Pieces-Parts To Program, Toward A Better Programming Life.

Just to be clear: I do not have advanced digital cable. We get the basic analog cable that comes with our internet. We have asked to not get it, because we don't want to be surprised into having to pay for it. This means we don't have the TiVo-like interface to remember when the show we want.

What we do have is the TVGuide Channel. Which is the Michael Jackson and Ugly Betty channel, which sucks.

And TVGuide.com, which never remembers the settings I want to have it set. It's a reasonable. But there's the big big big table of all that's on. I don't care about that. I have a much smaller list of shows I want to watch.

And want to watch is a key. We're not talking is fine to watch, which I can search for the best thing right now. I'm talking about the things I want to be sure for the whens of my favorite shows.

This is what I want, what I think I can do.

• get_TV_data - an API to access what's on what channel
• set_google_calendar_event - an API to create an event on a Google Calendar calendar. I want this anyway, and I'm pretty sure that it's on CPAN.
• google_calendar_alert - When you set an event in Google Calendar, it will either pop up (useless if you're not in Google Calendar), send an email, or send an SMS, which is essentially an email. What I want is for it to talk to me via GoogleTalk, which is Jabber, or XMPP. I have the XMPP part, I more than have that, so it's just the reading of the calendars.

Everything on that is pie in the sky, but it should be doable.