My Final Medal Count

For those of you who have been asking I calculated the final medal count of the Olympics to be...

China 223 points
USA 220 points

One more gold medal and we would have tied.

I am a syncing fiend

Here's an update on my "Why can't Microsoft play nice?" post. Ok, not really an update just a conclusion to how I got started on the post in the first place, trying to sync my phone and my computer:

I finally got my phone to sync with Mozilla's Lightning for Thunderbird (and if you just want the calendar and not Thunderbird you can always use the stand-alone version Sunbird). Its sort of a round-about-way of getting the job done, and its not perfect, but it will work for now. So for those of you who might want to do something similar or are just curious this is how I got the job done. And if you don't read this post...I'll be ok. I realize that I'm probably the only one out there that really cares this much about using the program I want.

Starting with my phone I have the calendar and contacts sync through Windows Mobile Device Center (Vista, Active Sync in XP) to Outlook 2007 (2003 should work as well). Then using a program put out by Google called Google Calendar Sync I sync my Outlook calendar to a Google calendar (available if you have a Google account). Then using a third-party plug-in for Thunderbird/Lightning called Provider for Google Calendar I can sync my Google calendar to Thunderbird/Lightning, Ta Dah!

There are a few good things about doing it this way other than I get to use the programs I like versus the programs the Microsoft forces me too (even though I'm still forced to). First, by going through Google Calendar you have a html, xml, and ical web address that you can use to publish your calendar. For me it works that Kelly can get my calendar on her computer and subsequently her phone so she knows my schedule or vice versa. Second, again by going through Google you can have your calendar on your iGoogle homepage and therefore see it anytime you open your web browser. This lets you be updated on what you've got going on without having to open up Thunderbird/Lightning/Sunbird. Finally, it's all free (except for paying for Outlook, but I had to do that anyway).

And of course, there are some drawbacks. Hopefully, these will get resolved with future releases of software but for now they are manageable. First, Google Calendar Sync only syncs the default or primary calendars in Google and Outlook, and second, Google Calendars doesn't support categories for events. So even though in Google Calendars you can have multiple calendars on one screen and see all your events in different colors, you can only put one of those calendars into Outlook. And even though you can have different categories, as well as calendars, in Outlook, only the default calendar will sync with Google and all the pretty colors you have to categorize your events won't show up in Google either. Finally, and this might just be my computer, even though you aren't actively using Outlook for anything other than a go between, you have to have it open in order to sync with the Google Calendar Sync. Every time I have Outlook closed the Google Calendar Sync programs freezes when it tries to sync. Then usually I have to open up the task manager (ctrl + alt + delete) to stop a few errant Outlook processes before Outlook will open.

There are other utilities out there that people have claimed will make there Google Calendar Sync with Outlook with multiple calendars etc. but this method worked the best for me. A program called KiGoo, looked promising until I read that it doesn't work with Vista. Another one called RemoteCalendars looked really good but for some reason it wouldn't sync correctly (ie; I delete an event in Outlook, or from my phone, and it never deletes it from Google. Also, recurring events never synced right). Jotlet, is another web-based calendar program like Google Calendars that used another program called Funambol to sync with Outlook but I couldn't get it to work right, plus it's another service you have to sign up for. Calgoo also looked very promising but it didn't find my outlook calendars in order to sync them. Probably the best program is one called OggSync but you have to pay for it, and I'm really cheap. I downloaded a trial version and it worked great except for the fact that in the trial it only syncs the past 3 days, today, and the future 3 days. Not enough if you need to schedule a doctor's appointment 3 months in advance, but in paying for the service you should be fine.

What about contacts you ask. So far I haven't found anything that will sync them and the calendar together that is free and works. So for now I'm just going to have to deal with every so often exporting and importing my contacts from Outlook to Thunderbird, since most of the new contacts I add are on my phone, and any e-mail contacts can just stay in Thunderbird since I don't use my phone for e-mail.

Well there you have it, entirely too much information on a subject that none of you probably care about...unless you spent the past few days figuring it all out like I did.

