{"id":1012,"date":"2010-03-18T07:36:57","date_gmt":"2010-03-17T23:36:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2010\/03\/18\/streamlining\/"},"modified":"2010-03-18T07:36:57","modified_gmt":"2010-03-17T23:36:57","slug":"streamlining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2010\/03\/18\/streamlining","title":{"rendered":"Streamlining"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Two years ago, I started <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/07\/26\/up-in-the-cloud\">migrating my data into the &#8220;cloud&#8221;<\/a> This is basically because I needed a way to access my more pertinent and volatile data from multiple machines without having to manually trigger a synchronization <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1012_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1012_1_1');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1012_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1012_1_1');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1012_1_1\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">1 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1012_1_1\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Not to mention that with my iPhone and iPod Touch, they really just sync with one device they have been paired with<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1012_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1012_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Yes, I&#8217;m aware of the &#8220;security risks,&#8221; but I&#8217;ve weighed the <em>security vs. practicality<\/em> angles &#8211; and practicality came out on top given the data I had available.<\/p>\n<p>Anyways, the &#8220;services&#8221; I had been using before were relatively new(ly developed), and had their share of &#8220;drawbacks.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For example, MobileMe was probably the best solution as it could&#8217;ve given <em>exactly<\/em> what I needed right out of the gate, but it wasn&#8217;t worth it&#8217;s price tag <em>IMHO<\/em> <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1012_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1012_1_2');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1012_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1012_1_2');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1012_1_2\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">2 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1012_1_2\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">When Apple decides to put it to like 30USD annually, then I&#8217;ll reconsider<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1012_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1012_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script><\/p>\n<p>Anyways, I &#8220;re-evaluated&#8221; my &#8220;process&#8221; this year and found a bunch of pleasant surprises!<!--more--><!-- \/\/ --><\/p>\n<h1>Recap<\/h1>\n<p>So to jog you&#8217;re memory (assuming you didn&#8217;t read the link to the old post), the following &#8220;data&#8221; I would want to keep synchronized are:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Addressbook<\/li>\n<li>Passwords<\/li>\n<li>Calendar<\/li>\n<li>Mail<\/li>\n<li>ToDo list<\/li>\n<li>Firefox bookmarks <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1012_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1012_1_3');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1012_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1012_1_3');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1012_1_3\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">3 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1012_1_3\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">Because I don&#8217;t like using Safari &#8211; I need my productivity add-ons<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1012_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1012_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>There are more listed in the old post, but a bunch of those have been <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/11\/04\/synchronicity\">dealt with<\/a> <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1012_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1012_1_4');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1012_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1012_1_4');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1012_1_4\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">4 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1012_1_4\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">By the way, this link is older than the previous one mentioned<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1012_1_4').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1012_1_4', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> and aren&#8217;t necessarily &#8220;critical&#8221; data.<\/p>\n<h1>Still the same<\/h1>\n<p>Most of which are still the same from the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/07\/26\/up-in-the-cloud\">last time<\/a>. That is to say that Firefox still is synced via FoxMarks, Mail is still synced with Google via IMAP, local software databases (iTunes, Adium, etc) are still synced with my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2008\/11\/04\/synchronicity\">Dropbox\/SymLink method<\/a>, Todo is still done via ToodleDo, etc.<\/p>\n<h1>Primer<\/h1>\n<p>But there <em>have<\/em> been changes in the past year(s) which I never got to discuss &#8211; maybe because they still had some limitation which I just decided to put up with.<\/p>\n<p>Basically, Google has got a service called <em>GoogleSync<\/em> &#8211; which, in a nutshell, tries to give what MobileMe gives&#8230; free of charge. But of course the time I blogged about using it, it was more of a kludge than anything else.<\/p>\n<p>It had calendaring support, but I used to just be able to subscribe to my calendars in read-only mode. <span class=\"footnote_referrer\"><a role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" onclick=\"footnote_moveToReference_1012_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1012_1_5');\" onkeypress=\"footnote_moveToReference_1012_1('footnote_plugin_reference_1012_1_5');\" ><sup id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_1012_1_5\" class=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text\">5 <\/sup><\/a><span id=\"footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1012_1_5\" class=\"footnote_tooltip\">I had to work around it by using ToodleDo &#8211; which can enter new calendar events via Google&#8217;s API<\/span><\/span><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_1012_1_5').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_1012_1_5', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top right', relative: true, offset: [10, 10], });<\/script> It could sync the address book to mobile devices, but not with the OS X address book (even if the latter had a setting to sync with it). It still doesn&#8217;t support tasks syncing to this day &#8211; or if it does, you&#8217;re still better off using other free services like ToodleDo.<\/p>\n<p>Basically, the only thing I got to sync really well from the cloud to my multiple devices was my Mail (thanks to IMAP). The rest were a bit lacking&#8230; until now.