Low Rent Google Calendar/Outlook Sync

If you don’t feel like installing Microsoft.net framework or shelling out money for an Outlook/Google Calendar syncing app, try the low rent method.

1. Create a new Gmail account, and a Calendar account with that address
2. Share that new calendar with your current Gmail address
3. When you’re setting up any meeting in Outlook, just cc the new Gmail address
4. The appointment will automatically show up as tentative in the new calendar.
5. If you’re making an appointment in GCal, just do the same, in reverse: include your Outlook email address. The appointment will automatically show up as tentative in your Outlook calendar until you accept.
6. If you’re accepting a meeting, just forward that request to the appropriate email account for automatic tentative adding.

Sure, this isn’t as elegant as an automatic sync, and it doesn’t handle moving of appointments very well, but it’s a great low rent solution that would probably also work for iCal, Thunderbird, etc.

iPhone Rant (Or Rave)

Another entry on the iPhone. The New York Times alone has had about ten stories about iPhone, which is pretty unprecedented for a gadget that was announced only 3 days ago and isn't even out yet. Now, I'm pretty sure everything's been said that there is to say about the device, so normally I wouldn't bother posting about, but this Toronto Star article caught my ire.

Basically, the article is saying that in Japan, the iPhone isn't such a big deal, because they already have phones there that can play music and surf the Internet. Well, guess what? So do we! I'll concede that Japan's phones are usually more advanced than those in North America, but I'm pretty sure they haven't got anything like the iPhone there.

See, the iPhone isn't about all the features it has it in. There are any number of phones out there that I could go out and buy right now that have music playing, email, Internet surfing, etc. But the whole point of the iPhone is it doesn't get bogged down by those features it packs in. It makes everything really easy to use. Every phone I've ever had has had a pretty disastrous and irritating UI. The whole point of the iPhone is that it's easy and pleasant to use.

And for those saying it will only sell because it looks nice, they're wrong. The RAZR looked great, and did get a lot of sales because of it. But ask someone who owns one how they like their phone, and they'll say they're really bothered by it. Ask anyone who has an iPod what it's like to use, and they'll say it's great. I think a lot of those burned RAZR users and devoted iPod users will be lining up for, finally, a nice experience using a phone.

Logitech Harmony Remote

I got an awesome Christmas present from my wife this year - the Logitech Harmony remote (520). Finally, one remote to control all my devices, even my obscure (but great sounding) Teac AV receiver.

The great thing about the remote is the LCD screen. Unlike a lot of other remotes, which lack the buttons to be able to control every part of your device, the LCD screen on the Harmony creates soft buttons for any buttons not included on the main part of the remote. Finally, I can be sure to control every part of of my device with just one remote - no more fishing out the original remote when I need to change video inputs or menu selections.

Anyway, a few things that are (for now) missing that I'd really like: iPod support (for use with the IR port on the Universal Dock) and macros. It already comes with basic macros, called 'Activities', for "Watch TV" or "Watch DVD" which will turn on all appropriate devices and put them to the right inputs, which is a nice feature. But I'd love to add a macro to erase a show from my PVR (which takes five button presses right now).

Anyway, I created a Google Group for Harmony owners to discuss these issues and share any tips and tricks. If you got one for Christmas, stop on by and geek out with me.

Sick of your Music? How to mine iTunes for Gold

I have about 4000 songs on my iTunes library, but sometimes it seems like I'm just listening to the same stuff over and over again and I get sick of it. I get lazy. I go for what I like best. And I'm really bad at discovering new music. Luckily, I figured out a way to take the music I already had and get more out of it.

We all have songs in our library that we've never heard, don't we? Okay, sometimes that's for good reason, but a lot of the time I just get lazy and keep skipping through shuffle 'til I find something I know I like.

Now, my all-time favourite feature of iTunes, and what ultimately led me to use it as my primary player (and also buy an iPod) is the "Smart Playlist" feature. It lets you create a playlist that's more like a search query. So you can make one that only shows your songs with three or more stars ("My Favourite Songs"). Or one that shows you all the new songs you've added in the past three weeks. Or all songs that aren't hip-hop (you know, for when the parents are over).

