iCal: Waking from sleep for email alert

[beala]

The title pretty much says it all. I just want to know if there's a way to get iCal to wake my iMac from sleep so it can send out an email alert for an event. If it could then go back to sleep after sending the email, that would be even better.

So far, I can't find anything in iCal's prefs to enable this, and no luck on google or mroogle.

Thanks!

 

[devburke]

I'm away from my Mac, so I can't provide screenshots or be sure of the exact language, but it can be done. I'm not sure if an iCal alarm can wake the Mac (although it's possible, so my solution might be more steps than needed) but if you go to the Energy Saver preference pane of System Preferences and click the Schedule button, you can schedule your Mac to wake up at a certain time. Then in Automator, you should be able to create an iCal plugin that will send out your e-mail. Then just create the event in iCal with the alarm. I'd advise to wake the Mac at least a minute before the alarm is set for, just to be safe, and also make sure if it's a laptop that the lid isn't closed, because if it is, it won't wake up (unless you have an external display attached, I believe).

Hope that helps!

 

[beala]

Thanks for taking the time to type that all out, but I'm not sure that that's exactly what I'm looking for. I actually ran across that solution in my mroogling, but the problem is (1) I have to set the scheduler myself in addition to making the event and (2) it won't put itself back to sleep once the email has been sent.

I guess I'm just frustrated that iCal doesn't have this ability. The reason I want email alerts is so I can be alerted when I'm away from my computer. The problem is, I tend to put my computer to sleep when I'm away from it!

So, maybe the solution is to use google calendar, but the iCal interface is just so slick, and I'm not too keen on giving google more of my data!

 

[devburke]

Thanks for taking the time to type that all out, but I'm not sure that that's exactly what I'm looking for. I actually ran across that solution in my mroogling, but the problem is (1) I have to set the scheduler myself in addition to making the event and (2) it won't put itself back to sleep once the email has been sent.

1) Setting the scheduler takes all of 30 seconds. At most. Don’t let that stop you.

2) If you look at the scheduler, you can use the scheduler to sleep the computer too. Say you wanted to send the e-mail at 10:45. Just set it to wake up 10:43 or 10:44, and set it to sleep at 10:46 or 10:47. Have the iCal alarm set for 10:45.

 

[beala]

1) I guess I just don't want to have to reschedule it every morning. If I forget, I won't receive alerts all day.

2) Suppose I want an email alert at 9am and one at 5pm. If I use the energy saver scheduler, I'll have to tell my mac to wake at 9am and then go back to sleep at 5pm, essentially leaving it on all day.

I really appreciate you trying to help me, but I just don't think that this is the right solution.