Software engineer Nat Friedman has created a free program called Dashboard that continuously goes over your e-mail, calendar, address book, word-processing, and browser programs to gather information related to your current tasks before you even know you want it.

Example: a friend IMs you and says “I can’t wait for our camping trip this weekend!”, dashboard will display data such as your recent emails about the camping trip, your camping bookmarks, and any files or notes you’ve got on your hard drive about camping.

Programs like Microsoft’s Longhorn will have similar functions but are years from completion. Dashboard should be ready as early as this summer.

From Technology Review.