So recently I decided to make a Smart Playlist of songs in my library with a play count of zero - "Never Heard." Every time I listen to one of the songs, it comes off my list. I really have to pat myself on the back for this one - I'm finding it great! It's like I just added 10 or 20 CDs to my music collection. And this playlist is automatically synced to my iPod, so whether I listen to it at work or on the iPod, the list stays up-to-date.

Oh, and one last great Smart Playlist. As I go through the songs, I'm finding some that I like and giving them three or four stars. The playlist I made only lists my favourites that I've listened to within the past two weeks. It's called "Latest Mix-Tape." This is just how I used to make mix-tapes back in the day. Listen to a bunch of new music for a few weeks, then make a tape of my favourites. Now it's automatic.

Starscream Halloween Costume

A day too late, but I wanted to call attention to my friend's brother's awesome Halloween costume: everyone's favourite Decepticon: Starscream!



Apparently he built this whole thing out of sheet metal.

It actually transforms too. Well, the nose cone comes up and he lays on the ground.

IM Screen Names

Please, please, please just make your IM (MSN, Yahoo, AIM, Gtalk) name the same as your own name, okay?

I can't stand looking at my MSN list and seeing a myriad of quotes or 'funny' sayings. When I go to my IM window, I want to see which of my friends are online and find which one I want to talk to. It's such a pain in the ass to double click or hover over a name just to see who it is.

Many clients now feature a comments section, where you can put all your funny quotes and phrases. Please do that and keep your screen name to something that identifies who you are. It would really make me a lot less irritated.

Pop-Ups - Not the Spyware Kind

Okay, there's some Windows XP behavior that's really starting to bother me.

If I open a program, like Firefox or Excel, and my machine is taking its sweet time to open it, I'll switch over to Outlook or something else to do something while it opens (I'm ADD like that.) Then I'll get into another task, and figuring even if that program opens, I'll still finish the task I'm on until it's complete.

So why does Windows interrupt me by switching the new Window into focus right over what I'm doing? Same thing with dialogue boxes. I plug my iPod in, then switch to some data entry, where my fingers are flying fast. In the middle of keying an order, a dialogue comes up just as I'm hitting the space bar, and boom, I've said okay to something. Would it kill it to keep that dialogue box out of focus and alert me that it's there by flashing its tile in the task bar?

Now I'm sitting here with a frozen iTunes not knowing what the hell I've done.

Gadget Cases

Remember furniture coverings? Those plastic things that people put over their furniture to protect them from stains and damage, but made them uncomfortable ugly to look at? Notice how they're not around anymore?

This is my theory about these protective cases. We put them around things that are valuable to us, and are new. I think those furniture coverings were popular in the 50's and 60's when a lot of people were new to the middle class and the idea of expensive new furniture was a bit of a novelty. So they protected them. Now that people are more used to them, they don't cover them up as much, because they're not as freaked out about a few scratches or stains.

I think it's the same with gadget cases. I used to hate looking at those stupid leather cell phone cases that seemed to be endemic among middle-aged men. Why make the phone thicker and harder to fit in your pocket? Why make the keys harder to press by putting a piece of plastic over them? I think people put these cases on their cell phones because they were new to them, and valuable. Now that cell phones are so ubiquitous, you almost never see the cases anymore. People are used to them.

Now what's getting wrapped up in ugly? iPods. Same thing. Fairly new product, pretty expensive, so people throw a case on them to protect them. Okay, protecting the screen is one thing - and there are guards which just protect that. But why take such a nicely designed product that fits so well in your pocket and cover it up with ugly leather or plastic and make it hard to fit in your pocket? Really, will surface scratches make the thing any less useful to you? And how can you enjoy that scratch-free product when it's all covered up?

