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Sunbird Chandler Realty

usrealty4u — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 02:52:55 +0000

Be successful in your search for a striking new place to call your own, see options over at Sunbird Chandler Realty. You’re sure to find a home that exceeds your expectations and be able to call Chandler your home once you see the available properties in the area.
Real Estate for sale in Sunbird Chandler AZ is extremely affordable, regardless how much or little you are willing to spend. You can get homes priced as low as from $79,900 to $255,000! Isn’t that a bargain?! Knowing you will end up with a lot of savings should make shopping for a home so much fun.
The homes here in Sunbird, Chandler really make great homes for growing, active family. Parents can get to the near and wonderful school district for the kids. All over the neighborhood, families can enjoy beautiful public parks and grounds. The grocery, post office, banks and restaurants are all present too,making for a community that’s complete and filled with all you need.
If this scenario sounds like bliss to you, then you should definitely visit our website now, and find a home in Sunbird for your very own!

Rambling and ranting in a tea daze.

xen — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:15:08 +0000

Before you continue to read this article or whatever I have to call it, I must warn you doing so might be a matter of life and death. Well, not really; it might be more correct to say it will probably cause utter frustration and confusion. If you are happy to be confused, frustrated and just annoyed by the extreme chaos and intangibility reeking from this written things; be my guest and read it. I do not care really, only if I annoy you; or make you laugh.

It seems that I have again been struck by writer’s block. It of course does not help me that the temperature is so inhumanly high. It is almost midnight and I am sweating very mildly. Never the less, talking about the weather tends to be boring and just a meer observation at that certain point; unless you are a meteorologist.

When I started doing my clumsy research about Gonzo journalism I was almost overwhelmed by inspiration. It was almost like my muse gave me a huge doze of concentrated creativity mixed with adrenalin. Now I barely know what to write on Twitter.
I know this comes and goes for all writers, but when it happens too often it can be a bit annoying, and worrying even.

It might be because I have been under a lot of stress lately. More or less stress created by idiot myself for not understanding my own actions and choices. Luckily my therapist clarified for me that I am not picky with jobs, not at all, I am just avoiding jobs I know will give me an ulcer, panic attack or other ailments related to stress. He also made me understand that I am actually expecting too much of myself at work, in a country that is a bit more relaxed to what I am used to.
So this stress has probably had a not so good effect on my creativity and scared my muse away; but I might also have been too hard on myself and my writing.
I have even started to avoiding commenting on certain articles; because I do not see how they will actually have a greater impact on the matter word wide. I guess I am living too much by the proverb; “try to talk sense to a fool and he will call you foolish”, so why bother speaking if no one is willing to listen?

I feel more secure and safe about staying in Australia and finishing my degree in biomedical science now. Even if the heat is annoying me a lot. I sweat a lot and it is not fun at all. It is true what Jerry said in one of the Seinfeld episodes: “You, you stink.”

This heat has made me stay more inside, as riding around on a BMX and doing tricks will probably just make me leave a wet trail behind me and a high risk of heat stroke.
This has led me to spend more time playing with my computer; so now I am running four applications based on the Mozilla project. Firefox, Thunderbird, Sunbird and Songbird. I am in geek heaving now, especially when I installed Fedora 12 and learned that Fedora is just getting better and better.

I started playing Gran Turismo 4 again, as last time did not go so well. In other words, for some reason I sucked insanely at it. Almost like I was completely off my face and had never ever played a proper car sim ever; or any game for what it is worth. Now I am driving like my life depends on it.
Lizzie is not too happy about it, as she claims it has affected my driving. OF course it has not, I have always been a horrible driver.

Before I decided to sit down, sweat like a pig and write this piece of bollocks I was having this internal debate with one of my other personalities if I should have a tea or not. Why you ask? Well, if you have not paid attention, I can tell you for the third time (in just this collection of characters) that it is insanely hot in this country, for an insane Nordic Viking. I decided to have a cuppa.
I have been drinking a lot of tea lately; the last month or so, I think. Black tea that is; from Twinings of course. I think the amount would make a Brit a bit teary too. This is just a guess, but I think I drink about two to five cups a day.
And so far my favourites are Lady Grey, Irish Breakfast, Prince of Wales and Tradition Afternoon.

