Filed under: Tutorials

Bachelor Food - Breakfast Burritos

Got this idea from a website, but for the life of me, can't remember which one. If you know, tell me in the comments and I'll give proper credit. I'm always looking for ways to make cooking easier. Don't get me wrong, I like to do it, but not every day. And I always skip breakfast. The attached PDF shows (in a completely geeky way) how I solved my breakfast problem. Breakfast Burritos

Google Sync and the iPhone

Let me start by saying that I hate to plug in my phone in order to sync calendars, contacts, etc. When I had my Blackberry, the Mac sync client sucked so badly that I didn't even bother--Google Sync all the way. So when I found out that Google had released the beta sync service for iPhone, I was as happy as a fly on... well, you know. When I got the iPhone, I did the typical sync-via-cable and got my contacts and calendars set up the way I wanted them. Then I gave MobileMe a try. MobileMe worked perfectly, but I can't justify $99 a year just to sync those two things (I don't use any of the other features of MobileMe.) So as a recap, at the time of Google Sync setup, this is my configuration:
  1. 2 Macs and an iPhone synching contacts and calendars with Mobile Me
  2. 2 Calendars in iCal syncing with Google Calendar
  3. My primary apps were iCal and Address Book
  4. My primary Google account is an "Apps for your Domain" account
I did a backup of my iPhone, iCal, and Address book, then exported my main personal calendar. Since I hadn't been using Google calendar for awhile, I uploaded the iCal calendar to my main Google calendar to make sure all my events were current on Google. **Note** If you are going to sync contacts, be sure to follow the instructions for making sure your local contacts are on Google. I knew I didn't want to sync contact with Google calendar yet, because I like having contact photos, and at this time (afaik,) Google Sync doesn't support contact photos. My contacts don't change as often as my calendar, though, so I don't mind plugging in now and then to keep contacts in sync with my desktop Mac. These are the steps that worked for me in getting my calendars setup to sync with Google... Enable Exchange sync in Google Apps for your Domain... [caption id="attachment_193" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Enable sync in Apps settings"]
Media_httpwwwpdxsurre_fmayq
[/caption]
  • Login to your Apps dashboard, and go to the Service Settings tab
  • Check the box to enable Google Sync
  • Save settings
Setup your iPhone Select which calendars to sync I had some trouble with the last step--when I went to m.google.com, I couldn't login with my Apps account, and tapping the link that should've taken me to the login page for Apps didn't work. After some clicking around the mobile site, I finally found the link that would let me login to my Apps account. Once there, the Sync icon was visible, and I could select which 5 calendars to sync. It's currently limited to 5 calendars due to a glitch, but Google claims it's working with Apple to remedy the situation. So it's working... It took a few minutes, but the contents of the 5 calendars I selected have been pushed down to my iPhone. The one part I can't stress enough is to BACKUP everything before you start. Make sure your Google calendar and/or contacts are perfect before you set up the sync--it will save you headaches later. If you're using Google Sync with your iPhone, how has your experience with it been? Let me know in the comments.

Entourage, Exchange, and a Proxy

Entourage, Exchange Server, Proxy   Our network uses a proxy server... I have my mac set up to use that proxy, with all the appropriate IP addresses and servers in the exception list. Recently, we migrated to different exchange servers, and I updated the server details in Exchange appropriately. I immediately started having problems with Entourage--sometimes it wouldn’t send an email (would give me an error and put the message in my drafts folder--resending the message would work.) Sometimes it wouldn’t receive new emails unless I quit Entourage and started it back up again. Our IT department doesn’t officially support Mac, so their answer to me was to use Citrix to check my email. That works, of course, but it’s a pain dealing with attachments, and I really like Entourage 2008.   I’m not sure why it took me so long to think of this, but it finally dawned on me to add the three servers (Exchange server, public folders server, and LDAP server) to the proxy exception list in my Mac’s network settings. So far, it seems to have fixed the problem.   It seems like that should’ve been obvious to me, but it wasn’t, so I’m posting this just in case it wasn’t immediately obvious to someone else dealing with the same Exchange/Entourage headaches.

Gamma differences between Mac and PC

Due to the gamma differences between Mac and PC, if you're editing on a Mac, and distributing for viewing on a PC (as most of the videos I edit are,) you may end up with users complaining that a video is too dark on their system. I found a great page with instructions on how to fix this on Kenstone.net To paraphrase... Gamma @ 0.8 Brightness @ 5 Contrast @ 10 Obviously, these are starting points, and you should adjust as necessary, but it worked like a charm for me.

Putting iPod into Disk Mode

Putting iPod into Disk Mode My buddy had a problem with his iPod showing up on his desktop, but not in iTunes... This article explaining how to put the iPod in disk mode did the trick... The Nano is now recognized in iTunes and the desktop, and is currently being updated to the most recent iPod software.Just thought I'd throw it up there, as we've run into this before, but until now, didn't know how to fix it.