I've honestly never seen someone on the subway with out a case for their nano. I think people see that it's so small, it needs to be protected. It doesn't. Because the nano doesn't do video, screen scratches aren't that big a deal - they all but disappear when the screen is illuminated. I borrow my wife's nano a lot, and I never use a case for it.

Anyway, stay tuned for my next rant - clip on belt cases.

And persistent bluetooth headset wearers. (Unless you're driving, keep it in your pocket until you get a call okay?)

Slow Response Time on Cell Phones

This one's short but sweet. Adapted from a comment I left on David Pogue's blog:

When I press a button on my Sony Ericcson, it takes almost a second to pull up the menu. It’s like working a phone underwater. I wish the UI designers would take a second to try to figure out how to optimize their phone’s response time to the hardware they’re going to use it on. It’s not hard people - Apple seems to know how.

The best UI I’ve ever seen on a phone is Nokia. Simple, direct and fast. My next phone is definitely a nokia.

Why the Hell Buy Windows?

So I downloaded iTunes 7 today and thought I'd play around with the new album artwork browser. But, apparently I need DirectX 9 to do this.

So, I hop on over to Microsoft to download DirectX 9, and realize my copy of Windows has to be validated before I can download it. Ah... okay Microsoft, go ahead, umm (sweat coming from brow) just validate it and gimme the download already. It's legit, I swear.

Obviously I have a pirated version of Windows. I've never paid for Windows, and I don't know anyone who has. So I don't pass the test, and I don't get the download.

But... Microsoft offers me to upgrade my Windows to a genuine version for a small price. Even though I hate the thought of paying for Windows, they've made it so annoying for me (no SP2, no IE7) that I figured I'd at least see how much it was.

It was $199!

Okay Microsoft, I don't understand why you charge so much for Windows. At least it's lower than the $249 (CAD) you're charging at Future Shop. But who honestly buys that? Is it making you any money at all?

First of all, if I really want to buy Windows, I'll go to Chinatown and get a perfectly legal OEM copy for $100.

Third, my computer's pretty old, and I was meaning to build a new one. One of the biggest costs is Windows. But I can buy a pretty decent machine from Tigerdirect for $400, and that includes a 'genuine' Windows pre-installed. Again, why would I pay for Windows when I can get a whole new machine for only twice the cost of a purchased copy of Windows?

I know I can't abandon windows just yet. But everything about it is inching my closer and closer to Linux on my next box. The only thing holding me back is losing iTunes and my iPod.

I want to start a new club. It's called "I WILL NEVER PAY FOR WINDOWS CLUB". If you join, you promise to never pay for Windows. Sure, you're technically paying for Windows when you buy a machine with it pre-installed. But the discount there is so cheap that you might as well not be paying for it if you know what you're doing. So everyone, join the club!

Mozilla Store too Expensive for Canadians

So, partially to bug my fiancée, and partially to look like a big nerd, I decided to order a Firefox tee-shirt. The Mozilla Store is based on the States, and I live in Canada, so I didn't think shipping would be a big problem. I've ordered off of Amazon.com before, as well as through people on eBay, and the shipping costs have never been too bad.

So about three weeks after I made the order, I get an e-mail from Gateway CDI, the company that handles orders from the Mozilla Store, asking me to confirm the shipping charges for the order. They were as follows:

Net Amount of Your Order: $17.00
Shipping Charges: $26.94
Total Amount Due: $43.94

So the shipping charges amounted to about 150% of the original price of the product. And this was all in US dollars.

I have to say, they were really nice about it. I'm really glad they didn't charge my VISA before asking, and they were nice enough to cancel the order for me instead of proceeding with the charges. But it really irritates me. Can it really cost that much to ship a tee-shirt?

Now what do I do to bug my fiancée?

Napoleon Vs. The Turk

I know this is a blog about technology (and rants thereof) but I thought I'd use it to shamelessly plug a play that I wrote, Napoleon Vs. The Turk.

The Turk was a chess playing 'automaton' from around the late 18th - 19th century. Except that it didn't play chess on its own - it was an elaborate hoax that hid a man inside the box who actually controlled the game. Oh, and it played a game against (and beat) Napoleon. Yup, that Napoleon.