I can not help to keep thinking about that I am so far away from my friends and family. It is still sometimes a bit surreal that I am living in Australia. Also I can not help to think about what some of my friends are doing now; and how to get in touch with people I have lost contact with and might never ever see or speak with again.
You have one life. Try to enjoy it as much as you can; without hurting people around you, and yourself.

That sums up most of the things that swim around in my crazy mind; that I do not mind letting the public know about. Luckily I am able to know what not to tell you all; as I do not feel like being committed tomorrow.

It is a mad world we live in.

How to sync Sunbird with Thunderbird (or vice versa)

js:trn — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 16:57:57 +0000

If you have your calendars in Sunbird and now want to be able to view them directly in Thunderbird via the Lightning add-on (or vice versa), all you have to do is locate the storage.sdb file in the respective profile folder and copy it to the other’s profile folder.

Where do I find the storage.sdb file?

For Mac OS X users:

To locate the storage.sdb file for Sunbird, go to
Users > Your user account > Library > Application Support > Sunbird > Profiles > blah.default > storage.sdb

To locate the storage.sdb file for Thunderbird, go to
Users > Your user account > Library > Thunderbird > Profiles > folder.default > storage.sdb

For Windows users, you should be able to locate the storage.sdb file without too much difficulty. Leave a comment to provide the directory folders for Windows users and I’ll be sure to update this post.

In my next post, I’ll show you how to sync your Google Calendar with Sunbird, Thunderbird or iCal. Stay tuned.

IMPORTANT: This method completely replaces one’s calendar profiles with the other’s. In other words, if you take Sunbird’s storage.sdb, copy it into Thunderbird’s then all of the calendars there will be replaced by Sunbird’s. Backup your storage.sdb files if you’re experimenting.

#204 Singapore 09/06/30

Florian — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:00:20 +0000

Florence sent me this nice cover from Singapore, thank you! It was posted on June 30, 2009.

The two left stamps commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Singapore Botanic Gardens. I already wrote about this issue in this post. The middle stamp depicts the Crimson Sunbird (Aethopyga siparaja) and was issued on June 6, 2007. The right stamp was issued in 2008 and depicts the dragon fruit.

Variable Sunbird

maailmajapaikat — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:48:45 +0000

Bahar Dar, Ethiopia

Like living jewels, sunbirds shine in metallic colours. This is Variable Sunbird (Nectarinia venusta), one of the most common sunbird species in Ethiopia.

suom: keltavatsamedestäjä (Nectarinia venusta)

"Hack" for making CalDAV invitations visible for Sunbird users

pythoninpink — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 23:38:14 +0000

I was recently dealing with a lot of trouble around a CalDAV calendar server on a Mac OS X Leopard Server. People using the calendar service include iCal users (not a problem at all), and Mozilla Sunbird users. The later won’t receive their event invitations sent by iCal users; they won’t even see the event displayed in their calendars. A small workaround (or, really, let’s call it a ‘hack’) for making this happen was a small script that copies contextually all contents from the ‘inbox’ to the ‘calendar’ folder. What you need to do is to read the *.ics files in the inbox folder whether they are actual event invitations/modifications (in this case copy them over) or event cancellations (in this case the appropriate event in ‘calendar’ has to be deleted).

TODO: add source code

What's new in OxyBird 1.4?

Wichien Maat — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 05:57:30 +0000

Update: OxyBird 1.4 is still under review but can be downloaded as an experimental version from https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/thunderbird/addons/versions/8344

Here is a look at what’s new in this version.

This was what I had in the ToDo for 1.4:

Icons for menu items
Fix the remaining icons in the interface (close buttons etc..)
Port theme to Sunbird
Change css to provide a native oxygen look instead of depending on GTK-Qt or others

Among this, 2 and 3 have been done in version 1.3.
No. 1 is a major update with OxyBird 1.4. I used CuteMenus code from Noia theme. Thanks to the developer

I will not be working on No. 4 (providing a native oxygen look) for a number of reasons that I did not realize when I started. It’s simply time-consuming and I don’t want to get involved fixing lots of bugs with css. Already had one or two issues with css with earlier versions. So, I did not touch css in version 1.3. This is maintained for 1.4 except for the addition of the code for cutemenus. This is an addition and no change has been made to any other files. Besides, the most recent version of QtCurve includes a QtCurve Ozone style which integrates well into the KDE4 desktop and is looking really great.

