At long last I have fixed the weather on Protocore as well as here. Next up, the Protocore Calendar. I have the original Outlook sync program which was written in 2001. Its exporting my appointments into a mysqldump file and uploading that to the server via FTP. It then hits a url on Protocore with my Protocore account name and password triggering the import into the protocore events database.

A problem is that its missing recurring appointments. Checking the original code I see why. I didn’t even use that field in the Outlook Calendar Item Object.

“No Prob.”, I think to myself, “I’ll just add that field.”

Visual Studio 7 is a thing of the past, and bringing the project into Visual Studio .NET brings some problems - namely the Inet OCX that so many of my windows-based projects depend on, is no longer in VS .NET. Ok so I will just try to put together the export piece and worry about transfer later. So I start to do that and its going well and I get to the recurring field.

In the new Microsoft Outlook Appointment Item Object Model, recurring is just a flag. There is also the recurring pattern which has other objects including recurring.type. This is starting to get more involved at this point.

I had planned to convert the mySQLdump FTP process to an XML push. .NET is famous for that right?

However one thing that I’ve also done is convert Outlook calendar to ical format for other calendar integration. For that I used a public domain script and its kind of a pain because its not automated and its very manual. I have to do the export, then import it into kde kalendar or whatever app.

So here is my conundrum - should I proceed to rewrite the Outlook export keeping Outlook’s object model and updating the Protocore events system with the recurring field…..OR…..do I convert Protocore evens to ical format and write an automated ical XML push out of Outlook?

Each way seems to be about the same amount of work, but I think ical has more possibilities and would enable Mac and Linux people (and enlightened Windows people using ical-based apps) to push their Protocore Calendar into their apps and vice versa.

However since I use Outlook for work my main use is around Outlook. Also the new codeweavers crossover office product allows (finally!) you to run Outlook 2003 in Linux or Mac.

Super Glue is one thing every dad needs to have in his junk drawer.

Every toy that breaks is instantly the favorite. Despite being literally ignored up until the moment before it broke, it is now something that life can not go on without.

Some people think that you need a freakish radiation experiment gone bad, a seemingly endless supply of money, and a cool exotic ride (unless you can fly of course) to be a super hero. All you really need is some fresh batteries, a screwdriver, and a tube of superglue.

Let’s play a game. I will list a quote and you guess who said it.

Quote: RSS has the potential to be the “UNIX pipe of the internet”

If you don’t know what a unix pipe is, its a techie term. Part of the real power behind unix and one of the things that gave it the lift that propelled it to be the underpinnings of most modern operating systems is the concept of redirection. The output (result) of any unix command can also be used as the input of almost any other unix command. The pipe enhances this and allows you to chain together multiple commands processing the same information.

So from the title of the article you have a clue on who made that statement, but if it surprises you that such a quote comes from a Microsoft guy then you really need to start paying attention to what’s been going on at Microsoft lately. Not just any Microsoft guy, but Ray Ozzie, heir to the Microsoft Kingdom.

Its been a while since I’ve made a seemingly bold tech predicition, but I have one for you. What Microsoft is currently calling Windows Vista is the last operating system that they will release.

“Is this man crazy?!”

Let me lend some definition to my statement. The real catch is the word operating system. With flash storage becoming more advanced and more capable I believe you will see a trend again to do as much solid state as possible. What this means to computers is that the line that you think of now between BIOS and OS is going to blur greatly. Companies like Microsoft will release frameworks that support workflow and applications. The specific hardware that you are running on will be increasingly less relevant to the framework and application layer. You will be able to run multiple frameworks simultaneously to take advantage of different applications, and the applications will interoprate cross-framework via evolved standards like the current RSS.

Sounds far off? Look at how long its taken Microsoft to come out with Vista. You are looking at 2013 before they would come out with another one. Frameworks aren’t a new concept. Microsoft, Apple, Sun - they all have been putting out frameworks already. Interoperability isn’t 50% there yet but people know what they have to do and good standards are out there and starting to evolve.

If the number of friends sending me business plans for comments or help tweaking is any indication, its 1999 all over again.

Looking at the once again crowded venture capital space you have to admire Bessemer Venture Partners for publishing their pass list.

As you read through the hilarious reasons they decided against investing in companies like Apple Computer (I’d still pass on that), Fed Ex, and eBay - don’t start feeling sorry for them or get the feeling that they don’t know what they are doing until you also take a browse through the portfolio of companies that they said “Yes” to.

You can count me now as one of the people who has switched to Yahoo! for searching. They have really improved their engine and I’m finding what I need quicker and usually on the first page where Google I am going 2 pages deep.

I’m an expert at crafting searches so don’t blame me. I attribute it to all the “google hacking” for “page rank”. Maybe if Yahoo gains prevalance again it will start having the same problems. In the meantime I’m enjoying their search and my firefox search box now defaults to Y! instead of G