DISCLAIMER: The following method is what I used on my personal computer and iPhone and found to be successful. I take no responsibility for anything bad that happens to your system. Always backup your data before doing anything. I use a Powerbook G4 – OS X 10.5.8 – with an iPhone 3Gs – OS 3.0.1. (I wish I had Snow Leopard, but, alas, it’s Intel only).

I just got an iPhone and wanted all my calendars to sync together. I had previously set up a 2-way sync between iCal and Google Calendar (gCal) using CalDAV, a free, open-source way to sync calendars. I also wanted to continue to use iCal as a live calendar and not have it function as a “read-only Master Calendar.” (See INSTRUCTIONS: The iPhone-iCal-gCal Sync Setup). Below are the instructions I used to successfully allow a three-way sync without duplicating calendar entries:

1. If you currently use a standalone iCal that you now want to be synced to gCal, then backup your current iCal: To export go to File > Export. And then save to your Desktop. Import this calendar into gCal to save all your current iCal events. If you don’t use iCal currently (or already have it set up to sync with gCal using CalDAV), then go to the next step.

2. Turn on iCal < -> gCal syncing. Follow Google’s directions to set up CalDAV support for Google Calendar in Apple’s iCal. Create an entry to verify that changes made in iCal are reflected in gCal, and vice versa.

3. Turn off calendar syncing in iTunes. Since I only have a single calendar that is shared between my iPhone, iCal and gCal, I unchecked “Sync iCal calendars” under the Info tab in my iPhone device. It is fine to select other calendars that you only want to sync between iCal and your iPhone, but DO NOT select the newly created CalDAV calendar.

4. Turn on iPhone < -> gCal syncing. Here you have two options: Option 1, Google Sync (Exchange ActiveSync). Option 2, CalDAV. The thread on the Google Calendar support form compares these two methods. The gist of the comparison is that with ActiveSync your calendar appointments are “pushed” to you. Updates made to a calendar will be reflected instantly on your iPhone or any other device which supports ActiveSync. Currently there can only be a single ActiveSync account on the iPhone, so if you already have one from work, then CalDAV is your only option at this time. Google Sync allows you to sync contacts and calendar. CalDAV can only fetch appointment data on scheduled intervals or manually whenever the iPhone Calendar app is run. It does, however, allow up to 25 calendars with colors matching the gCal scheme.

Both ActiveSync and CalDAV worked great. I chose to stick with CalDAV because I don’t need appointments pushed to me. Running iPhone Calendar and having it quickly refresh is fine with me.

Option 1, Google Sync
Option 2, CalDAV

5. Try it out. Changes made on any of the calendars will now be synced. Let me know if this works for you. Thanks!

References:
Enable Google Calendar in Apple’s iCal
How to configure Google Calendar CalDAV in iPhone 3.0
Which is preferred on iPhone CalDAV or Exchange?
Sharing calendars with Google Calendar, iCal, and the iPhone
CalDAV: CalDAV Calendar Sync
Calendar & Contacts Sync: Set Up Your iPhone or iPod Touch
INSTRUCTIONS: The iPhone-iCal-gCal Sync Setup

A friend just showed me this terrific program that creates a unique slideshow with background music. You can upload your own photos or access galleries already created on Smugmug, Flickr, Picasa, and others. Clips of around 30 seconds are free, but then there is a charge for already videos.

Here’s one of Joe’s recent wedding that I think turned out pretty well:

Believe it or not, but I do have a ton of stuff that I’ll eventually get up on the blog. Sorry for the huge gap in updates. For now, I’ll post some pics and links to a couple of the weddings that I attended this summer:

Justin and Allison’s Wedding and Misc Photos from Atlanta:

Joe and Anne’s Wedding:

Aka funny math with words.

Just found this awesome site called New Math that has some really funny math equations.

Here are just a few of my favorites:
Filing = paper – entropy
Handball = racquetball – racquet
Infomercial = Information + commercial +Wait, there’s more
Pirate = thief + boat + bandana – leg
Easter bunny = Santa Claus – breaking and entering
Backyard = manifest destiny + fences

Check out the site because there’s a bunch more, including an RSS feed that I’m now following in Google Reader.