Other changes

Updated the folder pane to highlight new messages.

Updated format buttons in compose window to the new icon set.

Better icons
I have used the right size icons where possible. This led to a better contrast when compared to the previous version. Also the opacity of the toolbar icons have been increased as the icons themselves are light. Here is a comparison

Lightning toolbar (1.3)

Lightning toolbar (1.4)

and minor tweaks….

Would love to hear your comments/suggestions!

-WM

Free Download Software

dbs4live — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:18:38 +0000

Ada banyak software yang sangat baik dan berguna namun mahal harganya. Terkecuali anda menggunakan bajakan yang jelas tidak akan aman dari virus, spam maupun spy bahkan kerusakan data dan jaringan.

Dalam posting ini saya akan menunjukan beberapa softwares yang dapat digunakan untuk berbagai tujuan dan benar-benar bebas untuk digunakan. Softwares ini menyediakan solusi yang membuat komputer Anda hidup jauh lebih baik tanpa biaya sepeser pun.

OpenOffice.org tidak hanya menerima beberapa penghargaan dan penghargaan, ini adalah salah satu alternatif terbaik untuk mengelola dokumen, spreadsheet, presentasi dan lainnya.

Dengan Open Office anda dapat melakukan segala sesuatu yang Anda dapat dengan Microsoft Office.

Download OpenOffice.org | Learn more about OpenOffice.org

Memelihara beberapa account email dalam satu tempat yang selalu berhubungan dengan Microsoft Outlook. Thunderbird adalah sebuah alternatif yang sama baiknya dengan Outlook , menyediakan banyak fitur yang sama untuk mengelola beberapa account email tanpa biaya sama sekali.

Download Thunderbird | Learn more about Thunderbird

Meskipun bukan salah satu yang paling baik, Sunbird jelas merupakan alternatif untuk mengelola jadwal dan acara Anda tanpa harus menggunakan Microsoft Outlook.

Dan jika Anda akan mengerutkan kening karena harus menggunakan dua aplikasi yang berbeda untuk mengelola email dan kalender Anda harus benar-benar mencoba Lightning yang menggabungkan dengan Firefox Thunderbird untuk membuat aplikasi produktivitas yang besar.

Download and learn more about Sunbird

Firefox tidak hanya browser open source terbaik tersedia saat ini, tetapi juga lebih aman dan lebih cepat untuk browsing. Benar-benar jauh lebih baik dari pada Internet Explorer.

Download Firefox 3 | Learn more about Firefox

Digsby adalah lebih dari sekedar multi-protocol IM klien. Dengan Digsby Anda dapat berkomunikasi dengan teman-teman Anda di AIM, Yahoo, MSN, GTalk dan lainnya tanpa harus menginstal klien terpisah, serta memeriksa email-email dari berbagai provider.

Selain itu juga Anda dapat menggunakan Digsby untuk memperbarui jaringan sosial seperti di Facebook, Twitter dan MySpace.

Download Digsby | Learn more about Digsby

Other worthwhile mentions

Jika Anda mencari untuk men-download file , dapat mencoba menggunakan uTorrent, salah satu yang terbaik untuk mengelola torrent softwares. Bukan hanya karena ringan juga dapat dikelola menggunakan browser dengan mengakses situs uTorrent dan bagian terbaiknya adalah dijalankan di luar kotak tanpa memerlukan instalasi.

Download uTorrent | Learn more about uTorrent

Mengelola browser Anda tidak pernah yang mudah dan download manager pasti memungkinkan Anda untuk men-download file dalam cara yang jauh lebih baik. Free Download Manager memungkinkan Anda untuk men-download file dari berbagai sumber, mempercepat proses download Anda, bersama dengan memungkinkan Anda untuk berhenti sejenak dan melanjutkan mereka.

