24 hours of Google Reader Shared Items
In this post, I decribed that I wasn't able to have Google Reader export a feed of the last 24 hours of shared items. The feed that is generated by Google reader uses the publish date from the original article as the pubDate of the item in the feed. It would be great if Google embedded the "shared" date in the feed for each item.
In the mean time, I have created a Yahoo Pipe that will do this. Unfortunately, this requires that the previous period's feed needs to be saved somewhere where this script can access. I have set a cron job to fetch the feed once a day. Then the yahoo pipe uses that cached feed and compares it with the latest feed.
links for October 2, 2008
NuevaSync
When using a Mac as a main computer, I was able to create an overly complicated setup that would allow me to sync my iPhone wirelessly with Google Calendar/Contacts. But this doesn't work on my linux computer. When I was looking foa a solution I found a link to NuevaSync.
NuevaSync is a Exchange "proxy" for Google Calendar/Contacts. This allows the iPhone to be configured to sync to thie Google apps. This solution acually makes MobileMe unnecessary. This article has a good walkthough for configuring NuevaSync with an iPhone.
This has been working fine for me on my iPhone.
One problem that is being worked on is better support for multiple calendars. Also another annoyance, with the iPhone and not with NuevaSync is that you can not connect to multiple Exchange servers. I would like to connect to my work's Exchange server for mail, but connect to NuevaSync for Calendars and Contacts.
Virtual Machines
VirtualBox is a free virtual machine that I have been using for a while It worked perfectly to run Windows XP on my Ubuntu computer. VirtualBox is available for Mac, WIndows and Linux. Connecting my iPhone didn't work. It looks like there is a bug where a connected iPhone is not recognized with VirtualBox.
This isn't a problem in VMware Workstation. I tried the 30 day free trial and it worked with the iPhone. I was able to easily transfer the data from my VirtualBox VM to VMware Workstation. I backed up the VirtualBox to the Windows Home Server. Then in the VMware Workstation VM, before I installed an OS, I put in the client restore CD. This allowed me to restore the image to the new vm.
Moving to Windows
About the time that we got our new Dell M1530, the internal video card on our MacBook Pro died. My wife is now trying to use the M1330 as her personal computer. I erased the Ubuntu partition and installed WIndows Vista on it. Also, since our Mac OS X machine was disabled, I have installed Windows XP in a virtual machine on my Ubuntu m1530 to do everything that I can't do in Ubuntu.
There are several things that I have noticed about Windows:
- The backup functionality in Windows Home Server works perfectly with Windows machines. (I actually have used this to rebuild a machine and it worked perfectly)
- There is no calendar program. I don't get how Microsoft can ship an OS that doesn't have a calendar program. Mac OS X ships with iCal. You would think that Microsoft would want a computer to be functional for a family with just the base OS install. They ship a mail program, photo and video editing programs, but no calendar. This means that I can not sync my calendar with MobileMe.
- I am getting tons of errors from MobileMe Sync on both XP and Vista. The errors state things like "a sync in progress" or my "MobileMe account is expired".
- The Windows version of Quicken is so much more functional that the Mac version. Once I confugured Quicken for our accounts, it automatically configured itself to use the online bill pay from the bank. With Quicken for the Mac, you have to use a third party bill pay service.
Vista on Mac mini
I installed Windows Vista on our Mac mini. I wanted to document the process, in case I need to do this again.
When I started, I use the Mac OS X installer to create two partitions. One 12Gb partion for Mac OS X and the rest for windows. This didn't work, as BootCamp can not be enabled unless you have more than several GB of space availble. So, I had to create one partition and then reinstall Mac OS X. Once I did that, then I could use the Boot Camp installer to resize the Mac OS X partition and install Windows.
The other problem that I had was that the DVD drive on the Mac mini is starting to malfunction. I was able to install Mac OS X by putting the Mac mini in Firewire Disk Mode, and using the MacBook Pro to actually do the installation. Unfortunately, you can not install Windows like this. You only can enable Boot Camp on the internal drive. Also, you can't use an external USB DVD drive to install windows, as Mac hardware. Luckily, I was able to get Vista installed by rebooting without the DVD inserted, and the option key held down. Then when in the disk selection screen appears, insert the Windows DVD, and then boot into the installer.
I was using our LCD TV as a monitor for the Mac Mini. Once Windows was installed, I wasn't able to see any video when setup assistant started. I had to switch to a different monitor that supported that resolution so I could finish the setup.
Once, I installed Apple's drivers everything worked perfectly. Media Center works on this, and I am able to access this on the Xbox through Media Center extender.
I have installed TVTonic and MyMovies. I have set up several video feeds in TVTonic, and now I need to start creating images for our DVDs.
Insecure wifi
I was at a Starbucks last week, waiting for my appointment at the DMV. This was the warning that Firefox 3 showed me, when I attempted to log on to the wifi network there.
Starbucks and TMobile need to fix their ssl certificates.
links for September 7, 2008
links for September 6, 2008
Squeezebox Boom
 The two Squeezebox Booms that I ordered arrived a few days ago, and I have to say that they have lived up to my expectations.
When you open the box, the first thing you see is a velvet-like bag, containing the Squeezebox Boom, that has the Logitech logo on it, and an orange tag that states Sqeezebox. When you take the Squeezebox Boom out of the bag, I noticed that it has a solid feel to it.
The setup of this is exactly the same as the other Sqeezebox devices. Once configured for our wireless network, it automatically saw the install of SqueezeCenter running on our Windows Home Server, and was able to play the music.
The sound from the Squeezebox Boom is pretty good. I was suprized about how much bass comes out of this little device, at the default setting. There are some other features, that I am currently not taking advantage of.
- There is a line-in jack to connect to a different source
- A jack, that can be used for headphone, or to connect to a subwoofer.
There are two things that I would have loved to see different about this player.
- The screen size. The screen size is significantly smaller than that on the Squeezbox. So, you need to adjust the font size, and text will scroll a lot more.
- The AC/DC adapter. The power brick is huge. This is the largest power brick that I have, were the bulk of the size is at the plug. It is larger than the adapter for my laptop. On other devices, when dealing with a brick of this size, they seperate the brick from the outlet with a cord.
But I really do like this player. I am thinking that I will get another one. Since I was planning on putting these in the kids rooms, I may want one for my office.
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