Calling Google Calendar from C#
.Net wrapper objects and example of calling Google Calendar from .Net here …
http://code.google.com/apis/gdata/client-cs.html
Also noticed on the cheat sheet was some of the Google calculator functions.
For example to convert temperatures you can simply type in
100 degrees f in c
which returns …
100 degrees Fahrenheit = 37.7777778 degrees Celsius
Very cool Google Video. Tyre’s give out around 8:30.
http://www.autospies.com/article/index.asp?articleId=6940
For those at code camp last weekend who were looking for opportunities to leverage their skills into products. Read this …
The Next Wave in Productivity Tools - Web Office
This is stuff we’re good at already, and you have a ready market real close.
Get into it.
I’ve been hanging onto SauceReader, but as it’s been discontinued for a while I do need to change. I want a standalone RSS Reader - not something in Outlook. I get too much email already.
Any suggestions?
Update: Thanks Michael, RSSBandit works great.
Noticed on FryUp yesterday.
http://www.feedsforme.com/google/
Google has just announced their 3D modeling acquisition, SketchUp is now free.
SketchUp allows you to create 3D models, which you can then upload into GoogleEarth.
There is even a Model Library where the community of modelers can upload and share the models they create.
So by giving a tool away for free (there is a Pro model that you can pay for), and accepting the models that the community creates, they start to model the world - at minimal costs.
Wow! Does that sound like the SETI model with immediate commercial payback.
Back in 2000, I got my first micro notebook. The Toshiba Portege. These were a big deal back then as they were so small, but still had a great keyboard. You got plane points by having a Portege.
A couple of years later I brought a 2nd hand Portege (3440CT) for my wife. She loved it, but last week the hard disk fried. I needed a replacement and would have simply got another one.
I found a Portege R100 on TradeMe. These look to be the last of the really small ones before Portege’s seemed to bloat up. It just arrived today.
Coincidentally we had a senior manager from Australia in the office today who also had an older Portege. He loved the size and just hadn’t seen anything better to replace it with.
It struck me that, here is a family of machines, the older ones 6 years old, which are ‘good enough’ to do what 90% of most users do. Email, a bit of Excel + Word, and surf the web. A great hardware design has made these machines still desirable. They are a bargain. You can buy them at great prices on auction sites as they get cycled out of corporates for being a few years old.
But I’m shocked that these old machines are still effective. It shows how long we have been working with the same level of operating system and applications. Sure XP was an upgrade but the OS hasn’t significantly been upgraded for many years. So hardware has actually been revving much more than mainstream software. What is with that?!?
On one hand this kind of justifies Vista being a huge leap in base requirements. 2GB+ of memory and big video cards. On the other hand it rams home the barrier to entry of the upcoming OS when it won’t run on a significant percentage of current machines.
The Format Painter is in most Office applications including Visio. It’s found as a toolbar button. The Format Painter allows you to copy formatting from one item to another.
It works as follows:
- ‘Select’ the item with the formatting you desire
- ‘Click’ on the the Format Painter toolbar button (
). It is now selected. - ‘Select’ the item to apply the formatting too.
- The Format Painter is now unselected (I’m building up to the tip).
I use the Format Painter a lot, especially in Visio. Often I want to format a number of objects the same. But I used to have to keep re-selecting the first object.
So the tip is: To keep the Format Painter selected, ‘double click’ it. ‘Click’ it again to stop applying formats.
Simple, but this knowledge will vastly improve your Visio experience. Send $1 to …
Our Quest Marketing team have been working on the home page graphic for Archive Manager (our old AfterMail product). I think they did a great job.
Wellington identity Mark Fowler is now blogging. Mark has been sending me useful articles for years. Worth watching.
http://anticipation-mark.blogspot.com/
Working for a global company, I have the dilemma of what salutation to use in my emails.
I usually hover between
- Best regards: When I want to be really nice to people outside and who I haven’t deal with.
- Regards: If I want to be a professional and aloof. Sometimes frosty.
- Nothing: If I’m try to be cool, or if it’s someone I am playing ping pong with. (But to be honest I always feel a bit guilty with nothing).
- Cheers: If it’s internal, or someone external I speak with often.
Today I responded to a person in New York, (internal, first time contact) with Cheers.
This is what I got back:
I always wanted to end my emails with this..
“Cheers”
That was cool.
:)
So, if you want to be cool in New York …
The Wellington .Net code camp is on this weekend. I’m speaking Sunday lunch time with Chris and Mauricio. Burnouts in the car park after.
Huge effort by Kirk and the team to get this together. The agenda looks great.
Looking forward to catching up with everyone there. Don’t hesitate to say hi.
Changed my aging home 802.11b (10MB) Wireless Access Point to 802.11g (54MB). Makes a real difference.
Also Scott installed the DLink Media Lounge tonight. I know I could have used an XBox 360, but I’m just not a gamer. The unit is standard stereo component full width and depth but nice and thin. Looks cool in the stack.
It was an easy setup, connecting it with Windows Media Connect. The UI is as you’d expect from DLink. Not pretty but usable. I just want to do Music and Photo’s so it’s ideal.
With MySky and this I’m off my Harmony Remote and back to Remote Control hell. Need to see if I can consolidate back to the Harmony or at least back to just Harmony and MySky.
Comment: Thomas sent me a note on hooking the Harmony to the MySky remote - try looking for a Foxtel iQ (which is the same unit and I’m told same remote layout)
Simon flicked me a link to a set of java/dhtml classes for cross browser sub-modal dialogs.
http://www.subimage.com/sublog/subModal
This is a useful metaphor that provides the focus, sequence and control of a modal window, while still keeping the user in the context of the web application.
Elegant.
