Question: Google Reader tends in my opinion to be a bit over-eager to mark posts as read - if you click on a post or scroll over the top of it it will be marked as read.

Is there a setting to control the conditions for a post being marked as read?

Answer: 
[Redmine](http://www.redmine.org) if you don't mind self-hosting
If you need to plan using Gantt diagram like in MS Project, [try this: SpiderPlan](http://www.spider-plan.com)