Download Free Download Manager | Learn more about Free Download Manager

Pernah ingin mengelola server Linux dari mesin Windows Anda menggunakan shell. Putty adalah salah satu cara terbaik untuk mengakses lingkungan shell. Sejauh yang saya ketahui tidak ada yang lebih baik dari Putty.

Jika Anda telah menggunakan Putty, jangan lupa untuk mengecek bagaimana Anda dapat mengatur putty sessions in a database and work in a tabbed interface atau minimize it to a tray sehingga Anda tidak kewalahan dengan jumlah jendela yang terbuka.

Download Putty | Learn more about Putty

CCleaner adalah sebuah robot untuk membersihkan komputer Anda, yang cukup pintar untuk mengetahui tempat-tempat untuk mencari file dan jejak yang tidak diinginkan. CCleaner juga dapat membersihkan beberapa aplikasi sementara dan tidak diinginkan, membersihkan file yang dibuat oleh Windows.

Download CCleaner | Learn more about CCleaner

Recuva merupakan salah satu alternatif terbaik yang tersedia saat ini dalam hal Recover File yang telah terhapus, walaupun dengan menggunakan Shift + Delete, tidak hanya bisa diandalkan, anda tidak perlu menghabiskan satu sen pun alias gratis.

Download Recuva | Learn more about Recuva

Gimp pasti merupakan alternatif terbaik tersedia untuk Photoshop. Mengedit foto Anda dengan mudah tanpa harus khawatir tentang membayar mahal untuk Photoshop. Juga Gimp dapat digunakan bersama-sama dengan plugins sejumlah fitur baru untuk software inti.

Download Gimp | Learn more about Gimp

Blender adalah aplikasi yang hebat untuk bekerja dengan 3D modeling dengan antarmuka yang hebat dan pastinya Gratis.

Download Blender | Learn more about Blender

Dengan Picasa, Anda dapat mengimpor foto dari kamera dan mengedit mereka untuk mengubah kontras, menghilangkan mata merah dan banyak lagi. Anda juga dapat meng-upload foto ke album online Anda dan membaginya dengan keluarga dan teman-teman tanpa harus meng-upload masing-masing dan setiap file secara individu.

Download Picasa | Learn more about Picasa

VLC Player adalah salah satu softwares video terbaik yang tersedia untuk melihat file dan format yang berbeda. VLC player mendukung beberapa codec yang memungkinkan Anda untuk memainkan hampir semua jenis format file tanpa harus menginstal software tambahan atau codec.

Download VLC Player | Learn more about VLC Player

Audacity adalah salah satu yang terbaik alat gratis yang tersedia untuk mengedit dan merekam audio untuk beberapa sistem operasi.

Anda dapat merekam audio, mengkonversi kaset menjadi rekaman digital, potong, salin, sambatan atau suara campuran bersama-sama dan banyak lagi.

Download Audacity | Learn more about Audacity

Jika Anda berpikir Google hanya bekerja secara online maka anda berada di sebuah kejutan. Google Desktop adalah salah satu yang terbaik dan desktop pengindeksan perangkat pencarian untuk PC Anda dengan hasil seakurat pencarian berbasis web.

Dengan Google Desktop Search Anda dapat mencari file, email, chatting percakapan dan banyak lagi. TSidebar yang berguna juga memungkinkan Anda untuk menambahkan gadget sehingga Anda dapat mengakses informasi dengan cepat dan mudah.

Download and learn more about Google Desktop

Eclipce adalah salah satu IDE pengembangan terbaik tersedia untuk membangun aplikasi perusahaan yang kuat, pengembangan perangkat lunak tertanam dan lebih dengan dukungan untuk beberapa bahasa.

Proyek Eclipse telah didukung oleh beberapa perusahaan ketahui dan juga memiliki yang sangat besar komunitas open source untuk membantu mengembangkan dan menguji produk.

Learn more and download Eclipse

Dari berbagai sumber [Donny Hendaris]

Bird's View at Sunbird Lodge

Beatrice — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 14:44:39 +0000

By Beatrice Obwocha

After about a kilometre into the junction leading to Sunbird Lodge, only two small houses are visible at first.