The play is based on that match, with a lot of other stuff made up around it. It's been a dream of mine to write and produce this play since about 1999, and it's finally happening at this summer's Toronto Fringe , July 6-16th. We have an excellent director, Luke Davies, and a really top-notch cast, original music, and custom-designed costumes. It's going to be great.

Check out our website, www.theturk.ca, and make a donation to help a great project get off of the ground!

Well, I was wrong

Goddammit Google, where's my CL2??? April 1st is here, and all we get is a special 'birthday' logo on the Gmail page? Not even a new feature?

Goddammit, I needs my CL2!

Some great ideas for CL2:

Contextual advertising based on the day you're looking at.

Say you're looking at April 14th, and CL2 knows you live in Toronto. It could tell you about a concert or even happening that day.

That's it.

I just want some CL2 already.

Google Calendar: Launch Prediction

A good segment of Google fanboys (like me) are hotly anticipating Google' new Calendar, CL2. Apparently, it's in limited release right now, to a small group of 200 'trusted testers'.

When will it come out? Here's my prediction: April 1st, 2006.

Think about it. Gmail was launched April 1, 2004. Remember how revolutionary it was? One Gig of space. Fast, spiffy AJAX design. It really took the tech world by storm. Fast search. People (including myself) were buying invites on eBay, and there were reviews everywhere. Some politician in California heard about the contextual advertising, and wanted to pass a law to ban it.

Then, the next April 1st, 2005? Well, tons of new features, and another shot across the bow: two gigs of space. And the number of space keeps growing (and still does on the homepage.) Now it's almost close to three gigs of space.

The next revolution? A spiffy AJAX calendar that's smart and tied into your Gmail. Sure, 30 Boxes, with its AJAX design and smart interface (even a Gmail skin!) has stolen a bit of Google's thunder, but I still think CL2 has a few tricks up its sleeve. The biggest I think will be the ability to scan your email for calendar dates and have a button to add that to your calendar. Or even clicking on a day of the month, and seeing all email in your inbox that references that day. That's a function that I suggested to them about a year ago, and which I don't think anyone's doing right now. It would really add seamless integration between calendar and e-mail.

So anyway, I think as (recent) history shows, they'll most likely wait until April 1 to make that announcement. If they don't, they'll no doubt have something up their sleeves for Gmail's second birthday.

Using tags effectively in del.icio.us

Anyone who isn't already using del.icio.us should be. With all the different computers most of us use and the flood of information we deal with, it's so essential to remember to keep all the useful links you find somewhere easy to get to.

Del.icio.us has a search feature, which is a great way to find something when you know exactly what you're looking for. But when you don't know exactly what you want to find, tags are a great way to browse through your (or someone else's) links.

But have you ever tried to browse through 500 tags? It's pretty inefficient. Del.icio.us does try to help with tag bundles and increasing font sizes of more active tags, but the best way to keep things organized is to tag properly and not to overdo it.

To that end I've put together some guidelines on how to tag effectively.

-------------------------------

Generalize as much as possible
If you're tagging a recipe for lasagne, just tag it 'recipes' or 'food.' There's no point in tagging it 'lasagne' unless your master's thesis is on lasagne and you're tagging a lot of lasagne stuff all the time.

Popular tags can be your friend or your enemy
Not sure how to tag something? Del shows you popular tags that others have applied to that link. Sometimes it's useful if you're stuck, but you don't always have to follow them. Crowds may be wise, but they're made up of individuals making individual decisions. Your tags are first and foremost for you, not for anyone else. To that end...

Pick one word and stick to it
Should the Hipster PDA be tagged "lifehack"? How about "productivity"? How about "organization"? All three probably apply. But if I use "lifehack" to describe the PDA, and "organization" to describe the pocket mod, then these things will be in different places when I'm browsing my tags, even though they should probably be grouped together. Tag bundles are great for this, but it takes time to organize them later.

