing to find that while Quiltathon on September 30 was detected seamlessly as an event, September 30: Quiltathon was not. Also when I had a space between the "name: ..." and the "email: ...." lines in my second attempt at creating a contact stikkit, it didn't work until I removed the empty line.

Oh, and I love, love love applications with hotkeys so that I don't have to mouse around. Even better when they can be discovered.