Occasional musings from a Left-coast Canadian ExPat in Oxford.
(Already crossposted to facebook – with a couple comments there.) So I went to BarCamp Vancouver 07 last Saturday. I was… underwhelmed. Having never attended a BarCamp before, I was pretty excited, since everyone I know who has gone has always spoken quite highly of them. But I just wasn’t feeling the love and/or usefulness. … Continue reading Vancouver BarCamp07
So I wrote that I didn’t think facebook was for me. And then I figured I’d try it out before making a judgment one way or the other. Thus far, I am completely unsurprised and underwhelmed. All sorts of people from various past jobs, schools and affiliations are on there, and I have somewhere in … Continue reading Facebook, Redux
Generally I’m a bit skeptical when it comes to new gadgets. They usually come trussed up in pretty boxes, covered in promises that they’ll revolutionize my life and I’ll forget what ever came before them. So far only my TiVo has ever lived up to that promise. And if you know TiVo, you’ll know that … Continue reading Surrounded
Of Facebook. I signed up. No promises that I’ll stay, but you can go ahead and attempt to find me and add me to your various networks. So far I find the site clunky and annoying. Perhaps it can change my mind. UPDATE (40 minutes in). Complaint the first: For various reasons, I use a … Continue reading One Week
I am still trying to resist the Facecrackbook. The invites keep flooding in. Mostly I am afeared of pictures from my youth, fueled by young hubris and much liquor, being tagged with my name once I’m there. And some things are just best left in the past. But other than that – while I’m feeling … Continue reading Crumbling
Thank you for being environmentally responsible Originally uploaded by peechie. It’s been a long while since I’ve purchased inkjet cartridges. I don’t print all that much and they only end up needing replacement every 12-16 months. In the past, it’s actually been cheaper to buy a new printer (since I generally buy the cheap, crappy … Continue reading Greenery
Someone was asking me yesterday about social networks. And what with the constant stream of emails and posts about facebook, twitter, et al, I figured I may as well chime in on my stance. No. Just no. My feelings on social networks and web 2.0 in general strongly mirror Derek’s, who said it so well, … Continue reading Anti-Social
There’s this song I love by a band called Streets. The song is the lead track on their album A Grand Don’t Come For Free, and it’s called It Was Supposed to be so Easy. Basically it’s about a random guy who was supposed to deposit some money in the bank and everything that can … Continue reading Taking Back Monday
So we’re sitting at an internet cafe in London, because so far, the city kindof hates me. We asked the friendly concierge(s) at our Oxford hotel and the Oxford-London bus guy where to get off to get the tube to Paddington station. They sent us about 8 tube stations too far away, when the bus … Continue reading London Calling
Here’s one for the geeks. Know what would be really cool? If I could select an option on search engines that would automatically sort results based on geographic relevance. For instance: I need some information on community and career resources in Prince George. If I select that little box, a tool runs to grab my … Continue reading Helpful
When you consolidate two households into one, there are inevitably a few things you end up with duplicates of. Microwaves are a big one – and impossible to get rid of (seriously, does anyone want a free microwave?) since most people seem to have one. Another is services – I cancelled my internet service and … Continue reading Vonage Gets It!
While I think it would be pretty great to get a free multimedia phone, I’ve been firmly pushed into the same camp as Darren and Boris on their hatred of the Matchstick annoyance factor. I was contacted very early on with the Matchstick promotion. I received a comment on my “about” page way back on … Continue reading Match-Stuck
**If you’re just here looking for Palm –> Yahoo Calendar Syncing instructions – scroll down, they’re just past the jump**
I’m a bit of a freak for organization, and I’ve been managing my calendar for the past few years from a semi-ancient Sony Clie (Palm OS 4.0), and using the Palm Desktop on each of my three computers, since the Hotsync software doesn’t seem to be compatible with Outlook 2003, and I use Outlook Express (sans calendar) at work.
Obviously I’m sick of that solution, as it’s clunky, requires me to carry my Sync cable around to each computer, and Palm Desktop lacks any semblance of functionality outside of “this event occurs at this time, would you like a reminder or not?”
I figured I’d start using Google’s pretty calendar application instead. Or so I thought.
The people at Palm seem to be the only ones who use their particular format of calendaring (.dba) which doesn’t import into Outlook or GCal. I couldn’t find any sort of conversion tool to make it a .csv – Excel was worse than useless – and I figured I’d have to either use the Palm Desktop forever, or manually enter every appointment I have in the future and go through the year of events to re-enter every birthday, anniversary and other recurring entry I’ve ever made.
I just don’t have that kind of time. Who does?
Thankfully, after an hour or so of searching for solutions I discovered that the good people at Yahoo have partnered up with those at Intellisync (whose product version I have doesn’t work with Outlook 2003 or Google) so that those using the Palm OS can one-click sync their PDA’s to the online Yahoo calender!
Enter the chorus of angels from on high, etc., hallelujah and amen.
I can’t believe nobody else did this.
Unfortunately most people in my life are Googleholics, using gmail, gcal and gchat. While I’m sure I could export the yahoo.csv into gcal, I’d really REALLY love it if Google also stepped up and started offering support for syncing directly from my Palm PDA into their calendar.
In the meantime, I suppose you’ll find me on yahoo – peechie1980. See you there!
Continue reading “The Missing Sync”
Now that the boy’s done gone and moved himself to an apartment that’s dog-friendly, 3 blocks from the beach, and cuts my daily commute in half, I find I’m spending most nights over there instead of in my own neglected abode. This is serious people. Not only do I have a toothbrush there, I moved … Continue reading Fade to Black
First off, I’d like to say that despite the fact that my digital cable box officially barfed up its innards and quit last night, I have survived relatively unscathed. At least I had Vonage to play with! That’s right, I made the switch, and have abandoned my Telus landline phone. My decision was mostly financially … Continue reading Phoney