Reminder Program

I always wanted to be a writer, but I don't write well enough to make writing my vocation. So writing became a hobby. I began writing science fiction stories at age 15.

I wanted to be an electrical engineer, so I went first to a two-year college, because that's what I could afford, and then to two universities, graduating with a BSEE from Virginia Tech. 

While I was working as an engineer, I decided to learn how to create websites using HTML (hypertext markup language) and Javascript. Today there are many websites that offer tools that make it easy to create a website. You don't have to know HTML. Even if you just rent space on a web server, you can buy a website design tool to create the HTML for you. But when I started creating websites, the only "tool" I used was Windows Notepad.

After I retired from engineering, I wanted to learn how to write programs for Windows, so I did that. I taught myself how to program in Visual Basic, which, despite the name, is a programming language as complex and versatile as Visual C# (C-Sharp). 

I learn best by doing, so I jumped into writing my first VB program. But what should this new program do? I recalled how difficult it was for my mother to remember to take her medications as she grew older. Some of her meds were to be taken every day, some were to be taken every other day, some could not be taken at the same time as certain other meds. It was complicated, and she drew up little charts to help guide her, but with growing dementia, even the charts weren't enough. Not being able to take her meds on schedule probably contributed to her death. Surely, I thought, other people must have this same problem. So I wrote a medication reminder program, and while I was writing it, I decided to also throw in an appointment reminder. 

I began writing it on Windows Vista using VB Express 2005. My Vista computer crashed and I bought a new machine running Windows 8.1. I installed VB Express 2008 and continued writing the Reminder plus other programs with that tool. Eventually, I upgraded my design tool to VB Express 2010. By then I had almost all the Reminder program elements written and functioning. 

I still use my Windows 8.1 PC, and ReminderXR runs fine on it. I know it runs on Windows 10, and I assume Windows 11. If you think you could use a Medication & Appointment Reminder that runs on Windows, you can get it here. Here's how:

Download RXRsetup, disregard the warning that says it might be malware. (I have to pay money to register the program in order to get rid of that warning, and I refuse to do that for a program I give away.)

It's a reliable program. It has one noticeable bug: if you set an appointment to repeat (every week or every two weeks) it sometimes doesn't delete the original appointment. It always creates the new appointment and you can always delete the old one manually, if it bothers you.

Anyway, and this is the point of this blog post, I wrote the Reminder program to help older people to remember to take their medications and keep their appointments. Now, twenty years after my mother passed away, I use my Reminder program every day. It's very helpful to me. When I wrote it, I didn't see that coming. I thought I was just teaching myself to write software for Windows. Not only does it remind me to take my medicine and keep my appointments on time, it's useful for looking up things I did months ago (trips to the airport, to the doctor, etc.). 

It's a funny world. Who knows where your actions will lead you?

Today, there are probably many similar programs with more features than ReminderXR, but the program I wrote does everything I need. Maybe it will help someone out there in the world. I know one of my readers, LL, uses it almost every day. Unless she found something better, and if she has, she hasn't mentioned it to me. So if you want to download it and try it, good luck and I hope it works for you. 

(Note 1: If you visit the website you may notice there is a Help section inside the Reminder-XR section. If you missed it, it's here. There is also a Backstory section that provides more information on the program, and it is located here.)

(Note 2: So why is it called ReminderXR? I originally named it RxReminder, as in Rx (prescription medicine) Reminder. But somebody registered that name, and so, since most of my working files begin with the letters RXR, I just renamed the program ReminderXR. (RxReminder = ReminderXR = RXR)

(Note 3: While you're at my VirtualWayne website, you'll find links to some of my philosophy and a number of photos on Flickr. Though, strangely, some of the photos have simply vanished.)

(Note 4: I have other websites, and Stardust Realm is one of them on which I wax philosophical. It's best read after midnight when the house is quiet.)