As you approach the slope, a magnificent makuti-thatched lodge with cottages is revealed.

A few steps ahead, one is met with the breathtaking, almost aerial sight of Lake Elementaita.

A view of the magnificent terrace where one can enjoy a panoramic view of Lake Elementaita

Sunbird Lodge, which is off the Nakuru-Nairobi highway,is built on a cliff overlooking the lake.

It is situated about 30km from Nakuru town and is next to St Mary’s Hospital, less than a kilometre from the highway.

The reception doors to the dining and cottages are made of glass, giving one an unrestricted view of the lake.

From the comfort of one’s room, one can enjoy the sight of pink flamingos and white pelicans swimming with the sunset reflection on the lake.

The reception is connected to the dining area whose furniture is an artistic display.

The seats and tables are made of curved wood.

Balloon flights

A hot air balloon basket sits at another corner and adds to the beauty of the room. It is also an indication that the lodge offers balloon flights.

One of Sunbird's Lodge hot air balloon

Gunter Schabus and Othmar Pircher, the directors of the hotel, double as the balloon pilots.

“We take off from the shores of Lake Elementaita at around 6.30am before the wind becomes strong.We then fly for about an hour or two,” says Pircher.

The ambience in the circular-walled dining room is calm and natural with not so bright lighting.

The lodge also boasts a terrace with tables, seats and umbrella where one can enjoy a natural panorama and the swimming pool, which is located about 50m below.

Presently, the lodge has 10 cottages. Schabus says there are plans to build more.

The cottages face the lake and have balconies where one can enjoy the sunset.

Above each bed is a beautifully crafted quilt embroidered with African-print fabric (some match the curtains) round the edges.

Rates

During low seasons, rates are Sh6,700 per person per night and Sh9,000 per couple. At peak season, the charges increase to Sh9,200 per person per night and Sh13,400 per couple.

Also Published Here

It's not a Tring thing, it's meet the Ebayers #3

Jon — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 15:48:07 +0000

Coincidentally, the very same week the news broke that persons unknown had broken into the Natural history Museum at Tring, and blagged 299 of the most colourful and unusual skins in the extensive collection, I found myself idling through Ebay’s taxidermy listings (as one does), and stumbled across someone selling (amongst other exotica – Banded Pitta anyone?) a bird of paradise skin. Amazing.

Still, one needn’t worry about this being in any way related to the theft of BOP skins from Tring, as the seller (zoo_wildlife_2009) helpfully points out that this is in “NEW and excellent” condition. Only a member since early July 2009, zoo_wildlife_2009 has been doing a brisk trade in bird skins, and has shifted sunbirds, frogmouths, kingfishers and barbets. It’s not all birds though, as in a democratic nod to the mammals zoo_wildlife_2009 has also sold a leopard cat, an otter, and various civets.

http://feedback.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewFeedback2&userid=zoo_wildlife_2009&ftab=AllFeedback&myworld=true

I really don’t know how legal this trade is, but it seems pretty distasteful.

The following is how they should look…

Sketchbook - August 10, 2009

Bradley Dimock — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 02:05:43 +0000

It’s been two days, time for an update. These are the only two presentable things I’ve drawn for the two hours I did today. I’m now documenting my drawing hours on an Excel spreadsheet to make sure I don’t slack. I also got Mozilla Sunbird so I can start creating schedules for when the school semester starts.

I still can’t get Photoshop to work well, so once school starts I will get a lot of paintings in. I really need to work on my lines. Maybe if I use something other than a mechanical pencil to draw that might help. Unfortunately I’m saving my 6B pencils and such for school with is in less than three weeks.

Enjoy.

Sunbirds & I...