I occasionally run into the problem of being a few dollars short of qualifying for free shipping when buying products from Amazon. Fortunately, I found a cool site that finds “fillers” to add whatever amount you need to qualify for the free shipping. http://www.superfiller.com/

Basically you end up getting a low priced item for “free.”

I was glancing through the subjects in my spam email folder to make sure nothing good was getting deleted. I was fortunate to do this because I almost missed my good friend Andrew, the Chairman National Audit at Barclays, which according to Wikipedia, is actually true. He has a proposal that I cannot afford to ignore. According to the email header details, he must have sent this from his secondary office in Kiev, Ukraine (I’m thinking he’s on vacation.)

Here’s the email. It was quite an entertaining read and someone really put a lot of thought into it.

Dear Friend,
I am Andrew Likierman, Chairman National Audit at Barclays.I am contacting you concerning a deceased customer William Nathan,and an investment he placed under our banks management.I would respectfully request that you keep the contents of this mail confidential and respect the integrity of the information you come by as a result of this mail.
I contact you independently and no one is informed of this communication.I would like to intimate you with certain facts that I believe would be of interest to you.
In 2005, the subject matter came to our bank to engage in business discussions with our private banking division. He informed us that he had a financial portfolio of 2.35 million British Pounds Sterling, which he wished to have us turn over (invest) on his behalf.I was the officer assigned to his case, I made numerous suggestions in line with my duties as the de-facto chief operations officer of the private banking sector, especially given the volume of funds he wished to put into our bank. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are some funny quotes that I’ve found:

“(of Ronald McDonald) I know he’s a fictional character but if such a man existed, it would be the duty of social services to warn the local parents that he had come to live in the area.” —- Jeremy Hardy

“I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.” — Mark Twain

“It’s fascinating to think that all around us there’s an invisible world we can’t even see. I’m speaking, of course, of the World of the Invisible Scary Skeletons.” — Jack Handy

—-
“I have a bunch more where those came from. I’ll have to put them on here sometime.” — this one is me

Under the president’s plan, spending will top $4 trillion this year alone, and consume 28.5% of our nation’s economy. His plan would mean a $1 trillion increase to the already unsustainable spending growth of our nation’s entitlement programs — including a “down payment” toward government-controlled health care and education; a $1.5 trillion tax increase to further shackle the small businesses and investors we rely on to create jobs; a massive increase in energy costs for families via cap and trade. Moreover, the Obama plan would result in an exploding deficit, a doubling of the nation’s debt in five years, and an increase of that debt to more than 82% of our nation’s GDP by the last year of the budget. This approach will ultimately debase our currency and reduce the living standards of the American people.

Instead of doubling the debt in five years, and tripling it in 10, the Republican budget curbs the explosion in spending called for by the president and his party. Our plan halts the borrow-and-spend philosophy that brought about today’s economic problems, and puts a stop to heaping ever-growing debt on future generations — and it does so by controlling spending, not by raising taxes. The greatest difference lies in the size of government our budgets achieve over time (see nearby chart).

Continue to read on The Wall Street Journal Opinion Article

This article is written by Mr. Paul Ryan, from Wisconsin, who is the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee. It talks about the Republican’s alternative plan to Obama’s “European-style big government” that “works to accomplish four main goals: 1) fulfill the mission of health and retirement security; 2) control our nation’s debts; 3) put the economy on a path of growth and leadership in the global economy; and 4) preserve the American legacy of leaving the next generation better off.”

I decided to try the whole Twitter thing. Here’s my page. Scott’s Twitter. I can’t promise much updates yet (until I get my iPhone). It’s been fun to follow Lance Armstrong on his biking come back. But, the best one that I’ve found is Christopher Walken’s page. He is hillarious! Some examples:

I spent $40.00 on a bag of food for a dog that eats extension cords. That’s still probably cheaper than a bag of extension cords I suppose.

I buy a bottle of Green Tea with ginseng nearly every day but I don’t remember why. I don’t like tea and can barely taste the ginseng.

I posed for dozens of photos in California last week. I closed my eyes or made a face in nearly every one. Sorry. I amuse myself this way.

A curious man asked if I was waiting for something as I stood on the curb. I said, “No. I’m ice fishing.” Oddly enough he accepted that.