So 20 days since my last Blackberry 8700 update and finally it’s working. Yay!
I had to source from Australia as Vodafone NZ only have two basic BB’s available here. Went round in circles until Vodafone Australia unlocked it. ComputerEzy in Australia appear to source preconfigured phones from Voda and then resell. This one was SIM locked and because I did not have an Australian SIM I got bounced around trying to get a resolution.
They also now supply from Optus which are not SIM locked so you should not have the problems I’ve had.
Transferring Blackberry’s was really easy. Just plug it into the desktop software and it prompts the change. Nice.
Good things about the 8700
- Dedicated phone buttons
- Better call register
- Improved UI
- Blue tooth
- Speakerphone
- Sexy Calculator
Where the 7730 was better
- Bigger screen
- Thinner
- Better spacing between the keys
7730 is a great device. A workhorse compared to the nightclubby 8700.
I laugh at you with Windows Mobile devices.
Users of the new Google application can also access events from friends’ shared calendars and import events from Microsoft Outlook. Once they add events, they can use a “Search My Calendars” searchbar to find them. Events can also be created by typing simple messages like “Lunch with Kate 11:30 a.m. Wednesday” in the program’s “Quick Add” bar.
There will be a API.
This is significant.
My search for a way for my laptop to drive a 30″ inch screen made me think that the split between Laptop, Docking Station and Desktop is flawed. You can’t have it all so end up compromising or having two machines. A laptop and desktop.
I want different hardware dependent on location. When out and about I want a laptop form factor. When in my home office and have quality quiet time I want a multi-monitor setup. At work I’m only going to get an economically justifiable workstation.
My goal though is to only have to maintain one working environment. I want not just my data with me, but all my programs. Outlook, Office, Visual Studio, all with the same preferences set. All in the same state. Keeping two sets of applications, one of each machine, sucks!
Data syncing works well now. Having files and photo’s etc on multiple machines is seamless and easy. But it’s the programs that are a hassle. I only really want one set of licences. I only use one machine at a time.
So what I really need is a laptop that docks into something more than a docking station. A docking station that has more of the desktop PC in it. That super-dock would have:
- Lots of fast disk
- Keyboard and mouse
- Video card to drive big monitors
My laptop would contain my programs and some disk, which would sync with the fast disk on the dock. When docked I use the video card in the dock. All applications run on the laptop whether it is docked or undocked.
I don’t need to have the dock work without the laptop so it doesn’t need to be a full PC. I wouldn’t have to duplicate my applications as each application is only installed once - on the laptop that is always with me.
Isn’t this a hybrid that makes more sense?
Phil and Leonie just got back from the Cooper design course in San Francisco.
I’m excited they’re excited. These two are really starting to push the envelope and the innovation coming out of the team is exciting to see. As a night time developer, I don’t do enough design. Too quickly I jump into code. Then you iterate and the process to build something quite simple can quickly extend. Having a blue print before coding greatly reduces project time. It’s like a builder putting up a wall day one, without having the architects drawings. Sure you have a rough idea of the shape of the house but the detail kills you. You miss opportunities from not spending time on the design.
All of the mini projects they have designed has lead to unexpected features and elegance that creates competitive advantage.
Our developers are jazzed about being able to develop to world class blue prints and build features that are pushing the envelope. I’m happy that we’re really developing to real customer requirements and delivering innovative differentiation.
One of the benefits of our sale to Quest is that our staff are getting the experience of working with a global software company and building products that really are going out to the world. Our focus on the one main product gives them the opportunity to focus on a specific set of problems. That focus is key to the success of the design process. Watching them teach themselves new skills, seeing them meet and spend time with industry thought leaders and do work not usually seen in NZ is very satisfying.
We’ve finished our first quarter. It’s gone well, and our team have proved themselves. This results in further investment in New Zealand as we grow our team. We have some open headcount and this is an exciting time to get involved. Flick me a note if you’re interested. We’re having fun.
Scott from Haven popped around today to show me their Media Center PC. It’s sexy. Pride of stereo rack type sexy. Secondary front display, brushed aluminium, cooling fins, quiet. Nice.
Pricey though, and after a good play I just didn’t want a Media PC on my TV. It’s overkill. Since we have MySky, which is an optimized PVR, I don’t really want to go back to a generic device even though it does a lot more stuff. My wife loves MySky. George has all his Blues Clues on there. (We keep the Steve and delete the Joe ones). We can’t go back and I just don’t want to have to fight with Windows from the sofa.
MySky lacks access to music and photo’s though.
So Scott came up with the idea of using a Dlink Media Lounge. This streams the common Windows file types into your TV. It’s around $500 and does *just* what I want.
I learnt from Scott that to stream media around the house you need to run some server side streaming software. Microsoft has one called Windows Media Connect, which installs a control panel item. Seems easy.
Doing the web site upgrade with CSS has exposed me to the wonderful world of browser incompatibility.
While IE7.0 is much better than IE6.0, and seems to clean up quite a lot of CSS issues it renders quite differently. In IE6 and Firefox the Box Model is incorrect.
The work around is an IE feature called Conditional Comments.
IE allows this code in HTML HEAD
<!– ### START: TEMPORARY IE7b2 FIX ### –>
<!–[if gt IE 6]>
<LINK href=”IE7.css” type=”text/css” rel=”stylesheet” />
<![endif]–>
<!– ### END: TEMPORARY IE7b2 FIX ### –>
This allows me to override my div#main CSS for IE7.
div#main {
MARGIN: 0 305px 0 0;
PADDING: 5px;
BACKGROUND-COLOR: #fff;
}
Comment: Nigel from MS sent me this useful link to resources for more info on IE7 and testing for compatibility.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/ie/infoindex/default.aspx
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