Ruhi — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:59:50 +0000

My fondness with sunbirds dates back to more than a decade or so. My home garden at Ratnagiri, houses many birds. Sunbirds are major among them. I still remember when I first noticed the Purple-rumped sunbird pair building their nest on our pomegranate tree branch. The couple was hard-working and busy building their sweet home. The interior decoration was done with cotton, small feathers to make it cozier. The nest was ready and female laid a single egg in it. She was home-bound to incubate it. After a week or so, I could hear chirping of the baby. Both the parents took intense care of their baby. They feed it timely. The baby grew faster and started peeking out through the nest. One day it came out of nest and parents promptly taught it all the lessons of life. Extracting nectar was most important lesson. They accompanied it on almost all types of flower which had nectar. Baby sunbird was not able to fly and was jumping from one small branch to another. I have spent endless time watching them. I was young and didn’t have camera to click snaps. Soon the baby became independent and flew away to live its own life. The empty nest hanging on my tree branch remained there for quite some time. I was lucky to see birds so closely since childhood.

When I got my camera, I started clicking sunbirds every time I went home. I don’t know which generation of Purple-rumped sunbirds comes to my garden now but I feel they too know me. They make me chase them harder for n-times in a day to get my desired shot but I do get some nice clicks at the end of the day.

Since last few years, I found another beautiful species of Sunbird coming home. It is Red Crimson Sunbird. It comes mostly in monsoon. It is not easily seen in Pune and most of my bird watcher/photographer friends keep on wondering how am I able to see it every time.

In my outing to Nighoj-Daryabai-Takali Dhokeshwar, I got to see Purple Sunbird. Its dark purple color was just amazing.

Recently I shifted to new place in Pashan. Again, a familiar chirping caught my attention. I rushed to my balcony and was glad to see Purple Sunbird on the branch near by. This time it looked different. My friend helped me with the fact that it looks different due to an eclipse plumage. Yesterday I clicked few more shots for my new friend.

Now I see, find and identify Sunbird everywhere I go and my obsession with these cute little beauties continues forever…

Some zoological info about Sunbirds here -

“Sunbird is classified in the phylum Chordata , subphylum Vertebrata, class Aves, order Passeriformes, family Nectariniidae. There are 132 species in 15 genera. They have long and slender, highly curved bills, tube-shaped tongues, and feed primarily on nectar and small insects. However, they perch when feeding rather than hovering as the hummingbirds do. They are typically small birds, with length of less than 10 to 20 cm and are native to forest and brush throughout Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific. The males of most species are brightly colored, with metallic, sometimes velvety, plumage. Out of breeding season, the males tend to take on the duller female plumage. Sunbirds may change their feeding grounds during the non-breeding season but are not particularly migratory. They are not very gregarious, and males tend to be aggressive, especially during breeding season. Sunbirds build a characteristic purse-like, hanging nest, into which the female deposits her one/two, rarely three, white or pale blue, variously spotted or striped eggs.”

Note – For more Sunbirds snaps click here – http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=sunbird&w=10523689%40N03

NHL Finally Catching Up On Missed Marketing Opportunity

Gann Matsuda — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 04:08:27 +0000

As the National Hockey League and their teams have gotten more and more Internet savvy in recent years they have improved both the look and feel of the league and individual team web sites as well as the information they provide.

In fact, the NHL’s web site and each of the team web sites are loaded with content these days, whether it’s written news stories, videotaped interviews and features, podcasts and much, much more.

Team web sites have even been offering downloadable regular season schedules. But there was one problem…the schedules were either in Microsoft Excel format, which is not very useful for a schedule, and in a printable PDF file (requires Adobe Reader, available for Windows and Macintosh).

NHL teams also offer a downloadable version that imports the schedule information directly into Outlook, Lotus Notes or a Palm handheld device. The cool thing about this version of the schedule is that it can be updated automatically when there are changes to the schedule.

On the downside, the software needed to make use of this schedule was only available on Windows, leaving Apple Macintosh and Linux users out in the cold. Not only that, who wants to download and install yet another software application just for downloading and updating your favorite NHL team’s schedule?

Fortunately, things appears to be changing for the better.

Indeed, a spot-check of several NHL team web sites indicates that they are now providing a downloadable schedule that is in the popular iCalendar format, a standard file format for calendar data exchange.

