Sync Google Calendar With Outlook

SyncMyCal is a calendar synchronization tool that provides you with a way to sync your Google Calendar with your Microsoft Outlook calendar. With zero-click synchronization, you can even sync multiple Google calendars with a single Outlook calendar or vice versa. Additionally, SyncMyCal offers a ton of features, including synchronizing recurring events, synchronizing unlimited events, flexibility of publishing/not publishing private events, support for time zone differences in calendars through automatic schedule adjustment, feature for publishing FREE/BUSY or complete information for events, category based synchronization, support for Google Apps for your domain, an auto update feature, an auto Sync featur (Pro only), and selective event synchronization through date range selection (Pro only). SyncMyCal’s dual interface operation feature allows SyncMyCal to be operated from within Outlook and from the system tray. The software works with Windows 2000 SP3+, Windows XP or Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and supports Outlook 2002/2003/2007. The Pro version is avaiable for $25 - a one-time fee, or you can download the Lite version for free.

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If you’re an I.T. Professional (like me), then this post is for you. If you don’t work in I.T., you might not be as excited as I am about the free Spiceworks I.T. Desktop software. The program is designed, tested, and used by 120,000 I.T. pros in 185 countries and it has the everyday features you need including the ability to inventory and report on your company’s hardware and software assets automatically, monitor and troubleshoot the hardware and software on your network, and run an I.T. Help Desk for your company. It’s easy to get up and running with Spiceworks - just download and install. The Spiceworks software is installed on one PC, but it does not require that the computers it monitors run any software themselves. Yes, I know, hard to believe, but Spiceworks gets its data from the built-in administrative processes that run in Windows by default.

The program offers a web-based management console that multiple users can access at the same time. The program can monitor things like PCs and servers with low disk space, the presence of unwanted software on your network, the status of your anti-virus updates, printers with low toner and ink levels, and offline servers. Inventory management in Spiceworks is easy. The program automatically discovers Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs and servers, routers, printers and any other IP-based devices on your network, gathers all of their relevant technical data plus the software, patches and services on each machine, adds important data such as the number of licenses you have, the purchase price and physical location, keeps track of other assets such as mobile phones and even office furniture, and provides you with 20 ready-to-use reports. Yes, seriously - without agents.

Best of all, the software is completely free. Spiceworks is supported by web ads run on the administrator’s interface. The ads are from reputable companies like Intel and HP and are unobtrusive, with no pop-ups or sound. However, if they bother you, they can be switched off by sponsoring the program. Sponsoring means that you pay $10 per month to to have your company logo display on your copy of the software in place of the ads.

The long rumored NBC/News Corp "YouTube killer" is finally here…well, a landing page is here, that is. It seems NBC and News Corp were tired of having their content uploaded to YouTube by fans (copyright infringement!) yet not seeing any ad revenue for the traffic it generated (probably the real reason behind this), so they decided to launch their own version of YouTube. Dubbed "Hulu," the site will allow visitors to watch free videos from NBC and News Corp (aka Fox)’s most popular TV shows, including The Office, My Name is Earl, Family Guy, American Dad, Bones, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and more. As of now, no one seems to know if the site will feature full-length videos or just clips. The site claims the name "Hulu" was chosen because it’s "short, easy to spell, easy to pronounce, and rhymes with itself." However, I think it sounds a lot like "YouTube" and they are hoping that we make the subconscious correlation in our mind so as to make it easier to remember. If you want to be notified of the upcoming beta, which launches in October, you can submit your email address on Hulu’s main page.

The major selling feature of RIM’s Blackberry devices is the ability to "push" your email to you - your phone immediately alerts you when you have new mail. Instead of having to log in to some sort of application that periodically polls the email server for new mail ("pull" email), push email is the reason for people’s incessant addiction to these popular handheld devices. Now, along comes a new service that promises to  bring this level of email addiction to the masses. New from emoze is a service that will "push" your personal emails to nearly any mobile handset that supports email, including Nokia, Samsung, and Motorola devices. With the emoze service, you can receive your emails as well as manage other Outlook data, like your contacts and meeting requests. In addition to Microsoft Outlook & Microsoft Exchange, emoze also supports Lotus Notes Domino servers and POP3 online email services such as Hotmail, Yahoo! and Gmail. Yes, Gmail. Push Gmail. Unbelievably, the emoze service is totally free.

Can someone explain this? I accidentally googled a phrase today, but instead of starting it with a double quote, I accidentally used a single quote. The results page showed my results, but the Google search box was missing. Also, when I clicked on "more," the text came up all garbled. To see if it was just a fluke, I tried it again with the word "test," and got the same results (see below.)  What’s up with that? Click the picture for a larger screenshot:

Windows CardSpace (formerly called InfoCard) is a framework developed by Microsoft which securely stores digital identities of a person. What that means is that Microsoft has developed a new way for you to sign into websites, easily & securely. Unlike Microsoft’s "Passport" system, CardSpace isn’t tied down to Microsoft - it’s an open technology. Members of the security community are cautiously enthusiastic about its potential. For example, Steve Gibson, who hosts the popular Security Now! podcast with Leo Laporte had this to say about CardSpace:

"…it has really a nice user interface…it’s built on top of open source and OpenID. And in fact, this
thing is open enough that there is an Apache module in full open
source…they’ve really learned their lesson. Nothing has been kept away from
the open source community, so that I really am excited about this. I
think this has a very good chance of succeeding."