Don't let the numbers fool you

Let me start off by saying I love the Olympics. I remember watching them on TV as a kid and cheering for the USA in any sport, it didn't (and doesn't) matter if I even understood the game. But one thing I always remember doing is keeping tabs on the medal count. Don't ask me why, but I would always look at it in the newspaper. I guess I just liked seeing how many medals we actually won in the games. So when I saw that I could put the medal count on my iGoogle homepage I was really excited. I heard that China was probably going to take the medal count from us this year so I really wanted to be updated every time I opened up Firefox so I could see how we fare. I had seen the medal count on NBC and was pleased that we were ahead in total number of medals but when I looked at the iGoogle gadget it has China listed first. NBC ranked the countries by total number of medals which currently puts the US in the lead with 54 to China's 47. However in Google they rank the countries by the most gold medals, then silver, then bronze. So that puts China ahead with 27 golds to our 16. Crazy that almost half of those are from Michael Phelps. So I decided to see who was leading the medal count another way. I gave 3 points for every gold medal won, 2 for every silver, and 1 for every bronze. Crunch the numbers and you get China leading the US with 114 points to 102 . . . as of 3:30 pm Pacific time on August 16th. I can't wait to see how it all turns out, not that it really matters. I'm probably not going to move to China if they end up with more medals than us, it just gives me something to do so I don't have to think about starting classes in 9 and a half days (not that I'm counting).

Why can't Microsoft play nice?

Last semester I had some problems with Outlook and syncing my calendar with my phone. I was fine with it at the time because I didn't have much variation in my day to day schedule and I could deal without Outlook, but with the fall semester starting here soon I figured I'd better figure out the whole syncing issue. While I was at it I thought I'd look into other calender programs to see if there would be something out there I liked better. In fact I like so many other programs better than Outlook because I don't need all the big business stuff that Outlook has in it...I just needed something that would sync with my phone. But then that made me remember why I had to go with Outlook in the first place. It is the only thing that will sync with my phone.

Vista comes with a mail program (Windows Mail) that is pretty decent, an address book program (Windows Contacts) and a calendar program (Windows Calendar) that I could use. The problem being that in order to sync with my phone I first had to download and install the Active Sync for Vista, Windows Mobile Device Center. Upon downloading that I found out that I needed Windows Mobile 6 in order to be able to sync with the mobile device center. After finding a download for that and installing it on my phone (by the way, up to this point this all took about 9 months from the point at which I got my computer with Vista) I connected up to my computer to sync my contacts, etc. and Windows Mail, Contacts, and Calendar, don't sync with Windows Mobile Device Center...they don't sync at all. Apparently you have to use Outlook in order for your "Microsoft phone" to sync with your "Microsoft computer" with the "Microsoft applications" that come with it.

So I have two questions, why can't Microsoft get along with Microsoft? And is there something out there that I can use instead of Outlook? I really want to get back to Thunderbird. Mozilla also has Lightning/Sunbird to use as a calender program, but from what I could find there isn't anything out there that will let me sync my phone with those programs. If only I had an iPhone that would sync with the free for everyone iTunes with whatever program I was using for e-mail/calendar/contacts.

After the beep

I feel like I should change my voicemail greeting to something like this:

"Hi this is Brian, I can't answer my phone right now but that probably doesn't matter to you. You must think that by just calling me I'm going to pick up my phone, see that you called, and automatically call you back. Don't worry, I don't have anything better to do with my time, and I like returning every missed call whether I recognize the number or not. Nothing appeals to me more than awkwardly saying, 'who is this and why did you call me,' when you answer the phone. So please hang up now and wait impatiently by the phone for me to call you back."

The only thing that bugs me more, and my hypocrisy is evident, is when I get a message that simply says, "Hi, it's me, call me back." That's even more useless than not leaving a message at all. Is it that much harder to say, "Hi, it's me, Brian, I need to talk to you about _______, call me back," something that takes about 5 whole seconds more to say but reveals 100 times more information?

I envy visual voicemail, if only I had an iPhone.

Le Tour de Palouse

Earlier this summer, after some car problems and rising gas prices, Kelly and I had been talking about saving some money on gas and trying to cut back on how many trips I make back and forth between Moscow and Pullman. There is a great bike path between the two towns that makes it really easy for someone to ride back and forth between the two but my bike wasn't really the right kind for commuting. So we ended up getting a road/touring bike for me and now I ride that back and forth as much as I can...ok, maybe not as much as I can, but enough to cut back a little on how much we end up paying for gas. I've put over 180 miles on the bike so far which seems like a lot, but then when you consider that the Tour de France was 2178 miles long it no longer seems like it's that big of a deal.