More importantly, this version not only works with Apple’s iCal for the Mac, but it also works with Mozilla Sunbird for Windows, Mac and Linux. Perhaps even more important, this version will work with the massively popular Google Calendar, a web-based personal calendar (not platform-specific) that synchs with any Internet-capable computer, and can even synch with some cell phones (smartphones).

iPhone users have the added advantage of being able to get this schedule into the Calendar app on the iPhone when they synch their phone with iCal on the Mac, Exchange or Outlook on Windows or Google Calendar.

And the list doesn’t stop there. Other applications that can make use of this schedule include Microsoft Entourage (Mac), Novell GroupWise, PHP iCalender, Webical, Windows Calendar, Windows Live Calendar and the Zimbra Collaboration Suite.

Now I’m sure you’re asking why I’m bothering to write about this or you’re thinking that it is a slow news period for the Los Angeles Kings and the NHL, so I’m desperate for something to write about.

Believe it or not, there is a method to my madness. Well, more like a reason for it. Indeed, this is about the NHL and their teams missing out on an opportunity.

As most of us hockey-crazy people love the game and cannot imagine life without it, we are way too close to the forest to see the trees, most of the time. Indeed, we know the schedule comes out in July. We pretty much take it for granted and most of us have all the game dates memorized for at least 2-3 weeks in advance.

But looking at this from a broader perspective, making the schedules available to the widest possible audience is important. Before NHL teams started to make iCalendar format downloadable schedules available, sure…you could download the PDF version and print it out—I like to print this and post it on the bulletin board above my desk at the office so I can quickly glance at the schedule when necessary.

However, the PDF version is not something you can download to your computer and import into an electronic calendar application, such as iCal, Sunbird or Google Calendar. Indeed, only Windows users were allowed to do that and even then, only those who wanted to download and install the special software needed could do so.

In the end, the strategy the NHL and their teams were using to make their downloadable schedule available was not well thought out at all.

To be sure, ignoring Mac and Linux users was one thing and even Windows users who did not want to add the special software were left out. But the worst part of all is that by not making a standards-based downloadable schedule available, the NHL and their teams were unable to get their schedules onto thousands upon thousands of computers, handheld personal data assistants, web-based calendars and cell phones that their fans, both hard core and occasional, use many times a day and you can bet this number is far larger than the number of people who bothered to install the special software and download the schedule previously.

Although this still may not seem like a big deal, I can easily imagine that teams would have probably sold a significant number of tickets to the occasional hockey fan if they had quick, easy access to the local team’s schedule and that does not mean looking it up on a team web site, or worse, making a phone call. Sadly, far too many people were prevented from making use of this information in a way that was easy and convenient for them.

Perhaps even more glaring is that the NHL and their teams have missed out on having many thousands of Google Calendar users add the downloadable schedule to their shared calendars.

Today, millions of people use Google Calendar daily to connect and share what is happening in their lives with friends and family. Many businesses and organizations use Google Calendar as well.

What would happen if thousands of hockey fans added the iCalendar format downloadable schedule to their Google Calendar? There is significant potential for outreach and marketing here.

Indeed, the NHL, a major sports league that continues to struggle to remain relevant, missed a significant marketing opportunity for several years here. One can only hope that all NHL teams will start providing iCalendar-based downloadable schedules available each year, starting with the 2009-10 season.

For those of you who are fans of the Los Angeles Kings, they started providing an iCalendar format downloadable schedule (an .ics file) on their web site. Check it out at: 2009-10 Schedule Without Automatic Updates.

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Getting My Data From Anywhere

Charles Hamilton — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:00:27 +0000

These days, when I leave my office — even if it’s just to go down the street to the grocery store — I know that I can grab my cell phone (a Treo 755p (s palm)) and have my contacts, calendar, to-do list and passwords with me. They’ll even be up-to-date, if I’ve remembered to use Missing Sync to update my phone recently! And my email is always available, as I use IMAP with Google Apps.

Thanks to my smartphone, I don’t carry my laptop very much, unless I’m doing a presentation or going on an extended trip. But it’s nice to have my desktop sync with my laptop, so that it’s ready when I need it. And that’s where things start getting complicated.

My desktop’s a Mac mini (s aapl), and my laptop’s a Toshiba Libretto U105 (s tosbf) (which was a netbook before they started calling them that) running Windows XP (s msft). So how do I synchronize my data? It can be done, but it’s harder than it should be.

