art geigel's personal blog

My life is owned by Google.  Seriously.  I use Gmail as my only email program and their calendar as my only calendar.  I’ve also recently decided to use their documents software instead of Word/Excel.  Having Google maintain my digital life has made things a lot easier.

So when I got my new iPhone a few weeks ago I was eager to setup my Gmail account.  Just as I expected it was painless and easy.

Then I moved on to my calendar which I thought would be just as easy.  Unfortunately it wasn’t.  I was hoping that the iPhone would support a pull architecture for iCal synchronization — basically allowing me to tell the iPhone that it’s time to sync between the iPhone and my Google calendar.  A lot of calendar software packages support the iCal standard, and Google calendar allows you to export your calendar in this format.  Naturally I thought this would be supported on the iPhone, but it wasn’t.

I then searched online to find what I was looking for.  I found a syncing program that works with the iCal standard, but only with the iCalendar application in OSX.  Since I run XP on my machine this wasn’t any help.  I then found an application that said it could do what I needed, called NemuSync, but it required that I jailbreak my iPhone — something I wasn’t looking to do.

Just as I was about to give up I found the answer to all of my problems.  It was called NuevaSync and it has been the best thing I’ve ever setup for my iPhone.  NuevaSync is free, and allows you to setup an account with them that bridges information on your iPhone with Google’s calendar without ever having to install an app.  On a more technical level, they offer a Microsoft Exchange layer to push syncing between your iPhone and Google’s calendar.

Because Exchange is a push architecture you never have to worry about activating a sync request — it’s done automatically when you add a new event in your calendar either on your iPhone or on your Calendar webpage.  So let’s say you’re on the road and enter an event on your iPhone.  By the time you get home and log on to your Google calendar it will already be there.  NuevaSync is a real-time ongoing syncing of your iPhone calendar and Google calendar.

I was so happy when I found this out that I emailed their staff to thank them for the service.  They could easily charge $99 a year for this service and I would have paid.  It’s so seamless and translucent that I literally had to write a blog article singing its praises.

If you’re an iPhone person and use Google calendar you must setup an account today.

I recently updated a client website to be more festive for the holidays.  I can’t stop laughing at how over the top, and awesome, it is.  Check it out by visiting Slim & Jumbo’s website.

I thought this was a funny statistic regarding pirates and global warming.

It’s been nearly a year and a half in the making, but my friends and I finally got our Pi tattoos.  Chris Armenio, John Belter, Sean Teller and I went to Smokin’ Tattooz last night (11/29) in Kent and all got inked — some of us for the first time.  Noticeably wussing out and NOT getting a tattoo (even though she promised she would) was half-Asian Sarah Scroggy who nonetheless provided event planning services, and moral/emotional support.  

The tattoo appears slightly to the left of the center of my wrist, and along my watch band (so it can be hidden when it needs to be).  The entire tattoo fits within a 1 inch square.  The image on the bottom shows off 3.14 – 3 fingers up, wring finger down (point), pinky finger up for 1and the entire count of up fingers being 4.

Other important attendees during this historic event include: Mike Pavis, Lou Colorito, Katherine Dunn, Matt Coleman, Jeff Zimmerman, Caitin Ganley and Jeff Burk.  All of whom looked on as the rest of us endured.  Honestly, the needle wasn’t painful at all, and I was expecting much worse.

Why get Pi as a tattoo?  I can’t answer for anyone else, but for me I’ve wanted it for a long time.  There is beauty in mathematics, and Pi is an important number (ratio) used in calculations that define our world.  It’s infinite, never repeats itself, powerful in its simplicity and unique.  Pi is God’s number.

Additionally, the Greek letter Pi resembles neolithic Irish dolmens – or altars.  Dolmens pepper Ireland, and my dad and I saw a lot on our first visit there.  So in that way, my Pi tattoo will help remind me of those fun times.

Some of the dolmens my dad and I saw on our first Ireland trip.  Notice how similar dolmens are to the Greek letter Pi?

Go watch this CNN clip.  It’s about this guy who had his new Xbox and games stolen from him on a basic traffic stop.

Cops Steal Xbox from Guy

The link was on the CNN homepage and I was so intrigued by the headline I had to see what it was.  I think it’s crap they targeted this guy and put him through the hassle he had to go through to get it back.