<\/p>\n<h1>Changes<\/h1>\n<p>GoogleSync has matured a bit since then. And now has full calendaring support via CalDav protocol (same thing Apple uses) &#8211; so now I can read <strong>and write<\/strong> calendar events from all of my devices (wether mobile iCal, or desktop iCal) so officially, the calendar functionality is <strong>solved<\/strong> &#8211; just like with mail.<\/p>\n<p>And yesterday, for the heck of it, I tried revisiting the address book &#8220;bug\/issue&#8221; and found out that it now syncs to the desktop remotely as well! Remember, the sync I&#8217;m after is <strong>not<\/strong> when you plug the iPhone\/iPod in. I want to be able to do the syncing wirelessly\/automatically wherever I am or what machine I&#8217;m using &#8211; that only used to be possible with the iPhone\/iPod touch, but now it works with the desktop as well.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not without bugs though. For one it behaves differently depending on the software accessing it.<\/p>\n<p>For example, I have Snow Leopard on my Laptop, and a Hackintosh Leopard install (kinda lazy to upgrade) on my desktop PC. Consider these screenshots:<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\"><a title=\"click on the image for more details\" href=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4039\/4439949846_68affc34ee_o.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4039\/4439949846_6b39d1e6a1_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wb\"><\/a>Leopard (desktop)<\/div>\n<div align=\"center\"><a title=\"click on the image for more details\" href=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4053\/4439949592_c5ef570277_o.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4053\/4439949592_896c62e788_m.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wb\"><\/a>Snow Leopard (laptop)<\/div>\n<p>So from the desktop (first picture) you can see that in the second monitor it shows how many Google address book contacts I have (All contacts). And the desktop address book syncs <strong>all<\/strong> of those, whereas on the laptop, it only takes the contacts I&#8217;ve elected to sync to my mobile devices (My Contacts)<\/p>\n<p>Then, for some reason, on Leopard, I have to enable <strong>both<\/strong> Exchange and Google synchronization for it to even work. Snow Leopard doesn&#8217;t have this issue since it has no option to sync via Exchange.<\/p>\n<p>There&#8217;s also a bug that affects <em>both desktop and laptop;<\/em> Google&#8217;s address book is very limited in the &#8220;fields&#8221; they synchronize. That means you have to pay attention how you add new contacts. You cannot just add custom fields since Google will either disregard them, or re-map them to fields you wouldn&#8217;t expect. And some supported fields (e.g. birthdays) aren&#8217;t synced (but are retained in the main Google database)<\/p>\n<p>But all in all, as far as the &#8220;usefulness&#8221; of the service is, I personally think the benefits still outweigh the drawbacks &#8211; we can&#8217;t have it all&#8230; and who knows, maybe they can get it fixed in the future. After all, GoogleSync has much improved since the time I first used it. I&#8217;m very hopeful \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>So all that&#8217;s really left is ToDos! But GoogleTasks is far from being mature, it simply lacks too much features found on &#8220;typical&#8221; ToDo services\/applications for it to be worth using over what&#8217;s already out there. But again, I&#8217;m hopeful, once they get to focus on developing the task protocol then I&#8217;ll check it out again.<\/p>\n<p>Assuming that they do get that fixed as well, then we will truly have a free MobileMe alternative. The advantage of MobileMe for now is how well it works &#8211; but I&#8217;m hopeful that in time, Google can come up with an offer that&#8217;s just as reliable&#8230; and more importantly, <strong>free!<\/strong><\/p><div class=\"speaker-mute footnotes_reference_container\"> <div class=\"footnote_container_prepare\"><p><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_label pointer\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_1012_1();\">Notes<\/span><span role=\"button\" tabindex=\"0\" class=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button\" style=\"display: none;\" onclick=\"footnote_expand_collapse_reference_container_1012_1();\">[<a id=\"footnote_reference_container_collapse_button_1012_1\">+<\/a>]<\/span><\/p><\/div> <div id=\"footnote_references_container_1012_1\" style=\"\"><table class=\"footnotes_table footnote-reference-container\"><caption class=\"accessibility\">Notes<\/caption> <tbody> \r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1012_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1012_1_1');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1012_1_1\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>1<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Not to mention that with my iPhone and iPod Touch, they really just sync with one device they have been paired with<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1012_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1012_1_2');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1012_1_2\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>2<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">When Apple decides to put it to like 30USD annually, then I&#8217;ll reconsider<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1012_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1012_1_3');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1012_1_3\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>3<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">Because I don&#8217;t like using Safari &#8211; I need my productivity add-ons<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1012_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1012_1_4');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1012_1_4\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>4<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">By the way, this link is older than the previous one mentioned<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n<tr class=\"footnotes_plugin_reference_row\"> <th scope=\"row\" class=\"footnote_plugin_index_combi pointer\"  onclick=\"footnote_moveToAnchor_1012_1('footnote_plugin_tooltip_1012_1_5');\"><a id=\"footnote_plugin_reference_1012_1_5\" class=\"footnote_backlink\"><span class=\"footnote_index_arrow\">&#8673;<\/span>5<\/a><\/th> <td class=\"footnote_plugin_text\">I had to work around it by using ToodleDo &#8211; which can enter new calendar events via Google&#8217;s API<\/td><\/tr>\r\n\r\n <\/tbody> <\/table> <\/div><\/div><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> function footnote_expand_reference_container_1012_1() { jQuery('#footnote_references_container_1012_1').show(); 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jQuery('html, body').animate({ scrollTop: l_obj_Target.offset().top - window.innerHeight * 0.2 }, 380); } }<\/script>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two years ago, I started migrating my data into the &#8220;cloud&#8221; This is basically because I needed a way to access my more pertinent and volatile data from multiple machines without having to manually trigger a synchronization 1 Not to mention that with my iPhone and iPod Touch, they really just sync with one device &hellip; <p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2010\/03\/18\/streamlining\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Streamlining&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-technology"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}