Contacts. I use the Apple Address Book, and sync it to my Google (s goog) Contacts with Googaby. On the laptop, I use Thunderbird with the gContactSync add-on.
Calendar. I set up several calendars through Google Apps. I’ve subscribed to the calendars in both Apple iCal (on the Mac) and Mozilla Sunbird (on the PC). Alas, the future of Sunbird is unclear at the moment.
Passwords. I use SplashID because it syncs flawlessly with my Treo, although I’ve also been experimenting with LastPass, which is better at filling in some web forms, but is a bit obtrusive for my taste.
Bookmarks. For those of us who use Firefox, Weave will probably be a great system someday. But right now, it’s too experimental: It only supports the upcoming Firefox 3.5, and it has a tendency to stop working at random intervals. In the meantime, I’m reluctantly using Xmarks — which strikes me as trying to do too many things. If you turn off all of the options except bookmark syncing, the Firefox add-on seems to work fine. But the Safari version is hard to install and obtrusive. (I mostly use Firefox anyway, so I turned Xmarks for Safari off.)
Files. Dropbox. It’s easy. It just works.

If you’re wondering how all of these programs get along, well, they do, mostly. Googaby slows my Mac to a crawl when it’s updating, but it doesn’t update very often. Dropbox and Missing Sync work perfectly, and without getting in the way.

So why don’t I just use the web interfaces of all of these programs, and not worry about syncing?

It’s nice to have local backups in case Google goes down (which it does occasionally) or if my Internet connection goes south (which is does more often than I would like). Google Gears helps, but it’s not as smooth as having local copies of everything.

Both Apple Mail and Thunderbird make it much easier to manage and transfer messages between multiple accounts. Gmail Manager is a great way of accessing multiple accounts through Firefox, but it doesn’t let me drag and drop messages between accounts, like I can in Apple Mail.

One of these days, we might be able to use any computer, any browser, and get to our own “mobile desktop.” Glide is working on such a system, as are Xcerion, although neither system is complete.

In the meantime, syncing basic data between computers is much too complex. As long as desktop applications are more robust than their web counterparts, sync will be needed, so let’s hope easier and more user-friendly systems are on the way.

How do you manage data in multiple locations?

Image by stock.xchng user flaivoloka

Perfection

Naomi — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 03:13:25 +0000

Every particle in nature exhibits perfection.

GREATER DOUBLECOLLARED SUNBIRD - Welgevonden Game Reserve, South Africa

Purple Sunbird, the nectar feeder

Ariful Haque Bhuiyan — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:43:46 +0000

Purple Sunbird is a small sized passerine nectar feeder bird. Sunbirds are bold and aggressive and will often fight off larger birds from a preferred food source.

Usually is 10cm in length, width 7.7g, wing 5.5cm, bill 2cm, tarsus 1.4cm and tail 3.3cm. Although very small and active, sunbirds are known to have long lives in the wild: records of lives exceeding 12 years exist.

The male looks different from female. It’s a common resident in villages of Chittagong, Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi and Sylhet division. Bengali name of the bird is Beguni Moutushi.

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Purple Sunbird - Female

Globally this is also extends from the Middle East through South, East, and Southeast Asia, including Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, China, Myanmar, Thailand and Indochina.

Habits and behavior

Purple Sunbird inhabits open deciduous forest, cultivation, gardens and homesteads. Usually it seen alone or in pairs.

It feed largely on nectar, although they will also take insects, especially when feeding young. Flight is fast and direct on their short wings. Most species can take nectar by hovering like a hummingbird, but usually perch to feed most of the time.

Breeding and Nesting

Its breeds through the year but mainly season are April-June. The female lays 1-3 grayish-white eggs, 1.6cm x 1.1cm each. Egg incubation time takes 14-15 days. Incubation done by the female alone. Nests are pear-shaped, globular or oval placed in trees or bushes. The nest is an oblong pouch of grass, fiber, leaves and bark, wrapped with cobwebs. The nest is camouflaged by sticking pieces of bark and caterpillar droppings on it.

Gallery

Purple Sunbird - Female

Date: 29th May, 2009