Don't tag to be cool
I understand there's some ego involved in being the first to tag, and showing that you're cooler than someone because you tagged it first, but come on. If you read an interesting article, but you don't need it anymore, why are you tagging it?

-------------------------------

Now, I should note that these guidelines are mainly for people who want to use del.icio.us the way I do: as a kind of toolbox. I put useful things in there and want to find them quickly. If that's how you use it, these guidelines will be helpful to you. If you use it for some other purpose, that's great, I'd love to know about it, but these guidelines probably aren't for you.

Escapa!

Escapa!



This is the most simple game I've ever played, but also more fun than any of the latest generation video games I've played too. Okay, maybe it's not as fun and immersive as GTA, but it still goes to show, you can have a fun game without photo-realitstic graphics.

Bayesian Priority Filtering?

Outlook 2003 has a great feature where you can give a message a red flag for follow-up. (Gmail also has the pretty much the same thing, but it's a star instead.) To deal with my overflow of e-mail at work, I have a filter set up to automatically flag some e-mails so I can jump to them first. Any e-mail that's directly addressed to me and has the phrases "can you" or "could you" gets automatically flagged. I find this works really well, except that all my follow-up replies get flagged when I don't need necessarily need them to.

 

So this got me thinking - computers are smart. Can't my computer figure out what should be flagged and what shouldn't? Shouldn't it learn? Well, it does with spam.

 

Most of us know about Bayesian Filtering to filter spam - it's probably one of the most common ways of doing so. It's what Gmail uses anyway, and it seems to work pretty well. Basically, instead of building a whole bunch of criteria manually to detect spam upfront, you just say 'report spam' every time you see a spam email. If something gets marked as spam by mistake, you hit 'not spam.' Every time you do that, an algorithm looks at the similarities between spam messages to see what makes them spam, and what makes non-spam non-spam. The more you identify, the better it gets.

 

So, connect the dots here, and you've potentially got a way of automatically prioritizing e-mail. Every time you flag (or star) something, the ol' Bayesian filter gets a little better. If it flags by mistake, you just tell it it's made a mistake. I'm sure the existing algorithms wouldn't even need to be re-written all that much for them to work for this purpose.

 

So, to everyone at Google and Microsoft - get to it! (Don't worry, Yahoo, no one expects much from you guys anyway.) This could really change e-mail for the better. Everything that's most important would always be at the top, and those forwards with hilarious videos of singing penises would always be at the bottom.

I was checking out the trash bin in my Gmail the other day, because, hey, I get bored, when I saw this little headline in Gmail's webclips.

For those of you who don't read pixelated text very well, it says:

"You can make a lovely hat out of previously-used tin foil."

This is a joke I see on Slashdot a lot. Basically, if you want to accuse someone of being too paranoid about the government or big brother reading their emails or monitoring their cell phone conversations or whatever, you'd say that they should get a tinfoil hat. This implies that they they are akin to a crazy person wearing a tinfoil hat so the CIA can't read their brain waves.

I thought it was pretty funny that Gmail put this in there, especially considering all the controversy they stirred up when it was announced, either over scanning their email for advertising purposes or something in their FAQ about not being able to guarantee that their e-mail will be permanently deleted.

Is Google making a subtle dig at people who delete all their email, despite Gmail's suggestions not to?

Are you James Bond or MacGyver?

As anyone who knows me can attest, I have a real problem with gadgets. About 80% of my online reading is devoted to gadgets and technology in general. I have a serious amount of salivation built up for various laptops, PDAs, televisions, cell phones, etc. All of these things, I'm convinced, will totally change my life for the better. At least that's what I think until the inevitable post-buy disappointment sets in.

So the other day I was thinking, Why do I need the gadgets? Why do they all have to look sleek, like my iPod? The answer: James Bond. A lot of guys want to be James Bond, for varying reasons: be it the girls, the cars, the style, the stunts, or the gadgets. Cars are okay, and I'm a little too uncoordinated for stunts, and my style is entirely courtesy of the Gap, and, hey, I'm getting married in a few months, so there goes my chance with Pussy Galore. So all that's left is the gadgets. (I'll save my rants about cars for another post.)

