Now here's a new kind of problem that I found intensely embarrassing: I upgraded my laptop to Mac OS X 10.6, hooked up the Mail app to the corporate exchange system ... noted that it worked exceedingly well ... so I turned off the various sync methods I was using to update my personal calendar (something you have to use if your primary email client is Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac). This was really nice, since the Office client kept creating duplicate appointments in my calendar.

Then the trouble started. I used a nice calendar cleanup application (part of the "Spanning Tools" collection that has helped me clear up earlier Office/iCal conflicts) to get rid of the duplicates, after which the Apple calendar application, iCal, started popping up with messages saying "iCal can't delete this event, do you want to ignore the request and resynch with the server" ... hmm. Sounds scary, I better leave things on the server. So I clicked on the "resynch" button.

Bad idea ...

 ...  I was suddenly bombarded with hundreds (literally) of "bad email" messages, that turned out to be calendar invite rejects from people no longer at Broadcom.

That sounds bad ...

Then I started to get emails from people saying "your calendar invite is for a couple of years ago" ...

Really bad ...

Well, it turns out that iCal not only couldn't delete the event, it's interpretation of "resync" meant to send out NEW invitations to all those old events ... even for events that I didn't own ... even for the events that had as their address wildcards like "All Broadcom Employees". So it looked like I was inviting everyone in the company to old all-hands meetings, everyone in our group to old staff meetings, etc. etc. I ended up spamming the whole company!

Argh!!!

Then, to add spice to the apple, as it were, even the events where people OUTSIDE of Broadcom ended up getting invites ... for that whole period from 2004 until 2005 while I was an independent consultant.

So, if anyone ever tells you a horror story about what Microsoft programs can do ... tell them about my little experience with iCal.