Steve continues on what went wrong with Passport:

"…[Microsoft] learned from their mistake with Passport. They said, okay, oops, why did that not work? Well, everyone would immediately say, well, because it was yours. You know, and sorry, Microsoft, we’re sort of stuck using Windows and other stuff that you provide, whether we like to or not. And a lot of Microsoft stuff is as good as anything else, but we don’t want to have to. We want choice. And so what Microsoft did was they created a metasystem which explicitly allows other sorts of authentication frameworks to be put underneath the users’ experience. And I would be less enthusiastic about this if it were only on Vista because, you know, I’m not there yet, and I know a lot of the world is waiting for the first Service Pack or longer. The good news is, it will be - this CardSpace technology will be back-ported to IE7 on XP. And there’s already support for it, for example, in the open source community on Linux and in Safari and coming for Firefox."

That’s quite a positive review from someone I trust, and it was enough to interest me in trying out this new technology. So when I heard that you can now use CardSpace with your Windows Live ID account, I had to try it out. When you use CardSpace with your Windows Live ID, you don’t use a password to sign in anymore. Instead, you just send your "Information Card" to Live ID to identify you, and you will be signed into Hotmail, Windows Live Spaces, or any other website that accepts Windows Live ID.

If you want to try it out, too, click here. Vista users are ready to use CardSpace with no further effort. XP
users need to use Internet Explorer 7.0 and .Net 3.0 (which you might already have).

Here are the instructions for Vista users (like me!) who are trying out CardSpace for the first time:

1. Click this link and then click on the "sign in" button
2. Enter your Windows Live ID and password.
3. Now it’s time to create your card! Verify your password again and click "Add."
4. You will see a welcome screen display; click "OK" to close this screen. (You can also check the checkbox to not show that again).
5. You will then be prompted to "Send your card," so click "Yes" to that.
6. Since you don’t have any cards yet, you’ll need to set one up. It’s easy - you just click on the picture of the card that looks sort of like a blank business card and click "Add."
7. Then you fill out your personal information on the card by adding items like your name, your email, etc. You can even choose a picture from your computer to go on the card. However, since you’re creating a card for your Windows Live ID, the only thing you really have to fill out for this card is your Windows Live Email address (your Hotmail or MSN address).
8. Once your card is created, you can then you can just click "Send" to send your card.

TA-DA! You can now sign in to any website that uses Windows Live ID by using this card!

(If anyone has the steps for XP users, let me know.)

Finally. The iPhone has been unlocked. Now, I just need to borrow $600 from someone.

First, there was this guy, who traded his unlocked iPhone "for a sweet Nissan 350Z and 3 8GB iPhones."

And now there’s this software at iphonesimfree.com, which offers a way to use software to unlock the iPhone. Engadget tested it out:

Read the Engadget report for more details.

Here’s an idea that’s long past due: Yahoo has announced Yahoo Teachers, a social network just for teachers. These days it’s not unusual for schools to discourage, if not outright ban, teachers from using the popular social networks their students are fond of, like MySpace or Facebook. But teachers deserve the right to social network too! With the upcoming Yahoo Teachers network, teachers will be able to collaborate with each other by creating, modifying, and sharing lesson plans online. Another feature of Yahoo Teachers is called the "Gobbler," which is a browser add-on that lets teachers save photos, text, and websites they find online. These items are collected simply by highlighting items then dragging-and-dropping them into a project portfolio. From there, the information can be stored to be later organized into lesson plans and worksheets. These plans can then be shared with other teachers on the network. The site isn’t live yet, but you can sign up to receive an invite to be alerted when it launches.

Photo.com is a soon-to-launch site that will be a social network for photographers, as well as a place where members can buy and sell photo products online. Essentially, the site’s goal is to let its users do anything having to do with photos within their portal, whether it’s shopping for equipment, sharing slideshows with friends, customizing photos, or networking with other users. At the site, members will be able to buy and sell cameras & photo equipment in addition to other CafePress-like items, like mugs, mousepads, and stickers. Photographers can use their Photo.com profile as a portfolio of their work while also reading and writing reviews, building a community of friends, and creating slideshows or specially edited photos that can be shared within the community or to friends and family outside the network. The site is currently collecting email addresses of interested users who want to be informed with the public beta launches. Sign up here to be included.

After being in beta since April of last year, the NY Times’ "MyTimes" personalized homepage feature was officially launched this week. The personalized homepage offers you the ability to customize a NYTimes homepage by choosing from content like the top headlines, weather forecasts, photos, feeds, and widgets, and arranging them on a customizable page. On MyTimes, you can browse the favorite web sources listed on the personal pages of Times journalists including Nicholas D. Kristof and Michiko Kakutani, and, with just one click, add any of their sources to your own page. Additionally, you can add various widgets to your page, including the Flickr Photo Browser, Markets & Stock Quotes, Mortgage & Home Equity Rate Trends, Movie Showtimes, New York Times Crosswords, and Weather. Although the MyTimes makes for a nice homepage for New York Times readers, I think they will find that in being so late to the game, most people are going to stick with their current start page, like iGoogle, Pageflakes, MyYahoo, etc.