But it's not just that Bond has the gadgets, it's that he always seems to have the right one at the right. That locked door getting in the way? Good thing Q hooked you up with that laser-beam watch. Need a good distraction? Oh, right... Q just happened to install that remote-control device for the Roadster. This is what I think gadgets will do for me. Right Gadget, right time.

"Can I meet you next week? Let me just check on my handy Treo 650, which is synced to my Outlook at work."

"This party could do with some music."

"No problem - I've got my trusty iPod with an stereo-to-RCA cable."

That's the hope anyway. The reality is more like:

"Hey, when's Flag Day again?"

"Oh, I've got that online, let me just fire up the laptop."

"Isn't it in February?"

"Wait... booting up. Is there a wifi connection in here?"

"Yeah, I think it's February 7th."

"Password? What the..."

Of course, everyone wants to be James Bond, but as the above scenario makes pretty clear, it's pretty tough. Even if you have all the gadgets you'll ever want, there's the problem of carrying them all, and making sure they actually work the way you want them to when you want them to. And most of the time you're going to looking for uses for your shiny new gadgets when a more low-tech solution might really be the answer.

So what's the compromise? I know the compromise I make is to MacGyver it. This option also makes sense if you don't have MI6-type cash floating around to spend. See, MacGyver didn't need that much stuff, except his handy, off-the-shelf Swiss army knife. The rest he just improvised. Heck, even without the knife he could improvise. This is why I like to keep spare electronics floating around. Cables, wires, old remotes or game controllers, all get stored in boxes in the closet for parts. These things always come in handy.

A good compromise between MacGyver and Bond was a few months back, when I wanted to have sound from my stereo system pump into the kitchen for doing boxes. Luckily, my receiver supported A and B speakers, which could be turned on and off separately. Very Bond. But to really be Bond, I'd have to spend some serious money on some wireless speakers. Of course, the lack of cash led me to MacGyver it. I found a great deal on a big pair of no-name speakers from Goodwill, which didn't have proper speaker wire inputs. A little work with some wire-strippers and small bit of speaker wire allowed me to attach proper speaker wire to the back of them, which I painstakingly ran along the side of the trim and under the baseboards into the living room. So now I've got music in the kitchen, and it cost me $5.

Beat that Bond.

If anyone else has some good Bond or MacGyver moments, let me know and I'll throw 'em up on the blog. Or just leave a comment.

What's Wrong With Google Desktop

Okay, I like Google Desktop. A lot. Finding files fast is obviously its biggest benefit. It will beat Windows Search every single time in terms of speed. And simplicity. By default, Google Desktop searches for file names, folder names, and text inside files - without having to check any boxes.

 

The other big benefit is, believe it or not, as an application launcher. When I want to launch notepad, I don't have to worry about going to start/program files/accessories/notepad. I just type 'notepad' into the handy little box on my taskbar and it comes up. Huge time-saver.

 

But there's one thing that really drives me crazy about it. Google Desktop keeps serving me dead search results - on my own desktop! In other words, it points me to files that have been deleted or moved, and tells me that it can't find them when I try to open them.

 

Why? When you search with GD, you're basically just searching the index of your files that GD has created. The index seems to monitor new files that are created, but doesn't update when you delete a file, or move it to another location. What's worse, even when I click a search result, and it says it can't find it, it still doesn't remove that result for the next time I search! Does that make any sense? This is supposed to be first-class software from a first-class company.

 

There's a simple solution to this, obviously, and I seriously hope they're working on it for the next version. First off, when you find that a link is dead, remove it from the search index. That seems like really easy and intuitive code right there. Secondly, update the index when I'm not using the computer. GD does this when you first install it - scanning and indexing your hard drive when your computer's inactive. But then it stops, content that it's finished and done a great job. So all it's got to do is go through that index and check it against what's actually on my hard drive, and then index that. Google Web Search does this for the entire Web - why can't it do it for my desktop?