Why is iCal busy?

Hello:

I don't use iCal at all, but whenever I check the Console Log (running
OS 10.2.6 on a G4/450) I get a pair of messages from it every hour, 24
hours a day. Here's a sample:

2003-10-30 18:48:00.542 iCal Helper[786] NSDateFormatString invalid.
Setting to US defaults %e %B, %Y
2003-10-30 18:48:00.710 iCal Helper[786] Launch of helper planned at :
10/30/03 19:48:00
2003-10-30 19:48:00.271 iCal Helper[790] NSDateFormatString invalid.
Setting to US defaults %e %B, %Y
2003-10-30 19:48:00.399 iCal Helper[790] Launch of helper planned at :
10/30/03 20:48:00
2003-10-30 20:48:02.429 iCal Helper[792] NSDateFormatString invalid.
Setting to US defaults %e %B, %Y
2003-10-30 20:48:02.518 iCal Helper[792] Launch of helper planned at :
10/30/03 21:48:02
2003-10-30 21:48:02.653 iCal Helper[793] NSDateFormatString invalid.
Setting to US defaults %e %B, %Y
2003-10-30 21:48:02.721 iCal Helper[793] Launch of helper planned at :
10/30/03 22:48:02
2003-10-30 22:48:02.639 iCal Helper[794] NSDateFormatString invalid.
Setting to US defaults %e %B, %Y
2003-10-30 22:48:02.705 iCal Helper[794] Launch of helper planned at :
10/30/03 23:48:02

Can anyone tell me what's going on, and how to stop it? It doesn't
appear to do any harm, but I don't like my computer to be acting up
behind my back.

Susan K

--
Dr. Susan Kayser SDSS at FermiLab

Susan Kayser wrote:

> Can anyone tell me what's going on, and how to stop it? It doesn't
> appear to do any harm, but I don't like my computer to be acting up
> behind my back.

I believe that's simply the iCal 'daemon' checking to see if it needs to
post an alert/reminder, but to be candid, that's a completely wild guess.

Trust me, though, you do want your computer doing a lot of stuff behind
your back. Cron tasks, as just one quick example.

Spend too much time looking at the console and your eyes will end up
looking like those of the late Marty Feldman.

See:
http://www.cmgww.com/stars/feldman/photo2.html


--
-John Steinberg
email: d

-= I link therefore I'm spammed =-

John Steinberg wrote:
>
> Susan Kayser wrote:
>
> > Can anyone tell me what's going on, and how to stop it? It doesn't
> > appear to do any harm, but I don't like my computer to be acting up
> > behind my back.
>
> I believe that's simply the iCal 'daemon' checking to see if it needs to
> post an alert/reminder, but to be candid, that's a completely wild guess.
>
> Trust me, though, you do want your computer doing a lot of stuff behind
> your back. Cron tasks, as just one quick example.
>
> Spend too much time looking at the console and your eyes will end up
> looking like those of the late Marty Feldman.
>
> See:
> http://www.cmgww.com/stars/feldman/photo2.html
>
> --
> -John Steinberg
> email: d
>
> -= I link therefore I'm spammed =-

Just a quibble: if iCal can be active enough, even when closed, to
produce those messages, how come it can't keep its icon on the dock
updated, to show the current date? But seriously, thanks for the
explanation.

Susan K
--
Dr. Susan Kayser SDSS at FermiLab

Susan Kayser wrote:

> Just a quibble: if iCal can be active enough, even when closed, to
> produce those messages, how come it can't keep its icon on the dock
> updated, to show the current date?

I suspect it could, but do you really want to give up those cycles for
such a pedestrian task?

Okay, actually, I wouldn't mind as the default icon date was the day I
met my fourth wife.

Might want to make that request here:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/feedback/

But PLEASE, put in a word about the balky networking issues as well.

> But seriously, thanks for the explanation.

Just don't take it to bank. It *really* was a guess, and at any moment a
follow up posting will let me know that -- likely with both barrels.



--
-John Steinberg
email: d

-= I link therefore I'm spammed =-

On Wed, 26 Nov 2003, John Steinberg wrote:

> Susan Kayser wrote:
>
> > Just a quibble: if iCal can be active enough, even when closed, to
> > produce those messages, how come it can't keep its icon on the dock
> > updated, to show the current date?
>
> I suspect it could, but do you really want to give up those cycles for
> such a pedestrian task?
>
> Okay, actually, I wouldn't mind as the default icon date was the day I
> met my fourth wife.
>

A running application can only modify its own dock tile, so this would
imply that the app responsible for maintaining the dock icon would always
have to be running, ie iCal would have to be running (well in theory i
suppose you could have the helper app display an icon in the dock, but
then that would be separate from the actual iCal icon and it could get
complicated and/or confusing). While it would in principle be possible to
just change the icon file, the system is stubborn enough about cacheing
icons for this to probably fail.

Fred

In <>
Susan Kayser <> wrote:
> Hello:
>
> I don't use iCal at all, but whenever I check the Console Log (running
> OS 10.2.6 on a G4/450) I get a pair of messages from it every hour, 24
> hours a day. Here's a sample:
[...]
> Can anyone tell me what's going on, and how to stop it? It doesn't
> appear to do any harm, but I don't like my computer to be acting up
> behind my back.

Do you have iSync set up to sync every hour?


--
Jennifer Mullen

Jennifer Mullen wrote:
>
> In <>
> Susan Kayser <> wrote:
> > Hello:
> >
> > I don't use iCal at all, but whenever I check the Console Log (running
> > OS 10.2.6 on a G4/450) I get a pair of messages from it every hour, 24
> > hours a day. Here's a sample:
> [...]
> > Can anyone tell me what's going on, and how to stop it? It doesn't
> > appear to do any harm, but I don't like my computer to be acting up
> > behind my back.
>
> Do you have iSync set up to sync every hour?
>
> --
> Jennifer Mullen
>

No. I don't use iSync. (Thanks for the suggestion, though.)
--
Dr. Susan Kayser SDSS at FermiLab