Nutcracker music driving me nuts

The worst thing about being a character in the party scene of the Nutcracker is that the music gets stuck in your head. For many weeks on end, for hours at a time, we rehearse the party scene. The dances are all cued by the music. So not only do we have to listen to it, but we have to associate where we are on stage and all of the different dance moves to it.

I think the only way to flush out the constant music playing in my head is to replace it with other music.

I listened to "Guilty of the Crime" which is on the Eagles "Long Road out of Eden" CD and it did a pretty good job. Its catchy. Other music would probably work just as well, but I don't have a lot of time to listen to music.

Appigo Todo will not sync with MS-Outlook

I love using "Todo" from Appigo on my iPad. Recently it stopped synching, probably due to a software update on either my laptop/desktop or on the iPad itself. Efforts to reinstate synching proved mostly futile.

I finally got it working again after checking a few things (in no particular order.)
1. Verify the IP address is the same on both the iPad and Laptop. Actually the last field of the IP address can be different:
PC: 192.168.1.167
iPad: 192.168.1.69

2. Verify your PC firewall is not blocking Appigo Sync. Find out the port used by Appigo sync from the preferences screen. Then enter the IP address and port number into a new web browser window.
Example: http://192.168.1.167:51438

3. After doing both, my iPad could still not "see" my laptop/desktop. So I did a manual configuation in Todo, Synchronization. Voila! I was able to "see" my iPad on the PC client and I proceeded to authorize it and re-synchronize.

All appears to be right in the world again!

How do I back up my iPad data, not just the apps?

iTunes performs a backup when I connect. I'm not worried about losing music or photos as the originals all reside on my computer. However, I use my iPad for note taking and todo lists and must have backups of these files. I'm not sure if iTunes backs those up. Anybody know?

iPad Wi-Fi Weird No Connection Issue

http://ipadtouchworld.blogspot.com/2010/04/ipad-wifi-network-problems-weak-how-to.html

All of a sudden this morning my iPad wouldn't talk to my home Wi-Fi. My internet service is through AT&T U-Verse and my TV was fine. I could also connect my laptop to the internet just fine. But the iPad refused to connect even after 1. powering it on/off 2. doing a network settings reset and 3. doing an "all reset." I still suspected it was the iPad.

Then I noticed I couldn't print to my networked printer from my laptop. So I tried using my Verizon Wireless Mi-Fi card with the iPad and voila, it connected right away. So therefore I decided to reset my home router/modem.

I reset my home modem/router and all was good again.

NASCAR Hall of Fame Preview

 

We were fortunate enough to get a preview of the new NASCAR Hall of Fame this past weekend. Being a car guy and racing fanatic since about the age of 10, I was naturally thrilled. The HOF did not disappoint! There is plenty to do for both young and old. I bought a charter membership and will be spending a lot of time there in the future.

iPad: Use BOTH Google Calendar AND MS-Exchange Calendar

Just got my iPad yesterday and was frustrated that I could only have my MS Exchange calendar on it. Then I found this: http://www.google.com/support/mobile/bin/answer.py?answer=151674

I've said it before...Google is going to take over the world!

24 hours with iPad

I've had my new iPad now for 24 hours (it sat unopened in my house for a week while I was on vacation.) So far its everything I expected and I consider it a game changer. Why? For several reasons:

1. The mobile web on handheld devices has never been a satisfying experience. For years we waited patiently through WAP sites, text only mobile sites, painfully slow throughput (anyone else remember CDPD?)
2. I don't consider using a laptop to be a mobile experience unless you're in a passenger seat (Northwest pilots excluded.)
3. There's always been the need for a middle-device between a laptop and a handheld PC. I've craved a device that is big enough to read standard web pages but small enough to slip into a folio.

My hopes were raised when Bill Gates showed the first tablet PC (was it back in 2003?) But were dashed soon after when the devices themselves were still very bulky, very expensive, and had lots of quality problems (Gateway computers anyone?)

Los Gatos at dawn

Los Gatos, CA, is a beautiful little town. Mostly residential cottages and upscale and boutique shopping. Sort of reminds me of Carmel by the sea, but bigger...and not by the sea.

I stayed at the Los Gatos Hotel which also has an excellent Greek restaurant called Dia Deko and a spa. Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt apparently are regulars...although not at the same time unless they can first notify some paparazzi (in reference to their "coffee summit" of last weekend.)

Los Gatos is another place to add to my list called "Places I've been for business that I would love to re-visit with my wife but not for business."

Well Done, Los Gatians!

Google Perplexed

I flew in from Charlotte yesterday morning for a lunch meeting with an acquaintance at Google. Being a huge fan of Google (Don't Be Evil) for many reasons, I was very excited, to say the least, about setting foot on such "hallowed" ground.

I think it is safe to say I was impressed, but not overwhelmed to be there. I don't know if I had built up some kind of mythology about the place that was going to just wow me. I guess I was a little let down though but maybe my expectations were just too high.

It was a fun, vibrant, college-like atmosphere. I was there during lunchtime and young employees were bustling around. It was an overcast day so there was nobody on the volleyball court. I did see a few of the many fun objects d'art such as the dinosaur skeleton and shark fin. To be fair I also didn't actually go inside any of the offices, just one of the restaurants and we sat outdoors.

Don't get me wrong, I would still love to work there....and live in the south bay area. It's pretty nice, even with all the snails.

Garmin Edge 500 - Problem communicating with device

I got a brand new Edge 500 yesterday and went for my first ride today. Being very experienced with the Forerunner 305 I was looking forward to using this bike-centric upgrade.

I had a lot of trouble getting my files uploaded though. I normally use SportTracks but it doesn't seem to have support for the Edge 500 (as of 3/17/10.) So I tried GTC (Garmin Training Center.) Out of habit, I used the self-update check to see if there was a later version of GTC. It found a later version and installed itself. I was to find a problem with this later though.

First, I forgot I had to add the Edge 500 as another device so it took about an hour on/off to get to that point.

After you add it to your device profile you'll see this:



The next obstacle was that GTC failed to see the device. I tried using different USB ports, etc. I even connected my 305 and it popped up just fine. So after typing "Garmin Edge 500 - Problem communicating with device" into Google I found a post indicating that the GTC version might be the culprit.

Since I had already done the version upgrade I didn't think this was my issue. But I checked the version I had running anyway (Help, About) and to my surprise it was version 3.4.3. I know that I downloaded version 3.5.3 earlier.

Long story short, the software upgrade did not uninstall the previous version. I had to manually go to the program (program files, garmin, etc.) and created a desktop shortcut for the new version. After double-clicking that shortcut, I checked the version and got this:




Surprise surprise, my Edge 500 was found and my files were uploaded. Now I can get back to work on my training.