AbsolutBlog

Okay, seriously, she’s been on the web since she was born…but I posted it all.  Now she is on the web in a news post from her school: http://www.pflugervilleisd.net/WPS/soaringmoments.cfm

Hopefully I will never forget anything again *cough*…maybe…again. 

After another argument with my wife where I forgot something and would swear she never told me (although we all know, of course, that she did), I’ve set up a mostly “Cloud” based system of organization nearly free (as in beer).  For calendaring, I’m using OSX iCal linked through WebDAV to Google Calendar linked through Exchange to my iPod.  Prior to this (i.e. last Thursday), I was using Spanning Sync to link iCal and gCal, then allowing iTunes to sync iCal and my iPod whenever the iPod was physically connected to my laptop.  This was suboptimal since (A) my 1 year subscription to Spanning Sync only had 12 days left and (B) my iPod events only synced when I was physically connected via USB cable (weekly).

For a few days I tried using gCal’s new Exchange Server to link to my iPod touch and gCal, but it limited my calendar access to 5.  I have 11 to organize Madison, Alisha, myself, work, birthdays, rec letters, holidays, etc.  Why does a 6 year old need her own calendar you ask…well she is more of a social butterfly than myself! 

So after searching and reading some blogs, I settled on www.nuevasync.com’s wonderful free Exchange/Gcal interface that allows…11 calendars   That means, when I edit or add a calendar on any one of the iCal/gCal/iPod, the event goes into the internet ether, travels around the world >=5 times *fast* and is pushed to the other two services within a couple minutes…for free.  Sure Google knows where I am all the time…but it’s better that way and now I don’t have to ask my wife where I should be.  She’ll tell you it isn’t her job either

Why three calendar interfaces you ask?  Well, they all have their benefits.  My iPod is always on me, so when I am away from my Mac, I can schedule things.  Mail.app has an “Add to iCal” link that makes scheduling events through email seamless and the message/event is linked.  This helps to organize the deluge of rec letter requests and student meetings.  And last but not least, the glue is gCal which provides an easy “Quick Add” interface along with wireless “Cloud Computing” and both WebDAV/Exchange/web based/Google Notifier connectivity.

But what about ToDo’s you ask?  Okay, maybe you didn’t ask, but in my world, ToDo’s are different than events and absolutely necessary.  Events are things I have to do at a certain time/date.  ToDos are just things I should do sometime starting now and into the future.  So for that, if I had an iPhone, I would have likely settled on the free Evernote cloud system.  But since I have to depend on Wifi access with my iPod, I’ve settled on the excellent list manager “Things” ($50) with it’s iPod app ($10) that wirelessly syncs (via Wifi) when I am near my laptop (or on the same network at work).  While I would much prefer the “Cloud” based model of syncing to a web service, this will have to do until the new iPhone comes out.

And I don’t have to pay $99/year for MobileMe.

So, techy stuff wrapped up.  Now on to bigger/better things.  This month we’ve had a flurry of visitors.  My sister, brother-in-law and their family came to visit for a few days.  Then when I dropped them off at the airport, I picked up my dad for a week.  Everyone left last week and the house is slowly getting back to normal.  We took blue bonnett pictures last weekend and I will get those up on the web Monday (putting that into my Todo…done).  In other news, the AC went out last week too.  That means the money we had saved to travel to Amsterdam to visit my buddy Dan will instead go to replace the stupid condenser coils on the AC.  That’s the third time they will have been replaced in 6 years.  Piece of **** air conditioner.  So I’m taking up a collection to travel to Amsterdam

Well, cheers!  It is late and I am tired.