Sharing your iCal calendar (Kilala.nl (Cailin Coilleach)) by Cailin Coilleach

One of the added benefits of migrating our web hosting to DreamHost is the fact that they allow secured WebDAV. Using this feature, I've created what will soon become our iCal repository, which will contain all of our shared calendars. Both Marli's and my copy of iCal have been configured to share our personal .ICS files and to subscribe to updates from the other. It's a snap to set up and will allow us to remain up to date on the other's coming and going.

For those new to all of this, here's the quick list:
1. Create a special WebDAV directory with your hosting provider.
2. Create an iCal calendar, or use another tool that allows you to share through WebDAV.
3. Publish your personal calendar using the WebDAV settings for your website.
4. Subscribe to your SO's calendar's by opening the URL to their .ICS file in the same WebDAV space.

Once all of that is set up you can configure each calendar to either push or fetch updates automatically.

EDIT:
Running Windows or Linux? You may want to take a look at Mozilla's calendar projects Sunbird and Lighting. These also support .ICS and WebDAV.

EDIT2:
To explain things just a -little- bit more for the non-techy readers...

This is not about making our calendars available to the general public. They'll be password protected to only me and Marli can read and update the calendars. It would be really dumb to just tell everyone when we're away on our holidays :/

Also, this is not about making appointments with each other :D Yes, miss... I would like to schedule dinner at eight, some kissing at night and we'd go to sleep around 2300. Is that alright?. ^_^ It's my intention to keep each other posted on all of the appointments we have. I often forget to tell Marli about planned overtime, dinner dates or stand-by duty. This is my way of making sure she can always know what I'm up to :)

Of course, as Menno pointed out in the comments, all of this is no substitute for a nice, long talk ^_^

Posted in: calendar , dreamhost , ical , os x , webdav

VTCalendar [ma.gnolia] (Put together quickly (Haligan)) by MichaelBiven

Tags: calendar, server

Posted in: calendar , server

VTCalendar [ma.gnolia] (Put together quickly (Haligan)) by MichaelBiven

Tags: calendar, server

Posted in: calendar , server

GooSync Syncs Google Calendar and Handhelds (Martin Gordon's Blog (cptncelchu)) by Martin

GooSync, a new service currently in beta (surprise, surprise!), offers the ability to sync Google Calendar with handheld devices.

Setup
The setup process is straightforward, although registration left a bad taste in my mouth since it required my address and date of birth (for what?). The next step consists of the actual device setup, which they break down into three categories:

- Your device supports over-the-air configuration:
We will send you a configuration message by sms, just open and save the received message to auto configure your device.

- Your device requires manual configuration:
We will display generic manual instructions, follow these to manually configure your device.

- Your device is a Palm or Windows device:
We will display the download and install instructions, follow these to manually setup your device.

Since I have a Treo 650, I fall into the last category. I downloaded the .prc file, installed it and entered my GooSync credentials. No issues with this step, except that the password dialog is in plaintext, so make sure to not type it in around anyone you don't want knowing your password.

The Sync
Syncing happens in about a minute, but there is no automatic syncing, so I don't know how useful this service is really going to be. All the events on my Treo showed up in my default calendar in GCal and an event in my default calendar in GCal showed up on my Treo. I'm not sure if it'll sync other personal calendars, but shared calendars I'm subscribed to aren't synchronized.

I'm glad that there is finally a way for me to get my Google Calendar onto my Treo and more importantly, a way to get my Palm Calendar (which syncs to Outlook/Exchange automagically) onto Google Calendar. It's a really simple process, but I do have two main concerns:

1. The unnecessary information required at signup. What does my home address or DOB have to do with syncing my Google Calendar? I put in a fake address and I can see them needing DOB for COPPA purposes (although how many 11 year olds really have a need for this service?), but even just them asking for this info made me a bit uneasy about it.
2. There's no automatic syncing. To be honest, unless there's something I really need from one calendar on the other, I'm probably not gonna use this. I have my Treo with me all the time and my GCal usage has dropped to almost zero. I prefer to enter events in GCal, but until I can have those events show up automatically on my Treo without having to run the GooSync app, I'll probably just stick to entering them on the phone itself.

It's mostly the second issue that'll keep this at the "proof of concept" level for me. Granted, it is still in beta, so I do expect them to add this feature in a future release.

Technorati Tags: Google, Google Calendar, GCal, GooSync, sync, synchronization, HotSync, Palm, Palm OS, smartphone, handheld, PDA, Treo 650, phones, mobile

Posted in: calendar , google , organization , palm , software , treo